Here are some ideas on what edges Sharuum does have. Even if you disagree with my ideas on what Sharuum's edges are, or how to exploit them, I hope some of the ideas on how to think about it will allow you to create a stronger deck that can answer the question, "Why not play Doomsday?"
I've been building a lot. I'm still hopeful for Whir of Invention, but it's probably the same story with other cards that you guys had a better radar on.
I digress. I've been thinking a lot about what edges Sharuum has over the common tier 1 decks. The answers used to be recursion and repeatable effects to grind out a game, but as we've discussed to death that doesn't work anymore. I think that even if Sharuum doesn't have what it takes to currently be tier 1, it has advantages that make it worth not giving up on.
I think it is a good idea to take a lot of the ideas from stronger decks - use Ad Nauseam, drop the mana curve, and run a counterspell suite. But what parts of Sharuum should we keep? I believe there are at least 3 interesting advantages that make Sharuum worth exploring:
1. Colorless mana. As a deck that can focus on artifacts, Sharuum can use colorless mana in ways that other decks can't. Mishra's Workshop, for example, is one of the most powerful lands of all time, but as far as I know no other deck can run it. Very few decks can run Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, and while you can also argue that the card shouldn't be in Sharuum, I think it's worth testing him even in a lean build. Other decks have a heavy reliance on colored permanents to support their glass-cannon cards (Sylvan Library, Necropotence, Mystic Remora, Deathrite Shaman), and Ugin can expose those glass cannon decks for what they are, if he resolves early enough.
1a. Artifact mana. Sure, many top tier decks use about 9-12 mana rocks just like Sharuum, but the most powerful ones create only colorless mana (Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Sol Ring). Without lands, Sharuum's mana base is, in this way at least, inherently stronger than other manabases. It's obviously weaker to Null Rod and Stony Silence, but it's an edge nonetheless.
2. Combo pieces that can play the value game. Basalt Monolith, Rings of Brighthearth, and Sensei's Divining Top are all decent to excellent cards in their own right, and together they win the game on the spot. Sharuum is able to pull this combo off better than any other deck, again, because of its ability to use colorless mana. You can definitely argue that this particular combo is worse than just Doomsday-ing, but I think it is not clear-cut when you consider that drawing Rings is a whole lot better than drawing Laboratory Maniac, especially if your game plan can make the game slower and more draw-dependent.
3. Combo pieces that are artifacts. Artifacts are much easier to tutor than instants, sorceries, and planeswalkers, and tutors that put them directly onto the battlefield save us from having to spend tempo to actually cast them.
So, what actual deckbuilding changes do these 3 considerations bring us to? I believe this way of looking at the deck gives us a different way to think about sweepers.
In this thread we played around with a land destruction plan, but shook our heads and went, "no, there aren't enough LD effects." I'm playing with the idea that instead of thinking of a critical mass of LD, we can try to think of the deck as having a critical mass of sweeping value/tempo disruption effects. What this means is that All is Dust and Cyclonic Rift can be thought of in the same vein as Armageddon. Sharuum's colorlessness and strength of artifact mana could make All is Dust, Ugin, and Armageddon uniquely asymmetrical.
Now, there are holes in this idea. The sweepers I mentioned are very expensive. Sweepers don't get you ahead like the value cards they destroy. The idea isn't foolproof, but I do believe they are edges that other decks don't have like Sharuum does. I do believe that, at the very least, this is a new lens with which to view cards in new expansions.
Something to note about all this - I don't think this edge of sweepers needs to be a huge number of cards. 8 fast combo cards (2 Sculpting Steel, 2 Bitter Ordeal effects, 1 grave hate card, Thopter Foundry/Sword of the Meek/Time Sieve), 33 lands, 11 artifact mana sources, ~12 of the best tutors and selection, and ~10 broken disruption cards already adds up to 74 cards. That's only ~25 cards to actually experiment with, so having 5 or so sweepers is a significant portion of the non-base part of the deck. Note that fast combo decks can run 7 counterspells and still feel like they have a LOT of countermagic. If the sweepers are viable, then we don't need too many new sweepers printed to make it a real theme.
TL;DR - Sharuum might not be tier 1, but here are some edges that make playing with her interesting and give her potential with new sets. I believe with the same tools, Sharuum can combo on turn 3 like the best of them, but could also play certain sweepers to keep other decks honest - and slower than her. Lastly, the "base" of powerful cards in Esper EDH is pretty darn big in the first place, so you don't need to change THAT many cards to give a deck a very different feel.
This is a current list of what I have. The idea is to be able to reasonably consistently goldfish a turn 3 or 4, counter and Swords to Plowshares things faster than you, sweep to drastically alter the game, destroy hate cards, and be difficult to Jester's Cap. I've sacrificed the ability to quickly win without going infinite (Magister Sphinx) for the land disruption/Crucible of Worlds plan.
Want List (should put in): Flusterstorm, Mana Drain, Ravages of War, Mishra's Workshop, Timetwister. I think I play rarely enough to wait for Eternal Masters 2 on the first three, and the latter two...I might never play with. Obviously they're bonkers. You could run the original duals and more fetchlands, but honestly I think at 33 lands we have enough rainbow lands printed to make the money investment irrelevant.
I know I'm always the one talking a lot about cards that end up being awful, but Whir of Invention is arguably better than TRANSMUTE ARTIFACT.
The triple blue is a little rough with the current manabase, so I'll see what Sharuum can do with a much heavier color focus and some classic colored toys like Force of Will and Ad Nauseam.
I have absolutely no idea what he does, that's what's interesting. Maybe he'll just be equivalent to an Ornithopter in terms of combo potential, but I like how you could do bizarre things like EOT Entomb - sac the Sculpting Steel that's a mana rock - combo off, and things like that.
Can we talk about the fact that Metalwork Colossus has mega-affinity?! Is there a way to break it? The fact that it can easily be free, and you can recur it, makes me think that it could be part of a strong combo and still be playable as a dumb fatty when it isn't.
Contraband Kingpin seems really interesting, as an early value creature that isn't boltable or worth removal, and can also almost win the game with a Sharuum loop. I can see it being good, almost always being a few scrys which is extremely valuable in a mass-draw high threat strength deck.
Glint-Nest Crane obviously isn't good enough for Sharuum if we don't even run Impulse, but boy does it make me excited to play some standard. Blue value 1/3s are some of my favorite things in all of Magic.
On a side note, am I the only one who likes the Judge/EMA Mana Crypt better than the new expedition? I feel like the Crypt should be simple, like the elegant Sol Ring, to produce CC. Don't get me wrong, the new one is absolutely gorgeous and I'm sure I'll change my mind if I see it in person, but it's so ornate. Crypt is such a simple artifact, you know?
JESUS CHRIST THE BASIC LANDS ARE GORGEOUS IN THIS SET
I might just replace all my basics with Kaladesh foils, they're absurd.
Noxious Gearhulk does the job pretty well, but I don't even like the first Duplicant in my deck. If you want two, you have two now, which is pretty neat. The lifegain is nice, and can be relevant since I run Necro.
Aetherworks Marvel is pretty sick on activation, but I'm not sure how often I'd get a reasonable amount of energy if I wasn't comboing off. If I'm comboing off, I'd rather have Sieve/Clock for Thopters and Altar of the Brood for Sharuum. It looks like it'd do nothing too often, which worries me.
To be honest, it looks like Morbid Curiosity is the best card for the deck so far. Inventors' Fair will get to take over the Mirrorpool spot for pretty much free, but a resolved Curiosity will probably win me more games. If there aren't a lot more colored artifacts, then the best new card for the deck will probably end up being Tezzeret, if he stays in colors.
It's certainly cute. Is it better than Clock of Omens or Krak-Clan Ironworks? I already run both, which I think is too much, and I think Panharmonicon is neither better than either nor worth a third slot.
The main difference is that you can use the Clock and Ironworks the turn they come down, but Panharmonicon requires future investment. I don't think it's playable.
It doubles Sharuum, Salvaging Station, Magister Sphinx, Snapcaster Mage, Myr Battlesphere in my list, and...that's it. It's super duper cute with Sharuum and Voyager Staff, but otherwise it's just not worth 4 mana for me. It requires hoops and doesn't win the game like the other 4 mana utility artifacts after you've made the jump.
I'm more worried about seeing it on opposing Aura Shard fields in Pod-like decks.
I initially just thought this was meh, but apparently it's not so bad in practice. It's 3 mana to draw an awful lot, and even as a sorcery our deck loves that!
That's definitely very interesting. I can't believe they're bringing back colored artifacts! This is going to be the best Sharuum set for the next six years, I'm sure of it.
So, it leaves us with:
Artifact, a Creature, an Enchantment, and a Planeswalker
The only issue I can see is, it destroys all of our mana rocks. It's very cute as a softlock, but it seems very weak against land-heavy decks. It's the first ever card in Magic that turns Sharuum ETB into a sweeper no questions asked and keeps Sharuum, which is pretty sweet.
So, having this card ETB creates a kind of boardstate where:
1. Everyone loses their mana rocks.
- Does anyone have numbers on what the average number of mana rocks they've played by each turn is? Just guessing, I imagine this puts us down at least 2-3 cards.
2. We lose all but one non-creature artifact.
- It's not likely that other people will have multiple artifacts unless they're Arcum or something. This is a pretty brutal kick in our own balls, but if you're playing a less engine-style build, you'll have less permanents on the field. I personally think less permanents is a better way to go, so I think this could be okay.
2a. We lose metalcraft.
- No Opal, no tutoring with the new land. This sweeper is expensive enough to make sandbagging threats a little difficult.
3. Everyone loses all creatures but one.
- In my meta, this does nothing. Everyone has their one utility creature/general or is creatureless. It's neat against wide decks, but similarly useless against tall decks. It is nice that it kills Gods, but opponents can choose their God as their Enchantment...
4. Everyone loses all Enchantments but one.
- Doesn't affect us, we run like one enchantment? It is kind of nice to hit the player that has Necropotence, Sylvan Library, Mystic Remora, whatever. Probably doesn't do all that much. Might kill a pesky Rest in Peace or something?
5. Everyone loses all Planeswalkers but one.
- I can't imagine anyone has multiple significant Planeswalkers in a game of EDH. Those guys get like one activation, tops, or the one that player has is well-protected.
The mana-rock killing ability makes Stax effects much stronger, which is neat. I think this card is bad with my current concept of a Sharuum deck, but I also believe Sharuum is going to evolve a lot over the next year, and I can easily see this card being a star in the evolved Sharuum. It's a creature sweeper and it helps stax, and while I don't think that's enough to be notable now it's probably powerful somewhere.
Well I mean, Sharuum is our wincon most of the time. I would imagine if there is a four color artifact commander and it's stronger, we wouldn't play a Sharuum deck anymore. Can you imagine trying to Bitter Ordeal without having Sharuum always in your hand? It's hard enough to have Ordeal, a copy, and enough mana - I don't think I could handle having to find another 6 mana card.
So in short, no, I don't think Sharuum can be part of the 99 of a "Sharuum deck." Sharuum's ability is very strong and unique, and her biggest weakness is her heavy mana cost. The only thing I can think of that would top her in this style of deck is a general that puts something from the library into play, or Transmute Artifacts on ETB, both of which are absurd.
I have a question about the mana base - are the filterlands worth it compared to, say, the painlands? Their primary benefit is producing double mana of the same off color - a Plains and a Fetid Heath can make BB while a Plains and a W/B land can already make WW and WB. Sharuum is not a deck that often uses double color mana. Off the top of my head the only cards in the entire deck that do so are Transmute Artifact and Necropotence, and most of you don't run Necro. Perhaps you're casting several spells of the same color in the same turn while not having any other sources of that color?
I don't own them, but I've proxied them a few times and I end up with only colorless mana surprisingly often. What do you use them for where a painland would not suffice?
I'm not a fan of Frantic Search myself, as my deck prefers the extra card and doesn't really do much with the tempo opportunity.
Hey, a new possible utility land was spoiled. I'm not sure if I'll play it, since I'm minimizing the colorless lands anyway, but it seems very interesting.
The only point of life that matters is the last one, and if you cannot remove the last one then lowering the opponent's life total is pointless. I cannot do that, and I won't rely on others to do it for me, especially when I've just made a powerful play and probably made myself public enemy #1.
If you can do either of these things, he's much stronger. I have only had good use for him once, and every other time he was stranded in my hand. That sucks!
I by no means think that Magister is weak - he's an incredibly powerful card, but he doesn't go all the way and therefore he needs support. I'm currently working with the idea that support for Magister - creatures that can attack, things that increase power - are worse for the deck than things that support combos or engines. After all, Esper is the worst aggro shard.
I think you'd be quite justified in saying he has value in your deck, but I would find it odd if you valued it in a deck with only two attacking creatures, one of which is the general.
Lastly, I don't much care if someone gains a lot of life, as pretty much every wincon I have attacks the deck or has infinite attackers.
EDIT: Hey, would you look at that, our conundrums over spot removal have been pretty much solved forever. This, Vindicate, and Cyclonic are probably enough to catch any must-destroy permanent.
Before I removed Magister, I only had 4 creatures that could actually attack. If I end up removing Sphinx of the Steel Wind, I'll be down to 2 (Sharuum and Battlesphere).
If you can attack with evasion often and 10 damage is not difficult for you, I'm definitely not going to tell you Magister Sphinx is bad. It is just very difficult for me to pull off, since even killing one person requires something like Sharuum + previously discarded Magister + untap step + dodge all removal, and my life total is almost certainly also 10 by then. If I'm going to require an untap step to get a kill, I'd prefer to play Kuldotha Forgemaster.
I digress. I've been thinking a lot about what edges Sharuum has over the common tier 1 decks. The answers used to be recursion and repeatable effects to grind out a game, but as we've discussed to death that doesn't work anymore. I think that even if Sharuum doesn't have what it takes to currently be tier 1, it has advantages that make it worth not giving up on.
I think it is a good idea to take a lot of the ideas from stronger decks - use Ad Nauseam, drop the mana curve, and run a counterspell suite. But what parts of Sharuum should we keep? I believe there are at least 3 interesting advantages that make Sharuum worth exploring:
1. Colorless mana. As a deck that can focus on artifacts, Sharuum can use colorless mana in ways that other decks can't. Mishra's Workshop, for example, is one of the most powerful lands of all time, but as far as I know no other deck can run it. Very few decks can run Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, and while you can also argue that the card shouldn't be in Sharuum, I think it's worth testing him even in a lean build. Other decks have a heavy reliance on colored permanents to support their glass-cannon cards (Sylvan Library, Necropotence, Mystic Remora, Deathrite Shaman), and Ugin can expose those glass cannon decks for what they are, if he resolves early enough.
1a. Artifact mana. Sure, many top tier decks use about 9-12 mana rocks just like Sharuum, but the most powerful ones create only colorless mana (Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Sol Ring). Without lands, Sharuum's mana base is, in this way at least, inherently stronger than other manabases. It's obviously weaker to Null Rod and Stony Silence, but it's an edge nonetheless.
2. Combo pieces that can play the value game. Basalt Monolith, Rings of Brighthearth, and Sensei's Divining Top are all decent to excellent cards in their own right, and together they win the game on the spot. Sharuum is able to pull this combo off better than any other deck, again, because of its ability to use colorless mana. You can definitely argue that this particular combo is worse than just Doomsday-ing, but I think it is not clear-cut when you consider that drawing Rings is a whole lot better than drawing Laboratory Maniac, especially if your game plan can make the game slower and more draw-dependent.
3. Combo pieces that are artifacts. Artifacts are much easier to tutor than instants, sorceries, and planeswalkers, and tutors that put them directly onto the battlefield save us from having to spend tempo to actually cast them.
So, what actual deckbuilding changes do these 3 considerations bring us to? I believe this way of looking at the deck gives us a different way to think about sweepers.
In this thread we played around with a land destruction plan, but shook our heads and went, "no, there aren't enough LD effects." I'm playing with the idea that instead of thinking of a critical mass of LD, we can try to think of the deck as having a critical mass of sweeping value/tempo disruption effects. What this means is that All is Dust and Cyclonic Rift can be thought of in the same vein as Armageddon. Sharuum's colorlessness and strength of artifact mana could make All is Dust, Ugin, and Armageddon uniquely asymmetrical.
Now, there are holes in this idea. The sweepers I mentioned are very expensive. Sweepers don't get you ahead like the value cards they destroy. The idea isn't foolproof, but I do believe they are edges that other decks don't have like Sharuum does. I do believe that, at the very least, this is a new lens with which to view cards in new expansions.
Something to note about all this - I don't think this edge of sweepers needs to be a huge number of cards. 8 fast combo cards (2 Sculpting Steel, 2 Bitter Ordeal effects, 1 grave hate card, Thopter Foundry/Sword of the Meek/Time Sieve), 33 lands, 11 artifact mana sources, ~12 of the best tutors and selection, and ~10 broken disruption cards already adds up to 74 cards. That's only ~25 cards to actually experiment with, so having 5 or so sweepers is a significant portion of the non-base part of the deck. Note that fast combo decks can run 7 counterspells and still feel like they have a LOT of countermagic. If the sweepers are viable, then we don't need too many new sweepers printed to make it a real theme.
TL;DR - Sharuum might not be tier 1, but here are some edges that make playing with her interesting and give her potential with new sets. I believe with the same tools, Sharuum can combo on turn 3 like the best of them, but could also play certain sweepers to keep other decks honest - and slower than her. Lastly, the "base" of powerful cards in Esper EDH is pretty darn big in the first place, so you don't need to change THAT many cards to give a deck a very different feel.
Creatures:
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
6 Sharuum the Hegemon
7 Magister Sphinx
Mana Rocks:
0 Chrome Mox
0 Lion's Eye Diamond
0 Lotus Petal
0 Mana Crypt
0 Mox Diamond
0 Mox Opal
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
2 Grim Monolith
2 Fellwar Stone
2 Talisman of Dominance
2 Talisman of Progress
3 Basalt Monolith
5 Gilded Lotus
Draw/Manipulation:
1 Brainstorm
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Mystic Remora
1 Preordain
1 Ponder
2 Night's Whisper
3 Necropotence
3 Thirst For Knowledge
3 Windfall
5 Memory Jar
Tutors:
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Entomb
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Artificer's Intuition
2 Demonic Tutor
2 Transmute Artifact
3 Intuition
3 Whir of Invention
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
5 Tezzeret the Seeker
7 Karn Liberated
8 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Artifacts:
0 Tormod's Crypt
1 Altar of the Brood
1 Expedition Map
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Voltaic Key
2 Mesmeric Orb
2 Sword of the Meek
2 Thopter Foundry
2 Time Sieve
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Rings of Brighthearth
3 Sculpting Steel
Disruption:
1 Dispel
1 Mental Misstep
1 Silence
1 Swan Song
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Cyclonic Rift
3 Anguished Unmaking
3 Toxic Deluge
3 Vindicate
5 Force of Will
7 All is Dust
Bitter Ordeal:
3 Bitter Ordeal
Lands - 34
Fetchables:
0 Bloodstained Mire
0 Flooded Strand
0 Polluted Delta
0 Windswept Heath
0 Hallowed Fountain
0 Watery Grave
0 Godless Shrine
0 Island (4)
0 Swamp
0 City of Brass
0 Command Tower
0 Exotic Orchard
0 Forbidden Orchard
0 Glimmervoid
0 Mana Confluence
0 Reflecting Pool
0 Spire of Industry
0 Tarnished Citadel
0 Underground River
0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Mana Ramp:
0 Ancient Tomb
0 Gemstone Caverns
Artifact Lands:
0 Ancient Den
0 Seat of the Synod
0 Vault of Whispers
Utility Lands:
0 Academy Ruins
0 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
0 Cavern of Souls
0 Cephalid Coliseum
0 Strip Mine
0 Wasteland
Want List (should put in):
Flusterstorm, Mana Drain, Ravages of War, Mishra's Workshop, Timetwister. I think I play rarely enough to wait for Eternal Masters 2 on the first three, and the latter two...I might never play with. Obviously they're bonkers. You could run the original duals and more fetchlands, but honestly I think at 33 lands we have enough rainbow lands printed to make the money investment irrelevant.
Possible cards to test:
Tormod's Crypt (over Nihil Spellbomb), Imperial Seal, Pull from Eternity, Tainted Pact, and Paradox Engine. I think Tormod's and Pull are the best from these, and Ajacobik makes an interesting point about Pull in conjunction with Tainted Pact.
Sharuum List 1/22/2017
UW Tron ListThe triple blue is a little rough with the current manabase, so I'll see what Sharuum can do with a much heavier color focus and some classic colored toys like Force of Will and Ad Nauseam.
Sharuum List 1/22/2017
UW Tron ListWith my build using less Capsules and more 1 mana broken removal spells, I could see the Scepter being good now that it can win the game.
Sharuum List 1/22/2017
UW Tron ListSharuum List 1/22/2017
UW Tron ListSharuum List 1/22/2017
UW Tron ListGlint-Nest Crane obviously isn't good enough for Sharuum if we don't even run Impulse, but boy does it make me excited to play some standard. Blue value 1/3s are some of my favorite things in all of Magic.
On a side note, am I the only one who likes the Judge/EMA Mana Crypt better than the new expedition? I feel like the Crypt should be simple, like the elegant Sol Ring, to produce CC. Don't get me wrong, the new one is absolutely gorgeous and I'm sure I'll change my mind if I see it in person, but it's so ornate. Crypt is such a simple artifact, you know?
JESUS CHRIST THE BASIC LANDS ARE GORGEOUS IN THIS SET
I might just replace all my basics with Kaladesh foils, they're absurd.
Sharuum List 1/22/2017
UW Tron ListAetherworks Marvel is pretty sick on activation, but I'm not sure how often I'd get a reasonable amount of energy if I wasn't comboing off. If I'm comboing off, I'd rather have Sieve/Clock for Thopters and Altar of the Brood for Sharuum. It looks like it'd do nothing too often, which worries me.
To be honest, it looks like Morbid Curiosity is the best card for the deck so far. Inventors' Fair will get to take over the Mirrorpool spot for pretty much free, but a resolved Curiosity will probably win me more games. If there aren't a lot more colored artifacts, then the best new card for the deck will probably end up being Tezzeret, if he stays in colors.
Sharuum List 1/22/2017
UW Tron ListThe main difference is that you can use the Clock and Ironworks the turn they come down, but Panharmonicon requires future investment. I don't think it's playable.
It doubles Sharuum, Salvaging Station, Magister Sphinx, Snapcaster Mage, Myr Battlesphere in my list, and...that's it. It's super duper cute with Sharuum and Voyager Staff, but otherwise it's just not worth 4 mana for me. It requires hoops and doesn't win the game like the other 4 mana utility artifacts after you've made the jump.
I'm more worried about seeing it on opposing Aura Shard fields in Pod-like decks.
Sharuum List 1/22/2017
UW Tron ListSharuum List 1/22/2017
UW Tron ListSo, it leaves us with:
Artifact, a Creature, an Enchantment, and a Planeswalker
The only issue I can see is, it destroys all of our mana rocks. It's very cute as a softlock, but it seems very weak against land-heavy decks. It's the first ever card in Magic that turns Sharuum ETB into a sweeper no questions asked and keeps Sharuum, which is pretty sweet.
So, having this card ETB creates a kind of boardstate where:
1. Everyone loses their mana rocks.
- Does anyone have numbers on what the average number of mana rocks they've played by each turn is? Just guessing, I imagine this puts us down at least 2-3 cards.
2. We lose all but one non-creature artifact.
- It's not likely that other people will have multiple artifacts unless they're Arcum or something. This is a pretty brutal kick in our own balls, but if you're playing a less engine-style build, you'll have less permanents on the field. I personally think less permanents is a better way to go, so I think this could be okay.
2a. We lose metalcraft.
- No Opal, no tutoring with the new land. This sweeper is expensive enough to make sandbagging threats a little difficult.
3. Everyone loses all creatures but one.
- In my meta, this does nothing. Everyone has their one utility creature/general or is creatureless. It's neat against wide decks, but similarly useless against tall decks. It is nice that it kills Gods, but opponents can choose their God as their Enchantment...
4. Everyone loses all Enchantments but one.
- Doesn't affect us, we run like one enchantment? It is kind of nice to hit the player that has Necropotence, Sylvan Library, Mystic Remora, whatever. Probably doesn't do all that much. Might kill a pesky Rest in Peace or something?
5. Everyone loses all Planeswalkers but one.
- I can't imagine anyone has multiple significant Planeswalkers in a game of EDH. Those guys get like one activation, tops, or the one that player has is well-protected.
The mana-rock killing ability makes Stax effects much stronger, which is neat. I think this card is bad with my current concept of a Sharuum deck, but I also believe Sharuum is going to evolve a lot over the next year, and I can easily see this card being a star in the evolved Sharuum. It's a creature sweeper and it helps stax, and while I don't think that's enough to be notable now it's probably powerful somewhere.
Sharuum List 1/22/2017
UW Tron ListSharuum List 1/22/2017
UW Tron ListSo in short, no, I don't think Sharuum can be part of the 99 of a "Sharuum deck." Sharuum's ability is very strong and unique, and her biggest weakness is her heavy mana cost. The only thing I can think of that would top her in this style of deck is a general that puts something from the library into play, or Transmute Artifacts on ETB, both of which are absurd.
I have a question about the mana base - are the filterlands worth it compared to, say, the painlands? Their primary benefit is producing double mana of the same off color - a Plains and a Fetid Heath can make BB while a Plains and a W/B land can already make WW and WB. Sharuum is not a deck that often uses double color mana. Off the top of my head the only cards in the entire deck that do so are Transmute Artifact and Necropotence, and most of you don't run Necro. Perhaps you're casting several spells of the same color in the same turn while not having any other sources of that color?
I don't own them, but I've proxied them a few times and I end up with only colorless mana surprisingly often. What do you use them for where a painland would not suffice?
Sharuum List 1/22/2017
UW Tron ListHey, a new possible utility land was spoiled. I'm not sure if I'll play it, since I'm minimizing the colorless lands anyway, but it seems very interesting.
http://media.wizards.com/2016/ouhtebrpjwxcnw5_EMN/en_ayNiEZ76kB.png
Geier Reach Sanitarium
Legendary Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool,
2, T: Each player draws a card, then discards a card.
Sharuum List 1/22/2017
UW Tron ListIf you can do either of these things, he's much stronger. I have only had good use for him once, and every other time he was stranded in my hand. That sucks!
I by no means think that Magister is weak - he's an incredibly powerful card, but he doesn't go all the way and therefore he needs support. I'm currently working with the idea that support for Magister - creatures that can attack, things that increase power - are worse for the deck than things that support combos or engines. After all, Esper is the worst aggro shard.
I think you'd be quite justified in saying he has value in your deck, but I would find it odd if you valued it in a deck with only two attacking creatures, one of which is the general.
Lastly, I don't much care if someone gains a lot of life, as pretty much every wincon I have attacks the deck or has infinite attackers.
EDIT: Hey, would you look at that, our conundrums over spot removal have been pretty much solved forever. This, Vindicate, and Cyclonic are probably enough to catch any must-destroy permanent.
Sharuum List 1/22/2017
UW Tron ListIf you can attack with evasion often and 10 damage is not difficult for you, I'm definitely not going to tell you Magister Sphinx is bad. It is just very difficult for me to pull off, since even killing one person requires something like Sharuum + previously discarded Magister + untap step + dodge all removal, and my life total is almost certainly also 10 by then. If I'm going to require an untap step to get a kill, I'd prefer to play Kuldotha Forgemaster.
Sharuum List 1/22/2017
UW Tron List