Blast Zone is far and away my favorite EDH control card from this set, especially in Grixis subsets. Permanent answers to resolved enchantments are already in short supply, so having one that slots into the manabase is great. It's expensive, but you're already likely to be holding mana up with Dralnu and can charge it over a couple turns.
Finale of Eternity seems like it has some good synergy with Dralnu. You can cast it early while you're still stabilizing to remove a few smaller creatures, then flash it back for a game winning play late. It's a respectable enough 3-for-1 removal spell even without the overcost effect, even if it probably wouldn't make the cut as just removal.
I'm not big on Bolas's Citadel or Liliana, Dreadhorde General here. If you're on more of a combo Dralnu plan, Citadel gets a lot better. If you're playing control into a reanimation finish the life cost feels heavy unless you're supporting with a fair amount of lifegain. I typically stabilize at a fairly low life total when playing Dralnu-esque decks and it feels like it would be a dead draw. Lili just wants more creatures to take advantage of the static ability. The token production isn't worth 6 mana and I wouldn't be thrilled playing Barter in Blood at half again as much mana.
All the others are solid. The walkers in particular come down early, have an immediate effect, and then draw an attack or two away from your face. I wouldn't expect to protect them often unless they're very late game topdecks, and that's not really a problem. God-Eternal Kefnet seems like straight value as long as you're playing enough spot removal/card draw/reanimation/etc to take full advantage of the copying. It's another in the string of good control win cons we've seen over the last few years, following The Scarab God and Nezahal, Primal Tide.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
Engine is one of those cards where I didn't even bother to play it before retiring it. It's painfully apparent that it's not the kind of card I want to play with or against and Dralnu is an excellent home for it, where it actually has some value use instead of only combo.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
Domineering Will is pretty decent. I could almost see running it instead of Reins of Power, or alongside it. Decent trick, and I like that it forces block - it makes Dralnu a shotgun blast to the face. I guess the risk is the person controlling Dralnu playing out cards from their yard, but it's still better than sacrificing permanents.
Even better, Dralnu won't be able to tap unless your opponent has some way to give it haste. Domineering Will is neat trick in Dralnu lists and the other common use (stealing creatures to block) is still solid. I'm a big fan of sac outlets for Dralnu as well, so it's sometimes going to just be a removal spell that gets around indestructible. Lots of potential for blowout plays even if it's a touch on the expensive side.
It's tough to replace Reins with it, because Reins lets you steal creatures and swing to kill someone. Even more potential for blowout plays in a lot of cases.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
You're about where I like to be on mana development for a control deck with 36 lands, 7 rocks/dork CMC ≤ 3, and 8 cards that help you find a mana source (draw, landcycling, etc) CMC ≤ 3. I've found that having roughly half the deck contribute to early development in some way is a good place to be. That said, I'd probably want to go at least one land heavier and you could probably streamline further. I'm a big fan of cantrips in Dralnu lists, particularly that instant speed ones. They're inexpensive plays that help smooth out the early game and cheap enough to not really hurt your development late. They also help you use Dralnu every turn he's down, even if there's no opportunity to reuse a counter or kill spell. Brainstorm probably works out despite the low count of shuffle effects thanks to the mill, Impulse is decent dig and instant. I'd probably go for a full complement including those two, Ponder, Preordain, and one other a la Visions of Beyond, Opt, or Gitaxian Probe. I've reached the point where all of my blue lists start with half a dozen cantrips because they've worked so well for me and Dralnu makes particularly good use of them. They also keep Paradox chains going much longer than a yard full of kill spells will. Careful Study and Hapless Researcher fill a similar role, albeit with card disadvantage, and play well with your reanimator plan as well.
One note on the Paradox kill is that you have few colored nonland mana sources. Getting choked on mana if you can't find Signet, Talisman, or Ingot kind of puts a crimp in that plan. You might consider adding in Coldsteel Heart, Sky Diamond, Charcoal Diamond, Chromatic Lantern, or Gilded Lotus (too expensive to count for early development, but great later on).
To find space for those cards, I'd be looking at cutting the lowest performing mass removal spell, spot removal spell, and counterspell. Dralnu recursion lets you get away with slightly lower counts on those, especially if you're running cheap card draw in their place. I'd also look at losing one of the colorless rocks, probably Thought Vessel. No max hand size is a downside in reanimator lists on a semi-regular basis and your general already recurs things. You could probably also ditch one of the reanimation targets, especially if you're looking at them as control finishers and not fast reanimation combos. You really don't want to see them in hand before you turn the corner and you'll have no trouble finding them with the milling, digging, and tutoring.
Hope a couple of those suggestions are helpful. They're all aimed at giving you things to do early game that aren't going to be useless later, because no one likes sitting around doing nothing at any point in the game.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
River Kelpie is significantly better than Secrets of the Dead because it doesn't just look at your board. Anyone in the game reanimating, playing Crucible of Worlds, flashing back spells, etc draws you cards. I've seriously considered running it in decks with much lighter GY interaction than Dralnu because of the popularity of recursion in this format, at least locally. I don't think it's a shoo-in for every Dralnu list but it's miles better than the very narrow Secrets. That said, I suspect you're generating enough advantage with the list as is thanks to your reanimation targets and don't really need it. Dralnu never really hurts for card advantage.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
I wanted to say I really am impressed with this primer and I feel you make a good case for Dralnu, Lich Lord.
I understand that the drawback isn't "that scary" but can someone talk about some cards that we should be afraid of. i.e. common cards played in the format that do deal damage. Blasphemous Act comes to mind. But perhaps there are targeted spells that we could potentially use Spellskite to help protect us.
I've played Dralnu a lot, and I've only been hit with sacrifices a couple times. One involved Molten Disaster, and the others were typically red wipes after I countered one or two other spells along the same lines. There have been games where he never came down because I never found a good way to dodge the potential sacrifice, typically against burn heavy boros decks, but he's largely there to make all of your spells better. As long as you're casting decent spells to begin with, you should be OK even if you only get to cast them once. You don't run into problems until you're relying on the flashback for your gameplan. You can generally avoid the drawback by being careful when you play him and including some sac outlets in the manabase.
I don't think I've seen any EDH games with enough targeted burn spells to merit Skite. Some of the X-cost stuff and very occasional Ignite Memories, but even something as efficient as Lightning Bolt doesn't make the cut for most people (debatable whether that's correct or not, but for another thread). It's pretty rare to see unexpected burn out of a deck. You can usually guess based on colors, general, and early plays whether it's likely or not and find your countermeasures accordingly.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
Do you think the deck could benefit from some way of becoming the monarch, for extra card draw? Maybe Marchesa's Decree as a way to protect yourself, too?
Monarch seems like a terrible choice here. The deck is creature light, even with the reanimation theme, so you're not stopping anyone from swinging by threatening blocks and you're unlikely to steal the crown back once you lose it. There's also not enough board control to keep the board completely clear at all times (which is not a small feat, even for decks dedicated to it). You would be drawing one additional card, then giving everyone else at the table free card draw. Marchesa's Decree isn't really protection. It provides a small deterrent, but anyone swinging with a 2/x or larger is still going to kill you well before they're in any danger. Add on that it actually incentivizes people to attack you while you're the monarch and it's pretty much useless in a deck like this. The effective deterrents either stop the damage entirely or kill the creature.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
If you ever feel like a not even remotely budget friendly option, I love Sword of Fire and Ice and Sword of War and Peace in Dralnu. They're protection from burn spells that double up as win conditions. Shred Memory is good for the same reasons Muddle the Mixture is. GY hate out of the hand is almost impossible to play around unless your opponents are incredibly paranoid, as well. Frantic Search is solid in Dralnu. You're already playing with your GY to mitigate the downside, so it's effectively free instant speed looting. Slaughter Pact and Pact of Negation are very powerful cards when Dralnu is down and perfectly respectable the rest of the time.
I really like the idea of Trail of Evidence in Dralnu too. Clues are a decent mana sink if you're playing a lot at instant speed and it can generate a lot of card advantage for a relatively small initial investment.
For cuts, I would probably be looking at Duskmantle Guildmage and Bloodchief Ascension right off the bat. You're already an attractive target as a spell focused deck and you're not milling enough to make them serious threats. They generate way more attention than they should merit. Mindcrank too. I understand the combo potential, but it's a bad card on its own most of the time. That said, I'll cop to really disliking combos where one or more parts don't pull their weight outside of the combo and that colors my opinion of all three of those.
The Dralnu list I have up on this site is here, if you're interested in seeing another take. I went for more of a straight control build and the list is very outdated, but EDH is pretty slow moving and there's still some good stuff in there. I don't think it's changed significantly any of the times it's been together since posting that list, aside from adding in some newly printed stuff.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Finale of Eternity seems like it has some good synergy with Dralnu. You can cast it early while you're still stabilizing to remove a few smaller creatures, then flash it back for a game winning play late. It's a respectable enough 3-for-1 removal spell even without the overcost effect, even if it probably wouldn't make the cut as just removal.
I'm not big on Bolas's Citadel or Liliana, Dreadhorde General here. If you're on more of a combo Dralnu plan, Citadel gets a lot better. If you're playing control into a reanimation finish the life cost feels heavy unless you're supporting with a fair amount of lifegain. I typically stabilize at a fairly low life total when playing Dralnu-esque decks and it feels like it would be a dead draw. Lili just wants more creatures to take advantage of the static ability. The token production isn't worth 6 mana and I wouldn't be thrilled playing Barter in Blood at half again as much mana.
All the others are solid. The walkers in particular come down early, have an immediate effect, and then draw an attack or two away from your face. I wouldn't expect to protect them often unless they're very late game topdecks, and that's not really a problem. God-Eternal Kefnet seems like straight value as long as you're playing enough spot removal/card draw/reanimation/etc to take full advantage of the copying. It's another in the string of good control win cons we've seen over the last few years, following The Scarab God and Nezahal, Primal Tide.
It's tough to replace Reins with it, because Reins lets you steal creatures and swing to kill someone. Even more potential for blowout plays in a lot of cases.
One note on the Paradox kill is that you have few colored nonland mana sources. Getting choked on mana if you can't find Signet, Talisman, or Ingot kind of puts a crimp in that plan. You might consider adding in Coldsteel Heart, Sky Diamond, Charcoal Diamond, Chromatic Lantern, or Gilded Lotus (too expensive to count for early development, but great later on).
To find space for those cards, I'd be looking at cutting the lowest performing mass removal spell, spot removal spell, and counterspell. Dralnu recursion lets you get away with slightly lower counts on those, especially if you're running cheap card draw in their place. I'd also look at losing one of the colorless rocks, probably Thought Vessel. No max hand size is a downside in reanimator lists on a semi-regular basis and your general already recurs things. You could probably also ditch one of the reanimation targets, especially if you're looking at them as control finishers and not fast reanimation combos. You really don't want to see them in hand before you turn the corner and you'll have no trouble finding them with the milling, digging, and tutoring.
Hope a couple of those suggestions are helpful. They're all aimed at giving you things to do early game that aren't going to be useless later, because no one likes sitting around doing nothing at any point in the game.
I'm a little surprised no one in my group has punched me for the way I build control decks yet.
I don't think I've seen any EDH games with enough targeted burn spells to merit Skite. Some of the X-cost stuff and very occasional Ignite Memories, but even something as efficient as Lightning Bolt doesn't make the cut for most people (debatable whether that's correct or not, but for another thread). It's pretty rare to see unexpected burn out of a deck. You can usually guess based on colors, general, and early plays whether it's likely or not and find your countermeasures accordingly.
Shred Memory is good for the same reasons Muddle the Mixture is. GY hate out of the hand is almost impossible to play around unless your opponents are incredibly paranoid, as well.
Frantic Search is solid in Dralnu. You're already playing with your GY to mitigate the downside, so it's effectively free instant speed looting.
Slaughter Pact and Pact of Negation are very powerful cards when Dralnu is down and perfectly respectable the rest of the time.
I really like the idea of Trail of Evidence in Dralnu too. Clues are a decent mana sink if you're playing a lot at instant speed and it can generate a lot of card advantage for a relatively small initial investment.
For cuts, I would probably be looking at Duskmantle Guildmage and Bloodchief Ascension right off the bat. You're already an attractive target as a spell focused deck and you're not milling enough to make them serious threats. They generate way more attention than they should merit. Mindcrank too. I understand the combo potential, but it's a bad card on its own most of the time. That said, I'll cop to really disliking combos where one or more parts don't pull their weight outside of the combo and that colors my opinion of all three of those.
The Dralnu list I have up on this site is here, if you're interested in seeing another take. I went for more of a straight control build and the list is very outdated, but EDH is pretty slow moving and there's still some good stuff in there. I don't think it's changed significantly any of the times it's been together since posting that list, aside from adding in some newly printed stuff.