WHO IS TALRAND, SKY SUMMONER? WHY PLAY THIS COMMANDER?
As we all know, Talrand is a monoblue commander that prefers instants and sorceries. Nearly all Talrand decks are built as control/tempo decks with a lot of permission to help protect Talrand and make drakes, backed up with cantrips. There's also something cool about having a blue deck that actually wants to kill with swinging with creatures constantly, as opposed to a deck that wins with infinite combos.
No Delver, we all hate you, get out of here.
It may not be the most busted control general for EDH (options like Geist of Saint Traft and Vendilion Clique exist, for example) but I think Talrand himself is pretty cool. But that wasn't the real reason why I built this deck. I wanted to try to make a deck with the following restrictions...
1) Make a 1v1 deck (all of my decks before this have been built for multiplayer), following the French EDH rules
2) Keep it under a specific budget. For now I am trying to keep it under $100 (using the market price on tcgplayer.com). Eventually I want to see if I can keep it under $75, maybe even under $50. It'll depend on how often I rely on the few high-budget cards that the deck can afford.
I decided to pick a monocolor deck because they tend to have a very cheap mana base, since you don't need to shell out money on strong dual lands. 2-color decks can also function with a low budget mana base, but 3-color tends to be clunky since all the low-budget duals enter the battlefield tapped (such as guildgates). Regardless, I thought monocolor would be an interesting take. In addition, most of my decks before this have been mostly ramp stompy green decks, so I decided to test out a control deck to expand on my experiences.
I then went with Talrand because many of the cantrips and counterspells that make up the bread and butter of control decks are commons and uncommons, making them cheap. While there are obvious money cards to power up the deck, because they will be 1-ofs anyway their influence will be much lower than compared to, say, legacy, where you will be running multiples of instead.
Force of Will accidentally the entire budget
This is a deck that's still heavily under construction. I'm terrible at running control decks so expect a lot of poor card choices and poor play while I try to improve myself. However, I hope this deck is of use for people who want to make a budget EDH deck.
DECK HISTORY
As said earlier, I normally play aggressive decks that want to be proactive. Tap out every turn for bombs and turn things sideways. As such, playing a slower, control deck should be interesting.
One of the advantages of Talrand builds is that you can make creatures without having to actually play creature spells (that aren't your general). Because of this, some Talrand builds, including this one, use Polymorph and Proteus Staff in order to cheat out a fatty. While this does restrict deckbuilding somewhat (nonbudget lists would definitely want Snapcaster Mage, for example, and wouldn't mind Vendilion Clique and so on), the premier creatures are relatively high-budget anyway, and the low-budget ones (such as maybe Mnemonic Wall) are things we are okay with losing if we can cheat out something like Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur.
The card options will be broken up by card type. I will put * for each card, indicating my personal rating of the card, ranging from 1 to 5.
* - I mostly run this card for personal preference.
** - Has a nice niche, but can be cut for a different card.
*** - A good value card. You can cut for a different card but I don't recommend it.
**** - A staple. I do not recommend cutting this card.
***** - One of the cornerstones of the deck.
Any cards that are also over a dollar will be italicized. Anything that is over 5 dollars will instead be bolded.
CANTRIPS
Cantrips, especially the ones at instant speed, are valuable in this deck. The deck wants to play draw-go, so filling up your hand at the end of your opponent's turn when they don't play anything threatening is strong. Some of these aren't actually cantrips by definition, but they all share similar roles; draw a few cards at a cheap mana cost, and if Talrand is in play also make some drakes. It does have a couple sorcery speed draw spells, but they either dig deep or serve other functions to make up for it.
*****Gitaxian Probe, Clairvoyance, Peek - Because Talrand has no innate protection and the deck has very few 0-mana counterspells, probe effects are very useful to see if the coast is clear to get Talrand in, as well as generally planning out multiple turns ahead. Probe is the most powerful because you can play it for 0 mana, but it's fine to have redundancy for probe effects.
*****Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain - 1-mana cantrips that can dig several cards deep. The first two are a lot less powerful in a build with basically no shuffle effects (fetchlands are way too expensive for the budget) but are still good, Brainstorm in particular gets fatties and Temporal Mastery back to your library. They're simple cards but they cannot be cut.
****Impulse, Telling Time, Anticipate, Peer Through Depths - 2-mana cantrips that dig even deeper. Peer through Depths has restrictions on what to get, but it digs 5 cards deep and there are so many instants and sorceries that you'll almost always hit. Since they're all 2-mana instants, they're great to put on Isochron Scepter.
****Quiet Speculation - It's a surprisingly good value card, since Deep Analysis and Flash of Insight have much better flashback costs than their normal costs and they're both serviceable anyway. Think Twice adds value. A T2 Speculation sets you up nicely for the whole game, while a topdecked Speculation refills your hand and has multiple triggers for Talrand. Note that the three flashback cards (Think Twice, Flash of Insight, and Deep Analysis) can be cut if you don't want this card.
***Think Twice - Not the most powerful card ever, but it's here for redundancy, curve reasons, and part of the Quiet Speculation package. It's also two triggers for Talrand on one card.
****Flash of Insight - Not the most exciting card to hardcast, but its flashback cost is very reasonable, even if it does weaken Runechanter's Pike and Treasure Cruise.
***See Beyond - Shuffle your library if you need to, and also tuck in a card you don't need, like one of the fatties or a flashback card to fetch back out with quiet speculation.
****Deep Analysis - Much like Flash of Insight, not the most exciting to hardcast, but 2 mana to draw 2 for its flashback is nice, and the 3 life loss from it isn't a big deal.
****Gush - Draw a bunch of cards for 0 mana? Sounds good. Since the curve is relatively low outside of the fatties which ideally we cheat into play anyway, bouncing some islands isn't so bad.
COUNTERS
Every blue deck needs counters. Especially monoblue, because that's the whole point of running blue in the first place.
****Mental Misstep - Can catch a lot of people offguard. Lots of nice 1-mana spells you can face; duress/thoughtseize/etc., lightning bolt, swords to plowshares, birds of paradise, etc.
****Spell Pierce - Very powerful. Usually this protects Talrand the turn you play him.
****Swan Song - A fairly versatile 1-mana hard counter is hard to pass up. Usually this protects Talrand the turn you play him, unless your opponent has multiple planeswalkers/artifacts/creatures that kill opposing creatures.
*****Counterspell - One of the best cards to put under Isochron Scepter.
****Arcane Denial - It functions as something like Remand. Generally whatever you're countering is worth more than the free divination your opponent gets, and this also replaces itself. I think it's an underrated counterspell.
****Memory Lapse - Functions very similarly to Remand where instead of both players being "up" a card, instead this just puts it on top of the opponent's library. Not great on cards that are must-answers (like planeswalkers), but on things like ramp spells you gain a lot of tempo.
****Delay - On many cards, such as other counters, generals, and X-spells, this is a hard counter. Against ramp effects this delays it for so long that it greatly lessens the impact of the ramp spell. Against most other things it's still a huge tempo swing.
****Mana Leak - Make sure to run this out early so that the "pay 3" clause doesn't come back to bite you.
***Exclude - Essence Scatter with a cantrip. Most decks rely on their generals, so we can metagame them to an extent.
****Forbid - The buyback cost is hefty, but lategame there are a few cards that can give you a lot of cards, and this helps lock the game out. Buybacking only does something if you stuck Talrand or a fatty, or you have a massive amount of cards in hand. Otherwise it just delays your loss.
*****Misdirection - The printing in Conspiracy has drastically brought the price down (~$0.50 low price on magic.tcgplayer.com). While it actually isn't good against everything (e.g. sweepers, etc), it makes people think twice about removal spells, Hymn to Tourach, and so on.
****Foil - Discarding two cards is a hefty cost, but 0-mana counters are important.
BOUNCE/REMOVAL
You can't counterspell everything. Maybe you have to tap out. Maybe the opponent played multiple spells. Maybe you just didn't have the counter. But you need cards that can deal with permanents.
****Pongify, Rapid Hybridization - 1-mana cards that kill creatures at instant speed are extremely powerful. Yes, they get a 3/3, but French EDH starts at 30 life and we can take that easily.
***Into the Roil - Not the most exciting card, but the fact that it has kicker while also something to put under Isochron Scepter gives it enough versatility to run. (Note that if you put this under Isochron Scepter, you can pay kicker costs with the copy, which is insane value).
****Boomerang - One of the best cards to put under Isochron Scepter.
*****Cyclonic Rift - The overload is very powerful, and it's an acceptable card at base too. Not as busted in 1v1 as it is in multiplayer, but it's still one of the best sweepers for blue in 1v1.
***Hands of Binding - Cipher effects when Talrand is out are powerful, and this card helps ensure that your cipher'd drake can get in. It's okay when Talrand isn't out, fogging their best creature, but if you have to do that you may be in trouble.
****Capsize - Much like Forbid, it has a hefty buyback cost, but whereas Forbid needed lots of cards in hand this needs a lot of mana. And much like Forbid, when you can start buybacking it's a game ender.
****Engulf the Shore - "Sweeper" in monoblue. Often you will fall behind and this equalizes the board. Instant speed can also catch opponents off guard.
TUTORS
Tutors help smooth out draws and increase the consistency of the deck. Blue has a lot of card draw and the deck has many redundant pieces, but you will need tutors to find your 1-ofs in the 99 card deck.
*****Merchant Scroll - Most "conditional" tutors (tutors that can find a certain card type) are usually 3 mana, such as Fabricate, Idyllic Tutor, etc., and they are strong but fair. So you should know how powerful 2-mana tutors are. From counterspell to cyclonic rift to even just Fact or Fiction, this gets you more or less anything you can ask for.
****Fabricate - Mostly here to fetch out Proteus Staff, but sometimes getting out Isochron Scepter to imprint a powerful card is backbreaking, or getting Vedalken Shackles against the creature-heavy deck, etc.
BIG CARD DRAW
You can't win games with just cantripping and 1-for-1'ing. You're going to need some cards to put the game away. Starting here are some cards that, under the right conditions, will refill your hand.
****Rhystic Study - A classic blue card that goes into nearly every blue EDH deck. It's at its most aggravating in multiplayer, but in 1v1 it still pulls weight. Usually it won't actually draw you cards, but opponents paying the tax will be slowed down greatly.
****Bident of Thassa - Draw a lot of cards when you have a lot of drakes out. It's sometimes "win-more", and doesn't do anything without drakes out, but if you are slightly ahead, this seals the game. Even with just a couple of drakes out, getting a few cards a turn is all you need. There's also Coastal Piracy which is basically Bident of Thassa but a pure enchantment instead of artifact+enchantment, meaning it's not as vulnerable to removal. However I decided to use Bident because Fabricate can fetch it (Bident's ability to force the opponent's creatures to attack isn't usually relevant in this deck since they'll almost always be attacking you anyway).
****Blue Sun's Zenith - Since this build of Talrand usually takes awhile to kill (stronger builds can use the free counters more efficiently and use lower mana curves as a result), you'll often have a lot of mana in play lategame. This card helps close the door, making it a useful 1-of.
RANDOM POWER CARDS
Here are some other cards that are very powerful. They don't share similar functions, but they have strong synergies with specific cards in the deck.
*****Isochron Scepter - Put anything that isn't totally dead on this and you get very far ahead. Putting something like Boomerang under this turn 2 and having it survive when you untap is almost a free win.
****Runechanter's Pike - Like Isochron Scepter, it's very useful in a deck that casts 1-2 instants/sorceries every turn to put into the graveyard. Put it on a random drake and you have a serious clock.
*****Vedalken Shackles - It's basically a repeatable mind control at a very low mana cost. It's not cheap, but this effect is so strong it's worth using.
*****Proteus Staff, Polymorph - These make up a pretty big core of the deck. As explained earlier, Talrand allows you to make creatures without needing to actually play creature spells, so these two can let you lose a drake to go up a giant fatty. In a budget build that can't afford to play premium creatures like Snapcaster Mage, we are totally fine altering the build to slot these two in. The deck doesn't need Mass Polymorph since we don't want that many fatties taking up card slots though. It's worth noting that Proteus Staff lets you order the revealed cards however you want (Polymorph states that you shuffle the revealed cards into your library) so if you don't have fatties left in the deck, Proteus Staff lets you stack your deck at the cost of a drake. You can also target your opponent's stuff with this too if needed.
*****Opposition - Similar to Bident/Coastal Piracy/Distant Melody in that it helps power up your drakes, but instead help control the board. If you only manage to get a few drakes out before Talrand dies, this helps you slow down the opponent until you can recast Talrand. If you instead have a lot of drakes, this lets you whittle down your opponent while tapping down his lands or whatever would allow him to mount a comeback.
CREATURES
These are the payoff creatures when we Polymorph/Proteus Staff. Sometimes you will actually hard cast them, but most of the time you'll be cheating them out.
*****Tidespout Tyrant - So you're telling me that with this in play, all of my dorky 1 and 2 mana instants and sorceries become boomerangs too?
*****Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur - One of the biggest "why didn't Wizards put that anti-graveyard clause like we see on Progenitus or the Eldrazi big 3 so people don't reanimate this jerk" creatures to play with. If you have this + High Tide, you can also catch alot of people offguard who tap out on their turn with EoT high tide -> slam Jin-Gitaxias off six islands.
RAMP
One of the big ways to play Talrand is to get him out, then protect him with free counterspells. Since we can't afford those, playing ramp so that we have the mana to just hardcast our fairer counterspells will have to do.
****High Tide - Often this sits in your hand and doesn't do anything. But your biggest turns start with High Tide. It also helps to just help rush something into play earlier, like getting Talrand online ASAP. You can catch people off guard with 6 islands in play by going High Tide -> Jin Gitaxias at the end of their turn. Sometimes having High Tide power up a Blue Sun's Zenith is funny too.
****Everflowing Chalice - Being a ramp spell that fits on any curve is fine.
****Sky Diamond - Ramping from 2 to 4 is very key in the deck, as it can help get Talrand out earlier if the coast is clear.
*****Sapphire Medallion - In a deck that typically wants to cast multiple cheap spells a turn, this ramps hard.
****Mind Stone - Decent ramp option that can be cashed in for a card in a pinch.
****Basalt Monolith - Gives 7 mana on turn 4, although because it's triple colorless, it can be awkward to utilize that mana efficiently since Talrand only has 2 colorless (and you won't usually get to use that last colorless since opponents will wait for mana pools to empty). However it's a good budget addition. There are no infinite combos (e.g. Power Artifact) with this, so you'll have to untap this the hard way, but in draw-go you sometimes will have extra mana and won't have a problem untapping this.
****Worn Powerstone - Similar to Basalt Monolith. It gives 6 mana on turn 4, letting you play Talrand + 2-mana counterspell backup.
PROTECTION
So after playing Talrand and having counterspell backup, opponents will sometimes just play additional removal to kill him. You will want some things to have constant protection on him or your fatties.
*****Lightning Greaves - Since Talrand is so important to the deck, a card that helps protect him is great. Once you cheat a fatty into play, you can slide it over. The equip costing 0 is huge.
****Swiftfoot Boots - Slightly worse than Greaves because hexproof vs shroud isn't that important in this deck, while costing 1 to equip instead of 0 is. Still, it's really the next best option behind greaves.
LANDS
One of the biggest draws to monocolor is being able to build a manabase without breaking your budget. While the top builds still think about using Wasteland and such, while also playing fetchlands to help maximize cards like Brainstorm, you can build a very affordable mana base.
****Lonely Sandbar - Lands that let you cycle when you get mana flooded are fine.
****Temple of the False God - Getting enough lands in play can be awkward, but the deck does want mana.
****Myriad Landscape - Ramp on a land is nice, and you can crack it at instant speed. Entering the battlefield tapped is an issue but there are enough lands where you can usually play this at a time where it's not an issue.
***Blighted Cataract - 6 mana plus saccing is a massive cost, but if you're mana flooded, you will pay that to get two cards.
33 islands
We want islands because they get the bonus from High Tide and Vedalken Shackles, but the nonbasics fill some important roles.
OTHER OPTIONS
HIGH-BUDGET
Obviously, if you have the money to spend, there are a ton of very strong cards to add. Some may interfere with the current build (such as Snapcaster Mage interfering with Polymorph), but regardless, these are the dollars you can be spending. Talrand in particular loves the 0-mana counters and effects because of how Talrand has no innate protection.
Flusterstorm - I don't think I'd run this in nonbudget unless I see a lot of storm players or control players (since the copies can just continuously target what you need to counter), but regardless, good 1-mana counters are always worth noting.
Stifle - Hey guys, what's your favorite 1-mana stone rain? Stifle on a fetchland?
Intuition - It's a little less powerful than in eternal formats because those can let you just fetch 3 of the exact same card whereas you obviously can't do that in EDH, but it's still a great card.
Cryptic Command - A card that does everything except make you a sandwich.
Capture of Jingzhou - Taking extra turns is very huge. Now if it only didn't cost an arm and a leg...
Jace, the Mind Sculptor - I would run this card if it didn't consume my entire budget. And more.
Consecrated Sphinx - Not as powerful to cheat out with Polymorph compared to something like Jin-Gitaxias, but it's totally fine to cheat out, and 6-mana is actually hard castable, and if your build doesn't want Polymorph then this is fine.
Snapcaster Mage - Greatly interfers with Polymorph, but in a non-Polymorph, non-budget build, this is an auto-include.
Vendilion Clique - Has less synergy than Snapcaster Mage, but it's still a very powerful card. So powerful that it's usually the premiere monoblue "tempo" general over Talrand.
Cavern of Souls - In a control meta, this helps you jam in Talrand with no ****s given to counters.
Wasteland - Color-screwing 3-color decks early on can get you a free win.
MEDIUM-BUDGET
These are cards that this budget deck could actually consider, although are still usually too high-cost for their effects.
Disrupting Shoal - An extremely bad version of Force of Will that is still more than serviceable.
Spell Snare - In the right meta this is a blowout. It's a modern and eternal staple for a reason. Modern Masters made this a lot more affordable, but it's still a few bucks.
Remand - It's technically not so high-budget that this build just cannot consider it at all, but it's still too expensive for its effect.
Sleight of Hand, Serum Visions - These are sky-high for commons because they're basically the only playable cantrips in modern. They are not prohibitively expensive, but they are still easily replaceable.
Tolaria West - If the deck had actual 0-mana cards worth fetching, such as Pact of Negation, it would be worth running.
Bribery - Despite its effect, it's actually a meta card. Most 1v1 decks have a lower curve than multiplayer decks and therefore have fewer bombs. It's still so powerful that if the deck has budget to spare, it's worth considering.
Time Warp, Temporal Mastery, Walk the Aeons - Sometimes getting one free turn is all you need. Temporal Mastery will usually be weaker (except with Mystical Tutor) but it's much more budget-friendly than time warp.
Phantasmal Image, Phyrexian Metamorph - Not here because they interfere with Polymorph, but they're some of my pet cards where I will try to jam them in every blue deck I have.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All - Similar to Cavern of Souls in that if your meta is full of control, you should consider this card. However, unlike Cavern which is totally bonkers, this has enough drawbacks where you can't just jam this in.
Tectonic Edge - It's actually more expensive than Strip Mine despite being far less powerful (thanks modern). It's still at a fairly affordable price though, and since Strip Mine is banned in French 1v1, this is probably your best semi-budget option.
Coat of Arms - Has the potential to be very powerful, a win-more, or something that just backfires. It's not chump change either, so use with care.
Mindslaver, Academy Ruins - Mindslaver lock is always available for monoblue even though Talrand isn't big on artifacts.
Extraplanar Lens - If a nonbudget build uses snow-covered islands (it would go from 5 cents an island to 50 cents an island) this could be good but dangerous.
DIDN'T PAN OUT
Cards that I have tried, but for whatever reason did not make the cut.
Talrand's Invocation - This has to be in a Talrand deck for flavor reasons, but it just doesn't do enough.
Windreader Sphinx - A fatty I had for cheating out. It felt like a 7-mana Bident/Coastal Piracy, and was often the worst creature to cheat out, so I just dropped it.
Whiplash Trap, Vapor Snag - Unsummon effects are nice but having too many of them makes you sacrifice too many cards for mere tempo value. Pongify and Rapid Hybridization cover most of what you need at cheap spot removal, backed up with a few cards that can bounce noncreatures.
Aetherize - Can be a blowout, but in a deck that relies on making sure the opponent doesn't have too many permanents out in the first place, this can be awkward. It'll make token decks think twice at least.
Repeal - A bounce effect that cantrips and is quite brutal on tokens, but otherwise it takes a lot of mana. It's a fine card but I felt it was one of the weakest cards in the deck and so I cut it to experiment with other options.
Spell Crumple, Hinder - Counters that I had and played until I realized that 1) In 1v1, players can opt to send their commanders back to the command zone when they get tucked, and 2) They actually cost a couple dollars. I decided that the budget would be best spent elsewhere instead of on cards that are usually worse than Dissipate.
Frantic Search, Snap, Rewind - While technically "free", their upfront mana cost made them difficult to cast the turn Talrand is cast, which is when Talrand is most vulnerable. While they're great once Talrand is safe, there are quite a few cards that become much better once Talrand is out.
Opt - A card that effectively said "Scry 1, then draw a card" at instant speed for 1 mana. That isn't bad, but it's not exciting.
Silent Departure - It adds some value to the Quiet Speculation package, but on its own it's not a very good card.
See Beyond, Lat-Nam's Legacy - Cheap cards that help shuffle away a fatty in your hand to polymorph out later. It's fine, but not a must-have.
Compulsive Research - A 3-mana card that digs 3 cards is nice. The sorcery speed hurts, which makes it not a must-have.
Repulse - Unsummon with a cantrip is fine but not exciting.
Dismiss - Counterspell with a cantrip is a little more exciting, but it's a lot to ask for 4 mana.
Long-term Plans - In a deck that's mostly about redundancy, there was not much of a need for a 3-mana slow tutor that was card disadvantage.
Leyline of Anticipation - Most of the cards are already instants, but being able to flash in Talrand at instant speed would be absolutely huge. However if it's not in the starting hand, tapping out to play this is so awkward.
Gravitational Shift - Can do tons of damage with drakes out while helping fog ground creatures. however it doesn't do enough without Talrand sticking for a few turns.
Coastal Piracy - With Bident of Thassa being the same thing except fetchable off Fabricate, I don't think I needed two of the same effects, even if Bident is open to artifact hate.
Distant Melody - A similar card to Coastal Piracy/Bident of Thassa, except you need drakes already in play to make it useful (whereas you could play the permanents with 1-2 drakes out to slowly accumulate value, Distant Melody is a 1-shot). Even though Melody does make a drake before you draw cards assuming Talrand is already out, you really want at least 3 other drakes in play to get good value (otherwise it's a concentrate or worse), and that's a lot of drakes to already have in play.
Elixir of Immortality - Was played so that in case fatties get into the graveyard, this shuffles them back if I need to Polymorph/Proteus Staff again. It basically does nothing otherwise though and it even interferes with Runechanter's pike.
Reliquary Tower - This doesn't really do anything unless Jin-Gitaxias is out, in which case it's mostly win more. It's also $1-2 for its effect.
Riptide Laboratory - All it really does is unsummon Talrand to protect him from removal, but it costs 3 mana. The card has a fairly high price tag as well.
CONSIDERING
Cards that I have some interest in but do not know how good they will be. This list is so long that it's under heavy construction.
Additional ramp spells - It's good to have Talrand out quickly.
Mental Misstep - A 0-mana narrow hard counter. Since sensei's divining top and sol ring are both banned, this won't always have a guaranteed target, but it's again worth considering. There are discard spells like Thoughtseize and 1-mana removal options like Lightning Bolt and Swords to Plowshares, so you're likely to find something worth countering in every color and in every deck.
Thwart - Returning three islands is quite the heavy cost. However 0-mana hard counters always have some potential.
Call to Mind, Pull from the Deep - An extremely bad version of Snapcaster Mage, and I can't imagine needing graveyard recursion in a deck that has many redundant pieces. However it's one of the few blue recursion spells so it's worth keeping in mind.
Divination, Concentrate, Tidings - Tapping out to draw some cards on your turn can be dangerous. If you plan on playing against other budget builds they could be okay. I do not think these will be any good if your opponents are playing souped up decks though.
Inspiration, Jace's Ingenuity, Opportunity - Card draw that cost 1 more than their sorcery counterparts in order to upgrade to instant. They're probably better than their sorcery counterparts, but still not extremely efficient.
Gush - Free inspiration has a lot of potential, but bouncing 2 islands is not a negligible cost.
Null Rod - Similar to torpor orb in that it's a 2-mana artifact that is meta-dependent.
Inundate - A fairly bad Cyclonic Rift/Wash Out, but if you are really clamping down on the budget this could potentially replace Cyclonic Rift.
Sunder - In a Talrand deck that relies more on tempo, this will close the door, just like your normal Armageddon cards.
Scourge of Fleets - A potential Polymorph target, but much like Aetherize, ideally you don't want your opponent to have a lot of creatures in play in the first place.
MATCHUPS
GENERAL STRATEGY
Talrand is everything to the deck. Without Talrand you will not make drakes to attack people with or Polymorph out your fatties in a manageable time. Unlike most decks, you don't generate any advantage from simply casting Talrand, so we are not okay with Talrand dying. Do not be hasty in rushing Talrand out unless you know that he will survive the turn or you have nothing else to do. While he only costs 4 mana, you should see him as a 5-7 drop so you can have 1-2 counterspells on your turn. Opponents will often bait your counterspells the turn you cast Talrand, so usually unless the spell can kill Talrand or kill you, you let it resolve. If your opponents don't play anything for several turns in a row, chances are they have multiple kill spells for Talrand so tread carefully.
Once you untap with Talrand you'll feel like the king of the world. Just attack with drakes and draw-go and you will eventually win the game.
Remember that there are several cards in the deck that care about what's in your graveyard (e.g. Treasure Cruise, Runechanter's Pike). Always make sure you delve/exile the right number of cards from your graveyard.
VERSUS CONTROL
Much like typical control vs control matchups, it's a game of chicken until someone decides to YOLO and try to stick something on the board. Usually it's okay to be a little reckless in the very early turns (e.g. tapping out turn 3 to play a Rhystic Study) until the opponent has enough mana to threaten something dangerous (like their general), then you will need to start playing safe. Sometimes you'll also need to bluff to stay alive. For example, if you have a 4-mana sorcery card and you have 4 mana open, sometimes you won't play it just to fake a counterspell in hand.
Blue-based control decks have the advantage of playing free counterspells that our budget can't afford, while black-based control decks have hand disruption which are staples against opposing control decks while also having a lot of cheap removal on Talrand. They're tough, but games go so long you have a chance of drawing out of it.
VERSUS AGGRO
We should be okay versus aggro because the deck packs a lot of counters and bounce. However you almost can never tap out in the early turns. They will usually only have 1 removal spell for Talrand, so if you can get Talrand through that, you will usually end up winning (and if they have 2, they either have a god hand or they're not playing anything so don't throw Talrand out).
THRAXIMUNDAR CONTROL
It was a pretty high-power deck because my friend had this built more for multiplayer; aside from running "illegal" cards like Mana Crypt and Mana Vault, it also was backed with "legal" 1v1 cards like Force of Will, Jace, fetchland suite, and so on, while also running cards you'd see more in 1v1 builds like Thoughtseize and Lightning Bolt. Even considering the games he had his early Mana Crypt and Mana Vault starts, I think I held my own well and lost moreso because of mistakes than power level problems (like using an Essence Scatter instead of a Mana Leak in one of the early turns, this actually cost me the game ~10 turns later when he was jamming his general in and mana Leak couldn't do anything).
Because we are budget, we are at a disadvantage because they can play free counterspells, but our general also costs 3 less mana. However, duress-effects are very strong here, because they also get to see our hand. Likewise, don't underestimate the peek effects our deck has. You need to get talrand in the moment the coast is clear.
Talrand will have problems staying alive. I recommend not trying to play him until you kill or counter Thrax at least once. When you try to jam Talrand too early, the opponent will counter to force you to spend your counter (and if you don't counter then playing him doesn't accomplish much), then you will be tapped out when he slams Thrax and makes you sacrifice Talrand anyway.
Your drakes are your win con here, because grixis control decks have plenty of spot removal for Talrand and your fatties, and a low creature count does not fare well versus an attacking Thrax either. You'll need to take care of your drakes, because red/black have access to the 2-3 mana cheap sweepers like pyroclasm. They won't have too many, but you'll especially need to take note of Volcanic Fallout because that will always wipe out your army regardless of counterspells.
Be careful of any reanimation effects. Our fatties can and will die, and we don't want the opponent to get them.
Grixis has problems dealing with artifacts and especially enchantments and are usually relying on counters or bounce. Try to sneak one in when you can.
HORDE OF NOTIONS MIDRANGE
This was a typical 5-color goodstuff deck that used Horde of Notions as an efficient beater while playing cards like Global Ruin and your normal goodstuff cards like Phyrexian Arena and planeswalkers. Basically against a control Talrand deck, it would stick a cheap engine such as aforementioned Arena or a planeswalker, then slowly trade 1-for-1 resources on you via hand disruption and kill spells until it could get a winning position, then Global Ruin's the board. I didn't see any counterspells though, but I wouldn't be surprised if a build did use some.
The game is a war of attrition. Whoever sticks a cheap engine first generates such a huge advantage that they'll usually grind out the win. Hand disruption is the worst thing that can happen to us as we rely on having a good mix of cantrips, counterspells, and 1 engine to tie everything together, and getting one of the key parts out of the hand is a problem.
KERANOS, GOD OF STORMS CONTROL
If Keranos sticks, you're in trouble. He's a repeatable way to kill Talrand. There are some outs once it is in play - like having swiftfoot boots on Talrand, or boomerang effects - but your best shot is to just counter it. Fortunately, it's a 5-mana do-nothing-for-1-turn as opposed to Talrand being a 4-mana do-nothing-for-1-turn. Often this means we can get Talrand in before Keranos does to start getting a few drakes and put some pressure on. Be very careful about sweepers though as red has some good cheap ones (Pyroclasm and Volcanic Fallout being obvious ones). Red's also got some good cheap burn to take out Talrand at low mana costs.
KOZILEK, BUTCHER OF TRUTH
Another deck that wasn't specifically tailored towards 1v1 but we played anyway. The deck basically had similar pieces you'd see in, say, a Karn deck, or any artifact-heavy deck, except it focused on alot more ramp. This one only gets out of hand if the Kozilek player gets a fast start as it did run an "illegal" sol ring. There's almost no removal in pure artifacts, so you can typically jam Talrand in ASAP, and often you want to, because you are on a fast clock. Even if you counter Kozilek, he always draws 4 cards, and that can make things spiral out of control.
It's usually worth countering their big mana rocks like Thran Dynamo. However if he lands a bunch of mana rocks before you are able to counter/bounce them but doesn't have 10 mana for Kozilek (or is at 9 and can threaten Kozilek with a land drop), you should probably wait and counter whatever bomb he plays. You probably won't win anyway, but you can at least hope that his draw 4 off Kozilek bricks.
BRUNA, LIGHT OF ALABASTER
Again, not specifically tailored towards 1v1. It's a control matchup so don't jam Talrand in recklessly and never tap out if the opponent is capable of casting his general. Bruna decks often do a lot of looting to fill up their graveyard with auras and not advancing their board position, so you can take your time.
Bruna is everything to the deck so always fight over her. There's currently no graveyard hate in the deck, so if Bruna ever attacks, all the auras from the graveyard are coming back and you're probably just dead. And be careful of anything that can give her haste.
CHANGELOGS
12/6/16
+ Anticipate
+ 1 island
+ Engulf the Shore
+ See Beyond
+ Exclude
+ Gush
+ Foil
- Ancestral Vision
- Reliquary Tower
- Wash Out
- Treasure Cruise
- Rhystic Study
- Time Warp
- Temporal Mastery
Many changes due to bannings (or unbannings). Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time both got banned. Ancestral Vision got unbanned in modern and is now way out of budget. See beyond "replaced" treasure cruise and is also a way to get a fatty stuck in our hand back into the library. Anticipate "replaced" dig through time and is also not bad to imprint onto isochron scepter. Ancestral vision was "replaced" by an island.
Tower doesn't do anything unless Jin gitaxias is in play in which case it's win more, and it's also $1-2.
Engulf replaced Wash out as a sweeper. The instant speed is a nice boon. Wash out can bounce enchantments/walkers/artifacts of the given color though, and engulf will also snatch all of your own creatures too (Wash Out can sometimes bounce your opponent's creatures and leave yours in play). I'll see if this is a change I want to make.
More budget cuts had to be made. Rhystic Study, Time Warp, and Temporal Mastery were getting out of hand, and considering they're not lynchpins of the deck, we can't afford to spend $5-15 on these things. I cut them for some leaner cards.
11/16/15
+ Mental Misstep
+ Blighted Cataract
- Mystical Tutor
- 1 Island
Mystical Tutor is now banned. I'll just try Mental Misstep in its place.
Blighted Cataract interests me. It's a land that can draw cards. Reducing the island count can be problematic with Vedalken Shackles as well as just getting enough blue mana available, but it's still at a healthy 32, which should be ok.
Greaves is coming in. With a few expensive cards being reprinted to drop their price (like Sapphire Medallion), the deck can afford the upgrade from Neurok Stealthsuit.
Stormtide is coming out. 2 polymorph options is usually enough to seal the game.
Myriad Landscape is ramp on a land. It's great on a turn 1 or even turn 2 play, but past that you need to be careful about tempo. I can't remember what I took out to make room for this either. Probably an island.
Torpor Orb is too specialized of a card and is dead in alot of matchups. I put an island in because early land drops are important.
6/10/14
+ Neurok Stealthsuit
+ Mind Stone
+ Basalt Monolith
+ Worn Powerstone
+ Misdirection
Talrand is key to the deck. We need to protect him. Neurok Stealthsuit is a bad Lightning Greaves, but it is okay and is much cheaper on the budget.
Mana ramp is very important here, since the key turn is playing Talrand and having mana to cast counters to protect him. Since the free counterspells like Force of Will are very expensive, having mana ramp to just have the extra mana to cast the counters will have to do. However the mana ramp is okay for recasting Talrand, casting fatties that get stuck in our hand, and firing a big Blue Sun's Zenith. Mind Stone helps get Talrand out just a little faster while also able to cycle. Basalt Monolith gives a lot of mana to prepare you for the key turn when you need to play Talrand and protect him, and once Talrand sticks, often you don't need alot of mana anymore. Worn Powerstone doesn't tap for mana immediately which is awkward, but it lets us hit 6 mana on turn 4, which is enough to play Talrand + 2-mana counterspell. All of them are easy on the budget.
Misdirection is now affordable with the Conspiracy printing.
Dismiss, Shift, Piracy, and Distant Melody are all high mana cards. As said earlier, the key turn is protecting Talrand, so it's difficult to Talrand + Dismiss. Also, once Talrand sticks in play, the army of drakes is enough to take over the game. Shift and Piracy usually did nothing if I couldn't stick Talrand. I'll continue to use Bident of Thassa for now though because it can be fetched with Fabricate, but it is otherwise the same card as Coastal Piracy.
Silent Departure is axed quickly. Yes, it adds value to Quiet Speculation, but it's not a very strong card. I think I'm okay with Quiet Speculation occasionally not getting full value in return for having a good card in the deck instead.
3/31/14
+ Temporal Mastery
+ Sky Diamond
+ Quiet Speculation
+ Flash of Insight
+ Deep Analysis
+ Silent Departure
- Opt
- Star Compass
- See Beyond
- Repulse
- Compulsive Research
- Echoing Truth
After a little testing, Time Warp is very powerful. I decided to try out Temporal Mastery for its Miracle cost. I may think about Walk the Aeons too. I cut Opt because it felt like a weak cantrip.
Sky Diamond replaced Star Compass.
At the suggestion of Lexandur, I'm testing out a Quiet Speculation package. I'm using four flashback cards to get (it finds only 3, but in case I draw into one of my flashback cards it can still get full value). The package includes two additional "cantrip" cards (since think twice was already in the deck) and an unsummon effect, so I'm cutting cantrip and unsummon effects. The cards cut aren't bad, it's just that I think they're the most disposable.
3/21/14
+ Island
+ Sapphire Medallion
+ Swiftfoot Boots
+ Blue Sun's Zenith
+ Hands of Binding
+ Time Warp
+ Vedalken Shackles
Free spells are great, but the problem is that because Talrand is a 4 mana 2/2 with no protection, usually I can't do much until I get countermagic protection or I do a peek effect to see if the way is clear. Because of that, it's important to have low-mana spells to immediately trigger Talrand to get some value drakes. The most vulnerable turn is when I need to get Talrand out, and so spells that have a low upfront cost is more important than getting high-mana spells that untap lands for themselves afterwards. They may go back in when I try to squeeze the budget some more, but for now I don't think I'll need them.
Aetherize is clunky in a deck that doesn't want to have many permanents in play in the first place. Because of that, most decks will only be attacking you with a few creatures, meaning it would be more worthwhile to play something at a lower mana cost and isn't situational.
Coat of Arms has a lot of potential, but it can be win-more, and can backfire against token decks. While I've never actually be able to draw it, the theory behind the card along with the fact that it's ~$5 meant that I could experiment with other cards.
Long-term plans is clunky in a deck that has a lot of redundant pieces. It's a tutor that's slow and is card disadvantage.
Dispel is a meta choice card.
Sapphire Medallion is quite nice in a deck that wants to play a lot of cheap spells every turn.
Swiftfoot boots is great at protecting Talrand, who is basically the deck. Lightning greaves is better but it costs more money than I'm willing to put in.
Hands of Binding is being tested at the request of a user on the board. Cipher is great with talrand out. The trick is finding the cipher spells that have use when Talrand can't be in play. It's not great with Talrand out but it does something okay.
Time Warp replaced Coat of Arms as a 5-mana "smash with drakes" card, but it's also more versatile in that it gives you another draw step, etc.
Vedalken Shackles is something I'm quite excited to test. I know it'll be a good card, the question will just be whether or not it ends up being worth the ~$10.
I'm not sure. I would already need talrand in play to even attempt to get the full value, aside from stolen identity where I can cipher onto the creature I copy, but that's a 6 mana sorcery.
So some cards that I am interested in testing but do not know what to cut (carried over from my previous topic)...
1) Blue sun's zenith - an instant speed mass card draw is something I could make room for. As a 1-of it'll provide a unique effect.
2) Lightning greaves - Protecting talrand is very important for the deck. Although greaves is ~$5, and swiftfoot boots while under $1 has an equip 1 cost that can actually matter in a deck that's tight on mana.
3) Vedalken shackles - ~$10 but I expect very good things when I land this card.
4) More lands and mana ramp. It's good to have cards that trigger talrand, but the deck is fairly slow so hitting all land drops and getting extra mana out are nice.
I think I'll be cutting rewind/snap/frantic search. While they are technically free spells, their high upfront cost makes it difficult to play them on the turn I want to get Talrand out, which is usually the most vulnerable turn for the deck.
I'm also not sure if I should try to cut a "useful with mass drakes" spell, those being coat of arms, distant melody, bident, coastal piracy, opposition, and gravitational shift. While I definitely want a card that makes my 2/2 drakes more useful, sometimes I'm worried if I could get flooded with these effects when I can't get Talrand out. Of course there can be times where I do have a bunch of drakes out and then I can't draw into one of those cards.
I'm not sure. I would already need talrand in play to even attempt to get the full value, aside from stolen identity where I can cipher onto the creature I copy, but that's a 6 mana sorcery.
Of course you are right, but I don't think this is as much of a concern as you think it is. I don't really consider a card like Boomerang to be getting full value if I don't have Talrand out in this deck either. Cipher cards just interact so well with Talrand and provide so much card advantage when things go right that it's worth the times things go wrong. The three cards you mention all seem like solid additions, although greaves loses a bit of value in a deck where you don't care about attacking with your commander. It's still probably worth it for the shroud. Here are some possible cuts:
Aetherize - I had this in my Talrand and the blowout potential against swarmy decks just wasn't worth all the times it was a dead card.
Long term plans - A slow and clunky tutor in a deck that mostly functions on redundancy seems pretty bad.
Coat of arms - I'm actually interested in how good this card has been for you. Expensive but potentially very swingy. Have you gotten much use out of this yet?
I think you could afford to trim a few counterspells, particularly the more situational ones like dispel and essence scatter. I'd recommend replacing one of them with Deprive too; the minor drawback of bouncing a land is totally worth it for another unconditional counter.
I always thought Coat of Arms was a win more card, in any case, getting an extra turn is better imo. You get an extra drake, draw step, less fragile, attack phase, etc but I would rather have an extra counterspell.
Gravitational Shift is different because it also reduces their killing potential without targeting them. Still, 5 mana is expensive but for a budget deck it is good.
Rhystic Study makes you tap out on turn 3, risking a dangerousspell to sneak in just to tax some of their spells, no worth the risk imo.
You can go wild, put a few more fatties and use Mass Polymorph. It is always fun to trade 3 or 4 drakes for a bunch of op creatures
Legacy URGBOops all my spellsBGRU URBYoung GrixisBRU
~Commander~ BUDralnu/ReanimatorUB GRUMaelstroM WanderiNgURG GBMerengue Clan of SalsaBG
WUGeist of Saint TraftUW UTalrand PolymorphishU UAzami, Lady of CAU BRWZurgo, Worldslayer BearerWRB BWUMerieke Ri Berit UWB UVendilion CliqueU
Modern:U Mono-U TroN U
Boomerang has higher power than most cipher spells when Talrand isn't in play. Although I will admit that at second glance, hands of binding could be interesting. Last thoughts is like a really bad concentrate though, I don't like hidden strings as much as hands of binding, and stolen identity is 6 mana. I'll try out hands of binding, and if I like it I'll consider hidden strings or stolen identity.
I could see cutting Aetherize. It is clunky.
Maybe long-term plans. The deck is all about redundancy and this is card disadvantage.
Could probably cut dispel too. But essence scatter should be fine because it can always counter generals.
I've never been able to get coat of arms out so I don't know how to judge its worth. While I would play time warp over coat of arms, time warp is ~$10 so I need to be sure if that budget is worth it.
Rhystic study is something I've not managed to play in 1v1 yet, but someone else told me this is a fine card. We'll see what happens in reality.
I don't think mass polymorph would be good and it would probably be win more. The advantage it has over polymorph is that it doesn't target so it doesn't get countered by a removal spell, but it costs 2 more mana. And the problem with playing more big creatures is when they get stuck in my hand when I need a lot of counters and bounce for the early turns.
Whoa, I can't believe that stup1d card cost 10 bucks.....
Mass Polymorph is just for fun, and you could ask someone to lend you an Emrakul if you are using the polymorph things.
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Legacy URGBOops all my spellsBGRU URBYoung GrixisBRU
~Commander~ BUDralnu/ReanimatorUB GRUMaelstroM WanderiNgURG GBMerengue Clan of SalsaBG
WUGeist of Saint TraftUW UTalrand PolymorphishU UAzami, Lady of CAU BRWZurgo, Worldslayer BearerWRB BWUMerieke Ri Berit UWB UVendilion CliqueU
Modern:U Mono-U TroN U
Yeah, I started out with just Hands of Binding too, but kept adding more cipher spells because they're just so good with Talrand. Keep in mind that Last Thoughts provides the same CA as Concentrate provided you have a board state with a Talrand and a drake you can get through (+2 cards and +2 drakes vs. +3 cards and +1 drake). After that anything you get is just gravy. I will say it's probably the weakest cipher card I use. If you decide to add more cipher I'd go Hidden Strings > Stolen Identity > Thoughts. Your swaps look pretty good. I hadn't really thought of Sapphire Medallion, to be honest I forgot that card existed. It seems pretty good in a mana hungry deck like this. And on the subject of artifact mana, Mind Stone is pretty much strictly better than Star Compass in this deck. Coming into play untapped and being able to cycle when you no longer need it is much better than being able to produce U in a deck that runs 33 islands. FWIW I agree with Lex on Rhystic Study. It just doesn't seem worth it in 1 v 1. I've never actually tried it though, just going off of my gut.
You are short, force reached 100$, a 1 card deck on this budget haha.
Zenith is not that good, you would rather have a cheap cantrip or a Jace's Ingenuity, it is good if you can ramp great amounts of mana.
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Legacy URGBOops all my spellsBGRU URBYoung GrixisBRU
~Commander~ BUDralnu/ReanimatorUB GRUMaelstroM WanderiNgURG GBMerengue Clan of SalsaBG
WUGeist of Saint TraftUW UTalrand PolymorphishU UAzami, Lady of CAU BRWZurgo, Worldslayer BearerWRB BWUMerieke Ri Berit UWB UVendilion CliqueU
Modern:U Mono-U TroN U
You definitely can find a NM FOW for $75 at second hand market
or a MP one for $75 in store.
Nothing can beat FOW in a Talrand deck.
Oh yes, I got 3 last week for $65 second hand. But it was a one time thing, I don't usually see them for sale exept in webstores. But thats me, playing in a small city.
But thats not the case, its a budget deck
I wouldn't remove snap, that card has done some serious work for me in the past, you just need to find the oportunities
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Legacy URGBOops all my spellsBGRU URBYoung GrixisBRU
~Commander~ BUDralnu/ReanimatorUB GRUMaelstroM WanderiNgURG GBMerengue Clan of SalsaBG
WUGeist of Saint TraftUW UTalrand PolymorphishU UAzami, Lady of CAU BRWZurgo, Worldslayer BearerWRB BWUMerieke Ri Berit UWB UVendilion CliqueU
Modern:U Mono-U TroN U
The reason why I don't want to use last thoughts is that it doesn't help my cipher'd drake connect with additional hits. The fact that it can be a better concentrate is not exciting because I would not even consider running concentrate unless I was trying to get the budget under $50.
I'm only using star compass because it's something I had. It'll be the first ramp option I drop when i get better cards.
I don't know about Zenith, but I felt like I always wanted at least 1 more instant that could draw a lot of cards (since fact or fiction is only one card).
As for the force of will comments, the whole idea of the budget deck isn't so much that I am short on money (although I have certainly been spending way too much on magic recently), but rather what to do with deckbuilding when there are budget constraints.
I've never been able to play a rhystic study yet, but my opponent managed to play one early, and I do think it would be worthwhile in my deck. If you skip the tax 3-4 times it already pays for itself. It's probably stronger against my deck though because it relies on playing multiple low-mana spells, but at the very lesat I think it warrants more testing.
Thinking about it a little more, should I stick in favorable winds in this deck? It gives enough toughness to my drakes so that they survive a lot of the cheap sweepers (pyroclasm, etc) as well as make them not instantly die to Elesh Norn. I don't know how common those cards are but if they are popular, there's nothing wrong with planning in advance. Alternately maybe I could run other cards to help protect my drakes from such effects (with cavern of souls and boseiju being cards, I won't always be able to counter them).
Favorable winds doesn't give you drakes, it is only good when you already are in a winning position, it sucks when you are behind. Elesh Norn should have never resolved in first place.
If you want to counter cavern of souls and boseiju, you need to add all the lands that can solve that issue: tectonic edge, encroaching wastes, ghost quarter, dust bowl, strip mine. And even if you can't respond to them, the situation where they get to use it with pyroclasm effects will be rare, so I wouldn't worry about that.
Legacy URGBOops all my spellsBGRU URBYoung GrixisBRU
~Commander~ BUDralnu/ReanimatorUB GRUMaelstroM WanderiNgURG GBMerengue Clan of SalsaBG
WUGeist of Saint TraftUW UTalrand PolymorphishU UAzami, Lady of CAU BRWZurgo, Worldslayer BearerWRB BWUMerieke Ri Berit UWB UVendilion CliqueU
Modern:U Mono-U TroN U
That is true. I do have ghost quarter for that reason (the other cards are a bit too expensive, although if lands become an actual problem I should definitely jam tec edge). I've been also wondering how to mix and match my "useful with mass drakes" cards, since they're useless cards without talrand sticking for 1-2 turns.
quiet speculation certainly looks interesting, particularly since deep analysis and flash of insight's better halves are in their flashbacks while all of them are decent cards on their own. The question is if I were to include a flashback package what would I cut? I could certainly just cut one of my bounce effects for silent departure (I think I'd run all 4 to ensure that in case I draw into one of them before quiet speculation, I can still get the full value), but I'm not sure about 3 other cuts.
Also I think i'll play lat-nam's legacy over see beyond once I find one. I think the instant speed is more important than drawing -> shuffling. Although it's possible that if I were to put in quiet speculation, I'd cut this slot for a flashback card since neither card does much other than shuffle a fatty in my hand back to the library for polymorphing.
After playing a few more games, I think I want even more cards that give talrand shroud/hexproof. It may actually be worth it to spend the ~$5 on lightning greaves, although because all I want is shroud/hexproof, neurok stealthsuit, champion's helm, diplomatic immunity, and robe of mirrors are all cheaper but not as mana efficient. commandeer is a free spell that is only $1 as well so it's worth looking into. I don't know if I'm going to see enough targets for mental misstep, although it does counter swords to plowshares and duress-effects.
Legacy URGBOops all my spellsBGRU URBYoung GrixisBRU
~Commander~ BUDralnu/ReanimatorUB GRUMaelstroM WanderiNgURG GBMerengue Clan of SalsaBG
WUGeist of Saint TraftUW UTalrand PolymorphishU UAzami, Lady of CAU BRWZurgo, Worldslayer BearerWRB BWUMerieke Ri Berit UWB UVendilion CliqueU
Modern:U Mono-U TroN U
Well I'm not going to jam all of them in, but I was just going through options. Greaves is the best but it is ~$5 and the budget is starting to get tight.
WHO IS TALRAND, SKY SUMMONER? WHY PLAY THIS COMMANDER?
No Delver, we all hate you, get out of here.
It may not be the most busted control general for EDH (options like Geist of Saint Traft and Vendilion Clique exist, for example) but I think Talrand himself is pretty cool. But that wasn't the real reason why I built this deck. I wanted to try to make a deck with the following restrictions...
1) Make a 1v1 deck (all of my decks before this have been built for multiplayer), following the French EDH rules
2) Keep it under a specific budget. For now I am trying to keep it under $100 (using the market price on tcgplayer.com). Eventually I want to see if I can keep it under $75, maybe even under $50. It'll depend on how often I rely on the few high-budget cards that the deck can afford.
I decided to pick a monocolor deck because they tend to have a very cheap mana base, since you don't need to shell out money on strong dual lands. 2-color decks can also function with a low budget mana base, but 3-color tends to be clunky since all the low-budget duals enter the battlefield tapped (such as guildgates). Regardless, I thought monocolor would be an interesting take. In addition, most of my decks before this have been mostly ramp stompy green decks, so I decided to test out a control deck to expand on my experiences.
I then went with Talrand because many of the cantrips and counterspells that make up the bread and butter of control decks are commons and uncommons, making them cheap. While there are obvious money cards to power up the deck, because they will be 1-ofs anyway their influence will be much lower than compared to, say, legacy, where you will be running multiples of instead.
Force of Will accidentally the entire budget
This is a deck that's still heavily under construction. I'm terrible at running control decks so expect a lot of poor card choices and poor play while I try to improve myself. However, I hope this deck is of use for people who want to make a budget EDH deck.
DECK HISTORY
One of the advantages of Talrand builds is that you can make creatures without having to actually play creature spells (that aren't your general). Because of this, some Talrand builds, including this one, use Polymorph and Proteus Staff in order to cheat out a fatty. While this does restrict deckbuilding somewhat (nonbudget lists would definitely want Snapcaster Mage, for example, and wouldn't mind Vendilion Clique and so on), the premier creatures are relatively high-budget anyway, and the low-budget ones (such as maybe Mnemonic Wall) are things we are okay with losing if we can cheat out something like Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur.
DECK LIST
BY CARD TYPE
1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
"CANTRIPS" (16)
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Clairvoyance
1 Peek
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Preordain
1 Telling Time
1 Impulse
1 Anticipate
1 Peer Through Depths
1 Think Twice
1 Flash of Insight
1 Quiet Speculation
1 See Beyond
1 Deep Analysis
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Gush
COUNTERS (14)
1 Mental Misstep
1 Spell Pierce
1 Swan Song
1 Arcane Denial
1 Counterspell
1 Mana Leak
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Negate
1 Essence Scatter
1 Memory Lapse
1 Delay
1 Exclude
1 Forbid
1 Foil
1 Misdirection
1 Pongify
1 Rapid Hybridization
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Into the Roil
1 Boomerang
1 Hands of Binding
1 Capsize
1 Engulf the Shore
TUTORS (2)
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Fabricate
BIG CARD DRAW (2)
1 Bident of Thassa
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
RANDOM POWER CARDS (6)
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Runechanter's Pike
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Proteus Staff
1 Polymorph
1 Opposition
CREATURES (2)
1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
RAMP (7)
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 High Tide
1 Sky Diamond
1 Sapphire Medallion
1 Mind Stone
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Lightning Greaves
LANDS (38)
33 island
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Temple of the False God
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Blighted Cataract
CARD OPTIONS
* - I mostly run this card for personal preference.
** - Has a nice niche, but can be cut for a different card.
*** - A good value card. You can cut for a different card but I don't recommend it.
**** - A staple. I do not recommend cutting this card.
***** - One of the cornerstones of the deck.
Any cards that are also over a dollar will be italicized. Anything that is over 5 dollars will instead be bolded.
CANTRIPS
Cantrips, especially the ones at instant speed, are valuable in this deck. The deck wants to play draw-go, so filling up your hand at the end of your opponent's turn when they don't play anything threatening is strong. Some of these aren't actually cantrips by definition, but they all share similar roles; draw a few cards at a cheap mana cost, and if Talrand is in play also make some drakes. It does have a couple sorcery speed draw spells, but they either dig deep or serve other functions to make up for it.
*****Gitaxian Probe, Clairvoyance, Peek - Because Talrand has no innate protection and the deck has very few 0-mana counterspells, probe effects are very useful to see if the coast is clear to get Talrand in, as well as generally planning out multiple turns ahead. Probe is the most powerful because you can play it for 0 mana, but it's fine to have redundancy for probe effects.
*****Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain - 1-mana cantrips that can dig several cards deep. The first two are a lot less powerful in a build with basically no shuffle effects (fetchlands are way too expensive for the budget) but are still good, Brainstorm in particular gets fatties and Temporal Mastery back to your library. They're simple cards but they cannot be cut.
****Impulse, Telling Time, Anticipate, Peer Through Depths - 2-mana cantrips that dig even deeper. Peer through Depths has restrictions on what to get, but it digs 5 cards deep and there are so many instants and sorceries that you'll almost always hit. Since they're all 2-mana instants, they're great to put on Isochron Scepter.
****Quiet Speculation - It's a surprisingly good value card, since Deep Analysis and Flash of Insight have much better flashback costs than their normal costs and they're both serviceable anyway. Think Twice adds value. A T2 Speculation sets you up nicely for the whole game, while a topdecked Speculation refills your hand and has multiple triggers for Talrand. Note that the three flashback cards (Think Twice, Flash of Insight, and Deep Analysis) can be cut if you don't want this card.
***Think Twice - Not the most powerful card ever, but it's here for redundancy, curve reasons, and part of the Quiet Speculation package. It's also two triggers for Talrand on one card.
****Flash of Insight - Not the most exciting card to hardcast, but its flashback cost is very reasonable, even if it does weaken Runechanter's Pike and Treasure Cruise.
***See Beyond - Shuffle your library if you need to, and also tuck in a card you don't need, like one of the fatties or a flashback card to fetch back out with quiet speculation.
****Deep Analysis - Much like Flash of Insight, not the most exciting to hardcast, but 2 mana to draw 2 for its flashback is nice, and the 3 life loss from it isn't a big deal.
*****Fact or Fiction - EoT FoF you lose.
****Gush - Draw a bunch of cards for 0 mana? Sounds good. Since the curve is relatively low outside of the fatties which ideally we cheat into play anyway, bouncing some islands isn't so bad.
COUNTERS
Every blue deck needs counters. Especially monoblue, because that's the whole point of running blue in the first place.
****Mental Misstep - Can catch a lot of people offguard. Lots of nice 1-mana spells you can face; duress/thoughtseize/etc., lightning bolt, swords to plowshares, birds of paradise, etc.
****Spell Pierce - Very powerful. Usually this protects Talrand the turn you play him.
****Swan Song - A fairly versatile 1-mana hard counter is hard to pass up. Usually this protects Talrand the turn you play him, unless your opponent has multiple planeswalkers/artifacts/creatures that kill opposing creatures.
*****Counterspell - One of the best cards to put under Isochron Scepter.
****Arcane Denial - It functions as something like Remand. Generally whatever you're countering is worth more than the free divination your opponent gets, and this also replaces itself. I think it's an underrated counterspell.
****Memory Lapse - Functions very similarly to Remand where instead of both players being "up" a card, instead this just puts it on top of the opponent's library. Not great on cards that are must-answers (like planeswalkers), but on things like ramp spells you gain a lot of tempo.
****Delay - On many cards, such as other counters, generals, and X-spells, this is a hard counter. Against ramp effects this delays it for so long that it greatly lessens the impact of the ramp spell. Against most other things it's still a huge tempo swing.
****Mana Leak - Make sure to run this out early so that the "pay 3" clause doesn't come back to bite you.
****Negate, Essence Scatter - The full package.
****Muddle the Mixture - Here for its dual purpose of tutoring and countering. Great targets include Lightning Greaves, Isochron Scepter, Cyclonic Rift, Runechanter's Pike, and even just Merchant Scroll or getting a hard Counterspell up.
***Exclude - Essence Scatter with a cantrip. Most decks rely on their generals, so we can metagame them to an extent.
****Forbid - The buyback cost is hefty, but lategame there are a few cards that can give you a lot of cards, and this helps lock the game out. Buybacking only does something if you stuck Talrand or a fatty, or you have a massive amount of cards in hand. Otherwise it just delays your loss.
*****Misdirection - The printing in Conspiracy has drastically brought the price down (~$0.50 low price on magic.tcgplayer.com). While it actually isn't good against everything (e.g. sweepers, etc), it makes people think twice about removal spells, Hymn to Tourach, and so on.
****Foil - Discarding two cards is a hefty cost, but 0-mana counters are important.
BOUNCE/REMOVAL
You can't counterspell everything. Maybe you have to tap out. Maybe the opponent played multiple spells. Maybe you just didn't have the counter. But you need cards that can deal with permanents.
****Pongify, Rapid Hybridization - 1-mana cards that kill creatures at instant speed are extremely powerful. Yes, they get a 3/3, but French EDH starts at 30 life and we can take that easily.
***Into the Roil - Not the most exciting card, but the fact that it has kicker while also something to put under Isochron Scepter gives it enough versatility to run. (Note that if you put this under Isochron Scepter, you can pay kicker costs with the copy, which is insane value).
****Boomerang - One of the best cards to put under Isochron Scepter.
*****Cyclonic Rift - The overload is very powerful, and it's an acceptable card at base too. Not as busted in 1v1 as it is in multiplayer, but it's still one of the best sweepers for blue in 1v1.
***Hands of Binding - Cipher effects when Talrand is out are powerful, and this card helps ensure that your cipher'd drake can get in. It's okay when Talrand isn't out, fogging their best creature, but if you have to do that you may be in trouble.
****Capsize - Much like Forbid, it has a hefty buyback cost, but whereas Forbid needed lots of cards in hand this needs a lot of mana. And much like Forbid, when you can start buybacking it's a game ender.
****Engulf the Shore - "Sweeper" in monoblue. Often you will fall behind and this equalizes the board. Instant speed can also catch opponents off guard.
TUTORS
Tutors help smooth out draws and increase the consistency of the deck. Blue has a lot of card draw and the deck has many redundant pieces, but you will need tutors to find your 1-ofs in the 99 card deck.
*****Merchant Scroll - Most "conditional" tutors (tutors that can find a certain card type) are usually 3 mana, such as Fabricate, Idyllic Tutor, etc., and they are strong but fair. So you should know how powerful 2-mana tutors are. From counterspell to cyclonic rift to even just Fact or Fiction, this gets you more or less anything you can ask for.
****Fabricate - Mostly here to fetch out Proteus Staff, but sometimes getting out Isochron Scepter to imprint a powerful card is backbreaking, or getting Vedalken Shackles against the creature-heavy deck, etc.
BIG CARD DRAW
You can't win games with just cantripping and 1-for-1'ing. You're going to need some cards to put the game away. Starting here are some cards that, under the right conditions, will refill your hand.
****Rhystic Study - A classic blue card that goes into nearly every blue EDH deck. It's at its most aggravating in multiplayer, but in 1v1 it still pulls weight. Usually it won't actually draw you cards, but opponents paying the tax will be slowed down greatly.
****Bident of Thassa - Draw a lot of cards when you have a lot of drakes out. It's sometimes "win-more", and doesn't do anything without drakes out, but if you are slightly ahead, this seals the game. Even with just a couple of drakes out, getting a few cards a turn is all you need. There's also Coastal Piracy which is basically Bident of Thassa but a pure enchantment instead of artifact+enchantment, meaning it's not as vulnerable to removal. However I decided to use Bident because Fabricate can fetch it (Bident's ability to force the opponent's creatures to attack isn't usually relevant in this deck since they'll almost always be attacking you anyway).
****Blue Sun's Zenith - Since this build of Talrand usually takes awhile to kill (stronger builds can use the free counters more efficiently and use lower mana curves as a result), you'll often have a lot of mana in play lategame. This card helps close the door, making it a useful 1-of.
RANDOM POWER CARDS
Here are some other cards that are very powerful. They don't share similar functions, but they have strong synergies with specific cards in the deck.
*****Isochron Scepter - Put anything that isn't totally dead on this and you get very far ahead. Putting something like Boomerang under this turn 2 and having it survive when you untap is almost a free win.
****Runechanter's Pike - Like Isochron Scepter, it's very useful in a deck that casts 1-2 instants/sorceries every turn to put into the graveyard. Put it on a random drake and you have a serious clock.
*****Vedalken Shackles - It's basically a repeatable mind control at a very low mana cost. It's not cheap, but this effect is so strong it's worth using.
*****Proteus Staff, Polymorph - These make up a pretty big core of the deck. As explained earlier, Talrand allows you to make creatures without needing to actually play creature spells, so these two can let you lose a drake to go up a giant fatty. In a budget build that can't afford to play premium creatures like Snapcaster Mage, we are totally fine altering the build to slot these two in. The deck doesn't need Mass Polymorph since we don't want that many fatties taking up card slots though. It's worth noting that Proteus Staff lets you order the revealed cards however you want (Polymorph states that you shuffle the revealed cards into your library) so if you don't have fatties left in the deck, Proteus Staff lets you stack your deck at the cost of a drake. You can also target your opponent's stuff with this too if needed.
*****Opposition - Similar to Bident/Coastal Piracy/Distant Melody in that it helps power up your drakes, but instead help control the board. If you only manage to get a few drakes out before Talrand dies, this helps you slow down the opponent until you can recast Talrand. If you instead have a lot of drakes, this lets you whittle down your opponent while tapping down his lands or whatever would allow him to mount a comeback.
CREATURES
These are the payoff creatures when we Polymorph/Proteus Staff. Sometimes you will actually hard cast them, but most of the time you'll be cheating them out.
*****Tidespout Tyrant - So you're telling me that with this in play, all of my dorky 1 and 2 mana instants and sorceries become boomerangs too?
*****Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur - One of the biggest "why didn't Wizards put that anti-graveyard clause like we see on Progenitus or the Eldrazi big 3 so people don't reanimate this jerk" creatures to play with. If you have this + High Tide, you can also catch alot of people offguard who tap out on their turn with EoT high tide -> slam Jin-Gitaxias off six islands.
RAMP
One of the big ways to play Talrand is to get him out, then protect him with free counterspells. Since we can't afford those, playing ramp so that we have the mana to just hardcast our fairer counterspells will have to do.
****High Tide - Often this sits in your hand and doesn't do anything. But your biggest turns start with High Tide. It also helps to just help rush something into play earlier, like getting Talrand online ASAP. You can catch people off guard with 6 islands in play by going High Tide -> Jin Gitaxias at the end of their turn. Sometimes having High Tide power up a Blue Sun's Zenith is funny too.
****Everflowing Chalice - Being a ramp spell that fits on any curve is fine.
****Sky Diamond - Ramping from 2 to 4 is very key in the deck, as it can help get Talrand out earlier if the coast is clear.
*****Sapphire Medallion - In a deck that typically wants to cast multiple cheap spells a turn, this ramps hard.
****Mind Stone - Decent ramp option that can be cashed in for a card in a pinch.
****Basalt Monolith - Gives 7 mana on turn 4, although because it's triple colorless, it can be awkward to utilize that mana efficiently since Talrand only has 2 colorless (and you won't usually get to use that last colorless since opponents will wait for mana pools to empty). However it's a good budget addition. There are no infinite combos (e.g. Power Artifact) with this, so you'll have to untap this the hard way, but in draw-go you sometimes will have extra mana and won't have a problem untapping this.
****Worn Powerstone - Similar to Basalt Monolith. It gives 6 mana on turn 4, letting you play Talrand + 2-mana counterspell backup.
PROTECTION
So after playing Talrand and having counterspell backup, opponents will sometimes just play additional removal to kill him. You will want some things to have constant protection on him or your fatties.
*****Lightning Greaves - Since Talrand is so important to the deck, a card that helps protect him is great. Once you cheat a fatty into play, you can slide it over. The equip costing 0 is huge.
****Swiftfoot Boots - Slightly worse than Greaves because hexproof vs shroud isn't that important in this deck, while costing 1 to equip instead of 0 is. Still, it's really the next best option behind greaves.
LANDS
One of the biggest draws to monocolor is being able to build a manabase without breaking your budget. While the top builds still think about using Wasteland and such, while also playing fetchlands to help maximize cards like Brainstorm, you can build a very affordable mana base.
****Lonely Sandbar - Lands that let you cycle when you get mana flooded are fine.
****Ghost Quarter - The only real budget option to answer Cavern of Souls, Gaea's Cradle, and so on.
****Temple of the False God - Getting enough lands in play can be awkward, but the deck does want mana.
****Myriad Landscape - Ramp on a land is nice, and you can crack it at instant speed. Entering the battlefield tapped is an issue but there are enough lands where you can usually play this at a time where it's not an issue.
***Blighted Cataract - 6 mana plus saccing is a massive cost, but if you're mana flooded, you will pay that to get two cards.
33 islands
We want islands because they get the bonus from High Tide and Vedalken Shackles, but the nonbasics fill some important roles.
OTHER OPTIONS
Force of Will - It's a blue staple for a reason.
Flusterstorm - I don't think I'd run this in nonbudget unless I see a lot of storm players or control players (since the copies can just continuously target what you need to counter), but regardless, good 1-mana counters are always worth noting.
Stifle - Hey guys, what's your favorite 1-mana stone rain? Stifle on a fetchland?
Intuition - It's a little less powerful than in eternal formats because those can let you just fetch 3 of the exact same card whereas you obviously can't do that in EDH, but it's still a great card.
Cryptic Command - A card that does everything except make you a sandwich.
Capture of Jingzhou - Taking extra turns is very huge. Now if it only didn't cost an arm and a leg...
Jace, the Mind Sculptor - I would run this card if it didn't consume my entire budget. And more.
Consecrated Sphinx - Not as powerful to cheat out with Polymorph compared to something like Jin-Gitaxias, but it's totally fine to cheat out, and 6-mana is actually hard castable, and if your build doesn't want Polymorph then this is fine.
Snapcaster Mage - Greatly interfers with Polymorph, but in a non-Polymorph, non-budget build, this is an auto-include.
Vendilion Clique - Has less synergy than Snapcaster Mage, but it's still a very powerful card. So powerful that it's usually the premiere monoblue "tempo" general over Talrand.
Cavern of Souls - In a control meta, this helps you jam in Talrand with no ****s given to counters.
Wasteland - Color-screwing 3-color decks early on can get you a free win.
MEDIUM-BUDGET
Disrupting Shoal - An extremely bad version of Force of Will that is still more than serviceable.
Pact of Negation - See above.
Spell Snare - In the right meta this is a blowout. It's a modern and eternal staple for a reason. Modern Masters made this a lot more affordable, but it's still a few bucks.
Remand - It's technically not so high-budget that this build just cannot consider it at all, but it's still too expensive for its effect.
Sleight of Hand, Serum Visions - These are sky-high for commons because they're basically the only playable cantrips in modern. They are not prohibitively expensive, but they are still easily replaceable.
Tolaria West - If the deck had actual 0-mana cards worth fetching, such as Pact of Negation, it would be worth running.
Bribery - Despite its effect, it's actually a meta card. Most 1v1 decks have a lower curve than multiplayer decks and therefore have fewer bombs. It's still so powerful that if the deck has budget to spare, it's worth considering.
Time Warp, Temporal Mastery, Walk the Aeons - Sometimes getting one free turn is all you need. Temporal Mastery will usually be weaker (except with Mystical Tutor) but it's much more budget-friendly than time warp.
Phantasmal Image, Phyrexian Metamorph - Not here because they interfere with Polymorph, but they're some of my pet cards where I will try to jam them in every blue deck I have.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All - Similar to Cavern of Souls in that if your meta is full of control, you should consider this card. However, unlike Cavern which is totally bonkers, this has enough drawbacks where you can't just jam this in.
Tectonic Edge - It's actually more expensive than Strip Mine despite being far less powerful (thanks modern). It's still at a fairly affordable price though, and since Strip Mine is banned in French 1v1, this is probably your best semi-budget option.
Coat of Arms - Has the potential to be very powerful, a win-more, or something that just backfires. It's not chump change either, so use with care.
Mindslaver, Academy Ruins - Mindslaver lock is always available for monoblue even though Talrand isn't big on artifacts.
Extraplanar Lens - If a nonbudget build uses snow-covered islands (it would go from 5 cents an island to 50 cents an island) this could be good but dangerous.
DIDN'T PAN OUT
Talrand's Invocation - This has to be in a Talrand deck for flavor reasons, but it just doesn't do enough.
Stormtide Leviathan - Kinda dorky to cheat out with Polymorph.
Windreader Sphinx - A fatty I had for cheating out. It felt like a 7-mana Bident/Coastal Piracy, and was often the worst creature to cheat out, so I just dropped it.
Whiplash Trap, Vapor Snag - Unsummon effects are nice but having too many of them makes you sacrifice too many cards for mere tempo value. Pongify and Rapid Hybridization cover most of what you need at cheap spot removal, backed up with a few cards that can bounce noncreatures.
Aetherize - Can be a blowout, but in a deck that relies on making sure the opponent doesn't have too many permanents out in the first place, this can be awkward. It'll make token decks think twice at least.
Repeal - A bounce effect that cantrips and is quite brutal on tokens, but otherwise it takes a lot of mana. It's a fine card but I felt it was one of the weakest cards in the deck and so I cut it to experiment with other options.
Spell Crumple, Hinder - Counters that I had and played until I realized that 1) In 1v1, players can opt to send their commanders back to the command zone when they get tucked, and 2) They actually cost a couple dollars. I decided that the budget would be best spent elsewhere instead of on cards that are usually worse than Dissipate.
Frantic Search, Snap, Rewind - While technically "free", their upfront mana cost made them difficult to cast the turn Talrand is cast, which is when Talrand is most vulnerable. While they're great once Talrand is safe, there are quite a few cards that become much better once Talrand is out.
Opt - A card that effectively said "Scry 1, then draw a card" at instant speed for 1 mana. That isn't bad, but it's not exciting.
Silent Departure - It adds some value to the Quiet Speculation package, but on its own it's not a very good card.
See Beyond, Lat-Nam's Legacy - Cheap cards that help shuffle away a fatty in your hand to polymorph out later. It's fine, but not a must-have.
Compulsive Research - A 3-mana card that digs 3 cards is nice. The sorcery speed hurts, which makes it not a must-have.
Repulse - Unsummon with a cantrip is fine but not exciting.
Dismiss - Counterspell with a cantrip is a little more exciting, but it's a lot to ask for 4 mana.
Long-term Plans - In a deck that's mostly about redundancy, there was not much of a need for a 3-mana slow tutor that was card disadvantage.
Leyline of Anticipation - Most of the cards are already instants, but being able to flash in Talrand at instant speed would be absolutely huge. However if it's not in the starting hand, tapping out to play this is so awkward.
Gravitational Shift - Can do tons of damage with drakes out while helping fog ground creatures. however it doesn't do enough without Talrand sticking for a few turns.
Coastal Piracy - With Bident of Thassa being the same thing except fetchable off Fabricate, I don't think I needed two of the same effects, even if Bident is open to artifact hate.
Distant Melody - A similar card to Coastal Piracy/Bident of Thassa, except you need drakes already in play to make it useful (whereas you could play the permanents with 1-2 drakes out to slowly accumulate value, Distant Melody is a 1-shot). Even though Melody does make a drake before you draw cards assuming Talrand is already out, you really want at least 3 other drakes in play to get good value (otherwise it's a concentrate or worse), and that's a lot of drakes to already have in play.
Elixir of Immortality - Was played so that in case fatties get into the graveyard, this shuffles them back if I need to Polymorph/Proteus Staff again. It basically does nothing otherwise though and it even interferes with Runechanter's pike.
Reliquary Tower - This doesn't really do anything unless Jin-Gitaxias is out, in which case it's mostly win more. It's also $1-2 for its effect.
Riptide Laboratory - All it really does is unsummon Talrand to protect him from removal, but it costs 3 mana. The card has a fairly high price tag as well.
CONSIDERING
Additional ramp spells - It's good to have Talrand out quickly.
Dispel, Steel Sabotage, Annul, Turn Aside, Blue Elemental Blast, Hydroblast, Envelope, Outwit, etc - Very specific 1-mana hard counters. These cards are meta dependent.
Mental Misstep - A 0-mana narrow hard counter. Since sensei's divining top and sol ring are both banned, this won't always have a guaranteed target, but it's again worth considering. There are discard spells like Thoughtseize and 1-mana removal options like Lightning Bolt and Swords to Plowshares, so you're likely to find something worth countering in every color and in every deck.
Thwart - Returning three islands is quite the heavy cost. However 0-mana hard counters always have some potential.
Commandeer - Has the potential to be a blowout.
Curse of the Swine - A fairly unique effect for monoblue.
Quicken - If the deck relies on more sorceries this could be good.
Force Spike, Daze - Meta-dependent but can be a blowout.
Call to Mind, Pull from the Deep - An extremely bad version of Snapcaster Mage, and I can't imagine needing graveyard recursion in a deck that has many redundant pieces. However it's one of the few blue recursion spells so it's worth keeping in mind.
Divination, Concentrate, Tidings - Tapping out to draw some cards on your turn can be dangerous. If you plan on playing against other budget builds they could be okay. I do not think these will be any good if your opponents are playing souped up decks though.
Inspiration, Jace's Ingenuity, Opportunity - Card draw that cost 1 more than their sorcery counterparts in order to upgrade to instant. They're probably better than their sorcery counterparts, but still not extremely efficient.
Thirst for Knowledge, Careful Consideration - Drawing 3 for 3, or 4 for 4, at instant speed has a ton of potential, even if you have to discard a lot of cards.
Gush - Free inspiration has a lot of potential, but bouncing 2 islands is not a negligible cost.
Null Rod - Similar to torpor orb in that it's a 2-mana artifact that is meta-dependent.
Inundate - A fairly bad Cyclonic Rift/Wash Out, but if you are really clamping down on the budget this could potentially replace Cyclonic Rift.
Sunder - In a Talrand deck that relies more on tempo, this will close the door, just like your normal Armageddon cards.
Scourge of Fleets - A potential Polymorph target, but much like Aetherize, ideally you don't want your opponent to have a lot of creatures in play in the first place.
MATCHUPS
Once you untap with Talrand you'll feel like the king of the world. Just attack with drakes and draw-go and you will eventually win the game.
Remember that there are several cards in the deck that care about what's in your graveyard (e.g. Treasure Cruise, Runechanter's Pike). Always make sure you delve/exile the right number of cards from your graveyard.
VERSUS CONTROL
Much like typical control vs control matchups, it's a game of chicken until someone decides to YOLO and try to stick something on the board. Usually it's okay to be a little reckless in the very early turns (e.g. tapping out turn 3 to play a Rhystic Study) until the opponent has enough mana to threaten something dangerous (like their general), then you will need to start playing safe. Sometimes you'll also need to bluff to stay alive. For example, if you have a 4-mana sorcery card and you have 4 mana open, sometimes you won't play it just to fake a counterspell in hand.
Blue-based control decks have the advantage of playing free counterspells that our budget can't afford, while black-based control decks have hand disruption which are staples against opposing control decks while also having a lot of cheap removal on Talrand. They're tough, but games go so long you have a chance of drawing out of it.
VERSUS AGGRO
We should be okay versus aggro because the deck packs a lot of counters and bounce. However you almost can never tap out in the early turns. They will usually only have 1 removal spell for Talrand, so if you can get Talrand through that, you will usually end up winning (and if they have 2, they either have a god hand or they're not playing anything so don't throw Talrand out).
THRAXIMUNDAR CONTROL
Because we are budget, we are at a disadvantage because they can play free counterspells, but our general also costs 3 less mana. However, duress-effects are very strong here, because they also get to see our hand. Likewise, don't underestimate the peek effects our deck has. You need to get talrand in the moment the coast is clear.
Talrand will have problems staying alive. I recommend not trying to play him until you kill or counter Thrax at least once. When you try to jam Talrand too early, the opponent will counter to force you to spend your counter (and if you don't counter then playing him doesn't accomplish much), then you will be tapped out when he slams Thrax and makes you sacrifice Talrand anyway.
Your drakes are your win con here, because grixis control decks have plenty of spot removal for Talrand and your fatties, and a low creature count does not fare well versus an attacking Thrax either. You'll need to take care of your drakes, because red/black have access to the 2-3 mana cheap sweepers like pyroclasm. They won't have too many, but you'll especially need to take note of Volcanic Fallout because that will always wipe out your army regardless of counterspells.
Be careful of any reanimation effects. Our fatties can and will die, and we don't want the opponent to get them.
Grixis has problems dealing with artifacts and especially enchantments and are usually relying on counters or bounce. Try to sneak one in when you can.
HORDE OF NOTIONS MIDRANGE
The game is a war of attrition. Whoever sticks a cheap engine first generates such a huge advantage that they'll usually grind out the win. Hand disruption is the worst thing that can happen to us as we rely on having a good mix of cantrips, counterspells, and 1 engine to tie everything together, and getting one of the key parts out of the hand is a problem.
KERANOS, GOD OF STORMS CONTROL
KOZILEK, BUTCHER OF TRUTH
It's usually worth countering their big mana rocks like Thran Dynamo. However if he lands a bunch of mana rocks before you are able to counter/bounce them but doesn't have 10 mana for Kozilek (or is at 9 and can threaten Kozilek with a land drop), you should probably wait and counter whatever bomb he plays. You probably won't win anyway, but you can at least hope that his draw 4 off Kozilek bricks.
BRUNA, LIGHT OF ALABASTER
Bruna is everything to the deck so always fight over her. There's currently no graveyard hate in the deck, so if Bruna ever attacks, all the auras from the graveyard are coming back and you're probably just dead. And be careful of anything that can give her haste.
CHANGELOGS
12/6/16
+ Anticipate
+ 1 island
+ Engulf the Shore
+ See Beyond
+ Exclude
+ Gush
+ Foil
- Ancestral Vision
- Reliquary Tower
- Wash Out
- Treasure Cruise
- Rhystic Study
- Time Warp
- Temporal Mastery
Many changes due to bannings (or unbannings). Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time both got banned. Ancestral Vision got unbanned in modern and is now way out of budget. See beyond "replaced" treasure cruise and is also a way to get a fatty stuck in our hand back into the library. Anticipate "replaced" dig through time and is also not bad to imprint onto isochron scepter. Ancestral vision was "replaced" by an island.
Tower doesn't do anything unless Jin gitaxias is in play in which case it's win more, and it's also $1-2.
Engulf replaced Wash out as a sweeper. The instant speed is a nice boon. Wash out can bounce enchantments/walkers/artifacts of the given color though, and engulf will also snatch all of your own creatures too (Wash Out can sometimes bounce your opponent's creatures and leave yours in play). I'll see if this is a change I want to make.
More budget cuts had to be made. Rhystic Study, Time Warp, and Temporal Mastery were getting out of hand, and considering they're not lynchpins of the deck, we can't afford to spend $5-15 on these things. I cut them for some leaner cards.
11/16/15
+ Mental Misstep
+ Blighted Cataract
- Mystical Tutor
- 1 Island
Mystical Tutor is now banned. I'll just try Mental Misstep in its place.
Blighted Cataract interests me. It's a land that can draw cards. Reducing the island count can be problematic with Vedalken Shackles as well as just getting enough blue mana available, but it's still at a healthy 32, which should be ok.
1/15/15
+ Treasure Cruise
+ Lightning Greaves
+ Myriad Landscape
+ Island
- Stormtide Leviathan
- Neurok Stealthsuit
- ???
- Torpor Orb
Ancestral RecallTreasure Cruise is awesome.Greaves is coming in. With a few expensive cards being reprinted to drop their price (like Sapphire Medallion), the deck can afford the upgrade from Neurok Stealthsuit.
Stormtide is coming out. 2 polymorph options is usually enough to seal the game.
Myriad Landscape is ramp on a land. It's great on a turn 1 or even turn 2 play, but past that you need to be careful about tempo. I can't remember what I took out to make room for this either. Probably an island.
Torpor Orb is too specialized of a card and is dead in alot of matchups. I put an island in because early land drops are important.
6/10/14
+ Neurok Stealthsuit
+ Mind Stone
+ Basalt Monolith
+ Worn Powerstone
+ Misdirection
- Dismiss
- Gravitational Shift
- Coastal Piracy
- Distant Melody
- Silent Departure
Talrand is key to the deck. We need to protect him. Neurok Stealthsuit is a bad Lightning Greaves, but it is okay and is much cheaper on the budget.
Mana ramp is very important here, since the key turn is playing Talrand and having mana to cast counters to protect him. Since the free counterspells like Force of Will are very expensive, having mana ramp to just have the extra mana to cast the counters will have to do. However the mana ramp is okay for recasting Talrand, casting fatties that get stuck in our hand, and firing a big Blue Sun's Zenith. Mind Stone helps get Talrand out just a little faster while also able to cycle. Basalt Monolith gives a lot of mana to prepare you for the key turn when you need to play Talrand and protect him, and once Talrand sticks, often you don't need alot of mana anymore. Worn Powerstone doesn't tap for mana immediately which is awkward, but it lets us hit 6 mana on turn 4, which is enough to play Talrand + 2-mana counterspell. All of them are easy on the budget.
Misdirection is now affordable with the Conspiracy printing.
Dismiss, Shift, Piracy, and Distant Melody are all high mana cards. As said earlier, the key turn is protecting Talrand, so it's difficult to Talrand + Dismiss. Also, once Talrand sticks in play, the army of drakes is enough to take over the game. Shift and Piracy usually did nothing if I couldn't stick Talrand. I'll continue to use Bident of Thassa for now though because it can be fetched with Fabricate, but it is otherwise the same card as Coastal Piracy.
Silent Departure is axed quickly. Yes, it adds value to Quiet Speculation, but it's not a very strong card. I think I'm okay with Quiet Speculation occasionally not getting full value in return for having a good card in the deck instead.
3/31/14
+ Temporal Mastery
+ Sky Diamond
+ Quiet Speculation
+ Flash of Insight
+ Deep Analysis
+ Silent Departure
- Opt
- Star Compass
- See Beyond
- Repulse
- Compulsive Research
- Echoing Truth
After a little testing, Time Warp is very powerful. I decided to try out Temporal Mastery for its Miracle cost. I may think about Walk the Aeons too. I cut Opt because it felt like a weak cantrip.
Sky Diamond replaced Star Compass.
At the suggestion of Lexandur, I'm testing out a Quiet Speculation package. I'm using four flashback cards to get (it finds only 3, but in case I draw into one of my flashback cards it can still get full value). The package includes two additional "cantrip" cards (since think twice was already in the deck) and an unsummon effect, so I'm cutting cantrip and unsummon effects. The cards cut aren't bad, it's just that I think they're the most disposable.
3/21/14
+ Island
+ Sapphire Medallion
+ Swiftfoot Boots
+ Blue Sun's Zenith
+ Hands of Binding
+ Time Warp
+ Vedalken Shackles
- Rewind
- Snap
- Frantic Search
- Long-term plans
- Aetherize
- Coat of Arms
- Dispel
Free spells are great, but the problem is that because Talrand is a 4 mana 2/2 with no protection, usually I can't do much until I get countermagic protection or I do a peek effect to see if the way is clear. Because of that, it's important to have low-mana spells to immediately trigger Talrand to get some value drakes. The most vulnerable turn is when I need to get Talrand out, and so spells that have a low upfront cost is more important than getting high-mana spells that untap lands for themselves afterwards. They may go back in when I try to squeeze the budget some more, but for now I don't think I'll need them.
Aetherize is clunky in a deck that doesn't want to have many permanents in play in the first place. Because of that, most decks will only be attacking you with a few creatures, meaning it would be more worthwhile to play something at a lower mana cost and isn't situational.
Coat of Arms has a lot of potential, but it can be win-more, and can backfire against token decks. While I've never actually be able to draw it, the theory behind the card along with the fact that it's ~$5 meant that I could experiment with other cards.
Long-term plans is clunky in a deck that has a lot of redundant pieces. It's a tutor that's slow and is card disadvantage.
Dispel is a meta choice card.
Sapphire Medallion is quite nice in a deck that wants to play a lot of cheap spells every turn.
Swiftfoot boots is great at protecting Talrand, who is basically the deck. Lightning greaves is better but it costs more money than I'm willing to put in.
Hands of Binding is being tested at the request of a user on the board. Cipher is great with talrand out. The trick is finding the cipher spells that have use when Talrand can't be in play. It's not great with Talrand out but it does something okay.
Time Warp replaced Coat of Arms as a 5-mana "smash with drakes" card, but it's also more versatile in that it gives you another draw step, etc.
Vedalken Shackles is something I'm quite excited to test. I know it'll be a good card, the question will just be whether or not it ends up being worth the ~$10.
Version 1.0
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
1) Blue sun's zenith - an instant speed mass card draw is something I could make room for. As a 1-of it'll provide a unique effect.
2) Lightning greaves - Protecting talrand is very important for the deck. Although greaves is ~$5, and swiftfoot boots while under $1 has an equip 1 cost that can actually matter in a deck that's tight on mana.
3) Vedalken shackles - ~$10 but I expect very good things when I land this card.
4) More lands and mana ramp. It's good to have cards that trigger talrand, but the deck is fairly slow so hitting all land drops and getting extra mana out are nice.
I think I'll be cutting rewind/snap/frantic search. While they are technically free spells, their high upfront cost makes it difficult to play them on the turn I want to get Talrand out, which is usually the most vulnerable turn for the deck.
I'm also not sure if I should try to cut a "useful with mass drakes" spell, those being coat of arms, distant melody, bident, coastal piracy, opposition, and gravitational shift. While I definitely want a card that makes my 2/2 drakes more useful, sometimes I'm worried if I could get flooded with these effects when I can't get Talrand out. Of course there can be times where I do have a bunch of drakes out and then I can't draw into one of those cards.
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
Of course you are right, but I don't think this is as much of a concern as you think it is. I don't really consider a card like Boomerang to be getting full value if I don't have Talrand out in this deck either. Cipher cards just interact so well with Talrand and provide so much card advantage when things go right that it's worth the times things go wrong. The three cards you mention all seem like solid additions, although greaves loses a bit of value in a deck where you don't care about attacking with your commander. It's still probably worth it for the shroud. Here are some possible cuts:
Aetherize - I had this in my Talrand and the blowout potential against swarmy decks just wasn't worth all the times it was a dead card.
Long term plans - A slow and clunky tutor in a deck that mostly functions on redundancy seems pretty bad.
Coat of arms - I'm actually interested in how good this card has been for you. Expensive but potentially very swingy. Have you gotten much use out of this yet?
I think you could afford to trim a few counterspells, particularly the more situational ones like dispel and essence scatter. I'd recommend replacing one of them with Deprive too; the minor drawback of bouncing a land is totally worth it for another unconditional counter.
Gravitational Shift is different because it also reduces their killing potential without targeting them. Still, 5 mana is expensive but for a budget deck it is good.
Rhystic Study makes you tap out on turn 3, risking a dangerous spell to sneak in just to tax some of their spells, no worth the risk imo.
You can go wild, put a few more fatties and use Mass Polymorph. It is always fun to trade 3 or 4 drakes for a bunch of op creatures
URGBOops all my spellsBGRU
URBYoung GrixisBRU
~Commander~
BUDralnu/ReanimatorUB
GRUMaelstroM WanderiNgURG
GBMerengue Clan of SalsaBG
UTalrand PolymorphishU
UAzami, Lady of CAU
BRWZurgo, Worldslayer BearerWRB
BWUMerieke Ri Berit UWB
UVendilion CliqueU
Modern:U Mono-U TroN U
I could see cutting Aetherize. It is clunky.
Maybe long-term plans. The deck is all about redundancy and this is card disadvantage.
Could probably cut dispel too. But essence scatter should be fine because it can always counter generals.
I've never been able to get coat of arms out so I don't know how to judge its worth. While I would play time warp over coat of arms, time warp is ~$10 so I need to be sure if that budget is worth it.
Rhystic study is something I've not managed to play in 1v1 yet, but someone else told me this is a fine card. We'll see what happens in reality.
I don't think mass polymorph would be good and it would probably be win more. The advantage it has over polymorph is that it doesn't target so it doesn't get countered by a removal spell, but it costs 2 more mana. And the problem with playing more big creatures is when they get stuck in my hand when I need a lot of counters and bounce for the early turns.
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
Mass Polymorph is just for fun, and you could ask someone to lend you an Emrakul if you are using the polymorph things.
URGBOops all my spellsBGRU
URBYoung GrixisBRU
~Commander~
BUDralnu/ReanimatorUB
GRUMaelstroM WanderiNgURG
GBMerengue Clan of SalsaBG
UTalrand PolymorphishU
UAzami, Lady of CAU
BRWZurgo, Worldslayer BearerWRB
BWUMerieke Ri Berit UWB
UVendilion CliqueU
Modern:U Mono-U TroN U
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
Spend $75 on a force of will
spend the rest on common counters, filter cards (ponder..), cheap draw power
Done
I may as well put ~$5 more and replace it with time warp.
3/21/14
+ Island
+ Sapphire Medallion
+ Swiftfoot Boots
+ Blue Sun's Zenith
+ Hands of Binding
+ Time Warp
+ Vedalken Shackles
- Rewind
- Snap
- Frantic Search
- Long-term plans
- Aetherize
- Coat of Arms
- Dispel
Current budget: $96.37
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
Zenith is not that good, you would rather have a cheap cantrip or a Jace's Ingenuity, it is good if you can ramp great amounts of mana.
URGBOops all my spellsBGRU
URBYoung GrixisBRU
~Commander~
BUDralnu/ReanimatorUB
GRUMaelstroM WanderiNgURG
GBMerengue Clan of SalsaBG
UTalrand PolymorphishU
UAzami, Lady of CAU
BRWZurgo, Worldslayer BearerWRB
BWUMerieke Ri Berit UWB
UVendilion CliqueU
Modern:U Mono-U TroN U
or a MP one for $75 in store.
Nothing can beat FOW in a Talrand deck.
Oh yes, I got 3 last week for $65 second hand. But it was a one time thing, I don't usually see them for sale exept in webstores. But thats me, playing in a small city.
But thats not the case, its a budget deck
I wouldn't remove snap, that card has done some serious work for me in the past, you just need to find the oportunities
URGBOops all my spellsBGRU
URBYoung GrixisBRU
~Commander~
BUDralnu/ReanimatorUB
GRUMaelstroM WanderiNgURG
GBMerengue Clan of SalsaBG
UTalrand PolymorphishU
UAzami, Lady of CAU
BRWZurgo, Worldslayer BearerWRB
BWUMerieke Ri Berit UWB
UVendilion CliqueU
Modern:U Mono-U TroN U
I'm only using star compass because it's something I had. It'll be the first ramp option I drop when i get better cards.
I don't know about Zenith, but I felt like I always wanted at least 1 more instant that could draw a lot of cards (since fact or fiction is only one card).
As for the force of will comments, the whole idea of the budget deck isn't so much that I am short on money (although I have certainly been spending way too much on magic recently), but rather what to do with deckbuilding when there are budget constraints.
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
Vedalken shackles is very good.
Sapphire medallion is insane if I draw it early.
I've closed out two games with capsize buyback.
I've never been able to play a rhystic study yet, but my opponent managed to play one early, and I do think it would be worthwhile in my deck. If you skip the tax 3-4 times it already pays for itself. It's probably stronger against my deck though because it relies on playing multiple low-mana spells, but at the very lesat I think it warrants more testing.
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
If you want to counter cavern of souls and boseiju, you need to add all the lands that can solve that issue: tectonic edge, encroaching wastes, ghost quarter, dust bowl, strip mine. And even if you can't respond to them, the situation where they get to use it with pyroclasm effects will be rare, so I wouldn't worry about that.
What I love to use is Quiet Speculation: you get Deep Analysis, Think Twice,
Flash of Insight, Silent Departure (as an alternative 3rd card). You can recover pretty damn fast if they resolve a wrath effect.
URGBOops all my spellsBGRU
URBYoung GrixisBRU
~Commander~
BUDralnu/ReanimatorUB
GRUMaelstroM WanderiNgURG
GBMerengue Clan of SalsaBG
UTalrand PolymorphishU
UAzami, Lady of CAU
BRWZurgo, Worldslayer BearerWRB
BWUMerieke Ri Berit UWB
UVendilion CliqueU
Modern:U Mono-U TroN U
quiet speculation certainly looks interesting, particularly since deep analysis and flash of insight's better halves are in their flashbacks while all of them are decent cards on their own. The question is if I were to include a flashback package what would I cut? I could certainly just cut one of my bounce effects for silent departure (I think I'd run all 4 to ensure that in case I draw into one of them before quiet speculation, I can still get the full value), but I'm not sure about 3 other cuts.
Also I think i'll play lat-nam's legacy over see beyond once I find one. I think the instant speed is more important than drawing -> shuffling. Although it's possible that if I were to put in quiet speculation, I'd cut this slot for a flashback card since neither card does much other than shuffle a fatty in my hand back to the library for polymorphing.
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
+ Temporal Mastery
+ Sky Diamond
+ Quiet Speculation
+ Flash of Insight
+ Deep Analysis
+ Silent Departure
- Opt
- Star Compass
- See Beyond
- Repulse
- Compulse Research
- Echoing Truth
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
URGBOops all my spellsBGRU
URBYoung GrixisBRU
~Commander~
BUDralnu/ReanimatorUB
GRUMaelstroM WanderiNgURG
GBMerengue Clan of SalsaBG
UTalrand PolymorphishU
UAzami, Lady of CAU
BRWZurgo, Worldslayer BearerWRB
BWUMerieke Ri Berit UWB
UVendilion CliqueU
Modern:U Mono-U TroN U
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)