Draw-go control deck that usually kills by equipping Wydwen and beating down. I've tried to keep the sorcery speed spells as cheap as possible because I want to have mana up for tricks so there aren't any that cost more than 4. Also the name of the deck is a reference to the un card Common Courtesy.
Hatred is particularly effective here with a flash + evasion general backed up by counterspells and tricks and knowing I have it available usually keeps people from messing with me too much.
Change Log
6/7/10
-Voidmage Husher
+Bojuka Bog
+Vesuva
+Expedition Map
-Bad River
-Grixis Panorama
6/22/10
-Nevinyrral's Disk
-Arcane Denial
-Dominate
+Wash Out
+Soldevi Excavations
+Wipe Away
6/29/10
-Wipe Away
+Gilded Drake
7/15/10
-Minamo, School at Water's Edge
-Opportunity
+Mystifying Maze
+Jace's Ingenuity
12/10/10
-Tormod's Crypt
+Nihil Spellbomb
12/17/10
-Gilded Drake
-Wash Out
-Springjack Pasture
-Shizo
-Mishra's Factory
-Mystifying Maze
-River of Tears
-Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
+Vedalken Shackles
+Wayfarer's Bauble
+Underground Sea
+Island x 4
+Swamp
12/23/10
-Shred Memory
+Suffer the Past
1/18/11
-Sword of Light and Shadow
+Strata Sycthe
2/1/11
-Grafted Wargear
+Sword of Feast and Famine
-Ivory Tower
+Tunnel Vision
-Capsize
+Wipe Away
-Soldevi Excavations
+Inkmoth Nexus
-Stroke of Genius
+Blue Sun's Zenith
3/18/11
-Impulse
+Go for the Throat
4/8/11
-Flash of Insight
-Lim-Dul's Vault
+Rhystic Study
+Elixir of Immortality
Stumbled across this deck while looking for threads on Wyden and wow it looks like a ton of fun. I like how you've minimalized sorcery/creatures without flash to allow for shenannigans on opponents turn. Have you considered Expedition Map? It's searchable with Trinket Mage and gives another way to search out Maze of Ith, Spawning Pool, or Relinquary Tower which all seem very important. Also Treachery although not an instant, is often "Free".
Stumbled across this deck while looking for threads on Wyden and wow it looks like a ton of fun. I like how you've minimalized sorcery/creatures without flash to allow for shenannigans on opponents turn. Have you considered Expedition Map? It's searchable with Trinket Mage and gives another way to search out Maze of Ith, Spawning Pool, or Relinquary Tower which all seem very important. Also Treachery although not an instant, is often "Free".
Also I think I'd try to fit a Vesuva and Bojuka Bog in somewhere.
I know you've built this deck for multiplayer but have you ever tried to play it 1v1? If so how does it fair?
Expedition Map is a really good idea especially if I add in Vesuva and Bojuka Bog which I will. When I originally built the deck it was more of a Mystical Teachings/Cunning Wish deck so I had the Relic in to exile my own graveyard along with Skeletal Scrying and Flash of Insight. When WOTC cut Cunning Wish's balls off I switched over to Tormod's Crypt since it can be recurred via Academy Ruins, fetched by Tolaria West and is cheaper on the mana and that is worth slightly more to me than the extra card. They're pretty interchangeable so I think it is just a matter of preference. Treachery is very strong but I prefer Dominate since it is more on theme. This deck also doesn't get attacked by random creatures in my playgroup very often and I don't mind if my opponents have creatures as long as they aren't attacking me.
I've never played this deck in 1v1 but I would imagine that if you just take out the equipment, add in more counters and just try and kill the opponent with Hatred it could do pretty well.
They might be to slow but what about Beseech the Queen and/or Diabolic Tutor? The list is tight already but tutors are always good!
Why do you run Grafted Wargear? Is it just for the lowish casting cost/0 cost to equip and pump or am I missing a trick?
This deck really doesn't like tapping mana during the mana phase and the tutors just cost a little too much. I actually had Loxodon Warhammer in the deck for a long time but the 3 mana to equip was just too much so I switched over the the Wargear and I like it a lot more.
This deck really doesn't like tapping mana during the mana phase and the tutors just cost a little too much. I actually had Loxodon Warhammer in the deck for a long time but the 3 mana to equip was just too much so I switched over the the Wargear and I like it a lot more.
Makes sense. I'm in the midst of constructing my own version for 1v1 with about a 10 card transition into a multiplayer version. I plan on adding a few higher cost sorcery/creatures without flash for the 1v1 setting and then subbing them out for multi.
In constructing my own version, I've been thinking of adding Thawing Glaciers and I've noticed it missing from your list. Is it excluded due to the low basic count? That is a concern for me as well but there are just so many good nonbasic lands that I can't bring myself to cut.
How has Sudden Spoiling been for you? Seems like a great card for multiplayer but in my 1v1 version I cut it. I think I'd definitly play it in multi though but I haven't had an opportunity to test it.
In constructing my own version, I've been thinking of adding Thawing Glaciers and I've noticed it missing from your list. Is it excluded due to the low basic count? That is a concern for me as well but there are just so many good nonbasic lands that I can't bring myself to cut.
How has Sudden Spoiling been for you? Seems like a great card for multiplayer but in my 1v1 version I cut it. I think I'd definitly play it in multi though but I haven't had an opportunity to test it.
The deck should probably run Thawing Glaciers, I think 16 basics is plenty for it. I've been lazy about acquiring certain staples but I'll try and pick up another one soon. Since I play strictly multiplayer I find Sudden Spoiling to be really good. It will just be a fog sometimes but other times it can be really backbreaking and the split second is amazing. I could definitely see it not being good enough in 1v1 though.
EDIT: I also pulled out Nevinyrral's Disk for Wash Out before playing last weekend and didn't miss the Disk at all. Not sure if Wash Out is going to stay either since I didn't really need it. Mostly in there to bounce enchantments and tokens but I'll keep it in for another play session to give it another shot.
Is it time for you to consider Stoic Rebuttal over Forbid? Forbid is only good when you can afford the card disadvantage, but with how easy it is to est. metalcraft the Rebuttal seems like the way to go. Also, What do you think about mindbreak trap?
Private Mod Note
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I am petitioning for the removal of people who whine about mythic rarity. Sig this if you agree; they should just get over it.
Get a job.
Is it time for you to consider Stoic Rebuttal over Forbid? Forbid is only good when you can afford the card disadvantage, but with how easy it is to est. metalcraft the Rebuttal seems like the way to go. Also, What do you think about mindbreak trap?
Forbid is amazing in the late game and combined with repeatable card drawing (necropotence/phyrexian arena/mystic remora). The buyback seems steep but it really isn't too bad, you get a card back so it's only a 2 for 1 and you don't have to buy it back if you don't want too. I played Mindbreak Trap for awhile but I think it is a little overcosted for what it does. It never got played for free and with Emrakul gone I don't think it's coming back in. At 4 mana I would probably run Dismiss instead. Stoic Rebuttal is OK but if I added another counterspell I think it would be Arcane Denial. Actually I might go ahead and cut Gilded Drake for Arcane Denial now that Emrakul is gone. Thanks for the feedback.
Once again, I find myself in your tracks. I've run into a bit of a problem with my Dralnu deck - no one wants to play against it anymore Taking infinite turns (or even just 6-8 in a row) has become taboo at my shop and I can no longer play the deck without getting sighs and worried looks. Even some games where it looks like they've sufficiently crippled me, if left uncheck I will randomly win the game from out of nowhere. I haven't played in the league we talked about before (with Rhys), but I might start soon. If I did, I wouldn't be able to play Dralnu in its current form, as infinite turns are severely punished point-wise. Looking through my other U/B options, I was trying to decide between Wrexial, the Risen Deep and Wydwen. Granted I love neither as much as Dralnu, they both look like they can get the job done. The main problem I had with my Dralnu list was that there weren't that many good non-combo win conditions. The colors just aren't suited for going into the red zone. Wrexial is pretty solid because he has Swamp/Island walk, but Wydwen has flash, true evasion and is nearly unkillable. In the end, I think I might go with Wydwen just based on those conclusions.
I wanted to ask if you've ever tried a more heavy Control Magic theme. My metagame has several high-power creatures and less overrun decks, so it's pretty strong to play cards like Bribery, Treachery, or Blatant Theivery. This allows you to still have powerplays and not solely rely on Wydwen to do all the work, especially if equipment gets blown up. I understand that you also want to keep sorceries at a minimum, but skipping out on Knowledge Exploitation and Rite of Replication seems sub-optimal from my play experience.
Your meta is probably pretty different than mine. I play against nothing but ramp-heavy 3C control decks all day, so if you have any suggestions for a metagame like that, I'd appreciate it!
As far as Wydwen goes I really love this deck but it is probably the most challenging deck I've made (out of 12 or so between paper/online/dismantled) to pilot so that's something to keep in mind. I've tried running stuff like Bribery in other decks but I don't really like it for my group. There aren't many Eldrazi and even if you can hit a random Iona or Magister Sphinx the other decks can deal with them. This deck also really hates tapping mana during the main phase. I'm not saying that running Knowledge Exploitation and Rite of Replication is wrong just that for my group and my play style I don't think it is the right call. Now against 3-color good stuff I would probably run those for sure but I think that Wrexial is the better call as a general for that type of metagame. Always a bunch of juicy targets and you can cut way back on all the instant speed spells and play a bunch of expensive bombs. She (it?) would also be a better general for the "steal your stuff" deck (even better would be Memnarch). Now if I was personally playing in a metagame like that I would run my Angus Mackenzie deck which has been just an unstoppable juggernaut of a deck in my group despite having no win conditions really and you get to play with Humility which is probably my second favorite card in the format.
I'll look into Wrexial, as there is indeed tons of juicy targets and ways to abuse power plays. I can't ever cut Bribery from my metagame because everyone runs Primeval Titan (who is always my #1 target) and Acquire for Gilded Lotus. Since everyone is playing so much ramp at my store, I have to find a way to keep up lol.
I would also think about running Memnarch, but our rules state that we aren't allowed to play infinite combos. That pretty much rules out what I had in mind for the deck. Thanks for giving me some direction though!
Since your plan is so heavily focused on Wydwen beats, have you considered Power Matrix? Seems like the first strike and trample would have her punch through a decent bit of damage what with the scythe, hatred, etc. boosting her power. The table politics are fun too- if Wydwen isn't in play, you can really screw with combat all around. I'd have trouble recommending a cut though- your list seems really tight with plenty of high-quality cards. I guess Telepathy is a strange card to play but I suspect it's a pet card of yours if it's managed to survive this long in your list.
Since your plan is so heavily focused on Wydwen beats, have you considered Power Matrix? Seems like the first strike and trample would have her punch through a decent bit of damage what with the scythe, hatred, etc. boosting her power. The table politics are fun too- if Wydwen isn't in play, you can really screw with combat all around. I'd have trouble recommending a cut though- your list seems really tight with plenty of high-quality cards. I guess Telepathy is a strange card to play but I suspect it's a pet card of yours if it's managed to survive this long in your list.
In EDH flying has been really excellent evasion, at least for me. I even ran Shizo, Death's Storehouse for at least a year and ultimately cut it because it just wasn't useful often enough to run it over a swamp (Ruination, Back to Basics & Blood Moon are all played in my group). First Strike also isn't a very effective ability in this format since creatures vary in size so much. I do like the political aspect of the card a lot being able to use it on other creatures but I'd probably lean more toward something like Tainted Strike for the "Oops, you're dead" factor.
Telepathy I can definitely defend, this is the ultimate politics card for this type of deck. I can use and time my counterspells and tricks perfectly since I know exactly what everyone is holding and it is extremely difficult for other people to win when I have Telepathy in play. Everyone else can see when someone is starting to build up a dominant position so the table can just gang up on them. My board position is mostly about what I have in my hand so this deck can come off as pretty non-threatening. Telepathy also isn't something people want to waste spot removal on, by that point everyone has already seen what everyone else has so it is already too late to keep secrets. They tend to just moan and groan when I cast it and hope an Oblivion Stone gets blown up soon so they can be rid of it. I was skeptical when I put it in but it has proven to be among the best cards in this deck. Always happy to have it and my opponents always hate to see it.
I was always worried that if I played telepathy, I'd get ganged up on for inconveniencing the table with my shenanigans. But you have a great point that it lets you hide behind their rage at each others' hatching plans. I will take the card more seriously in the future- thanks
You know what, Donald, I've never thought about Telepathy that way. I think I might put it in my Dralnu deck so that I know when it is safe to combo. I've been trying to run more cheap disruption, but honestly, knowing is half the battle! Good techs
Although it might be a bit different because you know what a combo deck is looking for. Wydwen is much less scary (to an extent). But they pretty much try to gang on me anyways.
I think this is a great deck for Telepathy but it might be really good in Dralnu too. It's such a fun card to play with since you can point out when someone is building up, use your permission to perfection and really awesome when you see someone else is holding a counterspell and you can simply pass priority and save yours when someone tries to cast a Time Stretch or something because you know the other guy will have to counter it.
EDIT: And even with you going the combo route you can still play the political game. The clear threat they can see is almost always the correct target over the probable threat (you).
Ok I took a look at your list and I have a few questions. I got a lot of good ideas that I will probably add to my list due to your experience with the deck but first of all my questions being:
Tunnel Vision I know this card combos with the tuck effects but dont your playgroup run the eldrazi guys? Almost everyone in my meta runs at least ulamog so my question being is there any time you hit your own deck with this card or would it be bad in a meta full of eldrazi?
Fabricate -> Tezzeret the Seeker for 2 more mana both of which being sorcery speed you can drop tezzeret and tutor artifacts into play. If you manage to drop it after a wrath or when you are in a good defensive position you can often get 2-3 tutors out of him. Depending on what artifact you go for you might be actually netting mana.
Merchant Scroll This spell has always pissed me off for some reason. Wouldn't you rather just pay a little more and cast a Diabolic Tutor or perhaps just another card draw? I really hate giving away what I am tutoring for especially at sorcery speed.
Vedalken Shackles I have long questioned if this card could be used very well in a multi colored deck. How has it panned out for you? Have you had issues using it with only 14 islands in your list???
Strata Scythe I guess this one is similar to the shackles question but how does it work in a multicolored deck??? I almost would want to run Sword of Light and Shadow just for the protections instead. Has it panned out very well???
Umezawa's Jitte how is it performing? A lot of people say that Jitte doesnt scale very well into edh. Has it performed well for you? Which ability do you find yourself using most often of its? I would think you would just store counters early on in case you need it for removal then go for pump when you can execute someone. Am I correct on this?
Telepathy I know you just defended this card in this post but I honestly cant get behind this. I for one am already usually targeted out as I run a bit more competitive of a deck and this would just be one more reason for everyone at the table to hate on me.
Sudden Spoiling I have had issues with this card ever since I tried using it first. It often requires 2 cards to kill or remove anything with it. It doesnt work well to stop things like annihilate or thraximundar's sacrifice as you have to activate it before they attack then they have the option to just pass on the attack altogether.
Stifle there arent a whole lot of abilities I really find myself wishing I have this card for. Probably the only ability I would want to justify this for is an opponents black myojin. Other than that what do you run this for primarily? I suppose a cycled Decree of Annihilation or something???
I was also going to ask a few questions about cards you either dont use anylonger or havent used that I can see:
Gilded Drake I see that you cut him out. I was wondering why? He seems like a very basic and amazing blue utility creature.
Mistbind Clique I love this guy as spot removal protection, wrath protection, and even a good fast chump blocker that will tap your opponent out when utilized.
Stinkweed Imp oh boy I have really seen this guy get some good use in the past. Nobody likes swinging into him as they know you can and probably will bring him back next turn. He is an evil little blocker that really dissuades people from coming your way.
I'll point out a couple things in how my list typically plays out which might help understanding some of the card choices. Unlike most decks my "board position" is usually mostly in my hand and requires me to have mana up to use it. If I am tapped out I will be defenseless in most cases so the casting cost of sorcery speed spells is extremely important and needs to stay as low as possible to ensure that I have mana up to cast tricks and defend myself. Also while this color combination boasts excellent tutors reusing my cards is quite difficult outside of narrow things like Feldon's Cane effects so redundancy is also pretty important. The things that will probably differ in our groups will be the silver bullet cards you run as my list is made specifically for my group. Sudden Death is a must include type of card for me but for you it may be junk. You might just want to run Trickbind or maybe you end up wanting to run Trickbind, Stifle and Voidmage Husher. These things really depend on the local metagame.
Tunnel Vision - This is a recent addition so I can't say for sure if I'm going to keep it. Most decks do not run Eldrazi in my group (I only run Eldrazi in 2 out of 8 decks for example). Mass land destruction runs rampant so expensive bombs like the Eldrazi can often be difficult to cast. In addition to that at least 3 decks run Humility and can give it shroud and many of the other decks are creature hating wrath heavy decks as we have a lot of control players. What makes this card strong though is that while it is basically just a combo piece it only kills 1 player. That 1 player is very likely going to be someone who is messing with me or causing me problems. It requires my opponents to really carefully consider whether or not they want to swing on me with their huge beatstick or blow up my equipment because if they do so there is a chance that I will just randomly kill them with Hatred or Tunnel Vision out of spite (which I will). Having access to these types of cards is very important for this deck, kind of like a passive defense mechanism.
Fabricate vs. Tezzeret - Casting cost is so extremely important that I would rather have the cheaper option. Tezzeret is very likely to be dead by the time I get another turn and while he can tutor up just about any artifact in my deck straight into play it is sometimes better to keep things in my hand. For example if I have Inkmoth Nexus in hand and tutor up Empyrial Plate that can make for a great rattlesnake to help avoid getting hated on. I think Tezzeret would be better in a more broken artifact mana oriented build but sweepers are common enough and my deck is very slow that I avoided this route.
Merchant Scroll - This is secretly a Mystical Teachings deck and that is my main target. I also go for Mystical Tutor and Trickbind quite often. Again paying 4 mana at sorcery speed for a hard tutor is just too much and I would rather take the card disadvantage of Insidious Dreams at that point since this deck does have some draw engine cards.
Vedalken Shackles - I have no expectation of taking large creatures. Shackles is best used defensively to take chump blockers, annoying utility creatures or generals. I have a lot of fetch lands as well to help build up Islands. Overall I've been very please with Shackles since I added it but I did have to adjust my mana base quite a bit to do so making Necropotence a real bastard to cast.
Strata Scythe - Like Empyrial Plate this can allow me to 1 shot people with either Wydwen or Inkmoth Nexus and is just another card that people need to worry about if they start swinging at me with a big monster. Lots of people play blue as well and I'm almost always going to imprint an Island. I did have Sword of Light and Shadow in at one point but I eventually just cut it for Grafted Wargear which was much better because of the free equip. Strata Scythe is better than Wargear because even though the equip cost is brutal it can kill people in 1 hit (notice a theme here :p).
Umezawa's Jitte - This is a weird one because as you pointed out it does not scale well in this format. The upsides of this are that it is cheap to cast, cheap to equip and can offer some life gain which is at a premium in a slow deck like this. It can also deal with certain annoying generals like Gaddock Teeg and Hanna, Ships Navigator that I play against. It's cuttable and my worst equipment at this point but it's played well enough that I keep it around.
Telepathy - I wasn't a believer until I tried it. This deck is tailor made for Telepathy. It makes it very difficult for people to justify attacking me when A) they can see threatening cards in other peoples hands B) my deck is pretty non-threatening as long as you leave me alone and C) I can pretty easily kill you out of nowhere with counter backup. It is very unusual for me to get killed with this card in play. Inexperienced players however will be much more inclined to attack you because "OMG you made me reveal my hand!". Their threat assessment isn't quite where it needs to be and they tend to focus on the last person that annoyed them so I wouldn't play this on MTGO for example.
Sudden Spoiling - It offers a lot of versatility for a low mana cost and I really like it as one of the tools to fetch with my Mystical Teachings toolbox. Sometimes it's a fog, sometimes it can screw up combat badly between 2 opponents (well for one of them at least) and sometimes it's pseudo removal. True story, I once got hit by a very early Rootwater Thief and this was the card that got removed because of how many times I've used it to screw the person with the Thief.
Stifle - Trickbind is kind of like my signature card in my group. I always seem to have it at the perfect moment and it has cause some miraculous wins for me and crushing defeats for my opponents. It stops O-Stones, Deads, Eldrazi triggers, pretty much everything. A worse version in Stifle was added because I wanted to make sure I had more access to this effect and it has worked out great. If you have not tried a Stifle variant in EDH yet give Trickbind a try first and keep your eyes open. It is well worth the mana and can save you from many things that other cards just can't, your example of cycled Decree of Annihilation is a perfect example of why this card is so good.
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Gilded Drake - I added the little guy mostly to be able to steal Emrakul and other Eldrazi since staring at Dominate in hand while being bashed by a Titan is not very fun. The non-Emrakul Titans I can handle more easily so this guy made room for some new cards I wanted to try out. It is very possible I will read him in the future but one of the things holding him back is that my strategy is not to bash on people with big monsters. Stealing Kozilek and hitting someone isn't getting me closer to a general damage kill and it is very unlikely I will be able to finish people with just a random beatstick.
Mistbind Clique - I'll have to give this card some thought. Flash creatures are great in this deck and I run Riptide Laboratory to abuse it. It would require me to add Mutavault as well but manlands are pretty good in this deck anyways so that isn't really a drawback. Wydwen does have built in protection already though...I want to try this guy out as soon as I get a spare Mutavault.
Stinkweed Imp - As a rattlesnake I'm sure he does great but dredging through silver bullets that I can't get back would be extremely painful.
One thing to keep in mind too is that this deck is not easy to pilot and takes quite a bit of discipline to get good results. It is very helpful to have the list memorized and know your opponents decks well. There are also a lot of silver bullets but since you can usually only use them once they need to be used sparingly and you need to have the right one for the job. The discipline comes in because you simply cannot counter or stop everything. You have to let some bombs drop and let board positions get out of control even when you have the ability to counter those bombs and contain the board position and let other people deal with problems as well or you will just run out of gas. There are also tricky situations where you have 8 mana up, Mystical Teachings and Cryptic Command in hand, Memory Plunder with tutors and wraths in graveyards and 14 other instants to fetch in your library and you have to figure out the best course of action depending on what everyone else is doing. Lots of times this will be to do nothing but other times it can require some creative playing to get the best results.
Thanks a lot for the feedback. It gave me a lot to think about like really needing to add Elixir of Immortality to reuse silver bullets and critically analyze some cards more carefully. GL with your build.:)
How good has Lim-Dul's Vault been for you? I'm thinking about putting it back in my Dralnu deck.
Also it's a bit surprising you're not also running Decree of Pain and/or All is Dust, both of which I've thought about cutting from Dralnu. I suppose that EDH has evolved and sweepers, while necessary, aren't needed in large quantities.
My next 2 cuts will be Lim-Dul's Vault and Flash of Insight. The problem in my deck is that while I am always able to cast them pretty easily I never really know what I need to grab since my deck is filled with answer cards. The Vault can end up costing me too much life too which is at a premium here. The Vault will probably perform better for you as you can use it to set up combos and get specific cards you need so I think it would be worth another shot and I do like it for that role. EDH has certainly evolved from when I started! The issue is that both of those cost a lot of mana and set me up to get Myojin of Nights Reach'd or Armageddon'd and my meta is creature light with a lot of the other decks helping out with sweepers. I'm also happy with my opponents having big creatures, as long as they don't swing them at me.:p
I can do a cut right now:
-Flash of Insight
-Lim-Dul's Vault
+Elixir of Immortality
+?: This could be Gilded Drake returning, some new tech from ISB in the form of Mistbind Clique or something else I've been wanting to try like Glen Elendra Archmage. I'll have to sleep on it.
I was hoping you might tell me some of the ways in which you use Sunder. Ideally I would love to see the random situation where you are at say 13 mana and are able to tap out, cast Sunder, then drop Myojin of Night's Reach and own everyone. Seeing as the mana stones in this deck are sort of all built arround doing a turn 3 general and really not much other than that I have to wonder if you have many other situations in which you would drop Sunder?
I think it is probably easier for this deck to tutor into having Sunder + Myojin of Night's Reach than it will be to hit the 13 mana to do it.
I was actually thinking about the Gilded Drake a bit more in this deck... I think you might be right on not running it. The problem we run into is we are giving one of our opponents a 3/3 flying blocker. If we had just killed off our opponent's creature that is giving us problems then the threat would be gone and there would be no blocker to get in our way. We win through general damage and while stealing someone else's amazing threat is cool, we dont plan on doing much with that creature usually unless it is a utility creature with a bunch of abilities on it.
... Have you actually put Magosi, the Waterveil to any use? The one time I ever saw someone try to store up an extra turn, the next player played out a strip mine he had been just holding contently in hand all game and blew it up. My meta for one is full of strip mine effects which cannot really be stopped very well unless you plan on having a tonnn of stifle effects.
On a side note... have you ever experimented in using Isochron Scepter in here???? The deck runs tons of instant spells with 2mana cc that could be really funny on it. Usually EDH decks dont have enough spells in this category but I think this might be one of the few decks that could run it. I think a few adjustments could be made to make it more effective but it could be really nice to slap on some cheap card draw or something onto a scepter.
I use Sunder almost strictly as a finisher. Being an instant is very important as it allows you to set it up much easier and also makes it easy to tutor for. EOT Evacuation into Sunder into flash in Wydwen then drop a land and equip Empyrial Plate is the ideal scenario but just casting Sunder when the board is relatively clear, flashing in Wydwen and equipping her gets me a lot of wins too. This is a very very slow deck, I almost never cast Wydwen unless I can leave up the U/B needed to bounce her so the mana rocks are mostly just in there to ramp a little bit. Most of the time I just try and stay alive and protect myself while my opponents fight it out then when it gets down to 2 people I wait for a chance to kill one of them and turn it into a 1v1 match where this deck is excellent at that late stage of the game. Don't worry so much about the mana, I hit just about every single land drop throughout the game and I rarely try and finish people until it gets down to just 1 or 2 people left unless I can just randomly take someone out.
Magosi the Waterveil is deceptively powerful and I skip my turns with it quite often. At some point in the game I'll have built up my mana with a full grip of tricks and pass with all my mana untapped. Sometimes I need to react but other times nobody does anything that I need to respond to so at EOT of the opponent on my right I'll just skip my turn since all my mana is still untapped. Once you get the counter on Magosi you can use it to great effect to basically tap out main phase, take an extra turn then untap and pass with your counterspell wall up. If it gets hit by a Strip Mine and you don't have Stifle it isn't that bad because you just skipped a turn where you weren't going to do anything anyways.
I have thought a ton about Isochron Scepter in here because as you point out this is one of the very few decks that could make use of it but every time I go through my list it seems like I'd need just 1 or 2 more really good targets for it. I'd be interested in brainstorming up some ideas of other instants I could put on it because it is very powerful. Or maybe I have enough already and I'm just being paranoid.
1 Wydwen, the Biting Gale
Interrupts
1 Brainstorm
1 Dark Ritual
1 Darkness
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Go for the Throat
1 Impulse
1 Mana Drain
1 Trickbind
1 Forbid
1 Cryptic Command
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Memory Plunder
1 Mystical Teachings
1 Reins of Power
1 Evacuation
1 Force of Will
1 Hatred
1 Murderous Cut
1 Sunder
1 Dig Through Time
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
Artifacts
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Expedition Map
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Dimir Signet
1 Empyrial Plate
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Mind Stone
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Mystic Remora
1 Telepathy
1 Necropotence
1 Rhystic Study
Sorceries
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Grim Tutor
1 Damnation
1 Temporal Manipulation
1 Time Spiral
Creatures
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Trinket Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Notion Thief
1 Rainbow Efreet
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
Land
1 Academy Ruins
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Command Tower
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Dreadship Reef
1 Inkmoth Nexus
13 Island
1 Maze of Ith
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Spawning Pool
1 Strip Mine
1 Sunken Hollow
5 Swamp
1 Temple of the False God
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Tolaria West
1 Underground Sea
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Wasteland
1 Watery Grave
Draw-go control deck that usually kills by equipping Wydwen and beating down. I've tried to keep the sorcery speed spells as cheap as possible because I want to have mana up for tricks so there aren't any that cost more than 4. Also the name of the deck is a reference to the un card Common Courtesy.
Hatred is particularly effective here with a flash + evasion general backed up by counterspells and tricks and knowing I have it available usually keeps people from messing with me too much.
Change Log
6/7/10
-Voidmage Husher
+Bojuka Bog
+Vesuva
+Expedition Map
-Bad River
-Grixis Panorama
6/22/10
-Nevinyrral's Disk
-Arcane Denial
-Dominate
+Wash Out
+Soldevi Excavations
+Wipe Away
6/29/10
-Wipe Away
+Gilded Drake
7/15/10
-Minamo, School at Water's Edge
-Opportunity
+Mystifying Maze
+Jace's Ingenuity
12/10/10
-Tormod's Crypt
+Nihil Spellbomb
12/17/10
-Gilded Drake
-Wash Out
-Springjack Pasture
-Shizo
-Mishra's Factory
-Mystifying Maze
-River of Tears
-Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
+Vedalken Shackles
+Wayfarer's Bauble
+Underground Sea
+Island x 4
+Swamp
12/23/10
-Shred Memory
+Suffer the Past
1/18/11
-Sword of Light and Shadow
+Strata Sycthe
2/1/11
-Grafted Wargear
+Sword of Feast and Famine
-Ivory Tower
+Tunnel Vision
-Capsize
+Wipe Away
-Soldevi Excavations
+Inkmoth Nexus
-Stroke of Genius
+Blue Sun's Zenith
3/18/11
-Impulse
+Go for the Throat
4/8/11
-Flash of Insight
-Lim-Dul's Vault
+Rhystic Study
+Elixir of Immortality
7/29/11
-Hinder
-Stifle
-Misdirection
-Spin Into Myth
-Sudden Spoiling
-Wipe Away
+Mana Drain
+Isochron Scepter
+Reset
+Spell Crumple
+Darkness
+Into the Roil
9/29/11
-Myojin of Night's Reach
+Snapcaster Mage
2/22/12
-Jace's Ingenuity
+Brainstorm
-Evolving Wilds
+Command Tower
12/24/12
-Reset
-Terramorphic Expanse
-Into the Roil
+Cyclonic Rift
+Rainbow Efreet
+Thawing Glaciers
8/9/14
+Notion Thief
+Ponder
+Preordain
+Impulse
+Thespian's Stage
+Time Spiral
+Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
+Grim Tutor
-Skeletal Scrying
-Suffer the Past
-Strata Scythe
-Phyrexian Arena
-Vesuva
-Fabricate
-Swamp
-Sunken Ruins
8/30/15
1 Time Warp
1 Sudden Death
1 Swamp
1 Temporal Manipulation
1 Murderous Cut
1 Myriad Landscape
2/14/16
1 Magosi, the Waterveil
1 Dark Ritual
I'd play Relic of Progenitus over Tormond's Crypt but can understand why you might prefer crypt.
Also I think I'd try to fit a Vesuva and Bojuka Bog in somewhere.
I know you've built this deck for multiplayer but have you ever tried to play it 1v1? If so how does it fair?
Expedition Map is a really good idea especially if I add in Vesuva and Bojuka Bog which I will. When I originally built the deck it was more of a Mystical Teachings/Cunning Wish deck so I had the Relic in to exile my own graveyard along with Skeletal Scrying and Flash of Insight. When WOTC cut Cunning Wish's balls off I switched over to Tormod's Crypt since it can be recurred via Academy Ruins, fetched by Tolaria West and is cheaper on the mana and that is worth slightly more to me than the extra card. They're pretty interchangeable so I think it is just a matter of preference. Treachery is very strong but I prefer Dominate since it is more on theme. This deck also doesn't get attacked by random creatures in my playgroup very often and I don't mind if my opponents have creatures as long as they aren't attacking me.
I've never played this deck in 1v1 but I would imagine that if you just take out the equipment, add in more counters and just try and kill the opponent with Hatred it could do pretty well.
Why do you run Grafted Wargear? Is it just for the lowish casting cost/0 cost to equip and pump or am I missing a trick?
This deck really doesn't like tapping mana during the mana phase and the tutors just cost a little too much. I actually had Loxodon Warhammer in the deck for a long time but the 3 mana to equip was just too much so I switched over the the Wargear and I like it a lot more.
Makes sense. I'm in the midst of constructing my own version for 1v1 with about a 10 card transition into a multiplayer version. I plan on adding a few higher cost sorcery/creatures without flash for the 1v1 setting and then subbing them out for multi.
How has Sudden Spoiling been for you? Seems like a great card for multiplayer but in my 1v1 version I cut it. I think I'd definitly play it in multi though but I haven't had an opportunity to test it.
The deck should probably run Thawing Glaciers, I think 16 basics is plenty for it. I've been lazy about acquiring certain staples but I'll try and pick up another one soon. Since I play strictly multiplayer I find Sudden Spoiling to be really good. It will just be a fog sometimes but other times it can be really backbreaking and the split second is amazing. I could definitely see it not being good enough in 1v1 though.
EDIT: I also pulled out Nevinyrral's Disk for Wash Out before playing last weekend and didn't miss the Disk at all. Not sure if Wash Out is going to stay either since I didn't really need it. Mostly in there to bounce enchantments and tokens but I'll keep it in for another play session to give it another shot.
Get a job.
[B]Valakut/Primeval.dec[/B](Standard)
[B]Jund[/B](Extended)
[B]White Stax[/B](Legacy)
[
B]Survival[/B](Legacy)[B]Affinity[/B](Legacy)
[B]Pox[/B](Legacy)
[B]Elf Storm[/B](Legacy)
[B]Mana-Less Dredge[/B](Vintage)
Forbid is amazing in the late game and combined with repeatable card drawing (necropotence/phyrexian arena/mystic remora). The buyback seems steep but it really isn't too bad, you get a card back so it's only a 2 for 1 and you don't have to buy it back if you don't want too. I played Mindbreak Trap for awhile but I think it is a little overcosted for what it does. It never got played for free and with Emrakul gone I don't think it's coming back in. At 4 mana I would probably run Dismiss instead. Stoic Rebuttal is OK but if I added another counterspell I think it would be Arcane Denial. Actually I might go ahead and cut Gilded Drake for Arcane Denial now that Emrakul is gone. Thanks for the feedback.
Once again, I find myself in your tracks. I've run into a bit of a problem with my Dralnu deck - no one wants to play against it anymore Taking infinite turns (or even just 6-8 in a row) has become taboo at my shop and I can no longer play the deck without getting sighs and worried looks. Even some games where it looks like they've sufficiently crippled me, if left uncheck I will randomly win the game from out of nowhere. I haven't played in the league we talked about before (with Rhys), but I might start soon. If I did, I wouldn't be able to play Dralnu in its current form, as infinite turns are severely punished point-wise. Looking through my other U/B options, I was trying to decide between Wrexial, the Risen Deep and Wydwen. Granted I love neither as much as Dralnu, they both look like they can get the job done. The main problem I had with my Dralnu list was that there weren't that many good non-combo win conditions. The colors just aren't suited for going into the red zone. Wrexial is pretty solid because he has Swamp/Island walk, but Wydwen has flash, true evasion and is nearly unkillable. In the end, I think I might go with Wydwen just based on those conclusions.
I wanted to ask if you've ever tried a more heavy Control Magic theme. My metagame has several high-power creatures and less overrun decks, so it's pretty strong to play cards like Bribery, Treachery, or Blatant Theivery. This allows you to still have powerplays and not solely rely on Wydwen to do all the work, especially if equipment gets blown up. I understand that you also want to keep sorceries at a minimum, but skipping out on Knowledge Exploitation and Rite of Replication seems sub-optimal from my play experience.
Your meta is probably pretty different than mine. I play against nothing but ramp-heavy 3C control decks all day, so if you have any suggestions for a metagame like that, I'd appreciate it!
One-Eyed Black | Orzhov Combo | Ooze Reanimator | Mindwheeling Pain
As far as Wydwen goes I really love this deck but it is probably the most challenging deck I've made (out of 12 or so between paper/online/dismantled) to pilot so that's something to keep in mind. I've tried running stuff like Bribery in other decks but I don't really like it for my group. There aren't many Eldrazi and even if you can hit a random Iona or Magister Sphinx the other decks can deal with them. This deck also really hates tapping mana during the main phase. I'm not saying that running Knowledge Exploitation and Rite of Replication is wrong just that for my group and my play style I don't think it is the right call. Now against 3-color good stuff I would probably run those for sure but I think that Wrexial is the better call as a general for that type of metagame. Always a bunch of juicy targets and you can cut way back on all the instant speed spells and play a bunch of expensive bombs. She (it?) would also be a better general for the "steal your stuff" deck (even better would be Memnarch). Now if I was personally playing in a metagame like that I would run my Angus Mackenzie deck which has been just an unstoppable juggernaut of a deck in my group despite having no win conditions really and you get to play with Humility which is probably my second favorite card in the format.
I'll look into Wrexial, as there is indeed tons of juicy targets and ways to abuse power plays. I can't ever cut Bribery from my metagame because everyone runs Primeval Titan (who is always my #1 target) and Acquire for Gilded Lotus. Since everyone is playing so much ramp at my store, I have to find a way to keep up lol.
I would also think about running Memnarch, but our rules state that we aren't allowed to play infinite combos. That pretty much rules out what I had in mind for the deck. Thanks for giving me some direction though!
One-Eyed Black | Orzhov Combo | Ooze Reanimator | Mindwheeling Pain
Inkmoth Nexus - Great with Hatred and possibly Strata Scythe or Empyrial Plate for 1 hit kills.
Sword of Feast and Famine - Untapping my lands is huge, plus I can equip manlands and swing for some free damage.
Blue Sun's Zenith - Just swapped out Stroke of Genius. Should very rarely be more difficult to cast.
:symu::symr: Melek WheelStorm
:symw::symg: Trostani Enchantress (updated 6/5)
:symg::symr::symu: Unexpected Results.dec
Thada Adel Stax WIP
In EDH flying has been really excellent evasion, at least for me. I even ran Shizo, Death's Storehouse for at least a year and ultimately cut it because it just wasn't useful often enough to run it over a swamp (Ruination, Back to Basics & Blood Moon are all played in my group). First Strike also isn't a very effective ability in this format since creatures vary in size so much. I do like the political aspect of the card a lot being able to use it on other creatures but I'd probably lean more toward something like Tainted Strike for the "Oops, you're dead" factor.
Telepathy I can definitely defend, this is the ultimate politics card for this type of deck. I can use and time my counterspells and tricks perfectly since I know exactly what everyone is holding and it is extremely difficult for other people to win when I have Telepathy in play. Everyone else can see when someone is starting to build up a dominant position so the table can just gang up on them. My board position is mostly about what I have in my hand so this deck can come off as pretty non-threatening. Telepathy also isn't something people want to waste spot removal on, by that point everyone has already seen what everyone else has so it is already too late to keep secrets. They tend to just moan and groan when I cast it and hope an Oblivion Stone gets blown up soon so they can be rid of it. I was skeptical when I put it in but it has proven to be among the best cards in this deck. Always happy to have it and my opponents always hate to see it.
:symu::symr: Melek WheelStorm
:symw::symg: Trostani Enchantress (updated 6/5)
:symg::symr::symu: Unexpected Results.dec
Thada Adel Stax WIP
Although it might be a bit different because you know what a combo deck is looking for. Wydwen is much less scary (to an extent). But they pretty much try to gang on me anyways.
One-Eyed Black | Orzhov Combo | Ooze Reanimator | Mindwheeling Pain
EDIT: And even with you going the combo route you can still play the political game. The clear threat they can see is almost always the correct target over the probable threat (you).
Tunnel Vision I know this card combos with the tuck effects but dont your playgroup run the eldrazi guys? Almost everyone in my meta runs at least ulamog so my question being is there any time you hit your own deck with this card or would it be bad in a meta full of eldrazi?
Fabricate -> Tezzeret the Seeker for 2 more mana both of which being sorcery speed you can drop tezzeret and tutor artifacts into play. If you manage to drop it after a wrath or when you are in a good defensive position you can often get 2-3 tutors out of him. Depending on what artifact you go for you might be actually netting mana.
Merchant Scroll This spell has always pissed me off for some reason. Wouldn't you rather just pay a little more and cast a Diabolic Tutor or perhaps just another card draw? I really hate giving away what I am tutoring for especially at sorcery speed.
Vedalken Shackles I have long questioned if this card could be used very well in a multi colored deck. How has it panned out for you? Have you had issues using it with only 14 islands in your list???
Strata Scythe I guess this one is similar to the shackles question but how does it work in a multicolored deck??? I almost would want to run Sword of Light and Shadow just for the protections instead. Has it panned out very well???
Umezawa's Jitte how is it performing? A lot of people say that Jitte doesnt scale very well into edh. Has it performed well for you? Which ability do you find yourself using most often of its? I would think you would just store counters early on in case you need it for removal then go for pump when you can execute someone. Am I correct on this?
Telepathy I know you just defended this card in this post but I honestly cant get behind this. I for one am already usually targeted out as I run a bit more competitive of a deck and this would just be one more reason for everyone at the table to hate on me.
Sudden Spoiling I have had issues with this card ever since I tried using it first. It often requires 2 cards to kill or remove anything with it. It doesnt work well to stop things like annihilate or thraximundar's sacrifice as you have to activate it before they attack then they have the option to just pass on the attack altogether.
Stifle there arent a whole lot of abilities I really find myself wishing I have this card for. Probably the only ability I would want to justify this for is an opponents black myojin. Other than that what do you run this for primarily? I suppose a cycled Decree of Annihilation or something???
I was also going to ask a few questions about cards you either dont use anylonger or havent used that I can see:
Gilded Drake I see that you cut him out. I was wondering why? He seems like a very basic and amazing blue utility creature.
Mistbind Clique I love this guy as spot removal protection, wrath protection, and even a good fast chump blocker that will tap your opponent out when utilized.
Stinkweed Imp oh boy I have really seen this guy get some good use in the past. Nobody likes swinging into him as they know you can and probably will bring him back next turn. He is an evil little blocker that really dissuades people from coming your way.
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
I'll point out a couple things in how my list typically plays out which might help understanding some of the card choices. Unlike most decks my "board position" is usually mostly in my hand and requires me to have mana up to use it. If I am tapped out I will be defenseless in most cases so the casting cost of sorcery speed spells is extremely important and needs to stay as low as possible to ensure that I have mana up to cast tricks and defend myself. Also while this color combination boasts excellent tutors reusing my cards is quite difficult outside of narrow things like Feldon's Cane effects so redundancy is also pretty important. The things that will probably differ in our groups will be the silver bullet cards you run as my list is made specifically for my group. Sudden Death is a must include type of card for me but for you it may be junk. You might just want to run Trickbind or maybe you end up wanting to run Trickbind, Stifle and Voidmage Husher. These things really depend on the local metagame.
Tunnel Vision - This is a recent addition so I can't say for sure if I'm going to keep it. Most decks do not run Eldrazi in my group (I only run Eldrazi in 2 out of 8 decks for example). Mass land destruction runs rampant so expensive bombs like the Eldrazi can often be difficult to cast. In addition to that at least 3 decks run Humility and can give it shroud and many of the other decks are creature hating wrath heavy decks as we have a lot of control players. What makes this card strong though is that while it is basically just a combo piece it only kills 1 player. That 1 player is very likely going to be someone who is messing with me or causing me problems. It requires my opponents to really carefully consider whether or not they want to swing on me with their huge beatstick or blow up my equipment because if they do so there is a chance that I will just randomly kill them with Hatred or Tunnel Vision out of spite (which I will). Having access to these types of cards is very important for this deck, kind of like a passive defense mechanism.
Fabricate vs. Tezzeret - Casting cost is so extremely important that I would rather have the cheaper option. Tezzeret is very likely to be dead by the time I get another turn and while he can tutor up just about any artifact in my deck straight into play it is sometimes better to keep things in my hand. For example if I have Inkmoth Nexus in hand and tutor up Empyrial Plate that can make for a great rattlesnake to help avoid getting hated on. I think Tezzeret would be better in a more broken artifact mana oriented build but sweepers are common enough and my deck is very slow that I avoided this route.
Merchant Scroll - This is secretly a Mystical Teachings deck and that is my main target. I also go for Mystical Tutor and Trickbind quite often. Again paying 4 mana at sorcery speed for a hard tutor is just too much and I would rather take the card disadvantage of Insidious Dreams at that point since this deck does have some draw engine cards.
Vedalken Shackles - I have no expectation of taking large creatures. Shackles is best used defensively to take chump blockers, annoying utility creatures or generals. I have a lot of fetch lands as well to help build up Islands. Overall I've been very please with Shackles since I added it but I did have to adjust my mana base quite a bit to do so making Necropotence a real bastard to cast.
Strata Scythe - Like Empyrial Plate this can allow me to 1 shot people with either Wydwen or Inkmoth Nexus and is just another card that people need to worry about if they start swinging at me with a big monster. Lots of people play blue as well and I'm almost always going to imprint an Island. I did have Sword of Light and Shadow in at one point but I eventually just cut it for Grafted Wargear which was much better because of the free equip. Strata Scythe is better than Wargear because even though the equip cost is brutal it can kill people in 1 hit (notice a theme here :p).
Umezawa's Jitte - This is a weird one because as you pointed out it does not scale well in this format. The upsides of this are that it is cheap to cast, cheap to equip and can offer some life gain which is at a premium in a slow deck like this. It can also deal with certain annoying generals like Gaddock Teeg and Hanna, Ships Navigator that I play against. It's cuttable and my worst equipment at this point but it's played well enough that I keep it around.
Telepathy - I wasn't a believer until I tried it. This deck is tailor made for Telepathy. It makes it very difficult for people to justify attacking me when A) they can see threatening cards in other peoples hands B) my deck is pretty non-threatening as long as you leave me alone and C) I can pretty easily kill you out of nowhere with counter backup. It is very unusual for me to get killed with this card in play. Inexperienced players however will be much more inclined to attack you because "OMG you made me reveal my hand!". Their threat assessment isn't quite where it needs to be and they tend to focus on the last person that annoyed them so I wouldn't play this on MTGO for example.
Sudden Spoiling - It offers a lot of versatility for a low mana cost and I really like it as one of the tools to fetch with my Mystical Teachings toolbox. Sometimes it's a fog, sometimes it can screw up combat badly between 2 opponents (well for one of them at least) and sometimes it's pseudo removal. True story, I once got hit by a very early Rootwater Thief and this was the card that got removed because of how many times I've used it to screw the person with the Thief.
Stifle - Trickbind is kind of like my signature card in my group. I always seem to have it at the perfect moment and it has cause some miraculous wins for me and crushing defeats for my opponents. It stops O-Stones, Deads, Eldrazi triggers, pretty much everything. A worse version in Stifle was added because I wanted to make sure I had more access to this effect and it has worked out great. If you have not tried a Stifle variant in EDH yet give Trickbind a try first and keep your eyes open. It is well worth the mana and can save you from many things that other cards just can't, your example of cycled Decree of Annihilation is a perfect example of why this card is so good.
-----
Gilded Drake - I added the little guy mostly to be able to steal Emrakul and other Eldrazi since staring at Dominate in hand while being bashed by a Titan is not very fun. The non-Emrakul Titans I can handle more easily so this guy made room for some new cards I wanted to try out. It is very possible I will read him in the future but one of the things holding him back is that my strategy is not to bash on people with big monsters. Stealing Kozilek and hitting someone isn't getting me closer to a general damage kill and it is very unlikely I will be able to finish people with just a random beatstick.
Mistbind Clique - I'll have to give this card some thought. Flash creatures are great in this deck and I run Riptide Laboratory to abuse it. It would require me to add Mutavault as well but manlands are pretty good in this deck anyways so that isn't really a drawback. Wydwen does have built in protection already though...I want to try this guy out as soon as I get a spare Mutavault.
Stinkweed Imp - As a rattlesnake I'm sure he does great but dredging through silver bullets that I can't get back would be extremely painful.
One thing to keep in mind too is that this deck is not easy to pilot and takes quite a bit of discipline to get good results. It is very helpful to have the list memorized and know your opponents decks well. There are also a lot of silver bullets but since you can usually only use them once they need to be used sparingly and you need to have the right one for the job. The discipline comes in because you simply cannot counter or stop everything. You have to let some bombs drop and let board positions get out of control even when you have the ability to counter those bombs and contain the board position and let other people deal with problems as well or you will just run out of gas. There are also tricky situations where you have 8 mana up, Mystical Teachings and Cryptic Command in hand, Memory Plunder with tutors and wraths in graveyards and 14 other instants to fetch in your library and you have to figure out the best course of action depending on what everyone else is doing. Lots of times this will be to do nothing but other times it can require some creative playing to get the best results.
Thanks a lot for the feedback. It gave me a lot to think about like really needing to add Elixir of Immortality to reuse silver bullets and critically analyze some cards more carefully. GL with your build.:)
On a finishing note: I love this deck.
How good has Lim-Dul's Vault been for you? I'm thinking about putting it back in my Dralnu deck.
Also it's a bit surprising you're not also running Decree of Pain and/or All is Dust, both of which I've thought about cutting from Dralnu. I suppose that EDH has evolved and sweepers, while necessary, aren't needed in large quantities.
One-Eyed Black | Orzhov Combo | Ooze Reanimator | Mindwheeling Pain
I can do a cut right now:
-Flash of Insight
-Lim-Dul's Vault
+Elixir of Immortality
+?: This could be Gilded Drake returning, some new tech from ISB in the form of Mistbind Clique or something else I've been wanting to try like Glen Elendra Archmage. I'll have to sleep on it.
I think it is probably easier for this deck to tutor into having Sunder + Myojin of Night's Reach than it will be to hit the 13 mana to do it.
I was actually thinking about the Gilded Drake a bit more in this deck... I think you might be right on not running it. The problem we run into is we are giving one of our opponents a 3/3 flying blocker. If we had just killed off our opponent's creature that is giving us problems then the threat would be gone and there would be no blocker to get in our way. We win through general damage and while stealing someone else's amazing threat is cool, we dont plan on doing much with that creature usually unless it is a utility creature with a bunch of abilities on it.
... Have you actually put Magosi, the Waterveil to any use? The one time I ever saw someone try to store up an extra turn, the next player played out a strip mine he had been just holding contently in hand all game and blew it up. My meta for one is full of strip mine effects which cannot really be stopped very well unless you plan on having a tonnn of stifle effects.
On a side note... have you ever experimented in using Isochron Scepter in here???? The deck runs tons of instant spells with 2mana cc that could be really funny on it. Usually EDH decks dont have enough spells in this category but I think this might be one of the few decks that could run it. I think a few adjustments could be made to make it more effective but it could be really nice to slap on some cheap card draw or something onto a scepter.
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
Magosi the Waterveil is deceptively powerful and I skip my turns with it quite often. At some point in the game I'll have built up my mana with a full grip of tricks and pass with all my mana untapped. Sometimes I need to react but other times nobody does anything that I need to respond to so at EOT of the opponent on my right I'll just skip my turn since all my mana is still untapped. Once you get the counter on Magosi you can use it to great effect to basically tap out main phase, take an extra turn then untap and pass with your counterspell wall up. If it gets hit by a Strip Mine and you don't have Stifle it isn't that bad because you just skipped a turn where you weren't going to do anything anyways.
I have thought a ton about Isochron Scepter in here because as you point out this is one of the very few decks that could make use of it but every time I go through my list it seems like I'd need just 1 or 2 more really good targets for it. I'd be interested in brainstorming up some ideas of other instants I could put on it because it is very powerful. Or maybe I have enough already and I'm just being paranoid.