@Final Judgment: YUCK! My general recurs creatures, so I want them to go to the yard. Hallowed Burial might have a similar effect, but at least I can re-draw or re-tutor whatever gets tucked underneath my library. Final Judgment is the last thing I want to play.
@Crypt vs. Relic: There isn't a whole lot of difference...I suppose I could just run the Relic. It's much slower and doesn't target the card that I want to remove, so if someone mills themself for X cards and one of them is a Genesis, it could be awhile before I can actually remove the Genesis. T-Crypt is a little faster and more efficient (I once had a problem where I couldn't tutor up my Relic with Tolaria West, and I've been running T-Crypt instead ever since). Since I don't have anything that interacts with an opponent's graveyard, all I care about is removing the person's yard.
Alright, just offering up thoughts with regard to less expensive cards, you're reasons are all very well thought out too. I've actually never even thought of using tolaria west to fetch nonland 0 costers
Alright, just offering up thoughts with regard to less expensive cards, you're reasons are all very well thought out too. I've actually never even thought of using tolaria west to fetch nonland 0 costers
I probably came on a little too strong there...sorry about that.
The Relic is certainly a more budget-friendly option, and another budget option is Withered Wretch. The latter is actually just the best grave-hater in the format, I think. However, I chose not to run the Wretch because it isn't an artifact and it can't be fetched up with either Trinket Mage or Tolaria West, and it doesn't synergize with the rest of the deck (things like Salvaging Station, Sanctum Gargoyle, and Sharuum).
Relic of Progenitus's second ability is no good for sharuum as it exile all cards from all graveyard. An empty graveyard is an unhappy Sharuum
I dont feel that creatures that have indestructibility have much threat. I mean you do have master transmuter and duplicant combo and thopter / sword combo to pump out tokens to sac for those Eldrazi. Evacuation only delay 1 turn. Beside, most of your creatures have high casting cast, you may have difficulty casting them all again after an evacuation. Maybe you can consider Ashes to Ashes, Iona's Judgment and Unmake for a more permenant answer. If not, you can just Mind Control them. ha
Yeah I think Magic4Life makes some good points here. Relic is strictly worse for your deck, even if it does shave a $1 or so off the cost of the deck. There's plenty of graveyard haters out there, and probably a lot of others to consider if you didn't roll with T-crypt which is clearly the best choice for Sharuum. Magic, your points about Evacuation I think are also relevant.
I think the answers to Ulamog and others like him need to come from white. Condemn has been an absolute bomb for me in EDH recently, so that's an option that could come in on the cheap. Exile is a similar card albeit a little costlier at $1.50. Black offers some edict effects, or abyss effects. Since you play a lot of tokens and recursion, guys like Anowan, the Ruin Sage aren't terrible, but I also don't think he's the answer.
I agree with you about keeping with the artifact theme. This is a deck where I really would not want to dip into too many non-artifact spells. I don't think that the deck is sub-par so far to any other decks you've probably come across, I think it's just that it needs to reach a certain threshhold of certain types of spells to get more competitive. Aka, maybe you need 2 more spot removal spells, maybe you need 4. Maybe you need 1 more sweeper, maybe you need 3. Etc, etc. Playtesting should iron that out a bit.
Hallowed Burial is a nice effect, but rather than causing all the drama I'd prefer the individual white tuckers or removal spells. Crib Swap is another option. I know some people don't like giving their opponent a 1/1 changeling, but as a cheap common I think the tradeoff is fairly minimal in EDH for the ability you gain. I could easily see both Condemn and Crib Swap coming into this deck and adding just enough smidge of removal to make the deck a little more battle-worthy.
Have you considered Blasting Station, Grinding Station, or Summoning Station at all? Each of them loops indefinitely with Sharuum. I don't have time now, but I'll come back and edit in the loop later.
Edit: Sharuum and a Scuplting Steel, or the Phyrexian Metamorph, when NPH is out.
Anyway, it goes:
1. Steel in graveyard. Discard it or something.
2. Play Sharuum.
3. Target Scuplting Steel with Sharuum's trigger.
4. Steel comes into play, as a Copy of Sharuum. Both go to graveyard before the triggers are put on the stack.
5. Target both Sharuum and Steel with the triggers.
6. First trigger resolves, returning Steel. Sacrifice it to a Station.
7. Second trigger resolves, returning Sharuum.
8. Go to Step 3.
Obviously, you could play Steel from your hand to start it.
But, I can see why you don't want this, considering Steel's price.
Yeah, I'm aware of the interaction between Sharuum and Sculpting Steel effects. At $2-3, not sure if I have the budget for it right now.
New cards to consider from NPH (using CFB prices since that's all I have right now):
- Phyrexian Metamorph ($4.00): The absolute perfect card for this deck. Here's hoping it goes down in price, because I already cut Sculpting Steel for price reasons.
- Unwinding Clock ($1.00): Seedborn Muse for artifacts? Only a dollar? Yes, please!
- Mycosynth Wellspring ($0.10): Excellent fixer, triggers twice, only a dime. Sign me up!
- Pristine Talisman ($0.05): Eh, doesn't really fix mana, has to compete with Ingot and Pilgrim's Eye at three mana. Probably not.
On a separate note, I think it would be interesting to note how much my deck would cost from each of several different popular sites. More on this to come...
Updated list in the OP:
- Prices are now from three different sites
- Removed individual card prices (too many to keep track of)
- Added more notes on how total list prices are determined.
Unwinding Clock and Phyrexian Metamorph look sweet, hopefully you can fit them in.
Couldn't find Mycosynth Wellspring anywhere
Pristine Talisman is cute but not worth it IMO in a tri-color deck.
We probably shouldn't branch it out to 3 buy sites. That just makes it involve more work. And you took the individual prices off, so I assume that was in the intentions of making it less work.
Do you know if TrollandToad has a "deckbuilder" feature like Starcity? That's my only beef with them.
Unwinding Clock and Phyrexian Metamorph look sweet, hopefully you can fit them in.
Couldn't find Mycosynth Wellspring anywhere
Pristine Talisman is cute but not worth it IMO in a tri-color deck.
We probably shouldn't branch it out to 3 buy sites. That just makes it involve more work. And you took the individual prices off, so I assume that was in the intentions of making it less work.
Do you know if TrollandToad has a "deckbuilder" feature like Starcity? That's my only beef with them.
Unfortunately, Troll & Toad does not have that sweet deck builder function on their site, which makes for a lot less work when pricing things out.
EDIT: Added a change log to the OP.
I cut a Disk and a basic land for an O-Stone and an Austere Command. While that does not change the overall price of the deck, I felt that it was necessary to add another wrath effect. The Disk was the first thing I wanted to cut because it's the most expensive, but I know that an artifact-based sweeper is pretty important. Scourglass is pretty effective when it works, but it's also very slow, and my experience has taught me that you can't always rely on a permanent surviving until your next turn.
EDIT: Thinking about cutting Tormod's Crypt for either Withered Wretch, Relic of Progenitus, or something else entirely (I have two other grave-haters already, and T-Crypt is the priciest one). Also thinking about cutting Vivid lands...so far the fixing has been pretty solid.
Made a few more updates to this list, which is now just barely above $50.
- Replaced Tormod's Crypt with Withered Wretch, for the reasons I listed above.
- Replaced Darksteel Ingot with Obelisk of Esper. The Obelisk does the exact same thing as the Ingot for much less $$$, and I don't really care if it dies since my deck is supposed to resurrect artifacts.
The next change I'm thinking about making is trading out Duplicant for Kuldotha Forgemaster...
- Duplicant is one of the pricier spells in my list, and the Forgemaster is a re-usable tutor who's cost plays right into the hands of my general's ability. This swap would cut my cost on 2 of the 3 stores down under $50.
- However, Duplicant is a 6-mana artifact (Treasure Mage) and easily one of the best single-creature removal spells in the format. Forgemaster is also rather slow, and we all know how hard it is to get a permanent to survive until your next untap step. Furthermore, there really aren't that many good replacements for Duplicant. Shriekmaw and Bone Shredder don't kill black or artifact creatures. Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares only work once and are difficult to reuse. Altar of Shadows is way too slow. Brittle Effigy only works once. Most of the potential replacements are also not artifacts, so they are harder to recur and fetch.
Here's hoping that Phyrexian Metamorph goes waaaaaaaaay down in value soon, because that card is just about the perfect fit for this deck.
MOAR UPDATEZ from last night (playing against $50 versions of Mayael and Experiment Kraj):
- Mayael pumped out a lot of fatties (thanks to an active and foily Godsire) and also cast a Creeping Corrosion that completely wrecked me.
- Kraj had a large number of threats that I wasn't able to remove. Quicksilver Elemental was a problem when it started copying the afforementioned Godsire, Murkfiend Liege allowed his whole team to untap very often, and Plaxcaster Frogling ensured that I wouldn't be able to remove any of his creatures.
- I did manage to get a Salvaging Station online with both Aether Spellbomb and Executioner's Capsule working, but because of the shroud effect I could not remove anything significant.
- I also managed to recur Grim Poppet with Scarecrone a few times, but the Poppet was not very good at killing anything (took two tries to kill a Seedborn Muse, never even tried to kill the Godsire).
- There was one epic sequence where I thought I could drop a Magister Sphinx on the Kraj player and then attack with Sharuum a couple of times for the win, but his Lurking Predators trigger revealed a Spike Weaver for the win.
- There was a point where I had entirely too many basic lands in my hand, thanks in part to playing multiple bounce-lands, and also from just generally being flooded.
I made a couple changes after last night's games:
- Added a Terrain Generator for a basic Swamp to try and get some more excess lands into play faster.
- Added Mistmeadow Witch for Stonecloaker. I have enough grave-hate between the Wretch, Bog, and Spellbomb, and the Bog and Spellbomb are re-usable with bouncelands and recursion. Mistmeadow Witch is a great utility spell with a ton of targets in my list (and a pet card of mine from the UW Lark days).
- Added Roar of Reclamation for Open the Vaults. Roar is strictly better for me since I have zero enchantments, and I finally ordered one.
- Added River Kelpie in place of Worn Powerstone for several reasons. I have plenty of ramping, the Kelpie seems like a great fit with Sharuum, and there is no foil version of Worn Powerstone.
- Still haven't managed to find a Kuldotha Forgemaster, so Arcum Dagsson will have to do until then.
More on this to come...
EDIT: Added the two legal storage lands from Time Spiral for basics.
MOAR EDITZ: Received a very nice foily Sharuum as a birthday present from a friend. Also managed to find enough foil Swamps and Islands for this deck. Still need a set of foil Plains.
Also, after the Commander box sets came out, I re-did the prices on all three stores.
Thanks! My deck is coming along quite nicely, despite the lack of a few pricier cards (which now have their own section). I'm also up to almost 75% foils, and eventually I'll post some pictures of the deck (probably once I get all the land foiled out). Has anyone in your area tried to do this?
I meant has anyone in your area tried to make a $50 deck like this? If so, I'd certainly like to hear about it.
On another note, Everflowing Chalice is coming down in price, so it should probably come in here at some point, along with Unwinding Clock. Any thoughts on what to cut from this list?
Last night was the debut for about a half dozen changes to my deck (listed in the OP). - I managed to win two games with this list, one by comboing out with Thopter/Sword/Ironworks, and one by casting Soulscour with a crap-ton of artifacts in play. None of the other decks that I beat were budgetary.
- Enigma Sphinx was excellent. I often went out of my way to tutor him up, and I also made an effort to bounce him with Aether Spellbomb so I could recast him. Free stuff FTW!
- Everflowing Chalice was also excellent. I had a 3-point Chalice in play after Soulscour and I needed all of it. The only minor inconvenience is that the Chalice doesn't work too well with Sharuum recursion, but that's hardly enough of a reason to cut it.
- Unwinding Clock was also excellent. I managed to find my Shimmer Myr in both games, so the Clock had plenty of things to do. Not untapping lands was a bit obnoxious, so I'm gonna try to squeeze the artifact lands back in here.
- Pentavus was pretty meh. I usually spend all my mana every turn, so I rarely made more dudes. I'll leave it in for now, but it hasn't impressed me yet.
- Darksteel Ingot was, well, awesome as usual.
- Did not get a chance to play Grand Architect or Moriok Replica yet.
A side note: I was playing my white Akroma deck against a non-budgetary Sharuum deck. At one point, he managed to get out a Darksteel Forge, after I had already used Return to Dust on him. I didn't have any outs to the Forge until he decided to play March of the Machines. I then proceeded to Crib Swap the 9/9 indestructible Forge into a teeny little baby. We all had a good laugh at his expense.
The next change I'm thinking about making is trading out Duplicant for Kuldotha Forgemaster...
- Duplicant is one of the pricier spells in my list, and the Forgemaster is a re-usable tutor who's cost plays right into the hands of my general's ability. This swap would cut my cost on 2 of the 3 stores down under $50.
- However, Duplicant is a 6-mana artifact (Treasure Mage) and easily one of the best single-creature removal spells in the format. Forgemaster is also rather slow, and we all know how hard it is to get a permanent to survive until your next untap step. Furthermore, there really aren't that many good replacements for Duplicant.
Phyrexian Ingester? bulk rare most sites I was looking at have it for 50 cents or less, some as low as 10 cents. Save you some money room in the deck.
Phyrexian Ingester? bulk rare most sites I was looking at have it for 50 cents or less, some as low as 10 cents. Save you some money room in the deck.
Yeah, I've been thinking about making that change as well. The problem is that Ingester is not an artifact. Duplicant interacts positively with a large number of other spells in the list, including Sharuum, Treasure Mage, Fabricate, Mirrorworks, and Sphinx Summoner to name a few. None of these work with the Ingester.
Don't get me wrong: Ingester is a fine card, and the logical choice if I'm really pressed for "cap space", but unfortunately I grade non-artifact spells very harshly in this list.
Vedalken Engineer is in a similar boat, and for that matter so is Grand Architect. Neither of them are artifacts, so they don't interact all that favorably with the rest of the deck. The Architect managed to make the grade (so far) because it has the potential to gain more value with other artifacts on the table, but that may change once I actually get to cast it. Other such non-artifact cards I've considered are things like Fact or Fiction, Sphinx of Uthuun Fact or Fiction, Vedalken Archmage, etc. If anyone knows of any artifacts that could return non-artifacts from graveyard to hand/play/library, that might be helpful.
Haven't made any updates to this deck in over a month, but some things have changed, and I need some help.
First of all, I finally received my foil Sculpting Steel in the mail last night, and it looks gorgeous. I'm now up to 82% foils in this deck.
Second, I've noticed recently that my win percentage goes way up depending on how much mileage I get out of Unwinding Clock. In the right scenarios, it's like a Seedborn Muse for artifacts, but much less threatening and harder to kill. To that extent, I managed to acquire foil copies of Ancient Den, Seat of the Synod, and Vault of Whispers.
The problem is that these three lands would put me several dollars over budget, so I would need to cut a couple bucks out of the current list. Below is a list of all of the cards worth at least a dollar that could be cut:
These 13 cards make up roughly half of the deck's budget.
- Oblivion Stone, Duplicant, Krark-Clan Ironworks, Master Transmuter, and Sculpting Steel are pretty much untouchable, as they are all artifacts with fairly unique abilities. As previously discussed, Phyrexian Ingester is not nearly as effective as Duplicant. Phyrexian Metamorph is unfortunately still more expensive than Sculpting Steel, and Nevinyrral's Disk does not hit planeswalkers like Oblivion Stone does. Ironworks is immensely useful because its sacrifice cost is free to activate, meaning I can protect things from the likes of Into the Core. Master Transmuter is an immediate threat that can take over games.
- Grand Architect is really pulling its weight right now. Affinity players know how good Springleaf Drum is, and Architect is on the same power level.
- Austere Command's versatility is undeniable, but this deck has a very hard time recurring non-artifact spells. Scourglass is extremely slow, so it's less effective unless I can flash it in.
- Everflowing Chalice sucks unless I cast it from my hand, so it loses value there, but it's a Trinket (although I'm trying to add three other Trinkets).
- Grim Poppet is expensive and only kills smaller things, and I don't proliferate.
- Reshape is a really nice tutor. The sacrifice part is almost always worth it.
- Thopter Foundry/Sword of the Meek is obviously a nice combo. While the Sword is only there for the combo, I think I would still play the Foundry even if I cut the Sword.
So, I'm looking for some help on cutting a couple of cards in favor of the three artifact lands. Any opinions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help!
I would probably cut Grim Poppet and Chalice.
Poppet has always felt somewhat average card, though I guess it's decent with Scarecrone.
And Chalice for the reasons you stated. In the early games if I have some other manarocks in hand, I always play something else and in the late game it usually just loses it's value.
I would probably cut Grim Poppet and Chalice.
Poppet has always felt somewhat average card, though I guess it's decent with Scarecrone.
And Chalice for the reasons you stated. In the early games if I have some other manarocks in hand, I always play something else and in the late game it usually just loses it's value.
Yeah, those two are probably the first ones to go. Darksteel Ingot might also get cut, although having colored mana rocks that untap with Unwinding Clock are very nice.
A couple of cards that have been rather unimpressive but would not change the budget much are Enigma Sphinx and Filigree Angel. Both are rather expensive and underwhelming (and worth about a quarter each).
One more card I've considered cutting because it's not much fun is Soulscour. No one likes to play against Armageddon effects, and although this one leaves me with a considerable board position, it still takes a few turns to end the game, and I'm usually the only one who can cast any spells during that time. So, I might cut it for failing the fun test, despite the fact that it is also not worth much. Any thoughts on whether or not Soulscour is worth it or just "not fun"?
Yeah, those two are probably the first ones to go. Darksteel Ingot might also get cut, although having colored mana rocks that untap with Unwinding Clock are very nice.
A couple of cards that have been rather unimpressive but would not change the budget much are Enigma Sphinx and Filigree Angel. Both are rather expensive and underwhelming (and worth about a quarter each).
One more card I've considered cutting because it's not much fun is Soulscour. No one likes to play against Armageddon effects, and although this one leaves me with a considerable board position, it still takes a few turns to end the game, and I'm usually the only one who can cast any spells during that time. So, I might cut it for failing the fun test, despite the fact that it is also not worth much. Any thoughts on whether or not Soulscour is worth it or just "not fun"?
I've cut Filigree Angel from my build for that reason. It's really expensive even though it has once saved me after being dropped down to 10 by Sorin Markov. It's P/T being relatively low, it's merely a chump blocker with situationary good ETB ability.
Soulscour is kinda meta dependant. I would run it in competitive deck, but not in casual one. Mass LD is disliked amongst my friends so I haven't included it in my deck.
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@Crypt vs. Relic: There isn't a whole lot of difference...I suppose I could just run the Relic. It's much slower and doesn't target the card that I want to remove, so if someone mills themself for X cards and one of them is a Genesis, it could be awhile before I can actually remove the Genesis. T-Crypt is a little faster and more efficient (I once had a problem where I couldn't tutor up my Relic with Tolaria West, and I've been running T-Crypt instead ever since). Since I don't have anything that interacts with an opponent's graveyard, all I care about is removing the person's yard.
Yeva (88/92 foils)
Raff
Scarab
Rakdos
Wort ($50 budget, 94/97 foils)
Trostani
Level 1 Judge
I probably came on a little too strong there...sorry about that.
The Relic is certainly a more budget-friendly option, and another budget option is Withered Wretch. The latter is actually just the best grave-hater in the format, I think. However, I chose not to run the Wretch because it isn't an artifact and it can't be fetched up with either Trinket Mage or Tolaria West, and it doesn't synergize with the rest of the deck (things like Salvaging Station, Sanctum Gargoyle, and Sharuum).
Yeva (88/92 foils)
Raff
Scarab
Rakdos
Wort ($50 budget, 94/97 foils)
Trostani
I dont feel that creatures that have indestructibility have much threat. I mean you do have master transmuter and duplicant combo and thopter / sword combo to pump out tokens to sac for those Eldrazi. Evacuation only delay 1 turn. Beside, most of your creatures have high casting cast, you may have difficulty casting them all again after an evacuation. Maybe you can consider Ashes to Ashes, Iona's Judgment and Unmake for a more permenant answer. If not, you can just Mind Control them. ha
Legacy Deck:
Punishing Jund
I think the answers to Ulamog and others like him need to come from white. Condemn has been an absolute bomb for me in EDH recently, so that's an option that could come in on the cheap. Exile is a similar card albeit a little costlier at $1.50. Black offers some edict effects, or abyss effects. Since you play a lot of tokens and recursion, guys like Anowan, the Ruin Sage aren't terrible, but I also don't think he's the answer.
I agree with you about keeping with the artifact theme. This is a deck where I really would not want to dip into too many non-artifact spells. I don't think that the deck is sub-par so far to any other decks you've probably come across, I think it's just that it needs to reach a certain threshhold of certain types of spells to get more competitive. Aka, maybe you need 2 more spot removal spells, maybe you need 4. Maybe you need 1 more sweeper, maybe you need 3. Etc, etc. Playtesting should iron that out a bit.
Hallowed Burial is a nice effect, but rather than causing all the drama I'd prefer the individual white tuckers or removal spells. Crib Swap is another option. I know some people don't like giving their opponent a 1/1 changeling, but as a cheap common I think the tradeoff is fairly minimal in EDH for the ability you gain. I could easily see both Condemn and Crib Swap coming into this deck and adding just enough smidge of removal to make the deck a little more battle-worthy.
RWU
Zedruu, the Greathearted
RGW Uril, the Miststalker
Yeva (88/92 foils)
Raff
Scarab
Rakdos
Wort ($50 budget, 94/97 foils)
Trostani
Edit: Sharuum and a Scuplting Steel, or the Phyrexian Metamorph, when NPH is out.
Anyway, it goes:
1. Steel in graveyard. Discard it or something.
2. Play Sharuum.
3. Target Scuplting Steel with Sharuum's trigger.
4. Steel comes into play, as a Copy of Sharuum. Both go to graveyard before the triggers are put on the stack.
5. Target both Sharuum and Steel with the triggers.
6. First trigger resolves, returning Steel. Sacrifice it to a Station.
7. Second trigger resolves, returning Sharuum.
8. Go to Step 3.
Obviously, you could play Steel from your hand to start it.
But, I can see why you don't want this, considering Steel's price.
New cards to consider from NPH (using CFB prices since that's all I have right now):
- Phyrexian Metamorph ($4.00): The absolute perfect card for this deck. Here's hoping it goes down in price, because I already cut Sculpting Steel for price reasons.
- Unwinding Clock ($1.00): Seedborn Muse for artifacts? Only a dollar? Yes, please!
- Mycosynth Wellspring ($0.10): Excellent fixer, triggers twice, only a dime. Sign me up!
- Pristine Talisman ($0.05): Eh, doesn't really fix mana, has to compete with Ingot and Pilgrim's Eye at three mana. Probably not.
On a separate note, I think it would be interesting to note how much my deck would cost from each of several different popular sites. More on this to come...
Yeva (88/92 foils)
Raff
Scarab
Rakdos
Wort ($50 budget, 94/97 foils)
Trostani
- Prices are now from three different sites
- Removed individual card prices (too many to keep track of)
- Added more notes on how total list prices are determined.
Yeva (88/92 foils)
Raff
Scarab
Rakdos
Wort ($50 budget, 94/97 foils)
Trostani
Couldn't find Mycosynth Wellspring anywhere
Pristine Talisman is cute but not worth it IMO in a tri-color deck.
We probably shouldn't branch it out to 3 buy sites. That just makes it involve more work. And you took the individual prices off, so I assume that was in the intentions of making it less work.
Do you know if TrollandToad has a "deckbuilder" feature like Starcity? That's my only beef with them.
RWU
Zedruu, the Greathearted
RGW Uril, the Miststalker
Mycosynth Wellspring, from the New Phyrexia Spolier, is card #145/175.
Unfortunately, Troll & Toad does not have that sweet deck builder function on their site, which makes for a lot less work when pricing things out.
EDIT: Added a change log to the OP.
I cut a Disk and a basic land for an O-Stone and an Austere Command. While that does not change the overall price of the deck, I felt that it was necessary to add another wrath effect. The Disk was the first thing I wanted to cut because it's the most expensive, but I know that an artifact-based sweeper is pretty important. Scourglass is pretty effective when it works, but it's also very slow, and my experience has taught me that you can't always rely on a permanent surviving until your next turn.
EDIT: Thinking about cutting Tormod's Crypt for either Withered Wretch, Relic of Progenitus, or something else entirely (I have two other grave-haters already, and T-Crypt is the priciest one). Also thinking about cutting Vivid lands...so far the fixing has been pretty solid.
Yeva (88/92 foils)
Raff
Scarab
Rakdos
Wort ($50 budget, 94/97 foils)
Trostani
- Replaced Tormod's Crypt with Withered Wretch, for the reasons I listed above.
- Replaced Darksteel Ingot with Obelisk of Esper. The Obelisk does the exact same thing as the Ingot for much less $$$, and I don't really care if it dies since my deck is supposed to resurrect artifacts.
The next change I'm thinking about making is trading out Duplicant for Kuldotha Forgemaster...
- Duplicant is one of the pricier spells in my list, and the Forgemaster is a re-usable tutor who's cost plays right into the hands of my general's ability. This swap would cut my cost on 2 of the 3 stores down under $50.
- However, Duplicant is a 6-mana artifact (Treasure Mage) and easily one of the best single-creature removal spells in the format. Forgemaster is also rather slow, and we all know how hard it is to get a permanent to survive until your next untap step. Furthermore, there really aren't that many good replacements for Duplicant. Shriekmaw and Bone Shredder don't kill black or artifact creatures. Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares only work once and are difficult to reuse. Altar of Shadows is way too slow. Brittle Effigy only works once. Most of the potential replacements are also not artifacts, so they are harder to recur and fetch.
Here's hoping that Phyrexian Metamorph goes waaaaaaaaay down in value soon, because that card is just about the perfect fit for this deck.
Yeva (88/92 foils)
Raff
Scarab
Rakdos
Wort ($50 budget, 94/97 foils)
Trostani
- Mayael pumped out a lot of fatties (thanks to an active and foily Godsire) and also cast a Creeping Corrosion that completely wrecked me.
- Kraj had a large number of threats that I wasn't able to remove. Quicksilver Elemental was a problem when it started copying the afforementioned Godsire, Murkfiend Liege allowed his whole team to untap very often, and Plaxcaster Frogling ensured that I wouldn't be able to remove any of his creatures.
- I did manage to get a Salvaging Station online with both Aether Spellbomb and Executioner's Capsule working, but because of the shroud effect I could not remove anything significant.
- I also managed to recur Grim Poppet with Scarecrone a few times, but the Poppet was not very good at killing anything (took two tries to kill a Seedborn Muse, never even tried to kill the Godsire).
- There was one epic sequence where I thought I could drop a Magister Sphinx on the Kraj player and then attack with Sharuum a couple of times for the win, but his Lurking Predators trigger revealed a Spike Weaver for the win.
- There was a point where I had entirely too many basic lands in my hand, thanks in part to playing multiple bounce-lands, and also from just generally being flooded.
I made a couple changes after last night's games:
- Added a Terrain Generator for a basic Swamp to try and get some more excess lands into play faster.
- Added Mistmeadow Witch for Stonecloaker. I have enough grave-hate between the Wretch, Bog, and Spellbomb, and the Bog and Spellbomb are re-usable with bouncelands and recursion. Mistmeadow Witch is a great utility spell with a ton of targets in my list (and a pet card of mine from the UW Lark days).
- Added Roar of Reclamation for Open the Vaults. Roar is strictly better for me since I have zero enchantments, and I finally ordered one.
- Added River Kelpie in place of Worn Powerstone for several reasons. I have plenty of ramping, the Kelpie seems like a great fit with Sharuum, and there is no foil version of Worn Powerstone.
- Still haven't managed to find a Kuldotha Forgemaster, so Arcum Dagsson will have to do until then.
More on this to come...
EDIT: Added the two legal storage lands from Time Spiral for basics.
MOAR EDITZ: Received a very nice foily Sharuum as a birthday present from a friend. Also managed to find enough foil Swamps and Islands for this deck. Still need a set of foil Plains.
Also, after the Commander box sets came out, I re-did the prices on all three stores.
Yeva (88/92 foils)
Raff
Scarab
Rakdos
Wort ($50 budget, 94/97 foils)
Trostani
EDH - Mirri
Mahvel: Spencer/Magz/Vergil
Thanks! My deck is coming along quite nicely, despite the lack of a few pricier cards (which now have their own section). I'm also up to almost 75% foils, and eventually I'll post some pictures of the deck (probably once I get all the land foiled out). Has anyone in your area tried to do this?
Yeva (88/92 foils)
Raff
Scarab
Rakdos
Wort ($50 budget, 94/97 foils)
Trostani
EDH - Mirri
Mahvel: Spencer/Magz/Vergil
I meant has anyone in your area tried to make a $50 deck like this? If so, I'd certainly like to hear about it.
On another note, Everflowing Chalice is coming down in price, so it should probably come in here at some point, along with Unwinding Clock. Any thoughts on what to cut from this list?
Yeva (88/92 foils)
Raff
Scarab
Rakdos
Wort ($50 budget, 94/97 foils)
Trostani
- Enigma Sphinx was excellent. I often went out of my way to tutor him up, and I also made an effort to bounce him with Aether Spellbomb so I could recast him. Free stuff FTW!
- Everflowing Chalice was also excellent. I had a 3-point Chalice in play after Soulscour and I needed all of it. The only minor inconvenience is that the Chalice doesn't work too well with Sharuum recursion, but that's hardly enough of a reason to cut it.
- Unwinding Clock was also excellent. I managed to find my Shimmer Myr in both games, so the Clock had plenty of things to do. Not untapping lands was a bit obnoxious, so I'm gonna try to squeeze the artifact lands back in here.
- Pentavus was pretty meh. I usually spend all my mana every turn, so I rarely made more dudes. I'll leave it in for now, but it hasn't impressed me yet.
- Darksteel Ingot was, well, awesome as usual.
- Did not get a chance to play Grand Architect or Moriok Replica yet.
A side note: I was playing my white Akroma deck against a non-budgetary Sharuum deck. At one point, he managed to get out a Darksteel Forge, after I had already used Return to Dust on him. I didn't have any outs to the Forge until he decided to play March of the Machines. I then proceeded to Crib Swap the 9/9 indestructible Forge into a teeny little baby. We all had a good laugh at his expense.
Yeva (88/92 foils)
Raff
Scarab
Rakdos
Wort ($50 budget, 94/97 foils)
Trostani
Phyrexian Ingester? bulk rare most sites I was looking at have it for 50 cents or less, some as low as 10 cents. Save you some money room in the deck.
Talrand, Sky Summoner
Darien and his Loyal Army
Marrow-Gnawer tribal rats
Elesh Norn / Sharuum / Damia - Retired
Yeah, I've been thinking about making that change as well. The problem is that Ingester is not an artifact. Duplicant interacts positively with a large number of other spells in the list, including Sharuum, Treasure Mage, Fabricate, Mirrorworks, and Sphinx Summoner to name a few. None of these work with the Ingester.
Don't get me wrong: Ingester is a fine card, and the logical choice if I'm really pressed for "cap space", but unfortunately I grade non-artifact spells very harshly in this list.
Vedalken Engineer is in a similar boat, and for that matter so is Grand Architect. Neither of them are artifacts, so they don't interact all that favorably with the rest of the deck. The Architect managed to make the grade (so far) because it has the potential to gain more value with other artifacts on the table, but that may change once I actually get to cast it. Other such non-artifact cards I've considered are things like Fact or Fiction, Sphinx of
UthuunFact or Fiction, Vedalken Archmage, etc. If anyone knows of any artifacts that could return non-artifacts from graveyard to hand/play/library, that might be helpful.Yeva (88/92 foils)
Raff
Scarab
Rakdos
Wort ($50 budget, 94/97 foils)
Trostani
Haven't made any updates to this deck in over a month, but some things have changed, and I need some help.
First of all, I finally received my foil Sculpting Steel in the mail last night, and it looks gorgeous. I'm now up to 82% foils in this deck.
Second, I've noticed recently that my win percentage goes way up depending on how much mileage I get out of Unwinding Clock. In the right scenarios, it's like a Seedborn Muse for artifacts, but much less threatening and harder to kill. To that extent, I managed to acquire foil copies of Ancient Den, Seat of the Synod, and Vault of Whispers.
The problem is that these three lands would put me several dollars over budget, so I would need to cut a couple bucks out of the current list. Below is a list of all of the cards worth at least a dollar that could be cut:
These 13 cards make up roughly half of the deck's budget.
- Oblivion Stone, Duplicant, Krark-Clan Ironworks, Master Transmuter, and Sculpting Steel are pretty much untouchable, as they are all artifacts with fairly unique abilities. As previously discussed, Phyrexian Ingester is not nearly as effective as Duplicant. Phyrexian Metamorph is unfortunately still more expensive than Sculpting Steel, and Nevinyrral's Disk does not hit planeswalkers like Oblivion Stone does. Ironworks is immensely useful because its sacrifice cost is free to activate, meaning I can protect things from the likes of Into the Core. Master Transmuter is an immediate threat that can take over games.
- Grand Architect is really pulling its weight right now. Affinity players know how good Springleaf Drum is, and Architect is on the same power level.
- Austere Command's versatility is undeniable, but this deck has a very hard time recurring non-artifact spells. Scourglass is extremely slow, so it's less effective unless I can flash it in.
- Everflowing Chalice sucks unless I cast it from my hand, so it loses value there, but it's a Trinket (although I'm trying to add three other Trinkets).
- Grim Poppet is expensive and only kills smaller things, and I don't proliferate.
- Reshape is a really nice tutor. The sacrifice part is almost always worth it.
- Thopter Foundry/Sword of the Meek is obviously a nice combo. While the Sword is only there for the combo, I think I would still play the Foundry even if I cut the Sword.
So, I'm looking for some help on cutting a couple of cards in favor of the three artifact lands. Any opinions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help!
Yeva (88/92 foils)
Raff
Scarab
Rakdos
Wort ($50 budget, 94/97 foils)
Trostani
Poppet has always felt somewhat average card, though I guess it's decent with Scarecrone.
And Chalice for the reasons you stated. In the early games if I have some other manarocks in hand, I always play something else and in the late game it usually just loses it's value.
Yeah, those two are probably the first ones to go. Darksteel Ingot might also get cut, although having colored mana rocks that untap with Unwinding Clock are very nice.
A couple of cards that have been rather unimpressive but would not change the budget much are Enigma Sphinx and Filigree Angel. Both are rather expensive and underwhelming (and worth about a quarter each).
One more card I've considered cutting because it's not much fun is Soulscour. No one likes to play against Armageddon effects, and although this one leaves me with a considerable board position, it still takes a few turns to end the game, and I'm usually the only one who can cast any spells during that time. So, I might cut it for failing the fun test, despite the fact that it is also not worth much. Any thoughts on whether or not Soulscour is worth it or just "not fun"?
Yeva (88/92 foils)
Raff
Scarab
Rakdos
Wort ($50 budget, 94/97 foils)
Trostani
I've cut Filigree Angel from my build for that reason. It's really expensive even though it has once saved me after being dropped down to 10 by Sorin Markov. It's P/T being relatively low, it's merely a chump blocker with situationary good ETB ability.
Soulscour is kinda meta dependant. I would run it in competitive deck, but not in casual one. Mass LD is disliked amongst my friends so I haven't included it in my deck.