Finally got to sling some cardboard this weekend and it's informed a few changes:
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Dust Corona was the worst aura I was running. Sometimes this deck feels like it's a little too heavy on the "bad" auras, especially when you opening hand contains 3+ of them. I've got my eye on Pursuit of Flight as the next one on the chopping block, but cutting these guys is risky business since the deck also needs a critical density of them to make Zedruu a threat.
Boros Charm just wasn't good enough at what it was here for; protecting the goat. As a one-shot effect it can't hold a candle to Reality Ripple or some Counterspell Sunforger was supposed to compensate for that, but really you're just better off Sunforging up Counterflux for whatever was going to destroy Zedruu in the first place.
Bruna, Light of Alabaster was only good when things were going really bad in a very particular way. The rest of the time it just rotted in my hand.
Quarantine Field has been great. O-Ring is good and this card is several of those stapled together.
Coalition Relic would be better if it didn't cost 3 but there's not much to be done about that. It's a colored Worn Powerstone which is exactly the kind of thing this deck needs.
Chrome Mox works well here since this is a deck that can take advantage of the extra mana starting on turn 1. The only time it's awkward is when your opening hand is already kind of a mess and pitching any card would break up what little it has going.
One more change that I'm testing but don't want to make official yet is Mass Calcify -> Aligned Hedron Network. The Network is quite the double-edged sword but the little testing I've done with it makes it seem manageable. Sometimes you just won't draw any acceleration and can fall pretty far behind on the board. Network cleans that all up. There are also some spots where you can stick and protect Zedruu but can't really commit to aggression because of what your opponents are up to, and the Network is good there as well. Moreover, and I didn't notice this until I was playing with the cards, Vanishing and Flickerform let a suited up Zedruu avoid becoming trapped in an infinite energy loop. However, it's a little scary to be playing with a card that exiles all big creatures when the goal of the deck is to make your general into a big creature. I'm still on the fence with this one.
Another realization I'm coming to is just how mana hungry this deck is. Signets and stuff that taps for one colored mana are fine in the early game, but once I start drawing 2-4 extra cards per turn one land drop per turn just isn't cutting it. There isn't a whole lot to be done about not having Explosive Vegetation in a Jeskai deck, but it's got me thinking about Burnished Hart. Are there any other playable cards that let me ramp for 2+ colored mana at a time?
Another realization I'm coming to is just how mana hungry this deck is. Signets and stuff that taps for one colored mana are fine in the early game, but once I start drawing 2-4 extra cards per turn one land drop per turn just isn't cutting it. There isn't a whole lot to be done about not having Explosive Vegetation in a Jeskai deck, but it's got me thinking about Burnished Hart. Are there any other playable cards that let me ramp for 2+ colored mana at a time?
Gilded Lotus is the playable card that ramps for 3 colored mana at a time.
And if your hand gets as fat as mine, Mind Over Matter might work for you as well since it optionally makes all your cards in hand into rituals (or Black Lotus if you have Gilded Lotus), and it's obviously a lot more powerful and versatile than that, but it is incredibly resource hungry (in both casting cost and activation) and might not perform for you like it does for me since my Zedruu deck is practically dedicated to drawing every card in the deck and can really pull the trigger when MOM lands. It really powers things out, but it is not the cutting edge of efficiency.
Gilded Lotus though, that is the card you're describing.
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
My only issue with Gilded Lotus is that it taps for one color at a time so I worry that I won't be able to spend all three of the mana. Working out the probability of being able to spend all the mana would be a truly ridiculous combinatorics problem so nuts to that; maybe I'll just test it. Mind Over Matter does a lot of insane things in a lot of places, but in this deck I think it would just be a win-more. I'm not going to say it's off the table, though, since tapping down blockers seems amusing.
Edit: I made the mechanically irrelevant observation last night that this deck plays Zedruu like a traditional EDH deck might have played Chromium. The goat often reads "At the beginning of your upkeep, pay URW or miss out on value." and having three attacks connect is often enough to get the job done. Doesn't matter from a game-play perspective but comparing Zedruu to an Elder Dragon made me chuckle.
Could someone explain how Quarantine Field is good? I might be missing something, I'm always a student so there have been times where I get things completely wrong, or guilty of missing something obvious. It seems like a million mana to Oblivion Ring more than one thing? It doesn't seem playable without Flash.
In general, I think it may be a bit over-hyped for what it does. In a Zedruu deck, it's versatile and scaling removal that is also a donate target without downside.
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
Skybind only exiles for a turn. Quarantine Filed exiles for as long as it stays in play. And any permanent can be a donation target, but only really auras and a select few other things continue to serve your needs specifically while under the control of another player.
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
I feel like we've gone full circle here since theonecalledrune suggested both Gilded Lotus and Skybind in the second reply. The deck is much different now then it was at that time, though, so maybe they're worth considering again. I've already said my piece on the Lotus so let's address Skybind. Since it only exiles until end of turn it can:
Evaporate tokens.
Effectively untap lands for use on defense and donation only.
Push aside blockers (except those with awesome ETB effects).
I still don't think that it's worthwhile, though. At 5 mana it competes with some pretty good sweepers that do, or eliminate the need for, most of those things now as opposed to when I cast a lot of cheap enchantments. As tstorm823 implied, Skybind is a completely different type of a card than Quarantine Field. Doesn't really make sense to compare them like that. But, Action_Mane, you're right to be concerned about Quarantine Field costing a bazillion mana to cast. Keep in mind that the card it's replacing, Mass Calcify, is also quite spendy. Basically the reasoning behind Q-Field is that O-Ring is good in this deck and this is like several of those in one card. I wouldn't play it in any random deck, but this deck cares about having lots of gifts for friends.
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You would never guess, at the terrifying sight of the man, that Hunding was as charming a companion as one could wish for.
Shielded by Faith. I'm probably the only one who's upset that this card can swap targets.
As for the prowess creatures, I don't think that Abbot of Keral Keep is right for this deck. It's just not trying to play that kind of game. Monastery Mentor joins Bruna, Light of Alabaster and Narset, Enlightened Master on the Mythic Backup Squad. For one card slot it provides a Zedruu-independent way of winning. It also tries to win in a different way, going wide instead of going tall. Something to think about, anyway.
To be honest I haven't actually gotten a chance to test the last round of changes to the deck. Seriously, guys, stay out of school. It cuts into your Magic time...
Edit: Commander 2015 set review is now up. A brief summary is already above but check out the original post for more details.
I don't want to make any "official" changes to the deck without testing them a good amount first. Unfortunately I haven't been able to play Magic for the last couple of months, and it's not looking good for the Spring semester. I'll definitely let you guys know about any playing that I do, especially as it pertains to new card choices. For now, though, here are some unofficial changes based on general experience with the deck rather than actual experience with the new cards:
Grasp of Fate will almost definitely upgrade Mass Calcify. Mass Calcify has always been so-so and the huge influx into the metagame from Khans block of multi-colored generals that happen to be white doesn't help matters. I know that sometime earlier I did said that Quarantine Field would replace Mass Calcify, it ended up replacing Bruna, Light of Alabaster instead. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.
I want to test each of Bastion Protector and Shielded by Faith in Darksteel Plate's slot. These two I'm not so sure of because they each present their own problems and the Plate is just so sturdy with indestructible.
Mystic Confluence is more mana then I want to be spending on a counter in this deck, but it's also just too powerful not to test. Not sure what would be a good card to cut for testing, though. Delay has been fine but hardly a staple card so maybe I could survive spending three more mana to deal with a spell. Temporarily swapping out Cryptic Command for Mystic Confluence might be a reasonable way to test the latter since their mana costs are similar. Again, only cut Cryptic Command temporarily for testing. Pretty sure no one needs me to explain how nuts that card is.
Edit: So guys, I've got a confession to make. I've never actually played Scout's Warning in this deck because, believe it or not, I've been completely unable to get my hands on a copy. Instead I've been running Enlightened Tutor in that slot and it's been super-duper good. Fetching up Pentad Prism on one of the first two turns is spectacular (unless you're on a double-mulligan) and it can even grab anartifactland if you need it to. It also makes the hate cards like Torpor Orb and Rest in Peace better by making it more likely for them so show up on time. And let's not forget that it digs up an O-Ring effect at instant speed to take care of whatever the jerk to your right just landed. Kinda makes me wonder if Enlightened Tutor is just better than Scout's Warning here, but I'm going to want to test the cantrip to be sure.
Speaking of cantrips, Stupefying Touch may not be pulling its weight. The main purpose of it in this deck is to cantrip and smooth out the early game while being able to shut down something relevant. It's great when you get to slam it down on someone's turn 1 Deathrite Shaman but too often no one will cooperate and it'll just sit in your hand until turn 3 or 4. On the other hand there's a certain blue Legendary Enchantment from Oath of the Gatewatch that may just be everything I've always wanted for the deck. Super excited about that card and anxious to see the remaining parts of the cycle that it's from.
Got to play a bunch of 1v1 games this weekend. In light of those games I'm gonna go ahead and make the Mass Calcify -> Grasp of Fate replacement. Grasp is at its worst in 1v1 but just having another O-Ring was terrific. There's always something good to exile. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to try out either Bastion Protector or Mystic Confluence so those are still up in the air. Enlightened Tutor was fantastic as usual, and I made it a point to consider how Scout's Warning would have played out whenever I drew it. There were definitely times when I had to wait to develop some more mana so that I could cast and protect Zedruu, and in those cases it would have been nice to have Scout's Warning. There were also a lot of games where I wanted more ramp, and in light of the last sentence Scout's Warning might be functional ramp since it allows me to play the Goat sooner. Anyway, the decision between Scout's Warning and Enlightened Tutor is turning out to be more difficult than I thought. Maybe both cards deserve a slot.
Some other things I noticed during the most recent play session:
Calciform Pools is just about perfect for this deck. It effectively costs 2 mana to charge it up and that compliments Zedruu's activated ability costing 3 since it improves the deck's mana efficiency. However, tapping for colorless mana was a non-trivial drawback and the real payout was being able to hold up tons of blue mana with a single land. I no longer think that Mage-Ring Network might be good here exactly because it never taps for colored mana.
Pursuit of Flight was an under-performer because it was often impossible to pay U on my own turn without leaving myself exposed or sacrificing a donation.
I drew Sunforger several times but could never seem to find a good time to cast and equip it. Frankly, it just costs a lot of mana. It's a little early to start looking at replacing the powerful equipment, but this recent set of games definitely begs the question.
Azorius Chancery and Izzet Boilerworks were both great at essentially being two land drops in one. Makes me wonder if Boros Garrison may be worth another look, despite not tapping for U. I also wanted to be able to run Mox Diamond for more ramp and color fixing, and bounce-lands help make that Mox viable.
Chrome Mox was awesome every time I drew it. Starting up a mana on turn 1 is huge and it's no worse than most other rocks late in the game when a land drop is sufficient development. It really makes me wonder if there's a way to make Mox Diamond and Mox Opal work here.
In other news my Oath of the Gatewatch set review is up. Oath of Jace is the main takeaway, but as usual there are some other cards that are worth pondering. Oath will be replacing Stupefying Touch as soon as I can pick up a copy. The latter has moments of greatness, but too often it just rots in my hand doing nothing.
Chrome Mox was awesome every time I drew it. Starting up a mana on turn 1 is huge and it's no worse than most other rocks late in the game when a land drop is sufficient development. It really makes me wonder if there's a way to make Mox Diamond and Mox Opal work here.
Based on my experience:
Mox Diamond is absolutely worth the consideration. It makes free mana of any color at the small cost of a land from your hand, which is not much of a problem when you are drawing multiple cards a turn.
Mox Opal isn't something I ever really considered because the monetary cost to game benefit ratio is miniscule, but after using the two moxen I have to great effect, I figured I'd give it a try as a proxy just to find out if it works. It turns out that I have metalcraft more often than I thought I would, but never on the first or second turn to make the free mana really count, and on multiple occassions, I didn't have metalcraft when I drew it because I had donated an artifact away, and that's just too feel bad an interaction to voluntarily include in a deck for me.
Yeah, Mox Opal would probably entail a pretty big rework of the deck to include lots more Ichor Wellspring-type cards and that's not something I want to do right now. I already run the artifact lands and a bunch of Signets so maybe metalcraft is attainable but not likely, as you say, in the very early turns when it matters most. Great point about drawing it after donating your second artifact on upkeep. That would be completely miserable. One other thing to note about Mox Opal is that you can potentially find an opponent without two other artifacts to donate it to. As with Chrome Mox this donation mode would be a slight benefit and is not by its self a reason to run the card.
Mox Diamond is definitely an incredible card in terms of fixing and acceleration. My only reservations are that this deck only runs 35 lands. I see that you run even fewer lands and still make good use out of Mox Diamond and, at least when it comes to finding early game land drops, my cantrips are vaguely comparable to your Howling Mine effects. I'll give it a try along with Boros Garrison, just to put my mind at ease.
Regarding the list tags, I've checked on several different platforms and the list appears to render correctly. I feel like we've had similar formatting-display issues before, too. Strange...
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You would never guess, at the terrifying sight of the man, that Hunding was as charming a companion as one could wish for.
Regarding the list tags, I've checked on several different platforms and the list appears to render correctly. I feel like we've had similar formatting-display issues before, too. Strange...
Lol! That's gone now, and it's my bad. It's because I quoted your post and I deleted the top part of the list, but the "[/ list]" part of it was still there without me realizing it. The forum software adds the sentence about list tags being wrong if you use the list function incorrectly, which I technically did. I don't know why it makes it look like I said that though. It's a rather inconvenient message.
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
With Shadows Over Innistrad now fully spoiled I've put a new set review in the original post. Here are some highlights from it:
Gryff's Boon is probably a bit better than Pursuit of Flight since it pumps and grants flying without any extra investment. Coming back from the dead is nice because this deck can definitely falter when a loaded up Zedruu bites the dust.
Senseless Rage combined with Strength of Isolation might be OK here because many of our card selection mechanisms involve discarding cards. Once the ball's rolling and the deck starts drawing exponentially many cards per turn, a little extra value from madness is meaningless, but before that tipping point every bit of value helps.
I decided for myself that if I pull a Nihiri, I'm playing her in my favorite deck (Zedruu, of course). This would be, in part, because I have still never actually opened a planeswalker, and immortalizing my first would be great, but I also think Nihiri is currently being criminally underrated.
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
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I decided for myself that if I pull a Nihiri, I'm playing her in my favorite deck (Zedruu, of course). This would be, in part, because I have still never actually opened a planeswalker, and immortalizing my first would be great, but I also think Nihiri is currently being criminally underrated.
In both our decks the first two abilities on Nahiri are solid gold, but in your deck the ultimate actually would be game-ending.
Have you tried gift of immortality instead of darksteel plate? It's not as powerful but can be donated.
Can't say that I have. Undoing every death is more noticeably different than preventing every death because all the auras fall off when Zedruu hits the bin. Indestructibility doesn't stop Zedruu from dying to -Lots/-Lots effects, but there aren't many of those that can actually hit big creatures. I do like that Gift of Immortality is donateable and that it only costs 2W. Being donateable means that, even after all the auras fall off, I'd have something to start rebuilding with. Bonus flavor points for actually giving an opponent a gift with Zedruu.
As you say, it's not as powerful as Darksteel Plate but in light of the above it could end up being better than Ring of Evos Isle, which is easily the worst protection card I run. Worth testing out, anyway.
Got to play a few more games last weekend. Nothing too surprising; one-sidedhate is great, colored mana is this deck's bottleneck, and Sunforger is still too mana intensive to do anything. Also, though I don't yet own copies of Oath of Jace or Gryff's Boon, I made sure to think about them whenever I drew Stupefying Touch or Pursuit of Flight (the latter were under consideration for replacing the former). While I did manage to tag an Arcum Dagsson with Stupefying Touch one game, the card overall was underwhelming. Moderate hand sculpting on turn 3 that leaves behind a gift is likely going to be better most of the time. I'll be keeping a close eye on my metagame because if it shifts more in the direction of Goblin Welder, Fauna Shaman and Mother of Runes type cards, Stupefying Touch could come back in. Meanwhile, Gryff's Boon costs 1 less than Pursuit of Flight but more importantly it doesn't require U to grant flying. Those features more than make up for the extra Holy Strength that comes with Pursuit of Flight, I think, so we'll give the new surprisingly-constructed-playable aura the nod over the old strictly-limited-playable one.
It is with a heavy heart that I type these words: it's time to let go of Sunforger. Right now it just doesn't feel like the card is any good in this deck. I can't even remember the last time I cast it. The power-level of tutoring up and casting a red and/or white instant is obviously off the charts. The problem is that you always have more mana efficient things to be doing. Paying 3 at sorcery speed and then paying 3again at sorcery speed to set up a RW is just too spendy for this deck. Cutting Sunforger also weakens 4 other cards in the deck: Return to Dust, Chaos Warp, Counterflux and Mistveil Plains. The first two are still very much format staples so they're not just dominoes that fall with Sunforger, but I probably want to replace them anyway. The Standard, Modern, and even Legacy communities have wised up to the power of Nahiri, the Harbinger, driving her price up and her ultimate is nearly blank in this deck. Nevertheless she does two things the deck really wants to be doing: filtering cards and exiling most permanent types. The Harbinger is probably a good replacement for Chaos Warp, which can be a little risky, but whether I can pick one up for a reasonable price remains to be seen. Counterflux has its moments, but if I can't pull it out of a hammer it'd probably be better off as another 2 CMC Counterspell effect. It's pretty slim pickings as far as 2 CMC counters goes, but Hesitation is cute and can be donated so it's worth a shot. Not super optimistic about that one actually being good, but it's cool enough that it warrants some testing. Finally, Mistveil Plains can just become Boros Garrison. The garrison is great at salvaging land light opening hands and plays nice with the Land Tax effects I run as well as with Mox Diamond (which might be replacing the Sunforger). Not tapping for U is unfortunate but, as Meatloaf says, "two out of three ain't bad."
One other thing I noticed while playing is that I wanted to sweep the board somewhat more often then I was able to. Without a sweeper, I was sometimes forced to commit more stuff to the board then I'd like to in order to bulk up the Goat and keep up with the rest of the tables' development. There are a few decent sweepers not currently in the deck: Mass Calcify (which used to be in the deck, until Tragic Arrogance came along), Wave of Reckoning, Austere Command and Chandra's Ignition. Right now I'm leaning toward Wave of Reckoning because Mass Calcify is expensive, Austere Command will almost never be selective enough, and Chandra's Ignition is contingent on actually having an enormous Greathearted Monk in play. Also, since the ignition makes the targeted creature do the damage and Zedruu is three colors, I expect that a larger than average portion of creatures would survive that particular sweeper by having protection from one or more of UWR. There's also Mystical Tutor which obviously isn't a sweeper by its self but, also obviously, it can find whichever one I need. One issue is that Mystical Tutor wouldn't be a good early game draw here and another is that this deck isn't really competitive enough to justify having a bunch of tutors. Seriously, I feel dirty enough casting Enlightened Tutor for Rest in Peace in a deck that's also sporting Immolation.
So, here are the updates I'll be testing next. As usual, I'm reasonably confident that most of these are correct but still want to do some testing before locking anything in.
One last thing that I'm torn on is the number of lands in this deck. I'm starting to really appreciate a tension that exists in the land count. On the one hand, the deck needs to hit its first 5 or 6 land drops, sometimes without help, in order to function. On the other hand, drawing 4 extra cards on upkeep and seeing Tundra, White Scarab, Mountain and Hyena Umbra is merely OK instead of being the game ender that drawing 4 extra cards should be. It's gotten to the point where I'm actually considering cutting down to 34 lands, but that plan looks even sketchier with Mox Diamond in the deck. Cycling lands help out in principle but the only one that doesn't come into play tapped, Blasted Landscape, is basically unplayable here because it only produces C. Maybe Temple of Triumph would be better as Lonely Sandbar or something?
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You would never guess, at the terrifying sight of the man, that Hunding was as charming a companion as one could wish for.
I also took my Zedruu to follow your voltron approach. However, what I found is the deck really comes to a standstill if Zedruu is dealt with. Having protection and indestructible simply isn't enough anymore. Too many exile and sacrifice effects and we really only have counter spells and the phasing to combat them.
There's also Flickerform, but your point stands. Exile and sacrifice effects are good against this deck, however they're not insurmountable. Exile effects are really only good if your only protection is either Darksteel Plate or Indestructibility. Everything else gives temporary shroud or hexproof so, Final Judgment aside, Zedruu will stay safe. There are certainly Grave Pacts in my metagame, but it's not saturated with those and Barter in Bloods so I don't usually have trouble with that effect. If things are different in your meta, you can run a few extra creatures to insulate Zedruu from edicts. Reasonable options include
There's also Reality Ripple, which might be the 2 CMC "counter" I'm looking for, as another good catch-all protection spell. As for being shut down by the death of Zedruu, one way to mitigate that is too slow down a little bit on purpose. If you can keep an extra aura in hand then you should be able to gas back up pretty quickly after the Goat bites it. Part of what lets me recover a lot of the time is that a sweeper (say, Hallowed Burial) was needed to actually deal with my commander so the board is underdeveloped while I'm redeploying Zedruu and redonating auras. Another way to cope when Zedruu is getting killed a lot is to use include some members of the Legendary Backup Squad:
It didn't occur to me until just now that Winding Canyons can do more than open a window to land Zedruu safely. Most sweepers are sorceries so Winding Canyons allows for the possibility of just replaying Zedruu at end of turn. That's huge because you could potentially start drawing cards again on your very next upkeep - assuming that somebody's still holding onto an O-Ring or something for you - instead of having to wait a whole turn cycle. Now, even with just a single instance of commander tax recasting Zedruu at end of turn is a 9 mana play so it may not be practical. However, the opportunity cost is low so adding Winding Canyons to the deck might be a good compromise between cutting and not cutting a land.
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You would never guess, at the terrifying sight of the man, that Hunding was as charming a companion as one could wish for.
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One more change that I'm testing but don't want to make official yet is Mass Calcify -> Aligned Hedron Network. The Network is quite the double-edged sword but the little testing I've done with it makes it seem manageable. Sometimes you just won't draw any acceleration and can fall pretty far behind on the board. Network cleans that all up. There are also some spots where you can stick and protect Zedruu but can't really commit to aggression because of what your opponents are up to, and the Network is good there as well. Moreover, and I didn't notice this until I was playing with the cards, Vanishing and Flickerform let a suited up Zedruu avoid becoming trapped in an infinite energy loop. However, it's a little scary to be playing with a card that exiles all big creatures when the goal of the deck is to make your general into a big creature. I'm still on the fence with this one.
Another realization I'm coming to is just how mana hungry this deck is. Signets and stuff that taps for one colored mana are fine in the early game, but once I start drawing 2-4 extra cards per turn one land drop per turn just isn't cutting it. There isn't a whole lot to be done about not having Explosive Vegetation in a Jeskai deck, but it's got me thinking about Burnished Hart. Are there any other playable cards that let me ramp for 2+ colored mana at a time?
Gilded Lotus is the playable card that ramps for 3 colored mana at a time.
And if your hand gets as fat as mine, Mind Over Matter might work for you as well since it optionally makes all your cards in hand into rituals (or Black Lotus if you have Gilded Lotus), and it's obviously a lot more powerful and versatile than that, but it is incredibly resource hungry (in both casting cost and activation) and might not perform for you like it does for me since my Zedruu deck is practically dedicated to drawing every card in the deck and can really pull the trigger when MOM lands. It really powers things out, but it is not the cutting edge of efficiency.
Gilded Lotus though, that is the card you're describing.
Edit: I made the mechanically irrelevant observation last night that this deck plays Zedruu like a traditional EDH deck might have played Chromium. The goat often reads "At the beginning of your upkeep, pay URW or miss out on value." and having three attacks connect is often enough to get the job done. Doesn't matter from a game-play perspective but comparing Zedruu to an Elder Dragon made me chuckle.
I still don't think that it's worthwhile, though. At 5 mana it competes with some pretty good sweepers that do, or eliminate the need for, most of those things now as opposed to when I cast a lot of cheap enchantments. As tstorm823 implied, Skybind is a completely different type of a card than Quarantine Field. Doesn't really make sense to compare them like that. But, Action_Mane, you're right to be concerned about Quarantine Field costing a bazillion mana to cast. Keep in mind that the card it's replacing, Mass Calcify, is also quite spendy. Basically the reasoning behind Q-Field is that O-Ring is good in this deck and this is like several of those in one card. I wouldn't play it in any random deck, but this deck cares about having lots of gifts for friends.
As for the prowess creatures, I don't think that Abbot of Keral Keep is right for this deck. It's just not trying to play that kind of game. Monastery Mentor joins Bruna, Light of Alabaster and Narset, Enlightened Master on the Mythic Backup Squad. For one card slot it provides a Zedruu-independent way of winning. It also tries to win in a different way, going wide instead of going tall. Something to think about, anyway.
To be honest I haven't actually gotten a chance to test the last round of changes to the deck. Seriously, guys, stay out of school. It cuts into your Magic time...
Edit: Commander 2015 set review is now up. A brief summary is already above but check out the original post for more details.
Edit: So guys, I've got a confession to make. I've never actually played Scout's Warning in this deck because, believe it or not, I've been completely unable to get my hands on a copy. Instead I've been running Enlightened Tutor in that slot and it's been super-duper good. Fetching up Pentad Prism on one of the first two turns is spectacular (unless you're on a double-mulligan) and it can even grab an artifact land if you need it to. It also makes the hate cards like Torpor Orb and Rest in Peace better by making it more likely for them so show up on time. And let's not forget that it digs up an O-Ring effect at instant speed to take care of whatever the jerk to your right just landed. Kinda makes me wonder if Enlightened Tutor is just better than Scout's Warning here, but I'm going to want to test the cantrip to be sure.
Speaking of cantrips, Stupefying Touch may not be pulling its weight. The main purpose of it in this deck is to cantrip and smooth out the early game while being able to shut down something relevant. It's great when you get to slam it down on someone's turn 1 Deathrite Shaman but too often no one will cooperate and it'll just sit in your hand until turn 3 or 4. On the other hand there's a certain blue Legendary Enchantment from Oath of the Gatewatch that may just be everything I've always wanted for the deck. Super excited about that card and anxious to see the remaining parts of the cycle that it's from.
Some other things I noticed during the most recent play session:
In other news my Oath of the Gatewatch set review is up. Oath of Jace is the main takeaway, but as usual there are some other cards that are worth pondering. Oath will be replacing Stupefying Touch as soon as I can pick up a copy. The latter has moments of greatness, but too often it just rots in my hand doing nothing.
Based on my experience:
Mox Diamond is absolutely worth the consideration. It makes free mana of any color at the small cost of a land from your hand, which is not much of a problem when you are drawing multiple cards a turn.
Mox Opal isn't something I ever really considered because the monetary cost to game benefit ratio is miniscule, but after using the two moxen I have to great effect, I figured I'd give it a try as a proxy just to find out if it works. It turns out that I have metalcraft more often than I thought I would, but never on the first or second turn to make the free mana really count, and on multiple occassions, I didn't have metalcraft when I drew it because I had donated an artifact away, and that's just too feel bad an interaction to voluntarily include in a deck for me.
Mox Diamond is definitely an incredible card in terms of fixing and acceleration. My only reservations are that this deck only runs 35 lands. I see that you run even fewer lands and still make good use out of Mox Diamond and, at least when it comes to finding early game land drops, my cantrips are vaguely comparable to your Howling Mine effects. I'll give it a try along with Boros Garrison, just to put my mind at ease.
Regarding the list tags, I've checked on several different platforms and the list appears to render correctly. I feel like we've had similar formatting-display issues before, too. Strange...
Lol! That's gone now, and it's my bad. It's because I quoted your post and I deleted the top part of the list, but the "[/ list]" part of it was still there without me realizing it. The forum software adds the sentence about list tags being wrong if you use the list function incorrectly, which I technically did. I don't know why it makes it look like I said that though. It's a rather inconvenient message.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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In both our decks the first two abilities on Nahiri are solid gold, but in your deck the ultimate actually would be game-ending.
Can't say that I have. Undoing every death is more noticeably different than preventing every death because all the auras fall off when Zedruu hits the bin. Indestructibility doesn't stop Zedruu from dying to -Lots/-Lots effects, but there aren't many of those that can actually hit big creatures. I do like that Gift of Immortality is donateable and that it only costs 2W. Being donateable means that, even after all the auras fall off, I'd have something to start rebuilding with. Bonus flavor points for actually giving an opponent a gift with Zedruu.
As you say, it's not as powerful as Darksteel Plate but in light of the above it could end up being better than Ring of Evos Isle, which is easily the worst protection card I run. Worth testing out, anyway.
I see that you respect the power of "Sneak Attack Knowledge Pool!"
It is with a heavy heart that I type these words: it's time to let go of Sunforger. Right now it just doesn't feel like the card is any good in this deck. I can't even remember the last time I cast it. The power-level of tutoring up and casting a red and/or white instant is obviously off the charts. The problem is that you always have more mana efficient things to be doing. Paying 3 at sorcery speed and then paying 3 again at sorcery speed to set up a RW is just too spendy for this deck. Cutting Sunforger also weakens 4 other cards in the deck: Return to Dust, Chaos Warp, Counterflux and Mistveil Plains. The first two are still very much format staples so they're not just dominoes that fall with Sunforger, but I probably want to replace them anyway. The Standard, Modern, and even Legacy communities have wised up to the power of Nahiri, the Harbinger, driving her price up and her ultimate is nearly blank in this deck. Nevertheless she does two things the deck really wants to be doing: filtering cards and exiling most permanent types. The Harbinger is probably a good replacement for Chaos Warp, which can be a little risky, but whether I can pick one up for a reasonable price remains to be seen. Counterflux has its moments, but if I can't pull it out of a hammer it'd probably be better off as another 2 CMC Counterspell effect. It's pretty slim pickings as far as 2 CMC counters goes, but Hesitation is cute and can be donated so it's worth a shot. Not super optimistic about that one actually being good, but it's cool enough that it warrants some testing. Finally, Mistveil Plains can just become Boros Garrison. The garrison is great at salvaging land light opening hands and plays nice with the Land Tax effects I run as well as with Mox Diamond (which might be replacing the Sunforger). Not tapping for U is unfortunate but, as Meatloaf says, "two out of three ain't bad."
One other thing I noticed while playing is that I wanted to sweep the board somewhat more often then I was able to. Without a sweeper, I was sometimes forced to commit more stuff to the board then I'd like to in order to bulk up the Goat and keep up with the rest of the tables' development. There are a few decent sweepers not currently in the deck: Mass Calcify (which used to be in the deck, until Tragic Arrogance came along), Wave of Reckoning, Austere Command and Chandra's Ignition. Right now I'm leaning toward Wave of Reckoning because Mass Calcify is expensive, Austere Command will almost never be selective enough, and Chandra's Ignition is contingent on actually having an enormous Greathearted Monk in play. Also, since the ignition makes the targeted creature do the damage and Zedruu is three colors, I expect that a larger than average portion of creatures would survive that particular sweeper by having protection from one or more of UWR. There's also Mystical Tutor which obviously isn't a sweeper by its self but, also obviously, it can find whichever one I need. One issue is that Mystical Tutor wouldn't be a good early game draw here and another is that this deck isn't really competitive enough to justify having a bunch of tutors. Seriously, I feel dirty enough casting Enlightened Tutor for Rest in Peace in a deck that's also sporting Immolation.
So, here are the updates I'll be testing next. As usual, I'm reasonably confident that most of these are correct but still want to do some testing before locking anything in.
Out
In
One last thing that I'm torn on is the number of lands in this deck. I'm starting to really appreciate a tension that exists in the land count. On the one hand, the deck needs to hit its first 5 or 6 land drops, sometimes without help, in order to function. On the other hand, drawing 4 extra cards on upkeep and seeing Tundra, White Scarab, Mountain and Hyena Umbra is merely OK instead of being the game ender that drawing 4 extra cards should be. It's gotten to the point where I'm actually considering cutting down to 34 lands, but that plan looks even sketchier with Mox Diamond in the deck. Cycling lands help out in principle but the only one that doesn't come into play tapped, Blasted Landscape, is basically unplayable here because it only produces C. Maybe Temple of Triumph would be better as Lonely Sandbar or something?
There's also Reality Ripple, which might be the 2 CMC "counter" I'm looking for, as another good catch-all protection spell. As for being shut down by the death of Zedruu, one way to mitigate that is too slow down a little bit on purpose. If you can keep an extra aura in hand then you should be able to gas back up pretty quickly after the Goat bites it. Part of what lets me recover a lot of the time is that a sweeper (say, Hallowed Burial) was needed to actually deal with my commander so the board is underdeveloped while I'm redeploying Zedruu and redonating auras. Another way to cope when Zedruu is getting killed a lot is to use include some members of the Legendary Backup Squad:
It didn't occur to me until just now that Winding Canyons can do more than open a window to land Zedruu safely. Most sweepers are sorceries so Winding Canyons allows for the possibility of just replaying Zedruu at end of turn. That's huge because you could potentially start drawing cards again on your very next upkeep - assuming that somebody's still holding onto an O-Ring or something for you - instead of having to wait a whole turn cycle. Now, even with just a single instance of commander tax recasting Zedruu at end of turn is a 9 mana play so it may not be practical. However, the opportunity cost is low so adding Winding Canyons to the deck might be a good compromise between cutting and not cutting a land.