Citywide bust is potentially playable. The Divine visitation tbjng with the token upgrades is a solid potential wincon for token decks. Not amazing tho.
Expecting great things from the azorius set however. Lots of really neat design in here for other pairs.
Bounty Agent is a solid removal tool for us should we need it. Since it's EDH there will always be a commander to kill, though it doesn't kill PWs.
I'd consider Mission Briefing for a more spell-heavy version without budget for Snapcaster. UU isn't such a big deal for us. Quasiduplicate is nice for a budget version since it turns a dead card into a copy of one of our creatures. Dawn of Hope seems lackluster unless it's in the dedicated lifegain build, in which it seems potentially strong as a better Well of Lost Dreams.
Back in Phoenix packing, and I got a couple games in!
One game I won with the combo finally. Curio on board, end step intuition into Lark/Titan/Recruiter, untap titan get back greaves bash bring in recruiter, get navigator, play navigator equip take a turn, GG!
Second game I kept greedily, someone mana drained my turn 2 As Foretold and I lost hard by missing land drops. As always it's really scary to stumble on mana at all.
The deck for the most part just feels really tight and tuned, probably won't be making a lot of changes for a while. But I might try building a budget lifegain version here for funsies.
Got in my farewell games at PGL in Phoenix, before my move to Erie. I got in two games with Ephara (in addition to two with Gitrog and one with Inalla).
The first Ephara game was a non-game basically where I couldn't hit land, stuck on 2 for a while - kept an opener of sol ring, land, land, pearl medallion, sacred mesa, and two creatures. And drew a ton of extra cards and just missed. That happens sometimes but makes me wonder if I should be adding a couple mana sources.
The second game was pretty awesome. I had a reasonable start with 5 lands (one ancient tomb), whitemane lion and spellseeker. The game ground on, and I dealt 20 to myself with Ancient tomb. I spent most of this game playing control, with a mystical-verdict, a snap mystical for austere, and countering a game winner or two. At one point late in the game I had discarded Spellseeker and Whitemane to Forbid to stave off disaster (Brudiclad whomping me with something) and was able to Sun Titan back Spellseeker, get Cyclonic rift and pass the turn with rift mana. the Brudiclad player kills the Selvala player in hopes I won't rift, so I don't, just end step Teferi to protect my Rift. I untap and bash with titan get whitemane bounce spellseeker, spellseeker for a counterspell and pass turn with rift up, gg. I forgot he was at 11 or I coulda just rifted and killed him Always watch life totals. But hey we got there.
The deck really is firing well for the most part. I have been keeping maybe a bit too aggressively since most of my losses come on the heels of some kind of mana stumble from trying something (like keeping a 2 lander that can ramp into as foretold) risky.
At this point I have a number of cards on the radar for changes when i get settled but I am gonna have to see what the new meta looks like I guess. Here's that list in case anyone is curious:
I really don't get considering Archaeomancer. You've complained for ages that the 4 drop slots are really stacked. Is a weak, conditional card like this really worth the effort??
Same for Body Double. It's graveyard dependent and a clone, which IMO you have quite enough of. I would much more easily consider Clever Impersonator, since it can at least copy more stuff than creatures, or Body Double which is great in our deck.
I am also perpelexed at Blasting Station and Crucible of Worlds. They are both great cards but do things completely different to the deck's game plan. Blasting station is a combo engine with recurring creatures, and while we may be able to net some value with things like token engines, it really doesn't do much for us. Crucible is a value monster with fetchlands and Wastelands, but since my deck draws so many cards I haven't had trouble finding lands, and Strip mine isn't very good for me since it's so important to grow my available mana. However, it's awesome in my Lord Windgrace deck.
Maybe you could reiterate what your logic is with these cards?
I do approve Tithe and Cleric though. I'm going to replace my RiP with the Cleric, since it's just much better for a lot of reasons. Tithe is also incredible, fetchable with Spellseeker, and brings relevant lands to hand. It can also bring Irrigated Farmland for more draw if you already have too many lands.
I've had many games where I've run out of sweeper gas or counterspells. Like I'm sitting there needing a verdict or an austere command, and one or both are in the yard, and I've already used snapcaster mage. Additionally, it creates a soft lock with permanent rifts (rift+archaeomancer+curio or venser). The 4 drop slot is a bit crowded but I have reduced it in recent years so I think I could squeeze another in. My thinking is in general it's going to be better than either Snap or Mom.
Body double+Blasting station is an alternate combo I'm considering; since adding Intuition I've been really impressed with the Lark/Guide/Titan interactions in the deck, and there're a lot of situations where I could intuition for Lark/Guide/Body double and win the game. Trophy mage gets station. Considering cutting Timestream for that. Additionally I have noticed I would really like a sac outlet I can tutor for a few times, as there are times I want to kill stolen creatures or trigger lark etc. Not really sure I want to do this, just something I'm considering.
Reveillark has won so many games that body double might be good enough just for that interaction. There are games where Lark and Guide are dead and now that shenanigan is gone forever.
In general I am starting to contemplate a pretty major cut of the equipment package (timestream, stoneforge, greaves, sword, possibly even jitte) for some more efficiency and power.
What I've been experiencing in the new meta is that people are more likely to go way over the top than when I started this deck. The new philosophy of EDH cards is to print gigantic ridiculously powerful questions that can just take over the board completely -- at first I started trying to answer this by playing more answers, but I think there are some more implications.
The game is faster now, and incremental advantage like popping a sword on a Stormscape Familiar and cracking away behind a wall of dudes is not happening as much for me. Games end a lot with people just slamming huge things that win the game over the top of your Swords.
So my thinking with Crucible of worlds is that I have a lot of ways to find it if I need to fix some mana screw to set up for a long game. Hitting land drops every turn, getting back lands I had to chuck due to land tax, etc. It's a really powerful way to force the Emeria win condition as well as a way to retrieve a dead Academy ruins. I'm not sure on it either just something I've considered since Trophy Mage is something I play a lot.
Tithe and Cleric both seem fantastic. My thinking is the most likely thing I'll do is swap Tithe in for Aether Vial to try to combat the mana screw I've been experiencing, and see how it goes in the new meta (no idea at all what the community will be like in Erie:P).
But I'm starting to consider the first major redesign (say 8-10 cards out/in) in a long time. It's hard to put into words, but it feels like the overall EDH meta is evolving to be a bit hostile to white weenies haha
I don't have a pc set up at the new place yet but I have a change in the hopper.
-mother of runes
+Remorseful cleric
It seems like the best cut for cleric but I've really wanted more efficient tutorable grave hate and this fits the bill well. I'll probably be adding tithe for aether vial at some point as well.
Finally got around to updating the OP - cleared up several old phrasings where I talked about mystical tutor (which is now in the deck) and moved some cards that had not gotten their honorable mentions moved to the right place.
I suspect I will be swapping Tithe in for Aether Vial before too long but I'm still on the fence about Archaeomancer and potentially adding a few more power cards in. Now that I can get a foil Mana Vault it might be worth adding Tezzeret the Seeker and a couple more beefy mana rocks. But I have no serious intention to get a foil Grim Monolith so that might be not worth thinking about yet lol
Anyway, I'll be trying to scope out the local meta here over the next bit and see how it goes. Trying not to make any major changes until I actually know what is going on here in Northwest Pennsylvania.
I just want to say that I love the deck and the direction you've taken it, I've played with my own version for a bit and I do run archaemonacer and he's been really good though slow.
If you're running Mystical Tutor, miracle cards become that much more viable. I think you should heavily consider Terminus, and perhaps even Devastation Tide. Temporal Mastery could also help out with the combo.
I don't like the idea of going Tezz + Mana Vault, I don't think this is the deck for it. We don't want to go for explosive starts, we want to accumulate a ton of advantage and survive every possible situation, at least in my philosophy. Also, I think that it's starting to be a bit too much tutoring for my liking.
I run Tezz + artifact mana in my Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage deck, which seems to be much better suited to such synergy. This deck though - nah.
I just want to say that I love the deck and the direction you've taken it, I've played with my own version for a bit and I do run archaemonacer and he's been really good though slow.
Thanks for the feedback! Crazily enough I still really enjoy playing it after all these years. I jammed a lot of games in Phoenix before the move and it was pretty much firing on all cylinders.
I'm kinda torn on Arch, but I've seen tons of spots where it would have been game ending to tutor for it - rebuying cyclonic rift or austere command or similar and threatening to do it again and again (off of Displacer or Venser).
If you're running Mystical Tutor, miracle cards become that much more viable. I think you should heavily consider Terminus, and perhaps even Devastation Tide. Temporal Mastery could also help out with the combo.
I don't like the idea of going Tezz + Mana Vault, I don't think this is the deck for it. We don't want to go for explosive starts, we want to accumulate a ton of advantage and survive every possible situation, at least in my philosophy. Also, I think that it's starting to be a bit too much tutoring for my liking.
I run Tezz + artifact mana in my Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage deck, which seems to be much better suited to such synergy. This deck though - nah.
I do think you're probably right that I should be running Terminus -- Dev tide is a little less synergistic due to always hitting Ephara. The synergy of dropping Terminus for W then replaying some stuff is a good way to come from behind. Not really sure what the cut would be for that, but I'll give it some thinks.
It is possible that some minor topdeck manipulation package would be worthwhile running given all the fetches-- Top + trinket mage + brainstorm at least, as I could probably shave a land for one of them. Historically those types of effects were kinda skullclampy in that they spent a lot of mana for not hitting the board, but it's possible that now that the amount of control cards is amped up a bit it'd be more forgiving.
Not sure about Temporal Mastery but this deck probably would play Rampant Growth and that's one of its worst modes--will noodle on that. Not sure it's the best thing to be doing.
I do think you're probably right about the Tezz package - I have looped back to doing quite a bit of tutoring as is. That said, Tezz being able to tutor up Cloudstone Curio or Ethersworn Canonist is pretty powerful so it does a lot of work in the deck potentially.
I think it is a bit of a danger of tumbling downhill into a UW goodstuff control deck to start playing those kinds of cards though.
If you're looking to tutor for Curio and Canonist, there are better artifact tutors.
Firstly consider that you're already running Enlightened Tutor and Trophy Mage. Muddle the Mixture can also help.
I would even rather run Fabricate than Tezz here. Alternatively, use ET for artifacts and slot in Idyllic Tutor for enchantments.
There is also Whir of Invention which is instant speed and can be reduced by other artifacts.
So I don't agree about Tezz vs. Fabricate (or even Whir) - the thing to keep in mind there with walkers is that our deck is pretty good at defending them, and they can double as a wincon. Also, repeated uses not requiring mana is a big deal. It's one of the reasons we play Venser and not another blink guy card. Cards that serve dual purposes are important to the design.
We play enough artifacts that there're games you'll win by blasting with Tezz, and there're some untapping synergies (helm of possession, oblivion stone, rocks, etc.).
Worst case Tezz puts in a clone of anything (metamorph) and goes to the bin, which costs 6 mana and 2 life to do with Fabricate (vs. 5 mana to do with Tezz.) Remember any time you get a 3+ mana artifact he's cheaper than Fabricate and almost surely cheaper than Whir.
Tezz can make himself cost 2 pretty easily with his untap as well (untap a sol ring and a dork/1 mana rock) in a pinch which is not something you can do with Fabricate. Fabricate also telegraphs what you're going to cast if you have to defer it a turn (instead with Tezz you cast him and his ability resolve it into play).
My thinking is in general that we would want to be playing at a minimum Mana Vault before Tezz is an option, and Vault is very good since it creates another card that makes a turn 2 Ephara (which is absurdly good).
That said I'm not sure this deck wants to draw a mana vault late game which is one of the reasons I'm kinda leaning against - there aren't really any synergies with it that make it good in other decks (voltaic key, clock of omens, etc.).
Oh, I also have Inventors' Fair which is another mark against needing another artifact tutor.
Bottom line I think Tezz is the absolute best card to put in the deck if we want another artifact tutor but at this point I'm not sure I want that. I think there're probably several implications to going down the tezz route that I don't necessarily like (jamming some big mana rocks and playing a stronger top end for example).
All that said I think there are very serious reasons to consider that type of approach for someone else building the deck; The clock of omens + unwinding clock + voltaic key package is actually pretty good for the Ephara gameplan (of doing stuff on multiple turns in succession). Pretty easy for it to turn into a Seedborn muse style of play.
Wow, new Lavinia looks very promising. Might require cutting as foretold but the effect is very powerful across edh and gives me pretty high hopes for other azorius cards.
Edit: oh man the abilities are not symmetrical. Even grosser.
Am I the only one that's not that excited about new Lavinia?
Yes, she does stop Force of Will, she does stop insane early turns with mana rocks, but I don't think she does much more in EDH.
I don't think I'll encounter those things in my meta, so I'll probably pass on her.
Tithe Taker is cute, but I'm debating if I'll really try and slot it in. On its own it's an infinitely worse Grand Abolisher, but the afterlife ability is nice. I'm not sure I need another (worse) Grand Abolisher, though.
@shermanido37
Lavinia's power is directly proportional to the type of decks your opponents are playing. You mention it yourself that "she [stops] insane early turns with mana rocks". For me and my playgroup, and the cEDH meta generally, mana rocks are king, especially the ones costing 2 and under. Lavinia causes mana rocks to be non-beneficial sources of mana advantage since she restricts your opponents' casting of spells to their land size. More often than not, I only have 2-3 lands in play but a bunch of artifact mana if I'm playing my Memnarch or Teferi decks. Lavinia makes this type of mana advantage a liability for these types of decks since they no longer contribute directly to developing your board presence for the important non-creature spells that are played.
In my playgroup, it's very frequent that you'll see someone trying to jam a T1 Mana Rock into some sort of T2 non-creature spell (more often than not some sort of Wheel effect). This is almost 100% the consistent playline that I see and Lavinia stops that super effectively. Additionally, cEDH decks run a VERY low land count. This means that the non-creature spells that cost any more than 2+ mana have a real possibility of being unable to be cast with Lavinia in play. Hell, she even stops the earliest, most effective Wrath effect from going off UNTIL T3. If they even get to 3 actual lands in play in order to cast it. This is a very significant tempo loss for your opponents since they now HAVE to depend on land as their primary mana sources in order to unlock their spells.
So, for the general Commander scene, Lavinia is just an alright 2/2 for 2 that causes some disruption to your opponents. But for optimized and competitive playgroups that depend on generating early mana advantage and powerful non-creature spells (read: every cEDH deck), Lavinia is a massive pain in colors that are fantastic for a Total Control strategy.
I think her strength will definitely be proportional to the ramp in your meta, but in my experience optimized decks will be doing at least some of the things she prevents. Casting 0 mana spells/rocks, casting giant X spells (torment!!), spelltwining, etc. etc. etc.
If you're playing recruiter and muddle and Thalia's lancers - as you should if you're playing this deck in an optimized but not cEDH meta, you will have her there to pull when you need her to shut off whatever nonsense is going on.
One of my favorite cards she triumphantly *****s on that is a big problem for this deck is Genesis Wave.
The hardest part about her is going to be keeping track of people's lands to make them follow the rules
I'm not sure what I am going to cut, but I might try slotting in for Ethersworn Canonist since she does similar stuff. Depends on how long it takes me to get a foil.
In other news, I have been doing tons of thinking about the deck lately and I am pretty confident I need to be playing Blasting Station. The timestream navigator has historically been pretty hard to set up, and station enables two reveillark based infinites. So I'm starting to take notes for a pretty big overhaul.
I had forgotten that Phantasmal Image combos with Reveillark and station in addition to Karmic Guide.
But again I'm going to try to wait until I get some games at the new shop in and probably this new set releases.
Green players will have a ton of lands anyway, Lavinia will not stop them from casting a giant Genesis Wave! She is useful, but definitely not Gaddock Teeg.
In my opinion Ethersworn Canonist and Rule of Law effects are very different to what Lavinia is offering. For example, the giant Maelstrom Wanderer deck in my meta will have no problem stomping the table with his cascades even if Linvala is around. However, it will be very sad with Rule of Law and such. This also stops storm, infinite cast combos like Gravecrawler, and some more, all of which Lavinia does not stop. I guess your meta could be different, but the only thing that would make me consider switching out the Canonist is if my meta were infested with artifact decks. Then it would be pretty useless.
Green players will have a ton of lands anyway, Lavinia will not stop them from casting a giant Genesis Wave! She is useful, but definitely not Gaddock Teeg.
In my opinion Ethersworn Canonist and Rule of Law effects are very different to what Lavinia is offering. For example, the giant Maelstrom Wanderer deck in my meta will have no problem stomping the table with his cascades even if Linvala is around. However, it will be very sad with Rule of Law and such. This also stops storm, infinite cast combos like Gravecrawler, and some more, all of which Lavinia does not stop. I guess your meta could be different, but the only thing that would make me consider switching out the Canonist is if my meta were infested with artifact decks. Then it would be pretty useless.
Don't forget Lavinia shuts off cascades because 0 mana was paid to cast them.
My minor issue with Canonist has been that all the artifact decks view it as a plus
In general I think the cards will be relatively similar in effectiveness but it'd be ideal to have both.
Re: Gwave, the nice thing is when they use stuff like Omnath or Kruphix or mana doublers (e.g. reflection) the effect is pretty strong. Whir is another common example, you'll see a whir for Darksteel Forge type stuff that can't be done.
I'm not saying it's a sovereign solution but it often will buy you some time
Got a game at the new shop with Ephara. Very pleasant surprise, the local community is pretty strong and comp level pretty high overall.
The Ephara game was a real nailbiter against Atraxa superfriends, Baral control and a pretty crazy mono red dragon warstorm surge deck. It was a very long game with lots of back and forth. I O-stoned a couple times, almost died to Dragon warstorm surges (went to 4) then clawed back to 20 with Jitte counters.
Hushwing Gryff MVP of the game saving me from death by dragon ETB triggers.
Game ended with a really close three round sequence to set up infinite turns with Timestream, when the board was not looking good for me-- I cloned it twice, bounced recruiter, flickerwisped recruiter, then finally had enough to Nykthos down a Venser + timestream activation.
I really am not happy with that combo despite it winning me the game, it took every scrap of mana and a lot of weird sequencing to make it happen. I think I am going to do the blasting station rework very soon here.
I have been considering these changes for a while; as much as I like cloudstone curio I just never wind up being thrilled with it. Blasting station both maintains my Trophy mage count and adds a nice compact combo with Navigator out of the deck.
Navigator is a card I think is very strong, but I have found the mana requirements a bit intense. I don't think it's necessarily wrong to play but want to try something different.
Aether vial is a card that I've noticed clogging my hand a lot; its ceiling is extremely high but the floor is super low. Tithe adds a low curve spell that will almost always result in +1 card and help me achieve Emeria.
Archaeomancer has been on my list and I somehow managed to find a way to swap it in without having to take out Snaps, which I am happy with. I think it may prove to be too mana intensive.
I'm still considering Stoneforge Mystic - it's been really good and won a lot of games over the years, but I have in general been on the receiving end of a lot more targeted removal for my equipment in the last couple years. I'm not sure why this is exactly or if it's just some kinda bias
I also find myself popping Ostone a lot which might be another reason I'm less enamored with equipment. Creatures replace themselves but equipment do not.
Anyway, really looking forward to the next set! Probably will be changing the deck up a bit more regularly as I'm in a new meta, so expect more regular updates.
------------------------------------------
Total sidenote, but I wanted to call out Mistveil Plains as a random overperformer.
I've always loved this card and it has figured prominently in a lot of wins. Notably, it enables the hilarious "I will cyclonic rift until you stop me" combo of Spellseeker, Displacer/Venser + Mistveil Plains.
I've done things like:
* Put a dead Timestream back in my library for the win
* Put a dead Sun Titan back into the library for an intuition package
* The aforementioned Spellseeker lock
* Tucked things to avoid reanimation and [card}Spelltwine[/card]
* Had it be the 7th plains for Emeria!
* I'll Mana Drain everything you cast until you stop me
I highly recommend fitting it into your deck. It's great at playing the long game and enables a lot of horsepuckey. Being fetchable with a plains fetch is the absolute icing.
Citywide bust is potentially playable. The Divine visitation tbjng with the token upgrades is a solid potential wincon for token decks. Not amazing tho.
Expecting great things from the azorius set however. Lots of really neat design in here for other pairs.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
I'd consider Mission Briefing for a more spell-heavy version without budget for Snapcaster. UU isn't such a big deal for us. Quasiduplicate is nice for a budget version since it turns a dead card into a copy of one of our creatures.
Dawn of Hope seems lackluster unless it's in the dedicated lifegain build, in which it seems potentially strong as a better Well of Lost Dreams.
One game I won with the combo finally. Curio on board, end step intuition into Lark/Titan/Recruiter, untap titan get back greaves bash bring in recruiter, get navigator, play navigator equip take a turn, GG!
Second game I kept greedily, someone mana drained my turn 2 As Foretold and I lost hard by missing land drops. As always it's really scary to stumble on mana at all.
The deck for the most part just feels really tight and tuned, probably won't be making a lot of changes for a while. But I might try building a budget lifegain version here for funsies.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
The first Ephara game was a non-game basically where I couldn't hit land, stuck on 2 for a while - kept an opener of sol ring, land, land, pearl medallion, sacred mesa, and two creatures. And drew a ton of extra cards and just missed. That happens sometimes but makes me wonder if I should be adding a couple mana sources.
The second game was pretty awesome. I had a reasonable start with 5 lands (one ancient tomb), whitemane lion and spellseeker. The game ground on, and I dealt 20 to myself with Ancient tomb. I spent most of this game playing control, with a mystical-verdict, a snap mystical for austere, and countering a game winner or two. At one point late in the game I had discarded Spellseeker and Whitemane to Forbid to stave off disaster (Brudiclad whomping me with something) and was able to Sun Titan back Spellseeker, get Cyclonic rift and pass the turn with rift mana. the Brudiclad player kills the Selvala player in hopes I won't rift, so I don't, just end step Teferi to protect my Rift. I untap and bash with titan get whitemane bounce spellseeker, spellseeker for a counterspell and pass turn with rift up, gg. I forgot he was at 11 or I coulda just rifted and killed him Always watch life totals. But hey we got there.
The deck really is firing well for the most part. I have been keeping maybe a bit too aggressively since most of my losses come on the heels of some kind of mana stumble from trying something (like keeping a 2 lander that can ramp into as foretold) risky.
At this point I have a number of cards on the radar for changes when i get settled but I am gonna have to see what the new meta looks like I guess. Here's that list in case anyone is curious:
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Same for Body Double. It's graveyard dependent and a clone, which IMO you have quite enough of. I would much more easily consider Clever Impersonator, since it can at least copy more stuff than creatures, or Body Double which is great in our deck.
I am also perpelexed at Blasting Station and Crucible of Worlds. They are both great cards but do things completely different to the deck's game plan. Blasting station is a combo engine with recurring creatures, and while we may be able to net some value with things like token engines, it really doesn't do much for us. Crucible is a value monster with fetchlands and Wastelands, but since my deck draws so many cards I haven't had trouble finding lands, and Strip mine isn't very good for me since it's so important to grow my available mana. However, it's awesome in my Lord Windgrace deck.
Maybe you could reiterate what your logic is with these cards?
I do approve Tithe and Cleric though. I'm going to replace my RiP with the Cleric, since it's just much better for a lot of reasons. Tithe is also incredible, fetchable with Spellseeker, and brings relevant lands to hand. It can also bring Irrigated Farmland for more draw if you already have too many lands.
I've had many games where I've run out of sweeper gas or counterspells. Like I'm sitting there needing a verdict or an austere command, and one or both are in the yard, and I've already used snapcaster mage. Additionally, it creates a soft lock with permanent rifts (rift+archaeomancer+curio or venser). The 4 drop slot is a bit crowded but I have reduced it in recent years so I think I could squeeze another in. My thinking is in general it's going to be better than either Snap or Mom.
Body double+Blasting station is an alternate combo I'm considering; since adding Intuition I've been really impressed with the Lark/Guide/Titan interactions in the deck, and there're a lot of situations where I could intuition for Lark/Guide/Body double and win the game. Trophy mage gets station. Considering cutting Timestream for that. Additionally I have noticed I would really like a sac outlet I can tutor for a few times, as there are times I want to kill stolen creatures or trigger lark etc. Not really sure I want to do this, just something I'm considering.
Reveillark has won so many games that body double might be good enough just for that interaction. There are games where Lark and Guide are dead and now that shenanigan is gone forever.
In general I am starting to contemplate a pretty major cut of the equipment package (timestream, stoneforge, greaves, sword, possibly even jitte) for some more efficiency and power.
What I've been experiencing in the new meta is that people are more likely to go way over the top than when I started this deck. The new philosophy of EDH cards is to print gigantic ridiculously powerful questions that can just take over the board completely -- at first I started trying to answer this by playing more answers, but I think there are some more implications.
The game is faster now, and incremental advantage like popping a sword on a Stormscape Familiar and cracking away behind a wall of dudes is not happening as much for me. Games end a lot with people just slamming huge things that win the game over the top of your Swords.
So my thinking with Crucible of worlds is that I have a lot of ways to find it if I need to fix some mana screw to set up for a long game. Hitting land drops every turn, getting back lands I had to chuck due to land tax, etc. It's a really powerful way to force the Emeria win condition as well as a way to retrieve a dead Academy ruins. I'm not sure on it either just something I've considered since Trophy Mage is something I play a lot.
Tithe and Cleric both seem fantastic. My thinking is the most likely thing I'll do is swap Tithe in for Aether Vial to try to combat the mana screw I've been experiencing, and see how it goes in the new meta (no idea at all what the community will be like in Erie:P).
But I'm starting to consider the first major redesign (say 8-10 cards out/in) in a long time. It's hard to put into words, but it feels like the overall EDH meta is evolving to be a bit hostile to white weenies haha
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
-mother of runes
+Remorseful cleric
It seems like the best cut for cleric but I've really wanted more efficient tutorable grave hate and this fits the bill well. I'll probably be adding tithe for aether vial at some point as well.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
I suspect I will be swapping Tithe in for Aether Vial before too long but I'm still on the fence about Archaeomancer and potentially adding a few more power cards in. Now that I can get a foil Mana Vault it might be worth adding Tezzeret the Seeker and a couple more beefy mana rocks. But I have no serious intention to get a foil Grim Monolith so that might be not worth thinking about yet lol
Anyway, I'll be trying to scope out the local meta here over the next bit and see how it goes. Trying not to make any major changes until I actually know what is going on here in Northwest Pennsylvania.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
I don't like the idea of going Tezz + Mana Vault, I don't think this is the deck for it. We don't want to go for explosive starts, we want to accumulate a ton of advantage and survive every possible situation, at least in my philosophy. Also, I think that it's starting to be a bit too much tutoring for my liking.
I run Tezz + artifact mana in my Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage deck, which seems to be much better suited to such synergy. This deck though - nah.
Thanks for the feedback! Crazily enough I still really enjoy playing it after all these years. I jammed a lot of games in Phoenix before the move and it was pretty much firing on all cylinders.
I'm kinda torn on Arch, but I've seen tons of spots where it would have been game ending to tutor for it - rebuying cyclonic rift or austere command or similar and threatening to do it again and again (off of Displacer or Venser).
I do think you're probably right that I should be running Terminus -- Dev tide is a little less synergistic due to always hitting Ephara. The synergy of dropping Terminus for W then replaying some stuff is a good way to come from behind. Not really sure what the cut would be for that, but I'll give it some thinks.
It is possible that some minor topdeck manipulation package would be worthwhile running given all the fetches-- Top + trinket mage + brainstorm at least, as I could probably shave a land for one of them. Historically those types of effects were kinda skullclampy in that they spent a lot of mana for not hitting the board, but it's possible that now that the amount of control cards is amped up a bit it'd be more forgiving.
Not sure about Temporal Mastery but this deck probably would play Rampant Growth and that's one of its worst modes--will noodle on that. Not sure it's the best thing to be doing.
I do think you're probably right about the Tezz package - I have looped back to doing quite a bit of tutoring as is. That said, Tezz being able to tutor up Cloudstone Curio or Ethersworn Canonist is pretty powerful so it does a lot of work in the deck potentially.
I think it is a bit of a danger of tumbling downhill into a UW goodstuff control deck to start playing those kinds of cards though.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Firstly consider that you're already running Enlightened Tutor and Trophy Mage. Muddle the Mixture can also help.
I would even rather run Fabricate than Tezz here. Alternatively, use ET for artifacts and slot in Idyllic Tutor for enchantments.
There is also Whir of Invention which is instant speed and can be reduced by other artifacts.
We play enough artifacts that there're games you'll win by blasting with Tezz, and there're some untapping synergies (helm of possession, oblivion stone, rocks, etc.).
Worst case Tezz puts in a clone of anything (metamorph) and goes to the bin, which costs 6 mana and 2 life to do with Fabricate (vs. 5 mana to do with Tezz.) Remember any time you get a 3+ mana artifact he's cheaper than Fabricate and almost surely cheaper than Whir.
Tezz can make himself cost 2 pretty easily with his untap as well (untap a sol ring and a dork/1 mana rock) in a pinch which is not something you can do with Fabricate. Fabricate also telegraphs what you're going to cast if you have to defer it a turn (instead with Tezz you cast him and his ability resolve it into play).
My thinking is in general that we would want to be playing at a minimum Mana Vault before Tezz is an option, and Vault is very good since it creates another card that makes a turn 2 Ephara (which is absurdly good).
That said I'm not sure this deck wants to draw a mana vault late game which is one of the reasons I'm kinda leaning against - there aren't really any synergies with it that make it good in other decks (voltaic key, clock of omens, etc.).
Oh, I also have Inventors' Fair which is another mark against needing another artifact tutor.
Bottom line I think Tezz is the absolute best card to put in the deck if we want another artifact tutor but at this point I'm not sure I want that. I think there're probably several implications to going down the tezz route that I don't necessarily like (jamming some big mana rocks and playing a stronger top end for example).
All that said I think there are very serious reasons to consider that type of approach for someone else building the deck; The clock of omens + unwinding clock + voltaic key package is actually pretty good for the Ephara gameplan (of doing stuff on multiple turns in succession). Pretty easy for it to turn into a Seedborn muse style of play.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Edit: oh man the abilities are not symmetrical. Even grosser.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
You mean Alms collector? Or is there another spoiler I missed?
Oooh, tithe taker. That looks interesting:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DupMfyOXQAASxc1.jpg:large
Maaan that Afterlife mechanic is almost guaranteed to yield at least one autoinclude. The ability is kinda medium, but the afterlife bonus is nice.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Yes, she does stop Force of Will, she does stop insane early turns with mana rocks, but I don't think she does much more in EDH.
I don't think I'll encounter those things in my meta, so I'll probably pass on her.
Tithe Taker is cute, but I'm debating if I'll really try and slot it in. On its own it's an infinitely worse Grand Abolisher, but the afterlife ability is nice. I'm not sure I need another (worse) Grand Abolisher, though.
Lavinia's power is directly proportional to the type of decks your opponents are playing. You mention it yourself that "she [stops] insane early turns with mana rocks". For me and my playgroup, and the cEDH meta generally, mana rocks are king, especially the ones costing 2 and under. Lavinia causes mana rocks to be non-beneficial sources of mana advantage since she restricts your opponents' casting of spells to their land size. More often than not, I only have 2-3 lands in play but a bunch of artifact mana if I'm playing my Memnarch or Teferi decks. Lavinia makes this type of mana advantage a liability for these types of decks since they no longer contribute directly to developing your board presence for the important non-creature spells that are played.
In my playgroup, it's very frequent that you'll see someone trying to jam a T1 Mana Rock into some sort of T2 non-creature spell (more often than not some sort of Wheel effect). This is almost 100% the consistent playline that I see and Lavinia stops that super effectively. Additionally, cEDH decks run a VERY low land count. This means that the non-creature spells that cost any more than 2+ mana have a real possibility of being unable to be cast with Lavinia in play. Hell, she even stops the earliest, most effective Wrath effect from going off UNTIL T3. If they even get to 3 actual lands in play in order to cast it. This is a very significant tempo loss for your opponents since they now HAVE to depend on land as their primary mana sources in order to unlock their spells.
So, for the general Commander scene, Lavinia is just an alright 2/2 for 2 that causes some disruption to your opponents. But for optimized and competitive playgroups that depend on generating early mana advantage and powerful non-creature spells (read: every cEDH deck), Lavinia is a massive pain in colors that are fantastic for a Total Control strategy.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
If you're playing recruiter and muddle and Thalia's lancers - as you should if you're playing this deck in an optimized but not cEDH meta, you will have her there to pull when you need her to shut off whatever nonsense is going on.
One of my favorite cards she triumphantly *****s on that is a big problem for this deck is Genesis Wave.
The hardest part about her is going to be keeping track of people's lands to make them follow the rules
I'm not sure what I am going to cut, but I might try slotting in for Ethersworn Canonist since she does similar stuff. Depends on how long it takes me to get a foil.
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In other news, I have been doing tons of thinking about the deck lately and I am pretty confident I need to be playing Blasting Station. The timestream navigator has historically been pretty hard to set up, and station enables two reveillark based infinites. So I'm starting to take notes for a pretty big overhaul.
I had forgotten that Phantasmal Image combos with Reveillark and station in addition to Karmic Guide.
But again I'm going to try to wait until I get some games at the new shop in and probably this new set releases.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
In my opinion Ethersworn Canonist and Rule of Law effects are very different to what Lavinia is offering. For example, the giant Maelstrom Wanderer deck in my meta will have no problem stomping the table with his cascades even if Linvala is around. However, it will be very sad with Rule of Law and such. This also stops storm, infinite cast combos like Gravecrawler, and some more, all of which Lavinia does not stop. I guess your meta could be different, but the only thing that would make me consider switching out the Canonist is if my meta were infested with artifact decks. Then it would be pretty useless.
Don't forget Lavinia shuts off cascades because 0 mana was paid to cast them.
My minor issue with Canonist has been that all the artifact decks view it as a plus
In general I think the cards will be relatively similar in effectiveness but it'd be ideal to have both.
Re: Gwave, the nice thing is when they use stuff like Omnath or Kruphix or mana doublers (e.g. reflection) the effect is pretty strong. Whir is another common example, you'll see a whir for Darksteel Forge type stuff that can't be done.
I'm not saying it's a sovereign solution but it often will buy you some time
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
The Ephara game was a real nailbiter against Atraxa superfriends, Baral control and a pretty crazy mono red dragon warstorm surge deck. It was a very long game with lots of back and forth. I O-stoned a couple times, almost died to Dragon warstorm surges (went to 4) then clawed back to 20 with Jitte counters.
Hushwing Gryff MVP of the game saving me from death by dragon ETB triggers.
Game ended with a really close three round sequence to set up infinite turns with Timestream, when the board was not looking good for me-- I cloned it twice, bounced recruiter, flickerwisped recruiter, then finally had enough to Nykthos down a Venser + timestream activation.
I really am not happy with that combo despite it winning me the game, it took every scrap of mana and a lot of weird sequencing to make it happen. I think I am going to do the blasting station rework very soon here.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Small round of cuts
I have been considering these changes for a while; as much as I like cloudstone curio I just never wind up being thrilled with it. Blasting station both maintains my Trophy mage count and adds a nice compact combo with Navigator out of the deck.
Navigator is a card I think is very strong, but I have found the mana requirements a bit intense. I don't think it's necessarily wrong to play but want to try something different.
Aether vial is a card that I've noticed clogging my hand a lot; its ceiling is extremely high but the floor is super low. Tithe adds a low curve spell that will almost always result in +1 card and help me achieve Emeria.
Archaeomancer has been on my list and I somehow managed to find a way to swap it in without having to take out Snaps, which I am happy with. I think it may prove to be too mana intensive.
I'm still considering Stoneforge Mystic - it's been really good and won a lot of games over the years, but I have in general been on the receiving end of a lot more targeted removal for my equipment in the last couple years. I'm not sure why this is exactly or if it's just some kinda bias
I also find myself popping Ostone a lot which might be another reason I'm less enamored with equipment. Creatures replace themselves but equipment do not.
Anyway, really looking forward to the next set! Probably will be changing the deck up a bit more regularly as I'm in a new meta, so expect more regular updates.
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Total sidenote, but I wanted to call out Mistveil Plains as a random overperformer.
I've always loved this card and it has figured prominently in a lot of wins. Notably, it enables the hilarious "I will cyclonic rift until you stop me" combo of Spellseeker, Displacer/Venser + Mistveil Plains.
I've done things like:
* Put a dead Timestream back in my library for the win
* Put a dead Sun Titan back into the library for an intuition package
* The aforementioned Spellseeker lock
* Tucked things to avoid reanimation and [card}Spelltwine[/card]
* Had it be the 7th plains for Emeria!
* I'll Mana Drain everything you cast until you stop me
I highly recommend fitting it into your deck. It's great at playing the long game and enables a lot of horsepuckey. Being fetchable with a plains fetch is the absolute icing.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall