This deck abuses the cycling of lands to draw through the deck quite fast, playing landrecursion with some potentially huge bursts of lands put into play. The wincon is Hazezon Tamar's ability to put tokens into play. Purphoros, God of the Forge will give som huge amouts of damage, and if Hazezon gets resonated or slided, that usually means lethal. The deck wants to ramp as fast as possible, with lands that is. With almost half the deck dedicated to lands, Oracle of Mul Daya can be a powerful drawengine. Same goes for Tirelss Tracker. Both are easy to tutor for. Well, in general playing alot of tutors, to be sure to assemble the peices for Hazezon Tamar to enter the battlefield. There's alot of looting going around and the occasionally wheeling, so there's also alot of recursion.
When cycling returned in Amonkhet, it made me want to build a deck with an engine running on cycling effects. I got some good inspiration from this thread. I tinkered apon a couple of builds before ending with hazezon Tamar. I started off with Zur the Enchanter, because he could get the main engine-piece, Astral Slide, but then I realized how much a cycling deck would benefit from G and the recursion it offers. Mostly Life from the Loam but also the recursion that comes from stuff like Tilling Treefolk and Eternal Witness. I moved on to 5c, but though the black tutors would be nice, I didn't want to make a pure combo-deck and U/B felt like the colors that offered less. Enough for now, I'll give some thoughts on the deck after the list.
You're right. Panharmonicon might be a good inclusion, but never has been a fan of Impact Tremors. Not when Purphoros, God of the Forge exists
Made some changes, some of which might have escaped me.
Out:
Signal of the Clans
Skyshroud Ranger
Sakura-Tribe Scout
Knight of the Reliquary
In:
Spike Weaver
Purphoros, God of the Forge
Heroic intervention
Panharmonicon
Dryad Arbor
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Edit: Restore is good insurance for utility lands in general, but it becomes a ramp spell as well if lots of cycling and/or fetch lands are involved. They don't even have to be your lands.
If you want to get cute, Blades and Shields of Velis Vel can turn your opponents' creatures into Sand Warriors in response to removal/flicker on Hazezon.
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Really liking the concept of the deck! Have you tested it yet?
I have tested it a bit on cockatrice. Its really vunerable in the start (why I've added my good friend Spike Weaver), but once I get to assemble the combo-pieces it gets quite devastating. But it takes some effort to get there. Purphoros is the main win con (Siesmic Assault seems to clunky for this deck), and with him on board, you most likely don't need more then an extra flick for hazezon to kill the table. One game I think i ended up making 42 sand warriors at my upkeep dealing 84 damage to everyone. GG.
Edit: Restore is good insurance for utility lands in general, but it becomes a ramp spell as well if lots of cycling and/or fetch lands are involved. They don't even have to be your lands.
Thanks Hunding Gjornersen! Those are some good suggestions. I'll have to test them. The changeling-spells seems actually really nasty
And yeah, I'd wish I had a Cradle!
Thanks alot! I'm sure the list could be way better, so please continue suggesting stuff
I havn't considered the resonator yet, but it might be worth testing. Sacred Ground havn't been great, and i should properly cut it. An early iteration of the deck was lands.matter.dec, so between that and all the land-recursion i already have, it actually shouldn't be a problem to recover from some landremoval.
I kinda want to lower the non-basics so it would be easier to ramp. Wood Elves and Farhaven Elf seems better the scout and ranger with Astral Slide, so I should properly exchange those. Thinking about cutting Lotus Vale, Miren, the Moaning Well and Kessig Wolf Run. This would actually be a deck where i wouldn't be afraid to play the Vale, but it needs 2 other lands to even hit the board and doesn't provide much if i don't dig into the untap-strategy as Hunding suggested. Miren is just another High Market that cost way to much to activate. Im more on the fence about Wolf Run since its kinda an alternative wincon.
I should also play Auramancer/Monk Idealist (nearly fuctional since i don't have anything to support the wizard).
Okay, I'm now convinced that this deck needs Strionic Resonator as @osieorb18 suggested. It just plays so nicely with all the trigger abillities I already run. Here follows a small game-report:
10 lands (one of which is High Market), Strionic Resonator and Academy Rector on the board. Before my turn, I sac rector copy the abillity to get Purphoros and Goblin Bombardment. Proceed to my turn, cast hazezon, copy his trigger and then play Glacial Chasm and another land from grave with crucible and pass. Didn't think my opponents knew what was coming, because they didn't try to do much about it. At my upkeep i get 22 sandwarriors, dealing 44 damage to each opponent. The bombardment was just gravy.
On a side note I need more draw-power. Will test with Wheel of Fortune and maybe even Harmonize. I thought about adding Mistveil Plains as way to "recur" my instants and sorceries, but it most likely won't get online due to my low number of white permanents.
Edit: Also removed Lightning Rift. Card is just too cute, it does't do much. Needs to many things to get going.
Does Strionic Resonator work with Academy Rector? Sure, you can copy the triggered ability, but it has an intervening if clause. Once you exile the rector to the first instance of its ability you won't be able to exile it to the copy. Unless I'm misunderstanding something, which is entirely possible.
uff, I see, i can't place her from grave to exile twice... Need to learn to play this game correctly
Still the resonator seems good with a lot of the other stuff. Doubling the tokens will take the damage from devastation to lehtal most of the times.
Updated the decklist in op. Hopefully I'll get to write a detailed despriction of my card choices soon. I think I'm getting closer to where this deck needs to be. Added Mulch since i have a pretty high land count. Roughly half of the cards, giving a good change to hit some lands. Also, I don't mind the filtering.
Thanks for your suggestions, and please continue giving some
On a different note, labeling Riftsweeper "recursion" in an Astral Slide deck is just cheeky.
Yeah, well, when you're playing some cool enchantments, that you need to make the deck function, exiling is pretty rough
I think what tstorm meant was that Riftsweeper is a high-powered removal spell with Astral Slide, so it's amusing to see you characterize it as "just a recursion spell, nothing to fear here."
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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.
On a different note, labeling Riftsweeper "recursion" in an Astral Slide deck is just cheeky.
Yeah, well, when you're playing some cool enchantments, that you need to make the deck function, exiling is pretty rough
I think what tstorm meant was that Riftsweeper is a high-powered removal spell with Astral Slide, so it's amusing to see you characterize it as "just a recursion spell, nothing to fear here."
Whoah, havn't even thought of that I guess it goes like this: With Slide and Riftsweeper down, cycle two cards will exile another target creature. Thanks for all your help!
Gave this deck an overhaul. Added the 3 desert cyclers and wanted to try out The Great Aurora. Not sure if it fits here, thinking damage through Purphoros, God of the Forge is a better wincon. With Aurora, I need to play the game again (hopefully with big enough an advantage to win fairly quick).
Other then that, I've just tried to streamline the deck a bit.
Had a chance to play a couple of games with this beauty yesterday.
First game was against Braids, Conjurer Adept, UGWB counters and Trostani, Selesnya's Voice. Braids got down pretty fast, so the counter and token deck spat out creatures, while I didn't have much else then lands to play. I tutored for Tireless Tracker and kept my handsize decent, while ramping via Braids. The boardstate got really insane, but swayed between counters and tokens and they kinda locked each other for a while. Then token-deck got Seedborn Muse and some ooze that made tokens and the board were soon overwhelmed. The tokens almost took out counter-deck, putting him at 4. Counter-deck draws into Cyclonic Rift, which he plays, taking out all the tokens and the throng of creatures. At this point I was around 14 lands, and with not threats on board I just played my board again which consisted of Tireless Tracker, Oracle of Mul Daya and Academy Rector. Others do the same, and before my turn I tutor for Goblin Bombardment with Enlightened Tutor which I play on my turn aswell as hazezon Tamar and pass turn. I wanted to kill counter-deck with my four creatures, but missed it and during his turn he plays Rest in Peace, so now I can't sac Rector to get Purphoros, God of the Forge, but the two other deck was not able to take out either Enchantments, so I won a couple of turns later.
The other game played out almost the same. Now against Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Xanctha, Sleeper Agent and Sram, Senior Edificer. I got Oracle of Mul Daya down turn 2 off a Sol Ring, followed by Tireless Tracker which drew me a plethora of cards. Sram got Xanctha turn 3, but directed her at Aylis deathtouch, but Ayli just took the damage. Sram got a Jitte down really fast, and played a doublestrik-dude the turn later which put down alot of counters on the Jitte. I took a couple of swings, and luckily Sram didn't take out either of my creatures. I sat on Enlightened Tutor and Idyllic Tutor for a while, and got Bombardment and Purphoros when I had enough land to both and hazezon. Opponents didn't have a means to kill Purphoros which killed Ayli and put Xantcha and Sram at 11. I sacced hazezon before my upkeep, played him again and passed turn. Xantcha didn't have much to do, but played Torment of Hailfire. I had 11 Sand tokens which I sacced to kill Sram before his turn. Xantcha died at my upkeep.
I think I had The Great Aurora both games, and had the opportunity to play it both times, but actually didn't want too. I was in a pretty good position in both games, so that might have been the reason, but you do actually have to be in a good position to play this, and I felt like it would be a bit the same as playing Shahrazad. Think I will be cutting Aurora.
So, I decided to cut The Great Aurora. I don't think it does enough for this deck. I much rather ramp the hell out, do a big play and win... or whiff hard. And following that route, whiffing hard, I've recently played against Leyline of the Void and boy did that thing kill me. Enough to warrent me to try playing something that can win me the game, even though my primary wincons in Purphoros, God of the Forge and Goblin Bombardment gets exiled. And also something more that can take out the gravehating pieces. So I've slotted in Last-Ditch Effort as another sacoutlet for the tokens. My main concern about the card is that I'm only able to target a single target, and that way it might not win me the game anyways.
The World Shaper isn't that important in this build I guess, since I'm having a lot of recursion already. I reallty like Starstorm but it havn't been great in this build, and it mainly got past the cuts since it had cycling, which Forsake the Worldly also got.
1 Hazezon Tamar
The Engine + Wincon (8):
1 Astral Slide
1 Fluctuator
1 Panharmonicon
1 Strionic Resonator
1 Food Chain
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Last-Ditch Effort
Tutors (10):
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Academy Rector
1 Sterling Grove
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 Crop Rotation
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Realms Uncharted
Ramp (10):
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Wood Elves
1 Explore
1 Nature's Lore
1 Rampant Growth
1 Edge of Autumn
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 Summer Bloom
1 Sol Ring
1 Exploration
Card advantage (6):
1 Krosan Tusker
1 Shefet Monitor
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Sylvan Library
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Cloudshift
1 Heroic Intervention
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Constant Mists
1 Spike Weaver
Removal (6):
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Shields of Veils Vel
1 Akroma's Vengeance
1 Austere Command
1 Forsake the Worldly
1 Sylvan Reclamation
Recursion (10):
1 Noxious Revival
1 Regrowth
1 Eternal Witness
1 Seasons Past
1 Sun Titan
1 Splendid Reclamation
1 Life from the Loam
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Ramunap Excavator
Lands:
Cyclers (13):
1 Ash Barrens
1 Blasted Landscape
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Slippery Karst
1 Desert of the Indomitable
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Smoldering Crater
1 Desert of the Fervent
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Drifting Meadow
1 Desert of the True
1 Scattered Groves
1 Sheltered Thicket
8 Forest
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Plateau
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Arid Mesa
1 Taiga
1 Stomping Ground
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Savannah
1 Temple Garden
1 Windswept Heath
1 Temple of the False God
1 Krosan Verge
1 High Market
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Riftstone Portal
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Drownyard Temple
1 Dust Bowl
1 Strip Mine
1 Winding Canyons
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/magic-general/334931-what-is-the-most-pimp-card-deck-youve-seen-or?comment=5361
Commander
RGOmnath, Locus of Rage Grenades! EDHGR
UWSygg's Defense, EDH - Voltron & ControlWU
BUGMimeoplasm EDH ft. Ifnir Cycling-discard comboBUG
WBTeysa, Connoisseur of CullingBW
BWSelenia & Recruiter of the Guard suicice combo EDHWB
UBRWGO-Kagachi - 5 Color Enchantments - EDHUBRWG
Made some changes, some of which might have escaped me.
Out:
Signal of the Clans
Skyshroud Ranger
Sakura-Tribe Scout
Knight of the Reliquary
In:
Spike Weaver
Purphoros, God of the Forge
Heroic intervention
Panharmonicon
Dryad Arbor
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Edit: Restore is good insurance for utility lands in general, but it becomes a ramp spell as well if lots of cycling and/or fetch lands are involved. They don't even have to be your lands.
That's some deliciously evil secret tech.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
I have tested it a bit on cockatrice. Its really vunerable in the start (why I've added my good friend Spike Weaver), but once I get to assemble the combo-pieces it gets quite devastating. But it takes some effort to get there. Purphoros is the main win con (Siesmic Assault seems to clunky for this deck), and with him on board, you most likely don't need more then an extra flick for hazezon to kill the table. One game I think i ended up making 42 sand warriors at my upkeep dealing 84 damage to everyone. GG.
Thanks Hunding Gjornersen! Those are some good suggestions. I'll have to test them. The changeling-spells seems actually really nasty
And yeah, I'd wish I had a Cradle!
Thanks alot! I'm sure the list could be way better, so please continue suggesting stuff
I havn't considered the resonator yet, but it might be worth testing. Sacred Ground havn't been great, and i should properly cut it. An early iteration of the deck was lands.matter.dec, so between that and all the land-recursion i already have, it actually shouldn't be a problem to recover from some landremoval.
I kinda want to lower the non-basics so it would be easier to ramp. Wood Elves and Farhaven Elf seems better the scout and ranger with Astral Slide, so I should properly exchange those. Thinking about cutting Lotus Vale, Miren, the Moaning Well and Kessig Wolf Run. This would actually be a deck where i wouldn't be afraid to play the Vale, but it needs 2 other lands to even hit the board and doesn't provide much if i don't dig into the untap-strategy as Hunding suggested. Miren is just another High Market that cost way to much to activate. Im more on the fence about Wolf Run since its kinda an alternative wincon.
I should also play Auramancer/Monk Idealist (nearly fuctional since i don't have anything to support the wizard).
10 lands (one of which is High Market), Strionic Resonator and Academy Rector on the board. Before my turn, I sac rector copy the abillity to get Purphoros and Goblin Bombardment. Proceed to my turn, cast hazezon, copy his trigger and then play Glacial Chasm and another land from grave with crucible and pass. Didn't think my opponents knew what was coming, because they didn't try to do much about it. At my upkeep i get 22 sandwarriors, dealing 44 damage to each opponent. The bombardment was just gravy.
On a side note I need more draw-power. Will test with Wheel of Fortune and maybe even Harmonize. I thought about adding Mistveil Plains as way to "recur" my instants and sorceries, but it most likely won't get online due to my low number of white permanents.
Edit: Also removed Lightning Rift. Card is just too cute, it does't do much. Needs to many things to get going.
Edit: Alhammarret's Archive doubles the draw you get from cycling.
Still the resonator seems good with a lot of the other stuff. Doubling the tokens will take the damage from devastation to lehtal most of the times.
Archive might deserve a spot. Gonna test it.
I second this.
On a different note, labeling Riftsweeper "recursion" in an Astral Slide deck is just cheeky.
Yeah, well, when you're playing some cool enchantments, that you need to make the deck function, exiling is pretty rough
There have been some major changes since the first iteration - will update OP in the near future.
Thanks for your suggestions, and please continue giving some
Whoah, havn't even thought of that I guess it goes like this: With Slide and Riftsweeper down, cycle two cards will exile another target creature. Thanks for all your help!
Other then that, I've just tried to streamline the deck a bit.
First game was against Braids, Conjurer Adept, UGWB counters and Trostani, Selesnya's Voice. Braids got down pretty fast, so the counter and token deck spat out creatures, while I didn't have much else then lands to play. I tutored for Tireless Tracker and kept my handsize decent, while ramping via Braids. The boardstate got really insane, but swayed between counters and tokens and they kinda locked each other for a while. Then token-deck got Seedborn Muse and some ooze that made tokens and the board were soon overwhelmed. The tokens almost took out counter-deck, putting him at 4. Counter-deck draws into Cyclonic Rift, which he plays, taking out all the tokens and the throng of creatures. At this point I was around 14 lands, and with not threats on board I just played my board again which consisted of Tireless Tracker, Oracle of Mul Daya and Academy Rector. Others do the same, and before my turn I tutor for Goblin Bombardment with Enlightened Tutor which I play on my turn aswell as hazezon Tamar and pass turn. I wanted to kill counter-deck with my four creatures, but missed it and during his turn he plays Rest in Peace, so now I can't sac Rector to get Purphoros, God of the Forge, but the two other deck was not able to take out either Enchantments, so I won a couple of turns later.
The other game played out almost the same. Now against Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Xanctha, Sleeper Agent and Sram, Senior Edificer. I got Oracle of Mul Daya down turn 2 off a Sol Ring, followed by Tireless Tracker which drew me a plethora of cards. Sram got Xanctha turn 3, but directed her at Aylis deathtouch, but Ayli just took the damage. Sram got a Jitte down really fast, and played a doublestrik-dude the turn later which put down alot of counters on the Jitte. I took a couple of swings, and luckily Sram didn't take out either of my creatures. I sat on Enlightened Tutor and Idyllic Tutor for a while, and got Bombardment and Purphoros when I had enough land to both and hazezon. Opponents didn't have a means to kill Purphoros which killed Ayli and put Xantcha and Sram at 11. I sacced hazezon before my upkeep, played him again and passed turn. Xantcha didn't have much to do, but played Torment of Hailfire. I had 11 Sand tokens which I sacced to kill Sram before his turn. Xantcha died at my upkeep.
I think I had The Great Aurora both games, and had the opportunity to play it both times, but actually didn't want too. I was in a pretty good position in both games, so that might have been the reason, but you do actually have to be in a good position to play this, and I felt like it would be a bit the same as playing Shahrazad. Think I will be cutting Aurora.
1 World Shaper
1 Starstorm
1 Last-Ditch Effort
1 Forsake the Worldly
The World Shaper isn't that important in this build I guess, since I'm having a lot of recursion already. I reallty like Starstorm but it havn't been great in this build, and it mainly got past the cuts since it had cycling, which Forsake the Worldly also got.