MTG Salvation

Yes my titles are pure inspired genius. This is why you major in English, kids.

Anyway this guy interests me. He's got a nice low cost and a fun ability on a cool tribe that hopefully doesn't get too heinously out of hand this time (cough azami winter of...2012?).

Naban, Dean of Iteration
1U
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
If a Wizard entering the battlefield under your control causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.

Obviously it's kind of on rails a bit since he only synergizes with a handful of pretty easily searchable cards - although of course you could always go the arcane adaptation/xenograft route, but it's not like blue is amazing at searching for enchantments so it seems unreliable. Barring that, I'd say the obvious inclusions are:

• aether adept
  
• archaeomancer
  
• augur of bolas
  
• aven fogbringer
  
• champion of wits
  
• harbinger of the tides
  
• master of waves
  
• merchant of secrets
  
• neurok invisimancer
  
• omenspeaker
  
• riverwise augur
  
• scrivener
  
• sea gate oracle
  
• separatist voidmage
  
• silvergill adept
  
• snapcaster mage
  
• sower of temptation
  
• stern proctor
  
• storm sculptor
  
• tidebinder mage
  
• treasure mage
  
• trinket mage
  
• trophy mage
  
• vedalken dismisser
  
• vedalken plotter
  
• vendillion clique
  
• venser, shaper savant
  
• voidwielder
  
• watertrap weaver
  
• merfolk trickster
  
• naru meha, master wizard
  
• academy journeymage
  
• simic manipulator
  
• altar of the brood

Besides that, there's the general wizard tribal stuff:

• azami, lady of scrolls
  
• aphetto grifter
  
• docent of perfection
  
• galecaster colossus
  
• patron wizard
  
• riptide director
  
• riptide laboratory
  
• sage of fables
  
• sage's dousing
  
• sigil tracer
  
• stream of unconsciousness
  
• supreme inquisitor

And the pick-a-tribal stuff:

• adaptive automaton
  
• belbe's portal
  
• brass herald
  
• distant melody
  
• door of destinies
  
• herald's horn
  
• kindred discovery
  
• metallic mimic
  
• mirror of the forebears
  
• obelisk of urd
  
• peer pressure
  
• urza's incubator
  
• vanquisher's banner
  
• konda's banner
  
• cryptic gateway
  
• heirloom blade
  
• stoneforge masterwork
  
• call to the kindred

There are other wizards with really minor synergy, but those are the ones worth talking about from what I can find. I'm really curious to find other non-wizards that trigger on etbs (i.e. altar of the brood) but I don't see any others worth mentioning. Altar is actually a potentially legit wincon in this deck, though - it's tutorable via several methods including via wizard, and with all the bouncy wizards which will most likely want to bounce themselves and another creature when they etb, you should be triggering the ability pretty frequently. Bounce is likely to be pretty clutch here - there are 4 wizards that can do a capsize impression with naban on the field. venser is especially nasty with flash and spell bouncing.

Besides that and the obligatory counterspells and removal, the main thing I'm thinking is going for big mana (mana doublers, big mana rocks, etc). That's obviously best in mono-color, which we are, plus we have great mana sinks by playing wizards over and over with the bouncy shenanigans.

The main thing I'm interested in thinking about is any other things that trigger naban in a useful way, especially non-wizards (although if I somehow missed a powerful wizard lmk). I'm also interested in tribal synergies to a certain extent, but I do want this to be focused on ETBs more than wizards in general.

EDIT - initial decklist:

Something to consider, Trophy Mage can get both Basalt Monolith and Rings of Brighthearth, so pretty sweet. There are some cool Wizard mana outlets, but Memnarch is by far the coolest one. If you don't like combos you can always grab Cloudstone Curio and Crystal Shard.

Also, I would probably cut it down to around 20 wizards, and probably like 32 lands. Keep the curve low. This leaves more space for counters and other instant speed interaction or more mana rocks.

One card I would really recommend is Paradox Engine, a really sweet card to use with a bunch of your cards, especially Azami.

edit: Archaeomancer + Time Warp seems like a good way to win as well, thats really on-theme with the deck. What is more iterating than just taking more turns?

I'm not interested in infinite combos, which is why I intentionally excluded all those cards. Although paradox engine might actually be safe since I cut all color-producing rocks.

Increasing interaction is probably reasonable, but I'm more interested in exploring synergies than building MUC. If I do iterate on the deck (wink) then maybe I'll fine tune that balance and probably cut silly stuff like portal mage.

It's really worth to do a Naban commander istead of being a 1+98 in Inalla, Archmage Ritualist?

Just imagine cast a wizard with Inalla, Naban and Panharmonicon on the field. You can copy the Wizard 3 times, with a total of 16 ETB effects, lol.

Quote from procobrito »

It's really worth to do a Naban commander istead of being a 1+98 in Inalla, Archmage Ritualist?

Just imagine cast a wizard with Inalla, Naban and Panharmonicon on the field. You can copy the Wizard 3 times, with a total of 16 ETB effects, lol.

Well...

-I kind of hate Inalla for being a badly-designed uninteractive cancer commander
-Mono-color is more fun to build than tri-color
-Restriction breeds creativity
-I've practically sworn off building precon commanders because they get so overbuilt, and naban is (at least for now) fresh meat
-Most importantly - I don't build to make the most powerful deck I can. That's easy. The goal is to build something interesting that I want to build. Inalla is...not that.

Sticking him in with every Inalla deck is the obvious use, but a deck led by him is a lot more interesting to talk about. I really like having low-CMC commanders.

With the best ETB wizards being some form of card draw or bounce, which isn't enough to win the game, I'm imagining some sort of mono-blue spellslinger deck? Archaeomancer and Naru Meha, Master Wizard being the most important pieces. Control until you draw out your pieces, cast something crazy, then cast Naru to copy it 2-3 times (depending if you have Panharmonicon out.) If you have enough mana for a second cast of him, bounce him back with Crystal Shard or something for further copies.

Don't know what blue would want to copy so much besides extra turn spells, but could be fun. Would probably run a little lighter on wizards, maybe 10-20 of them and 30-40 insta/sorceries.

I tried out the deck a couple times tonight (won both). Overall I'd agree that it's pretty light on instants/sorceries, which really weakens the archaeomancer and snapcaster which were both mostly dead weight. Naru at least is also an anthem (also I didn't draw him). Idk that cutting wizards is the right call though, the second game I was really hurting for wizards to advance my game plan a bit.

The version so far is mostly built to win either via lockout or via tribal beats, or some combo of the two. Tribal beats being reasonable with a big anthem effect like door of destinies, and lockout being possible with cost reduction/big mana and venser type stuff, or just being about to bounce/counter everything with the wizards that do that sort of thing, or just outdraw with enough counters to stop anything relevant with azami or whatever. First game I won via vensering the last opponent out of lands, and also pumping my wizards to like +10/+10 with door. Second game I won by locking out the guy with the giant bouncy wizard and big mana.

Time warping ftw would definitely be possible but you'd have to cut archaeomancer if you want to avoid infinites. Actually venser could be problematic too, you could naru meha the spell and then bounce the original or something...although that's probably too complicated to be a problem. Mostly I just think it's a little bit boring for the other players and this deck is complicated enough to figure out without the added time sink.

Well, you don't need to make the most optimized Inalla deck, bit be grixis help a lot with options.

What about Proteus Staff? Good to bring random Wizards or remove treats.

With so much bounces and low curve, you could use some windfall effects. But this porbably would be better in black, to use graveyards. Equilibrium could be nice in that case.
You don't use Ghostly Flicker to avoid infinite combo with the new blue dualcaster?

I was thinking of a mono blue mill/control with the Jace's Erasure and Sphinx's Tutelage with card draw wizards, and ETB triggers with Altar of the Brood and Sage Row Denizen.

Here's what I have so far personally: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/wizard-of-the-coast-3/?cb=1524407534

Still need cards, but the basic gist is to double effects so that my bounce ETB wizards keep the field a bit clearer. With any sort of flash, this lets me control the battlefield on either turn. The issue so far is how do I win? Master of Waves and clones? I have Docent of Perfection in the deck too to help out. Otherwise it becomes a typical "deck yourself with Azami" deck.

Galecaster Colossus and Aven Fogbearer can grind opponents a bit, but they don't really win the game. So far it looks like Door of Destinies is the finisher of choice. Any thoughts?

Might consider Salvaging Station/Blasting Station combos, since Trinket mage/Treasure mage/Trophy mage can fetch pieces--not sure which one though:) Also, there's Teferi / Pool.

(maybe flayer husk/salvaging station/blasting station?).