MTG Salvation

I'm very excited to try out Adeliz in PDH! Wizards are a very deep tribe, and Adeliz gives them the consistent synergy they were lacking until now.

Essentially, the deck can play as a tempo deck, bouncing or destroying threats your opponents play all the while attacking with mostly evasive creatures that get bigger when you cast your spells thanks to the commander.

Cheap spell are prioritized, particularly ones that cantrip. These allow us to go through our deck faster and get a nice big storm count for our Commander. The more creatures we have out, the better her ability becomes.

Upkeep, you are a deck building machine!

Anyways... For your deck, the upcoming Core 2019 Salvager of Secrets is superior to both Scrivener/Anarchist.

Might as well put Peregrine Drake in there as well, along with High Tide for some busted plays.

I also highly recommend Kaervek's Torch and Rolling Thunder for your deck , they are the best X burn spells in Pdh, and will
provide you with some reach in finishing opponents off.

Shattering Pulse is something to consider as well,... especially if you plan on running your deck in some normal EDH games.

***Neurok Stealthsuit along with Clout of the Dominus and/or Diplomatic Immunity may be worthy inclusions to keep Adeliz safe.

Yeah, as Temujin said, Salvager of Secrets is the 3rd Izzet Wizard to go. If you prefer to have 5, Scrivener and Anarchist are fine, but if it was me I'd prefer these 3 wizards and the wall for versatility.
You need some more ways to protext your commander, so add redundance like Aboshan's Desire, Alexi's Cloak, Neurok Stealthsuit, Whispersilk Cloak - yup, everything you wanted for dat Zada commander
You need some good draw spells: Secrets of the Golden City, Treasure Cruise, Foresee, Rhystic Study, maybe Borrowing 100,000 Arrows and/or Mystic Remora.
Maybe the Peregrine Drake Combo (or High Tide with Cloud of Faeries) justifies storm cards, otherwise IMO you could go more vanilla. If you add just the Faeries (tutorable through transmute cards), you can add infinite storm count kinda easily to justify them.
Same thing for X-burn spells. Maybe Rolling Thunder (also tutorable) should be preferred on multiplayer.
I'd add some ramp also: Expedition Map, Mycosynth Wellspring (good with blinking), Traumatic Visions.
A good flasback redundant spell to a finishing attack: Defy Gravity.
To defend yourself from nasty permanents, you can use Scour the Existence and Reality Acid (wonderful with Capsize, almost reusing this on my Child of Alara deck).
I'd choose something like 25 creatures, 30 instants/sorceries, 7 artifacts/enchantments, 37 lands and fine tune from this point on. Don't forget Izzet Boilerworks to try to help going infinite Artifact lands too to ramp with Trinket Mage if you want to. Path of Ancestry is amazing here, you will scry like crazy! This, rainbows and the normal pauper fetches and I guess the rest is pretty easy.
I loved the UG and RG decks you built but they don't seem strong, at least for now. But Zada and this one look promising
I will try to assemble what I think to be a good 100-card pile if you don't mind.
Kudos for your deckbuilding. You're the man.

Thanks so much for the great suggestions from both of you! You guys are awesome!

I honestly think Adeliz is going to be one of the most powerful commanders in PDH. Wizards are a very deep tribe, and Adeliz gives them the consistent synergy they were always lacking.

I obviously have way too many creatures. I basically took all the wizards I thought were interesting and put them here, and I'm slowly trying to cut down to about 30. 13 to go now!

I think 37 lands is a lot for a deck that has so much draw. I'm aiming for 35 currently.

Peregrine Drake and High Tide are definitely going in.

I can't very well play Red PDH without Rolling Thunder, can I?

Neurok Stealthsuit, Clout of the Dominus and Diplomatic Immunity are all definitely going to make the cut.

I was really impressed with Borrowing 100,000 Arrows in my Tatyova build. Maybe it should be in every Blue deck.

Defy Gravity is exactly the kind of card this build likes! Evasion and double-dipping on Adeliz triggers for cheap. Perfect!

Great suggestions all around! Thanks again!

This deck is gonna rock! Let's brew!

EDIT: I started categorizing spells in order to help sort them better to find what to cut. I've added many of your suggestions and have also made room for Aven Wind Mage and Salvager of Secrets. I'm finding myself cutting most of the Red wizards, which is unfortunate. Hopefully I can make up for that with a healthy amount of Burn. I'm still looking to cut 2-4 more creatures, but the majority of the creature cuts have been made, and it wasn't easy to sort through everything! Now it's time to start sorting through all the spells.

EDTI2: I've finally arrived at a 100-card deck! This has got to be one of the decks that gave me the most difficulty in terms of the amount of choices I had in deck-building. It's not perfect, but playing the deck will give me better insight on where to go from here.

Looks good Upkeep! A quick solid Wizard Blitz deck.

Maybe add an Opal Palace...

If you're not running Cloud of Faeries and don't run many utility lands, I'd take Izzet Boilerworks out, and add Halimar Depths. Maybe less mountains and more islands, given the spell quantities of each color. TBC
Is Shattering Pulse a thing? What do you think about Seething Anger?
Tutors are never enough in commander. You should run Drift of Phantasms, Fiery Fall, and Traumatic Visions, the two last ones being useful in late game.
Is 3 protection spells enough for you? What about Aboshan's Desire, Diplomatic Immunity, Mystic Veil, and Robe of Mirrors? Protective Bubble is better but expensive.

Thanks for the thoughts!

I will keep boilerworks, as we can use all the fixing we can get our hands on in PDH. I had to cut a lot of the pieces of infinite combo with CoF in order to make space for the natural synergies of the deck. Not sure if it makes it worse, but it will definitely stand out from other blue decks that all run the same 15-20 blue cards.

I kinda like Shattering Pulse, which was a suggestion from TEMUJIN. I'll give it a shot. If not, I was thinking Destructive Tampering, a card I've come to really appreciate in PDH.

I'll have to see about tweaking the number of basics. We are really skewed towards Blue, at the moment.

I would probably never play the front end of Fiery Fall, so I don't think it's worth playing. Traumatic Visions I like, though! Drift of Phantasms is pretty interesting, as it fetches up combo pieces like Ghostly Flicker, as well as good creatures like Wee Dragonauts and a single powerful spell: Capsize. It's probably worth playing, but what to cut?

I initially started out with 5 protection spells and eventually had to cave in and cut to 3. It doesn't feel like a lot, but then again Adeliz is only 3 mana and has haste, so we can still cast her multiple times in a game and do significant damage right away. I think I would feel a lot better with 4 pieces. But again: what to cut? This deck is feeling so tight as it is!

You said you were building your own list. Have you finished it? I would really appreciate seeing someone else's creation to compare!

Wow your deck looks so similar to mine! I guess we're probably on the right track then!

I don't feel quite comfortable taking out more creatures at this point. Adeliz's strength diminishes the smaller our board presence gets, so we want to make sure we can get hits in with 4-5 wizards at a time to practically 1-shot opponents. Maybe after some more testing, I'll feel better about cutting more creatures.

Just as a sidenote: I was really amazed at Vedalken Dismisser in other games of PDH I've played. Being able to flicker him multiple times over the course of a match makes you realize how busted his ability is. It wrecks your opponents board AND ruins their draws. Flickering him makes it so your opponent is not drawing anything new for multiple turns, which is back-breaking. It's essentially like getting a 2-for-1 every time. He feels like a rare.

I had Distant Melody in my first builds, but it's a bit too situational. Borrowing 100,000 Arrows has been much stronger, and am also a fan of Rush of Knowledge in terms of the raw card draw it provides. We have a lot of 5-drops that make this good.

I've had good results with Oona's Grace in the past, but maybe I'm overvaluing instant-speed draw too much in this deck. We aren't actually holding up mana all the time like with other builds. I think I'll try Secrets of the Golden City like you suggest.

Must find room for Drift of Phantasms and Diplomatic Immunity...

I wish I could play Displace. I had to displace it to make space... I probably won't put it back in, especially if I include Drift of Phantasms.

Great stuff! Looking forward to more progress! I've got my deck built now, with Aven Wind Mage and Salvager of Secrets now in my possession!

I will edit my previous deck post in a few days.
Distant Melody is out, Vedalken Dismisser is in again, you convinced me on this (but not Sphinx's Disciple - 26 wizards if you count the tutor one).

Things I think they might not be optimal in this deck and possible replacements:
Information Dealer - the weakest ability, 1/1 body, and needs the wizard untapped, and is as situational as Distant Melody exactly for the same reason. maybe the Trinket Mage package (+2 artifact lands) is a good replacement, help fixing colors and has a 2/2 body for 1 more mana.
Searing Blaze - RR isn't easy in this Ur config unless in mid/late game, thinking on Gitaxian Probe.
Rolling Thunder - 'win more' card, when going infinite your wizards have infinite power. Unless you are facing a turbofog this could be a Robe of Mirrors or Whispersilk Cloak - I prefer the first.

This way I'd have 25-26 wizards, 30 instants/sorceries, 35 lands, and 9-8 other cards.
Thoughts?

I agree with your thoughts on information dealer. The only thing I can see going for it is that if you can re-arrange the top 2-4 cards every turn, it can end up being quite good over many activations (especially with shuffle effects). I want to keep it just because it's pretty much the only wizard-specific synergy the deck has. I could definitely see it not being good enough.

I also noticed that Searing Blaze is difficult to cast and requires a land drop in order to be worth it. I was thinking Staggershock could come back in instead. doubling activations for free seems good.

I see Rolling Thunder as more of a board wipe or way to get rid of specific creatures. I don't expect this to be going face very often.

That function split seems solid.

I like Staggershock more on paper. Will test.
Will test Trinket Mage also.
I agree with Rolling Thunder. It is clunky but it's excellent when you can cast it.

Other cards to consider: Distortion Strike (instead of Snap maybe), and Faerie Trickery (instead of Deprive).

Distortion for Snap makes sense. We care more about being unblocked than we do creatures being in play, in theory. Snap is just a bit more versatile, but it could certainly go.

Trickery over Deprive is a good idea. Exiling spells is so strong in this format.

Rolling Thunder is fetchable by Muddle the Mixture also!

Quote from Upkeep »

Trickery over Deprive is a good idea. Exiling spells is so strong in this format.

Yeah, and again, anything that slows us down on lands is a nonbo given we run 35 lands. The only concession I can make here is Gush because come on, it costs 0 to cast!
Well, we have 2 tiny differences between the brews (Distortion Strike/Trinket Mage vs Snap/Information Dealer). Great success!

Guys, this looks cool! I was thinking about doing Adeliz for Tiny Leaders, as I think it's the best option for pauper. I think it can be competitive even against full power TL decks if built right. I was thinking something along the lines of UR Delver. Any suggestions in particular?

Quote from urdjur »

Guys, this looks cool! I was thinking about doing Adeliz for Tiny Leaders, as I think it's the best option for pauper. I think it can be competitive even against full power TL decks if built right. I was thinking something along the lines of UR Delver. Any suggestions in particular?

Thanks!

Since you lose a lot of the infinite recursion and value stuff by restricting to only 3cmc, Tempo definitely seems like the way to go with this deck in TL.

Aside from the creatures already in our piles, I would add Ghitu Lavarunner, Escape Artist, Spellstutter Sprite, maybe Ghitu Journeymage, Spellweaver Eternal, Martyr of Frost, Hapless Researcher, Ninja of the Deep Hours for value... You'd probably want to cut some of the 3-drops to lower the curve and leave space for Adeliz. The new Viashino Pyromancer might also be good enough to run.

Aside from creatures, the same tempo-style cards you see in Pauper will be excellent here for sure. Lots of counters, free spells, etc. Sounds like a powerful deck!

My take on TL (urdjur beat me to it but there is a lot of intersection).
Only 3-cost spell is Adeliz, fast (main cmc = 1.53) and lots of cantrips, evasions and burns.
Some spells were put to protect our pump engine. Hypergeometric calculator says we have 65% of chance of drawing one up to turn 5 on play. Also lands were select in a way there 92% of chance of having a red source by turn 3 on play. As a classic stompy player I think it can beat opponent fast enough...

Quote from alexandre »

My take on TL (urdjur beat me to it but there is a lot of intersection).

But this will be quite bad against decks that has some amount of removal. Stop Adeliz a few times and most of whats left wont be a problem - except for 3 (2 of which has prowess) everything got 1 or 2 powers. Thats not stompy!

I chose an approach more typical for the pauper U/R kiln fiend decks we all know. Basically, Adeliz is a nice bonus with this deck but not at all necessary to win.



IMO, wizards that only bring unblockability to the table are too bad in a build like this. We have so many excellent such effects in instants/sorceries anyway. Wingcrafter is the only exception because it's such a good 1-drop, and it doesn't have to tap to give its benefit to another creature.

Crimson Wisps and Expedite are there for any creatures you top deck after t3. The deck aims to kill at t4 or possibly t5, though a t3 kill is possible (Kiln Fiend). If you have Kiln Fiend or Cyclops, chances are you won't even bother with playing Adeliz.

I decided against the tap duals as I don't really need more fixing and I want speed. Wilds, expanse and barrens (and merchant scroll) all provide shuffling effects for Brainstorm.

EDIT: Removed Merchant Scroll and Jilt that was just too cute. Then had to remove Electromancer too for not having enough inst/sorc with colorless in their costs. Put in drifter il-dal instead.

EDIT2: Drifter il-Dal is bad, but that's beside the point. I've been toying around with the deck and noticed how it's different from UR Fiend in some fundamental ways.
1) UR Fiend runs 4x Fiend and 4x Cyclops - only 8 creatures in a 60 card deck that respond favorably to vomiting spells and then giving double strike for the win. This deck *can* do that sometimes when the cards align, but more often it wants to amass a certain number of wizards to achieve the same effect. "Same" meaning that for each spell you cast, you want to bump the power on your board with 3, whether that comes from 1 Kiln Fiend/Cyclops, 1 sanguinary mage + adeliz or 2 non-prowess wizards and adeliz.
2) Since you tend to have more creatures on the board than fiend and spread out the pump among them, double strike effects tend to be slightly worse. Overload effects and things that grant benefits to your entire team are correspondingly better.
3) UR Fiend plays 4 Ponder, 4 Probe and 4 Preordain - some even run a few Serum Visions. They can afford to run fewer land as they rarely have a 1-drop, and can dig for their 3rd or even 2nd land. Our game plan is ideally to play wizards on turns 1-3 (or tap land on turn 1, and we might even drop adeliz on t4), leaving little room to dig. However, with lots of land, you risk mana flooding if you fizzle on your fundamental turn - from all those cantrip effects you used to pump your team. I think the solution is to play wizards like Sage of Epityr and Omenspeaker, while also running the red and blue lands that cycle for R and U respectively and at least 17 land.

I'm gonna reflect on these insights and update my build later today

But this will be quite bad against decks that has some amount of removal. Stop Adeliz a few times and most of whats left wont be a problem - except for 3 (2 of which has prowess) everything got 1 or 2 powers. Thats not stompy!

I stand corrected, adeliz is really fragile here. Suggestions?

Crimson Wisps and Expedite are there for any creatures you top deck after t3. The deck aims to kill at t4 or possibly t5, though a t3 kill is possible (Kiln Fiend). If you have Kiln Fiend or Cyclops, chances are you won't even bother with playing Adeliz.

Agreed.

I decided against the tap duals as I don't really need more fixing and I want speed. Wilds, expanse and barrens (and merchant scroll) all provide shuffling effects for Brainstorm.

Agreed, taplands here are meh.

However, with lots of land, you risk mana flooding if you fizzle on your fundamental turn - from all those cantrip effects you used to pump your team. I think the solution is to play wizards like Sage of Epityr and Omenspeaker, while also running the red and blue lands that cycle for R and U respectively and at least 17 land.

I agree on 17 lands tops and maybe more cantrips (I added Impulse), maybe adding the UR Panorama also among them (4 fetches helps to filter basics from your draws and replaces a basic instead of a good spell replaced by a slow wizard)... but the rest dilutes the aggro aspect of the deck. Needs playtesting.
I need to post my EDH here. Will do when my cards arrive.

Quote from alexandre »

But this will be quite bad against decks that has some amount of removal. Stop Adeliz a few times and most of whats left wont be a problem - except for 3 (2 of which has prowess) everything got 1 or 2 powers. Thats not stompy!

I stand corrected, adeliz is really fragile here. Suggestions?

Apart from daze and snapback, the only thing I can see requires more mana, which will slow your deck down and is thus something you really dont want :/ I think urdjur's plan is better really.

Man, that Forge of Heroes looks amazing. Think about the blink engine working and Adeliz entering (casting or blinking). Fatality. I will have this one in my brew (and maybe an Expedition Map to fetch it), period.

Man, that Forge of Heroes looks amazing. Think about the blink engine working and Adeliz entering (casting or blinking). Fatality. I will have this one in my brew (and maybe an Expedition Map to fetch it), period.

I think it's good for the standard build, but not for Tiny Leaders. You don't want to delay your game plan a turn just to get that counter, plus there is no blink engine. I'm gonna start a new thread about the tiny build, so as not to further derail this one.

I think it's good for the standard build, but not for Tiny Leaders. You don't want to delay your game plan a turn just to get that counter, plus there is no blink engine. I'm gonna start a new thread about the tiny build, so as not to further derail this one.

Yeah I meant the regular one exactly to abuse the blink engine. Good idea on opening a thread to TL (I know I suck thinking decks in this format lol, built by Gwafa and that's it).

Passwall Adept is a great card from the new set.
As d0su pointed out on CoA thread, Gateway Plaza is a great rainbow land.
Will test them replacing Thought Courier and a Mountain.