MTG Salvation

The point about creature-based removal? It can't be put in the Eye, so neither can it be abused by your opponents to be rid of it(well, at least not as easily... they can still be killed & reanimated sadly). I just figure it might be worth it to play some Indrik Stomphowler / Acidic Slime / Trygon Predator just to be a bit on the safe side. Think of them not as pieces of the combo, but ways to protect it from O-Ring and its' ilk.

Stealing an opponents' removal is good as long as Eye is currently not on the battlefield, so they're good for getting rid of O-Ring.

Either work, I think.

Quote from Golden

Not really true.

When every single black deck contains Urborg + Coffers + Tutors it can certainly warp your play experience.

And that's my issue with proxies, even those that are just of the "I own one copy, just don't want to waste time moving it around" variety. Inherently they just lead to homogenization. People MOSTLY proxy powerful staples that they want more copies of, leading them to run the same stuff over and over again. Which is really unfortunate given how much variety exists in our game.

You own one Urborg? Play it in the deck that wants it the most and find something else to put into the other decks.

True, probably. Not like I have a lot of experience since I haven't encountered a whole lot of proxying to begin with - aside from the very occasional placeholder for a card that's in the mail, barely at all.

I probably would frown a bit if someone came to the table with a deck full of expensive things proxied here and there.

I don't use proxies myself(I like to 'keep it real', so to say), nor does anyone in my regular playgroup... but I don't mind if someone else does. What's it to me, really? It won't change the play experience itself.

A thought that occurred to me (not sure if this is a problem in your meta), but if someone Oblivion Rings/Detention Spheres your Storm, you might be mightily screwed. Some artifact/enchantment hate might not be off... although now I realize there is the risk that somehow Storm is the only artifact/enchantment in the table... though I'm not too worried about that - there are always some mana rocks at the very least, and almost always someone has a Darksteel Ingot out, meaning that you have a handy target if you get your Slice in Twain in the Storm and there is nothing juicier to destroy...

EDIT: Though now I realize that someone ELSE might want to disrupt it with your own removal. Ouchies. Ignore the above.

Although, creature-based enchantment/artifact hate still works. *shrug*

About time I updated this!

Damia has been a rather successful deck, more so than I thought it would be. Madness is not a theme anymore, but the name stuck anyway. Currently the deck operates on a few axis, a lot of it related to playing a lot of land and drawing a bunch of cards every turn thanks to the general.

Without further ado, here's the decklist so far:



Card explanations:

Dropping lands like no tomorrow is the main theme, and abusing this fact is what we're aiming for. From Burgeoning to Sakura-Tribe Scout to Oracle of Mul Daya, you will be dropping lands to the field... a lot.

Fog and variants thereof: I have lost count how many times I have been spared an attack because I had a full grip of cards and one or two lands untapped - even when I did not have a Fog in hand! People are scared to commit to an attack that might be nullified by one-or-two mana instant, and the ability to play mindgames is priceless. A special note to Constant Mists which is just stupid good in a deck that can keep buying it back nearly infinitely. Oh, and Spore Frog is the deck's mascot so it's not going anywhere

Robe of Mirrors, Diplomatic Immunity, Alexi's Cloak: Damia costs seven mana for a reason. People can and will want to kill her at every opportunity they get. Best to minimize that opportunity to begin with...

...which is what the counterspells are for (mostly). You are almost always getting worried about two things: getting your general killed or countered as you cast her, or someone wrathing the board. Someone casting a big dude is usually not a problem thanks to our removal suite AND our fog suite. Our spell choices here somewhat reflect that: cheap ways to counter noncreature spells. Null Brooch gets a special mention for being completely redunculous. Of note: this is not really a control deck so you should mostly save your counters to saving your own rear end and letting people duke it out between themselves and just Fog any offenders attacking you.

Control deck or not, we need removal. It's just good to have some, nothing earthshaking here. Spells that get rid of things you don't like. During an average game you'll be drawing good 3/4 of these, so the amount is usually quite plenty in my experience. Tragic Slip is there because the flavor is so hilariously appropriate, and it gets rid of quite a lot of things to boot.

Now we get to the fun stuff!

Recycle and Null Profusion are completely bonkers with Damia: draw to full hand on your upkeep, draw MORE as you play said full hand, and discard to two at end of turn (usually couple of pieces of removal/counters or a bomb you want to cast next turn), then draw five more cards next turn... with one of these in play, you're literally swimming in cards.

Trade Routes. A very solid engine for changing extra lands to cards, or picking lands back up to trigger landfall again, particularly at times when you don't have Damia around.

Abundance: It's usually overkill when Damia is onboard, but if you have enough lands and NEED that removal, it's a way to be that much more certain. Or if you just 'need two more land drops for your Avenger of Zendikar tokens to be lethal', that works too (assuming enough ways to get them down, anyway).

Seer's Sundial helps you keep up in fuel as you ramp up towards Damia - and help recover should Damia have a sudden case of nonexistence at the hands of your fellow players. Horn of Greed can also be considered here, but it gives cards to people not us so it's not ideal.

Misc winconish things:
Spitting Image: There is always something juicy to copy(handful of your own creatures included), and you will nearly always have an excess of lands to retrace this 'til oblivion comes.

Pack Rat: This card (and it's tokens) get out of hand quickly if you drop it lategame when you might have 12+ lands on board (and you always have excess cards to discard). A must-deal-with threat that makes people to scramble for their removal.

Words of Wilding, Words of Waste, Words of Wind: If all else fails, use your cards to fodder these to gain some unfair advantage.

Eternity Vessel: This card is shtoopid and makes people moan about the amount of artifact removal in their decks (always 'not enough', for some reason...). It has kept me alive for long bits of time when people are mostly in topdeck mode.

Psychic Spiral: You will be at a risk of decking yourself. I honestly considered Laboratory Maniac in this deck once, I get that close to decking myself. This will help put all the goodies back where you can draw them, and probably kill someone by milling while at it. Win-win if you ask me.

Avenger of Zendikar: Do I even need to tell you why it is good in a deck that can dump 3-4 lands a turn lategame?

Vulturous Zombie: EDH games have a tendency to cause stuff go to graveyard a lot even without wraths being involved. Chances are decent this guy can get lethal. Also again, Ravnica nostalgia speaking.

Squandered Resources: While not a win con per se, it can very well help fuel one out of nowhere.

Worm Harvest: Our lands (particularly the panoramas and expanse/wilds) have a tendency to end up in the graveyard for some reason. Might as well benefit from it.

Evil Twin: Who doesn't love an evil twin? Except maybe the guy whose twin he is, I guess. Regardless, EDH is a format ripe full of things you might want a slice of, in creature form. And this guy has the extra bonus of getting rid of the original. Of note: you don't have to copy an opponent's creature. It works perfectly fine copying your own creature and just not using the ability.

Lands: I'll mention Terrain Generator as yet another way to drop lands and leave it at that.

On playing this deck:
Once people in the playgroup realize (if they haven't yet) how powerful the ability to refill your hand every upkeep is, Damia will get targeted. A lot. Since you can get to seven or nine mana comparatively easily, it is usually best to wait casting Damia until you also have some way to protect her - Squandered Resources helps a lot here if you have it down early. Saccing lands is a lot less painful in this deck than most - obligatory Crucible of Worlds and Life From the Loam mention here.

This is also a fairly passive deck to play until you are ready to go off, unless you drop in an early Vulturous Zombie maybe. This deck is all about the slow incremental advantage and the winning off some combination of the aforementioned things. I am mostly an aggro-ish player, fan of the 'be the player forcing reactions, not the one reacting'... and this my 'off-aggro' deck, even if it wins via red zone usually. Be warned that games with this deck can and will drag on. (Don't get me started on a duel I did once between this deck and a friend's Thelon of Havenwood fungus/token deck...)

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Cards under consideration/wishlist:
Shocks will be in the moment I get around to gathering 'em.
Garruk, Apex Predator might be worth a look, as I've been tempted to make this partially a superfriends-style deck as I've realized how well spamming Fogs and tokens actually keeps people off my planeswalkers.
The deck is also nearing the kind of territory where Primal Vigor/Doubling Season/Parallel Lives starts to look mighty tempting.

More red/black effects that makes a creature deal damage to its' controller, like Backlash or Delirium. Also in similar vein, a few other effects akin to Phthisis would not go amiss. Because it's fun to do 'stop hitting yourself' in a way

Devour, especially tacked to a creature that actually is more than just big meat after the devourage. (<3 Mycoloth and Preyseizer Dragon )

Those from the top of my head.

I play varying amounts of LD and MLD in my decks, and thankfully in our meta it's accepted without a second thought really: it's a legit strategy and while it occasionally stalls the game, well, that's the nature of the beast in a game where nearly anything can happen.

And yeah, I occasionally get it blown in my face when I fail to ramp back up/someone ramps up faster and beats me face, but heh.

Been thinking about Damia, Sage of Stone lately... basically what my EDH bunch really misses(...?) is a really annoying stax/pox/control piece of work. Also maybe some wisdom (Kamigawa is fun!) and whatever else fun I find.

I took a look at my ramp-heavy Karador and realized how few things I actually have in the lower ranges of permanents... and how much some players in my meta love their mana rocks and utility dudes sometimes. Hmm... I think I could give this a spin, see what happens.

(And yes, I realize Karador has access to numerous other boardwipes. Let the Golgari fanatic in me dream for a bit.)

I had a game where I really taught a couple players in my meta the value of (mass) enchantment destruction.

I was playing my Kresh-devour deck which is rather heavy with choice enchantments. I had all these in play because their fairly freshly-built decks were light on enchantment removal: Doubling Season, Feed the Pack, Awakening Zone, Death Match, Death's Presence and Predatory Advantage.

I managed to get 54 wolf tokens in play along with a stupidly big Kresh as I sac'd my previous-turn Tar Fiend to the Pack, Kresh equipped with Mage Slayer, nothing of theirs would stay alive thanks to Death Match, and the ability to go even more stupid the next turn if necessary...

Suffice it to say I have not gotten nearly all of those in play at the same time since that game.

I had this kind of dilemma earlier this year.

Ended up just shrugging and doing two voltron/pseudo-voltron decks: Ruhan of the Fomori with the equipment, and Treva, The Renewer with the enchantress setup.

Both work good and play differently enough to be fun - as has been said, both archetypes have their ups and downs, and definitely both are fun to command.