Arcum Daggson is a great commander. He is great at grabbing non-creature artifacts. I have not seen many decks devoted to a recursion package with him for artifacts.
I am looking at running this recursion package below with Arcum and making a combo engine with it.
Myr Retriever
Junk Diver
Workshop Assistant
The engine I am looking into is a cost reduction one. There are a few options I have included below mostly tutorable by Arcum.
Semblance Anvil
Planar Gate
Etherium Sculptor
Foundry Inspector
Helm of Awakening
Cloud Key
Stone Calendar
Then I am looking at a tutorable sacrifice/loop engine with Arcum below. I probably will only include the most compact win conditions that have an infinite effect w/ a loop to immediately win the same turn.
Ashnod's Altar (infinite colorless mana w/ loop)
Krark Clan Ironworks (infinite colorless mana /w loop)
Phyrexian Altar (infinite colored mana w/loop)
Grinding Station (doubles as an infinite mill outlet to win with loop)
Blasting Station (doubles as an infinite damage outlet to win with loop)
Summoning Station (infinite creature outlet w/ a loop)
Aetherflux Reservoir (an infinite damage engine w/ the loop)
Aetherworks Marvel (infinite energy w/ the loop)
Arcum should theoretically need below.
2 of 3 artifact recursion creatures for a loop.
-3 cost reduction or an Ashnod's Altar/Krark Clan Ironworks with at least an -1 cost reduction)
A sacrifice outlet and win condition in one.
Once you have the loop going you just recast your Myr Retriever / Junk Diver / Workshop Assistant and recur them for infinite cast / sacrifice triggers.
I am not sure if a deck such as this could be made competitively but it may be worth exploring. The deck's major weakness would be null rod / stony silence and tax cards. I am sure this idea could be tuned to consistently win turn ~5 highly efficiently but that is a tad too slow for competitive edh.
I have been playing only this deck winning gameday, 2 of the last 3 FNM (8+ players mix of delirium, blue/black control, blue/white/red control and vehicles) and here are my thoughts.
1) The deck wants to win by turn 4 or 5. Anything that you cannot play in the first 4 turns should be cut. Control can just out control if we don't win quickly.
2) longtusk cub is slow and if he gets bounced/removed he sucks. I almost would rather play Lathnu Hellion in his place.
3) blossoming defense is perfect for this deck as it's a counterspell. Never play less than 4.
My creature base
4x Servant of the Conduit
2x Longtusk Cub (always side them out)
4x Voltaic Brawler (Trample is awesome against Planeswalkers)
4x Electrostatic Pummeler
4x Bristling Hydra
I maindeck 4 uncaged fury. They add consistency if you don't draw a pummeler. I have won numerous games with trample+doublestrike with a single pump spell.
So many people seem to be maindecking control cards. Every game if the blue player gets the mana for a torrential gearhulk you will lose. They just get too far ahead at that point. Why play a control element if you aren't playing card advantage? Other decks do it better than you and you should just play control then. This deck in my experience is all about speed, and the initial aggro burst before the opponent can setup.
Hmm it looks like I was right about everything but the lathnu hellions over the longtusk cubs now that this deck won the pro championship.
I still think Lathnu is great but it would be a meta choice to include it over the cubs
Green has many, many untap effects for creatures. You could theoretically play a green untap effect like Mobilize and untap a ton of mana dorks for way more mana. This could theoretically allow you to chain mana elf tap effects together for obscene amounts of mana early game.
First turn Llanowar elf. Second turn Elvish Archdruid. Third turn play 3rd land, tap elves for 3 green, tap forest for 3 green, play mobilize, net 2 more mana have 8 mana turn 3.
It's an idea. It would be easy to chain untap effects with just a few green creatures and a draw source. Freyalize seems good for this. It's a way more aggressive strategy than what is presented here however.
Mana Crypt > Sol Ring in competitive EDH so why aren't we talking about crypt? Few competitive edh decks win through combat anyway.
To answer the initial question though edh is a random, singleton format with swingy plays. Sol Ring embodies this at a cheap monetary cost. It's like saying, "Drawing Sol Ring is like opening a rare in EDH for the same reason people buy packs. It's exciting to get something good."
I treated myself to a box of Kaladesh today. 14 packs in I opened an invention. With the way card distribution works should I save the rest for drafting because the likelihood of another invention is low? I am considering trading in the remaining box for another kaladesh box as well. Would this make sense? Is there a resource on the randomization of mythics/inventions per box someone may have?
I am looking at building a casual, or at least non infinite combo, creature based Kaalia of the Vast deck.
With the color combinations of red, black and white there are many synergies.
Red I could use for discard, draw effects to dig for angels and pitch reanimation targets. With black I can play reanimation spells for the angels I will be playing. With white I get the angels like Iona, Avacyn etc. Also more of a unique thing with white to Kaalia I will be using stuff like Ghostway and Eerie Interlude with other flicker effects to protect my creatures and have additional etb effects.
Red discard/draw effects (any others? I want to steer clear of wheels if possible.)
Faithless Looting
Tormenting Voice
Cathartic Reunion
Black Reanimation effects (will play 7-8 of these)
Reanimate
Animate Dead
Dance of the Dead
Necromancy
Angels & Demons (I will play 15 or so hitters)
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Iona, Shield of Emeria
Gisela, Blade of Fortnight
Rune Scarred Demon
Demon of Dark Schemes
The issue with this deck I feel will be attacking with Kaalia. It may never happen in a good meta. This is why I think adding the reanimation will be a good secondary strategy. If I can't swing with Kaalia I can still pitch/reanimate angels.
Any additional thoughts/suggestions for this deck concept I may have missed? I will have a decklist setup a little later.
Well in terms of reanimation targets, Kozilek from Oath of Gatewatch is a target I definitely want to try. When he's in play with a decent hand size you can theoretically lock out the game for opponents.
Why would anyone invest in a card they will just reprint at a moment's whim? Invest in reserved list cards. It's a more safe investment. Invest and modern should not be in the same sentence.
I have been playing only this deck winning gameday, 2 of the last 3 FNM (8+ players mix of delirium, blue/black control, blue/white/red control and vehicles) and here are my thoughts.
1) The deck wants to win by turn 4 or 5. Anything that you cannot play in the first 4 turns should be cut. Control can just out control if we don't win quickly.
2) longtusk cub is slow and if he gets bounced/removed he sucks. I almost would rather play Lathnu Hellion in his place.
3) blossoming defense is perfect for this deck as it's a counterspell. Never play less than 4.
My creature base
4x Servant of the Conduit
2x Longtusk Cub (always side them out)
4x Voltaic Brawler (Trample is awesome against Planeswalkers)
4x Electrostatic Pummeler
4x Bristling Hydra
I maindeck 4 uncaged fury. They add consistency if you don't draw a pummeler. I have won numerous games with trample+doublestrike with a single pump spell.
So many people seem to be maindecking control cards. Every game if the blue player gets the mana for a torrential gearhulk you will lose. They just get too far ahead at that point. Why play a control element if you aren't playing card advantage? Other decks do it better than you and you should just play control then. This deck in my experience is all about speed, and the initial aggro burst before the opponent can setup.
1) People have to live with and accept less. For years wages have remained stagnant. Fifteen years ago USA families made as much as they do now in pay. This is partly due to the global economy and other countries catching up to the USA.
2) There is a larger divide between the rich and poor and the middle class is shrinking. Companies are taking advantage of workers. When someone is on salary they often make less than someone on hourly per hour. A law recently passed that would required salaried workers to be paid for OT. That ruling was recently blocked by a federal judge and may never happen.
What will probably happen in the next 20 years with the worker situation may be interesting. I predict the younger generation kids to the baby boomers will take their parents money (when the baby boomers die) and work less. They will not spend anywhere near as much as their parents and make more frugal financial decisions. Over a trillion dollars will be changing hands in the next 20 years when baby boomers die.
You have their kids who up until this point have been working for half of what their parents made working harder than their parents did. Experience is overvalued in this job market and the work a sixty-five+ year old baby boomer does at a firm which relies on computers is greatly inflated.
When the money changes hands, I predict this will happen.
1) people of the 20-30 year old generation who don't have to work won't and that will be maybe 15-35% of the available workforce.
2) people of the 20-30 generation won't buy what their parents did. Things like boats or brand new vehicles every couple years are wastes of money that people won't pay for. Entertainment will be cheaper. People will pay for basically internet and their entertainment charges will be much less than their parents.
3) major usa manufacturing companies will sell a lot of products to newly industrialized countries and have a hard time meeting demand. They will remain stubborn on pay of workers and continue to hold onto money concentrated at the top.
4) people with education debt from bachelors/masters who never earned the value back from their degree will realize it was the worst financial mistake of their life.
I don't think I am alone in these thoughts. These are all my opinions on the economy into the future.
I think our country is divided so much politically that even if there was an obvious propaganda attack the Republican side would argue there wasn't. It's sad but the problem is the me me me mentality in this country. We have a global economy and society.
I believe this propaganda machine Russia is building will make a lot of people upset in Washington. The real answer will be how does a divided country react to having the rug removed from under it? Will people unite together or continue to bicker about petty differences?
That will be the test of the united states going forward and any future candidate. Will they try to unite us as one country or prey on petty differences? If they do the latter the usa will go farther behind.
The interesting thing about the hate package in addition to it stopping entire archetypes (humility, null rod, rest in peace, armageddon) is you can make the deck lack weakness to playing any of them specifically and use each as a silver bullet for certain opponents based on metagame.
Planeswalkers are basically super synergistic with almost any mass board wipe/stax effect.
When every game is over by the 3rd-6th turn you'd be surprised how little a doubling season can actually impact the game. The skate is infinitely better because there are literally 3 ways to tutor it directly into play.
When I play my hand and have 3-4 control cards left you'd be surprised how useless spending 3 mana for a brainstorm and shuffle is. As is the case with scroll rack.
So I played this deck today. It was fun, locked out people and was definitely threatening.
Stuff I want to find room for is;
Dovin Baan
Supreme Verdict
Austere Command
Doubling Season
Some spell based land ramp
Call to Gatewatch
Stuff that underperformed
Scroll Rack
Temporal Mastery
Thran Dynamo
Trinisphere
Derevi is a great commander for this deck. They can be flashed out killed multiple times and still be used for Polymorph effects. People hated the stax effects. Any deck which can run a disruption package of Humility and Null Rod with tutoring for them is great. Humility if resolved singlehandedly stops a lot of decks. So does Null Rod. I may play Rest in Peace and Helm of Obedience as an alternative win con as well.
It's an obvious inclusion. What I am getting at is it's a potential archetye as you can reliably have the Skate every game and basically win once he resolves. I imagine a superfriends deck like this could be very competitive. To me he seems more powerful than Doubling Season by a mile.
Looking at the list I am not totally sure how exactly the deck wins other than like a Jace TMS.
I am looking at running this recursion package below with Arcum and making a combo engine with it.
Myr Retriever
Junk Diver
Workshop Assistant
The engine I am looking into is a cost reduction one. There are a few options I have included below mostly tutorable by Arcum.
Semblance Anvil
Planar Gate
Etherium Sculptor
Foundry Inspector
Helm of Awakening
Cloud Key
Stone Calendar
Then I am looking at a tutorable sacrifice/loop engine with Arcum below. I probably will only include the most compact win conditions that have an infinite effect w/ a loop to immediately win the same turn.
Ashnod's Altar (infinite colorless mana w/ loop)
Krark Clan Ironworks (infinite colorless mana /w loop)
Phyrexian Altar (infinite colored mana w/loop)
Grinding Station (doubles as an infinite mill outlet to win with loop)
Blasting Station (doubles as an infinite damage outlet to win with loop)
Summoning Station (infinite creature outlet w/ a loop)
Aetherflux Reservoir (an infinite damage engine w/ the loop)
Aetherworks Marvel (infinite energy w/ the loop)
Arcum should theoretically need below.
2 of 3 artifact recursion creatures for a loop.
-3 cost reduction or an Ashnod's Altar/Krark Clan Ironworks with at least an -1 cost reduction)
A sacrifice outlet and win condition in one.
Once you have the loop going you just recast your Myr Retriever / Junk Diver / Workshop Assistant and recur them for infinite cast / sacrifice triggers.
I am not sure if a deck such as this could be made competitively but it may be worth exploring. The deck's major weakness would be null rod / stony silence and tax cards. I am sure this idea could be tuned to consistently win turn ~5 highly efficiently but that is a tad too slow for competitive edh.
Hmm it looks like I was right about everything but the lathnu hellions over the longtusk cubs now that this deck won the pro championship.
I still think Lathnu is great but it would be a meta choice to include it over the cubs
First turn Llanowar elf. Second turn Elvish Archdruid. Third turn play 3rd land, tap elves for 3 green, tap forest for 3 green, play mobilize, net 2 more mana have 8 mana turn 3.
It's an idea. It would be easy to chain untap effects with just a few green creatures and a draw source. Freyalize seems good for this. It's a way more aggressive strategy than what is presented here however.
To answer the initial question though edh is a random, singleton format with swingy plays. Sol Ring embodies this at a cheap monetary cost. It's like saying, "Drawing Sol Ring is like opening a rare in EDH for the same reason people buy packs. It's exciting to get something good."
With the color combinations of red, black and white there are many synergies.
Red I could use for discard, draw effects to dig for angels and pitch reanimation targets. With black I can play reanimation spells for the angels I will be playing. With white I get the angels like Iona, Avacyn etc. Also more of a unique thing with white to Kaalia I will be using stuff like Ghostway and Eerie Interlude with other flicker effects to protect my creatures and have additional etb effects.
Red discard/draw effects (any others? I want to steer clear of wheels if possible.)
Faithless Looting
Tormenting Voice
Cathartic Reunion
Black Reanimation effects (will play 7-8 of these)
Reanimate
Animate Dead
Dance of the Dead
Necromancy
Angels & Demons (I will play 15 or so hitters)
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Iona, Shield of Emeria
Gisela, Blade of Fortnight
Rune Scarred Demon
Demon of Dark Schemes
The issue with this deck I feel will be attacking with Kaalia. It may never happen in a good meta. This is why I think adding the reanimation will be a good secondary strategy. If I can't swing with Kaalia I can still pitch/reanimate angels.
Any additional thoughts/suggestions for this deck concept I may have missed? I will have a decklist setup a little later.
1) The deck wants to win by turn 4 or 5. Anything that you cannot play in the first 4 turns should be cut. Control can just out control if we don't win quickly.
2) longtusk cub is slow and if he gets bounced/removed he sucks. I almost would rather play Lathnu Hellion in his place.
3) blossoming defense is perfect for this deck as it's a counterspell. Never play less than 4.
My creature base
4x Servant of the Conduit
2x Longtusk Cub (always side them out)
4x Voltaic Brawler (Trample is awesome against Planeswalkers)
4x Electrostatic Pummeler
4x Bristling Hydra
I maindeck 4 uncaged fury. They add consistency if you don't draw a pummeler. I have won numerous games with trample+doublestrike with a single pump spell.
So many people seem to be maindecking control cards. Every game if the blue player gets the mana for a torrential gearhulk you will lose. They just get too far ahead at that point. Why play a control element if you aren't playing card advantage? Other decks do it better than you and you should just play control then. This deck in my experience is all about speed, and the initial aggro burst before the opponent can setup.
1) People have to live with and accept less. For years wages have remained stagnant. Fifteen years ago USA families made as much as they do now in pay. This is partly due to the global economy and other countries catching up to the USA.
2) There is a larger divide between the rich and poor and the middle class is shrinking. Companies are taking advantage of workers. When someone is on salary they often make less than someone on hourly per hour. A law recently passed that would required salaried workers to be paid for OT. That ruling was recently blocked by a federal judge and may never happen.
What will probably happen in the next 20 years with the worker situation may be interesting. I predict the younger generation kids to the baby boomers will take their parents money (when the baby boomers die) and work less. They will not spend anywhere near as much as their parents and make more frugal financial decisions. Over a trillion dollars will be changing hands in the next 20 years when baby boomers die.
You have their kids who up until this point have been working for half of what their parents made working harder than their parents did. Experience is overvalued in this job market and the work a sixty-five+ year old baby boomer does at a firm which relies on computers is greatly inflated.
When the money changes hands, I predict this will happen.
1) people of the 20-30 year old generation who don't have to work won't and that will be maybe 15-35% of the available workforce.
2) people of the 20-30 generation won't buy what their parents did. Things like boats or brand new vehicles every couple years are wastes of money that people won't pay for. Entertainment will be cheaper. People will pay for basically internet and their entertainment charges will be much less than their parents.
3) major usa manufacturing companies will sell a lot of products to newly industrialized countries and have a hard time meeting demand. They will remain stubborn on pay of workers and continue to hold onto money concentrated at the top.
4) people with education debt from bachelors/masters who never earned the value back from their degree will realize it was the worst financial mistake of their life.
I don't think I am alone in these thoughts. These are all my opinions on the economy into the future.
I believe this propaganda machine Russia is building will make a lot of people upset in Washington. The real answer will be how does a divided country react to having the rug removed from under it? Will people unite together or continue to bicker about petty differences?
That will be the test of the united states going forward and any future candidate. Will they try to unite us as one country or prey on petty differences? If they do the latter the usa will go farther behind.
Planeswalkers are basically super synergistic with almost any mass board wipe/stax effect.
When I play my hand and have 3-4 control cards left you'd be surprised how useless spending 3 mana for a brainstorm and shuffle is. As is the case with scroll rack.
Stuff I want to find room for is;
Dovin Baan
Supreme Verdict
Austere Command
Doubling Season
Some spell based land ramp
Call to Gatewatch
Stuff that underperformed
Scroll Rack
Temporal Mastery
Thran Dynamo
Trinisphere
Derevi is a great commander for this deck. They can be flashed out killed multiple times and still be used for Polymorph effects. People hated the stax effects. Any deck which can run a disruption package of Humility and Null Rod with tutoring for them is great. Humility if resolved singlehandedly stops a lot of decks. So does Null Rod. I may play Rest in Peace and Helm of Obedience as an alternative win con as well.
Looking at the list I am not totally sure how exactly the deck wins other than like a Jace TMS.