MTG Salvation

Collapsing Crypt 1
Artifact (U)
When Collapsing Crypt enters the battlefield, each player puts the top three cards of their library into their graveyard.
3, t, Sacrifice Collapsing Crypt: Put target nonland card in a graveyard into its owner's hand. Then exile all cards from that player's graveyard.

Time eroded the traps in the tomb. But the erosion of the tomb itself was the grave robbers' downfall.

Votes: BrainPo, Flatline

Warmaster Dragon 3RR
Creature -- Dragon (M)
Flying, haste
Whenever another red creature you control attacks, Warmaster Dragon gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
Many have tried to press dragons into their service, not realizing the dragon was trying the exact same thing.
5/5

Votes: void_nothing, Flatline

Cavalier's Mount 2W
Creature -- Horse (U)
Knight creatures you control get +1/+1.
1: Another target creature gains first strike and becomes a Knight until end of turn.
2/3

Votes: Link, netn10

Monstrous Ruse W
Instant (C)
Any number of target creatures lose all creature types and become Humans until end of turn.
Draw a card.
Nothing to see here.

Votes: netn10, Antiantiserum (I think it'd be even cooler in mono-white)

Relicbane Hydra xG
Creature -- Hydra (R)
Relicbane Hydra enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it.
2, Remove a +1/+1 counter from Relicbane Hydra: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
0/0

Votes: Ruggley, netn10

Imperious Hydra xGG
Creature -- Hydra (R)
Imperious Hydra enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it.
Creatures with power less than Imperious Hydra's power can't block creatures you control.
0/0

Votes: picnic_bomber, Tim1137

Bai Bing, Cunning Strategist 1RWU
Legendary Creature -- Human Monk (R)
Prowess
Once each combat, you may pay 0 rather than pay the mana cost for a spell you cast.
A master of using unconventional means to achieve his aims, many said Bai Bing could see years into the future.
3/3

Votes: Rudyard, Indighost

Thassa's Shellshield 1U
Enchantment Creature -- Turtle (U)
Flash
Bestow 3UU
Enchanted creature gets +2/+3
2U: Return Thassa's Shellshield and the creature it's enchanting to their owner's hand.
1/3
Votes: entombedhydra, iphanx

Accursed Graverobber 1BB
Creature -- Human Rogue (R)
When Doomed Graverobber dies, you may return target creature card from an opponent's graveyard to the battlefield under your control.
"A death in my service is never meaningless." -- Zerras, necromantic lord
3/1

Votes: bobby, iphanx

Janan, Double Agent 1RW
Legendary Creature -- Dwarf Artificer
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may discard a card. If you do, return target artifact or enchantment card from your graveyard to your hand.
t, Sacrifice an artifact or enchantment: You may put an artifact or enchantment card with converted mana cost X or less from your hand onto the battlefield, where X is the converted mana cost of the permanent sacrificed this way plus 2.
1/3

Next: A 1-mana commander that's mono-blue or mono-black.

Quote from Rudyard »

just noticed that club flamingo is gone the other day, whoa. end of an era.

Yeah, it's a bit sad. Participation is down across all contests these days, which is too bad 'cause there's a lot of really talented designers around these forums. I just took a look at today's DCC entries, and I gotta say, there is some amazing stuff there. One of the best days I've seen in a while (I have no idea how I'm gonna pick just two). I'm wondering if there is any way to get people back interested in these forums.

Where have you gone GG Crono?
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Woo woo woo.
What's that you say MDenham?
aftermarketradio has left and gone away.
Hey hey hey, hey hey hey.

Alright, so here's my take on the deck:



I've tried to do pretty much what you set out to: build an all-in combo deck with Ith as the central combo piece. With so many tutors and now Rings of Brighthearth in the deck, I felt that having Basalt Monolith would be too much of a distraction from the theme. Really hate that card as a ramp spell, too. I added a few more primary combos and a ton of "incidental" combos as well. The incidental combos should rarely be sought out because they involve so many cards, but all those cards do other things in the deck and you may just have some "Oops, I win" moments with them. Some of the combos here don't involve Ith, but the cards in them are all part of combos that do. In other words combos not fitting the theme are not forced, but just sort of fall out of the deck (pretty sure it's safe to say that Maze of Ith is on theme). Here's my best effort at a listing, inclduding the combos from the OP for completeness. There are probably other more intricate combos hiding in this pile, too.

Primary Combos

• Ith, High Arcanist + Mesmeric Orb + Laboratory Maniac = Eventually turn over Deep Analysis and win the game during your second main phase. DA could possibly be Soul of Ravnica instead, so that if infinite mana was generated as well as infinite mills you can use that to win. Probably not worth it, especially because of how well DA fits a curve which starts with Silver Myr.
• Ith, High Arcanist + Wake Thrasher = Arbitrarily large merfolk soldier. This is the reason why Rogue's Passage is hiding out (no pun intended) with the lands.
• Ith, High Arcanist + Illusionist's Bracers + ((A Mana Dork) or (A Spell With Awaken) or (A Creature-Land)) = Infinite mana. Since these combos happen exclusively during the combat phase, I feel that the infinite mana must be blue for it to do anything useful. Sure, there are cards like Armistice and Magma Mine, but ew. It also makes the deck heavily favor instant speed card draw spells over sorcery speed ones, which is a shame since Compulsive Research, Concentrate and Plea for Power fit the curve like DA does. If the "mana dork" is Fatestitcher or Tidewater Minion then Mikokoro, Center of the Sea lets you draw your deck with this combo.
• Ith, High Arcanist + Illusionist's Bracers + (A Looter) = Eventually loot into Laboratory Maniac, turn over Deep Analysis and win the game during your second main phase. If you've got enough cards in hand at the start of the combo, you can look into Lotus Petal and Mana Crypt, i.e. just enough mana to cast Laboratory Maniac. That probably means those powerful rocks should be in the deck, and up to three moxes as well. I chose Deal Broker over something like Cephalid Broker because several cards in the deck care about having artifacts.

Incidental Combos

• Maze of Ith + (A Spell With Awaken) = Build-your-own Ith! This combo then becomes a piece in any other combo that involves Ith.
• (Fatestitcher or Tidewater Minion) + Maze of Ith + Mesmeric Orb + Laboratory Maniac = Eventually turn over Deep Analysis and win the game during your second main phase.
• Ith, High Arcanist + Rings of Brighthearth + (A Spell With Awaken) + Lotus Vale = Infinite mana.
• Ith, High Arcanist + Rings of Brighthearth + (A Spell With Awaken) + (Azorius Chancery or Coral Atoll or Teferi's Isle or Soldevi Excavations) + Caged Sun = Infinte mana. Coral Atoll and Soldevi Excavations need you to have an Island in order to function, which is why I nearly maxed the deck out on fetchlands; Tundra, Hallowed Fountain and Prairie Stream are Islands that tap for W.
• Ith, High Arcanist + Rings of Brighthearth + (Aphetto Alchemist or Fatestitcher or Tidewater Minion) + Gilded Lotus = Infinite mana. The other mana dorks, mana rocks, and artifact lands are my attempt at making Aphetto Alchemist into a consistent ramp spells when it's not part of a combo.
• Ith, High Arcanist + (A Spell With Awaken) + (Azorius Chancery or Coral Atoll or Teferi's Isle or Soldevi Excavations) + Wake Thrasher = Arbitrarily large merfolk soldier.
• Ith, High Arcanist + (A Spell With Awaken) + (Azorius Chancery or Coral Atoll or Teferi's Isle or Soldevi Excavations) + Mesmeric Orb + Laboratory Maniac = Eventually turn over Deep Analysis and win the game during your second main phase.

Many of the incidental combos require a few deck-building contortions, so it's probably worth saying a few words about why including some corner-case 4+ card combos is worth the effort. Firstly, while this is a combo deck it's a "funky" combo deck and it doesn't get much funkier than untapping Teferi's Isle with Tidewater Minion. More seriously the hoops to jump through are not that high. The spells with Awaken are all a little over-costed for what they do, but their effects are real things you'd want to be doing in a normal game of EDH. Some of the 2+ mana lands are a little bit better than the others (Azorius Chancery >> Lotus Vale), but all of them have been known to see some play in this format. Caged Sun is not at its best in a multi-color deck, but Soldevi Excavations and Coral Atoll are already forcing us to run lots of Islands so it fits a bit better than it should. Rings of Brighthearth is another new card that's mostly around for the combos, but it's a spectacular card in its own right. Oddly enough Soldevi Excavations and Coral Atoll also force us to make Rings better by providing more incentive to run lots of fetchlands. The various looting effects and anything out of Trading Post are fun things to copy when you're not going infinite.

If Gilded Lotus were to somehow become a creature, it could get in on some more of these combos. Nevertheless, I don't think it's worthwhile to run any artifact animation effects. Part of this is because there's basically no redundancy for the Lotus. Khalni Gem is the closest, and it's not really close. Also, none of the artifact animation cards do anything else, in contrast to the spells with Awaken. Speaking of artifacts, there are two artifact-centric cards that are right on the bubble: Arcum Dagsson and Argivian Archaeologist. The former should be pretty good in a deck with lots of cheap artifact creatures that wants to find specific non-creature artifacts, but we wouldn't be tutoring for anything expensive so Tezzeret the Seeker would probably just be better. The Archaeologist does a great job of accruing card advantage and protecting the combo, but it's probably just too slow and clunky. It would enable this mondo-combo, though:

• Ith, High Arcanist + Rings of Brighthearth + Argivian Archaeologist + Leyline of Anticipation + Black Lotus = Infinite mana and disqualification.

Comment Hidden

Adal, Military Recruit W

Legendary Creature - Human Soldier

Whenever Adal, Military Recruit deals combat damage, you get an experience counter.

Adal, Military Recruit gets +1/+1 for each experience counter you have.

1/1

Make a commander out of Norse mythology that has to do with Snow permanents or Snow mana.

The combo of Personal Sanctuary and Manabarbs was one of my favorite casual decks. That seems like it would be up your alley?

I once put ad nauseam in a deck on cockatrice. The first time I casted it after doing so, I had to wonder why plague wind, decree of pain, and ulamog were still in the deck. Turns out I had put it on a backup version. That was a quick game. The worst part was, I was just digging for a cheap removal spell.

my current project is saving up enough money for an imperial seal

This Totally Isn't a Mountain
Basic Land - Mountain
T: Add R to your mana pool.
This card is unaffected by cards named Blood Moon.
This card can't be enchanted by cards named Chained to the Rocks.



Next:
Feast of the Mantis
Rashida Reborn
Bone to Dust

You just need to put each card on its own line.

In example:
[deck]
1 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
1 Ashling Pilgrim
1 Steel Hellkite
..etc
[/deck]