Seems interesting. It is a bit overpowered though. This is basically a 2-8 damage spell for 2CMC that can be partially reused. I would either A. Change the mana cost, B. remove first strike, or C. Change the rule text to "When Dextrous Midnight Runner enters the battlefield. You may reveal your hand, if you do put all cards named Dextrious Midnight Runner onto the battlefield. Sacrifice these creatures at the beginning of your next end step." Otherwise though, it seems like a nice concept.
I've always liked the idea of a double striking "wall." If the first hit doesn't finish the job, the second one will at the cost of itself. Maybe the goblin synergy was a bit much. Couldn't think of a good name. Pikeman sorta made sense though.
Could Cryptic Command be used instead of Counterspell? It's really versatile, the bounce option could definitely be useful, so is the tap mode. So it's really just a 4-CMC Counterspell instead of a 2-CMC one. The lower the CMC, the better it usually is. But it may actually be worth it.
I'd recommend it. It is a thirty dollar card for a reason. And this is EDH we're talking about, versatility often trumps CMC. That's why Man Lands are useful, sure the usually only produce colored mana. But when you need just one more wizard to tap or a chump blocker to keep you going just one more round. And it's why Trinket Mage would be better than a 1CMC card that always fetches Elixir of Immortality It's also why Clever Impersonator is usually preferable to other clone cards.
When you only get 1 copy of a card, you have to be more careful what you choose. You'll probably usually be happier drawing Cryptic Command than you would be drawing Counterspell.
Thank you, but those cards aren't terribly good.
The only possible advantage that Qarsi Deceiver has over Vedalken Engineer or Silver Myr is that it's a wall. But in generally, you especially don't want to generate purpose specific mana when your playing EDH. If you don't have a morph in your hand, or a morph/manifest on the field, it's basically a dead card. If your looking for mana acceleration in blue, your best bet is probably Apprentice Wizard.
The problem with Silumgar Spell-Eater is that it pails in comparison to the other counter spells this deck has. It has nothing on Willbender, Voidmage Apprentice, Voidmage Prodigy, or Kheru Spellsnatcher the only advantage it might have is that it can be a 3/4. But it's still not spending 8 CMC for.
Thanks though, we appreciate the thought. (Or at least I do. :3)
Nah, no sideboard for casual play. They are really good cards to be honest and it does win me games, both in 1v1 or in multiplayer. But people know I'm playing these and start to hate me right before the game starts, and that's a really big problem right now.
I know the feeling. Getting off the pickles combo, or winning one to many games virtually guarantees your eventual demise.
Ixidron doesn't have a ETB trigger, it's a replacement effect. I know there are a couple of cards that I could add. I'm not forced to play Teferi. There is room. But I like that card right now. Voidmage Husher was considered earlier but excluded mostly because of Torpor Orb. Also, it doesn't counter triggered ability, which it really should, imo.
Yeah, sorry. It's functionally similar anyway. I can't seem to justify mainboarding Voidmage Husher either.
Venser is certainly a great option. Not a fan of AEther Adept.
To each their own. My deck calls for a lot of bounce, so I use both along with the inferior Man o' War (but then wizard synergy isn't a huge deal in my deck).
Body Double doesn't interact really well with Vesuvan Shapeshifter, it will just be a clone that I can transform into a vanilla 2/2 with no morph ability.
On the contrary, it functions wonderfully. I'd like to direct your attention to rule 706.3:
706.3. The copy's copiable values become the copied information, as modified by the copy's status (see rule 110.6). Objects that copy the object will use the new copiable values.
Example: Vesuvan Doppelganger reads, "You may have Vesuvan Doppelganger enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield except it doesn't copy that creature's color and it gains 'At the beginning of your upkeep, you may have this creature become a copy of target creature except it doesn't copy that creature's color. If you do, this creature gains this ability.'" A Vesuvan Doppelganger enters the battlefield as a copy of Runeclaw Bear (a 2/2 green Bear creature with no abilities). Then a Clone enters the battlefield as a copy of the Doppelganger. The Clone is a 2/2 blue Bear named Runeclaw Bear that has the Doppelganger's upkeep-triggered ability.
Example: Tomoya the Revealer (a flipped flip card) becomes a copy of Nezumi Shortfang (an unflipped flip card). Tomoya's characteristics become the characteristics of Stabwhisker the Odious, which is the flipped version of Nezumi Shortfang.
Example: A face-down Grinning Demon (a creature with morph) becomes a copy of a face-up Branchsnap Lorian (a 4/1 green creature with trample and morph {G}). The Demon's characteristics become the characteristics of Branchsnap Lorian. However, since the creature is face down, it remains a 2/2 colorless creature with no name, types, or abilities, and no mana cost. It can be turned face up for {G}. If it's turned face up, it will have the characteristics of Branchsnap Lorian.
Example: A face-down Grinning Demon (a creature with morph) becomes a copy of Wandering Ones (a 1/1 blue Spirit creature that doesn't have morph). It will be a face-down Wandering Ones. It remains a 2/2 colorless creature with no name, types, or abilities, and no mana cost. Its controller can't turn it face up as a special action. If an effect turns it face up, it will have the characteristics of Wandering Ones.
as well as a bit of the errata from Vesuvan Shapeshifter:
If another creature copies Vesuvan Shapeshifter while it's face up, the new creature will become a copy of whatever Vesuvan Shapeshifter is copying and gain the "you may turn this creature face down" ability. It won't gain morph {1}{U}. If that creature is then turned face down, its copy effect will continue and it'll be a face-down version of whatever it's copying. If the creature it's copying has morph, it can be turned face up. If the creature it's copying doesn't have morph, it's stuck face down forever unless some other effect (like Break Open) turns it face up again.
As far as I can tell, (And I'm no judge or anything) Body Double would enter as a copy of Vesuvan Shapeshifter and as Vesuvan Shapeshifter enters it would enter as a copy of X, but with Vesuvan Shapeshifter's ability. However when Body Double/Vesuvan Shapeshifter/X is turned face down it's copying X ability would wear off and it would return to being a Vesuvan Shapeshifter/Body Double Which could be flipped up as normal.
However, I do now realize that Clever Impersonator wouldn't work as well copying Vesuvan Shapeshifter.
What are your thoughts on Illusionary Mask? It can allow us to activate morph triggers for just the mana cost instead of three plus morph cost.
I really wanted to give a second thought to this. This card is in the same category as Dream Chisel, but it's actually better. I currently play 23 morph permanents, 22 being creatures (Zoetic Cavern doesn't work with Mask). Also, a creature like Aphetto Runecaster gets additional value from being turned face up, since it will trigger for itself. Fathom Seer with Mask is awesome, for 2 mana, I can attack the next turn to draw 2 cards. Same could be said about A LOT of the morph creatures I play, and will usually make it cheaper to morph a creature (which is usually 3 + morph cost, while with Mask it's just the cost of the creature itself assuming I can tap or damage the creature somehow (Fledging Mawcor useful here again).
If it was instant speed, it would be a no brainer, I would buy one right now. As it is, the problem is mostly the same than with Dream Chisel, with only about ~20 cards getting a benefit from it, it will be a lot of times dead.
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That's a good question. My intuition says it'll be useful, but I've been wrong before. Worse case scenario, it's good for bluffing. It'd probably be considered in my own deck if I weren't on a budget. But then I am running 40 creatures. Pity Training Grounds is creature only. I guess you have to decided if it's usefulness exceeds Dream Chisel enough to justifyit.
I also considered Tawnos's Coffin as another way to deal with generals, but we have Vedalken Shackles. I'm really looking at different options right now. So, let's say I replace Maze of Ith with Forcefield... what do I add instead of Pithing Needle and Torpor Orb? Venser is a great card, but I don't think it does enough in the deck. Patron Wizard is on an ejectable seat too, just because Azami is just so much better and Patron Wizard mostly just work in 1v1.
I said earlier that if I ever cut Pithing Needle, I could put Stifle in its place. But Stifle without recursion... heh.
I'm mainly considering the Coffin because it's also useful for recursion. Comboing with Cloudform is an added bonus. The natural alternative to Pithing Needle is Voidmage Husher, but the cost to effect ratio can be rather high. easy recursion is nice though.
Having just drawn a Spellskite in a booster, I might recommend that. Good as a counter, and you already have artifact recursion built into the deck.
Dermoplasm works with Voidmage Prodigy and Vesuvan Shapeshifter mostly, which is pretty narrow. I looked at all morph I'm now playing and I don't see anything worth running (sadly). So I will need some goodstuff Wizards that are better than Patron Wizard maybe (or just more Wizards to make Patron Wizard better, lol).
Dermoplasm is a good card in theory, but in practice it's practically useless(in blue anyway). It's a pity there aren't more morphs to choose from. Sometimes it can be hard to justify running them, and by extension, Ixidor. But we press on. Someone has to be the forerunner.
I personally prefer Forcefield. Sure Maze of Ith's Manaless casting and activating are awesome, but it's somewhat limiting. Forcefield on the other hand is reusable and great for politics. I feel like it's much better in a multiplayer game than Maze of Ith. It is weak to Noble Quarry though...
Torpor Orb and Pithing Needle are too passive for my tastes, but I must admit they can be devastating against the right decks. Maybe sideboard them?(If you do sideboards that is)
I took a quick look through my own ETB/Bounce focused Ixidor deck, (shameless plug). Unfortunately Blue/Colorless ETBs tend to fall under a few select categories. There's Scry/Draw/Pseudo-scry(Halimar Depths), Clone, and Bounce. There are a few gems in the bunch though. Ixidron and Trinket Mage follow your theme perfectly. Of course there are quite a few that fall outside of those categories. It's been a while since, I've looked through gatherer.
I'd recommend Aether Adept and Venser, Shaper Savant if you want good bounce/recursion.
Body Double is amazing in the late game for recurring Vesuvan Shapeshifter and Trinket Mage, though the way you cycle your graveyard might make it less useful.
Blue does have a few pseudo-Impulses Chromescale Drake, Neurok Familiar, Saprazzan Bailiff and Faerie Mechanist for artifacts.
Ixidor a great change of pace to your normal commander. He's clever and crafty, and loves to keep your opponents guessing.
Is he the greatest commander? Maybe not, but that doesn't mean he can't pack a punch. Ixidor can be suprisingly versatile, and his ability allows you to bluff regardless the morphs you have on the field.
Reasons to play Ixidor:
You like being tricksy
The idea of knowning more about the battlefield than your opponent sounds exciting
You like to bluff
Reason's not to play Ixidor:
You don't like to bluff
You want to be a target
You don't like morph
Deck Dynamics:
This deck is filled with subtle synergies. The list is kinda huge, so I'll go over the major ones:
Ixidor
If it wasn't immediately obvious, Ixidor's a prime component. He's obviously useful for flipping morphs and he's really good at it. Some of the subtle things about Ixidor can be missed though. When playing him it's integral to always make sure to leave the mana untapped that you need to activate his ability. This can't be forgotten, even if you don't intend to flip a morph. The mere fact that it's untapped keeps your opponents on their toes. For all they know your Dulcet Sirens could very well be a Willbender or Voidmage Apprentice. This is something that should almost always be exploited. What your opponents don't know could kill them.
Another small interaction Ixidor has is his synergy with Manifest cards. He can flip most noncreature permanent manifest just as easily as creature ones, something that the manifest mechanic doesn't normally allow.
Lastly, don't forget you can flip your opponents face down creatures as well. This is particularly useful with Ixidron and depending on your play group you might be able to make some sortof trade to flip an opponents valuable creature
Riptide Entrancer & Maelstrom Djinn
The moment I cast either of these two I typically swing with them, especially in the early game. My opponent is given a choice: take the chance with the Entrancer, or risk losing a creature to the Djinn. Of course, this is boardstate dependent, sometimes your opponent can block a 5/6 with impunity. But other times, this can be pulled off. If you swing with your other big creatures like your Slipstream Serpent your opponent may be less likely to put up the blocker. Keep in mind this is basically a mind game, and there's never a guarantee it will work out.
Vesuvan Shapeshifter
Combos with all morphs ever. He basically speaks for himself. The most noteworthy is the pickles combo he has with Brine Elemental. Locking your opponent out of the game for a measly 2 mana.
Ixidron
Ixidron synergizes with both Ixidor(who can flip non-morph cards) as well as all blink cards ever. It's easy to flip a morph up with either Deadeye Navigator or Conjurer's Closet. Also he's also my favorite pseudo-boardwipe. If a commander is face down, it's pretty tricky to get him face up again short of killing him. He virtually guarantees that you can lock out an opponents commander for a few turns.
Bounce & ETB & Flicker
This deck is full of bouncers. Some of them are spells, but most of the time they're reusable permanents. They serve two purposes, to return and reuse either morphs or ETBs. There are numerous ETB effects in this deck, but I'm particularly fond of the leave the battlefield effects. Both Floodgate and Nevermaker are ever present threats that can never be truly eliminated, and with cards that have flicker/bounce abilities such as Deadeye Navigator and Crystal Shard respectably, they can be used at a moments notice.
Anyway's I'd love to here everyone's thoughts!
Big thanks to both rhakee and DnLL. Their threads have been hugely useful in making my own Ixidor deck.
Extraplanar Lens works better with Tezzeret the Seeker and is 3 mana only compared to Caged Sun. That's definitely huge. I was playing Caged Sun before but decided that 1 mana doubler was enough with the high-density of artifact tutoring my deck has, and thought that Lens was better than Caged Sun. You just play it the same way you would play Caged Sun: not on turn 3. And you will do fine!
Yeah, I'll have to make a few decisions. It's hard for me to imagine paying 5 for an Extraplanar Lens alternative. I may have to cut some of the special lands. I can't decided if I want to run Tezzeret or not. On the one hand, I'm running a decent amount of Artifacts. On the other, I don't know. I guess I don't really have an excuse not to run him. Guess I'll put him back in.
I'm slightly reluctant to cut Soldevi Excavations. It's a nice card to put leftover mana into at the end of turn. But then, I haven't playtest against an opposing deck yet, so I'm mostly leaving mana untapped as force of habit.
Acorn Catapult is an interesting card since it can produce green blockers by targetting yourself, it's a versatile Bitterblossom or Fledgling Mawcor (mix of both). I play it in my Horobi deck and won't play this in Ixidor, but I would definitely consider instant speed creatures generation with Cloudstone Curio (which I don't play either).
As much as I like the cuteness of Acorn Catapult(I know, the reasons behind some of my card choices is awful.), I'm thinking Trading Post might be a better fit. It's a bit more versatile. On the other hand there are lands to consider.
Regeneration can be huge so Swarmyard could be cool, and the possibility of regenerating my allies creatures can be useful on occasion. On the other hand, Springjack Pasture synergizes with Trading Post amazingly well. Plus it works independently if necessary.
Decisions Decisions
Scornful Egotist is good if you have something really specific in mind like Rush of Knowledge (which is in the same set, it was great in Standard back in the days), but this isn't a really consistent plan, sadly. We have too many already bad morph creatures to play before Egotist.
Yeah, it's virtually completely useless in EDH. I've joked about playing it for it's full mana cost just to be anticlimactic.
What is Sundial of the Infinite for? Not sure to understand why you use it for, the main use of this card is to counter bad triggered abilities of your own creatures (like Phage the Untouchable or Hunted Horror) but I don't see any bad trigger like that in your list.
It doesn't really combo with anything. It's just a card a like. For me it just screams shenanigans. As far as usefulness goes, it does two things for me.
1: It's an emergency counter spell
2: It stops all those annoying people who like to cast spells on the end of other peoples turns. In my playgroup, that happens allot.
I haven't play tested this against an opponent yet, so it's hard to eliminate cards like Sundial of the Inifinite. Hopefully I can remedy that soon.
We definitely play the deck differently then. I tend not to play Ixidor on turn 5 because after the first board wipe, it's 7 mana and then 9 which adds up pretty quick without a mana doubler.
Well I try to get a counter morph set up before hand. Now that I'm polishing my deck, I'm starting to run into your problem though. It's getting harder and harder to justify casting Ixidor. I really wish there were some more commander viable blue morphs. At any rate I've added a handful of activated abilities, so maybe I'll be able to justify Training Grounds still.
Not sure what you do exactly with Infinite Reflection. Attached to a face-down creature, all creatures enter the battlefield as 2/2 vanillas with no name and no color, but the status (tapped, phased, face-down/face-up and flipped) isn't a copyiable characteristic, so I don't see how it really interacts with Ixidor at all. Ixidor would also be a 2/2 vanilla, and you can't turn your morph creatures face-up because of the last clause in the morph ability saying that the creature must still have the morph ability when it would be turned face-up, which isn't the case here.
It's not obvious initially, but after reading this I discovered that infinite reflections applies to both sides of a card. So if you were to say enchant Vesuvan Shapeshifter all of you face downs would be Vesuvan Shapeshifter that could be flipped up as normal. Of course, that's a bad example since Vesuvan Shapeshifter would just fizzle when it's toughness hits zero. Plus it's somewhat tricky to get him on the battlefield without him dieing right away.
And then you have to either disable your Infinite Reflection or pull some crazy shenanigans to actually get Ixidor on the battlefield for use with bigger spells.
That's part of the bluff (attacking with Riptide Entrancer). That could be Brine Elemental too, who knows. Basilisk Collar helps the deck dealing with something hard to deal with in mono-blue: creatures. We do have bounce, but killing creatures is harder. Basilisk Collar definitely helps and plays a huge political role in multiplayer when equipped to a morph. The creature could be flying, how does your opponent know? He doesn't and will likely attack one of your opponents.
True, I might just have to put it in anyway. Maybe I'll toss in Maestrom Djinn as well for the same purpose. I'm a bit of a chicken when it comes to attacking, I'm always hesitant about swinging with something I don't want to lose. Even if the battlefield seems completely safe. Something I'll have to work on.
I will never ever play Deadeye Navigator, because this is a card I hate so bad. It's a combo-enabler, and if you are playing a couple of theft-effects (like Vedalken Shackles), you will definitely win games by comboing with DEN. My hate towards that creature is hard to describe with words.
I understand, I'm somewhat the same way with the pickles combo. It feels like a mean way to win, and I always try to find an alternative. Nobody plays Deadeye in my playgroup, so it's somewhat foreign to me. If I can drop it I might, but flickering is quite a bit trickier without it. Perhaps after I finish polishing, if it seems to powerful, I'll try and switch it for an Erratic Portal.
Looking at your list, you are playing AEtherize instead of Evacuation, which is definitely arguable. Chain of Vapor is pretty narrow in multiplayer (even in 1v1).
Yeah, I prefer AEtherize for it's versatility. It can get me out of a pickle, and it let's me choose exactl which of my cards I want to return to my hand. It basically functions as a cheaper Thousand Winds. Chain of Vapor is sorta just an emergency escape.
Have I ever used it?
No....
...Okay fine, I'll probably cut it.
Soldevi Excavations is an interesting find but doesn't go well with Extraplanar Lens. If you really need the scry 1, Thassa is probably better.
I agree. I'm thinking of switching to a Caged Sun and dropping the snows... Or maybe drop a few special lands. We'll see.
I would need some explanations about Mark of Eviction, it looks like a really bad EDH card overall.
I haven't played Mark of Eviction in a real game yet, so I don't know how well it'll do. But in theory, it's a cheap, albeit slow and prone to death, Capsize. At the very least, it's a great at self-bouncing.
Finally, you have 7 creatures with ETB triggers, 3 of them are returning a creature to hand, 2 of them are clones and the 2 last ones are useful. Conjurer's Closet looks really bad in such a deck, while Cloudstone Curio would need some token engine to really shine (maybe something like Trading Post, we are pretty much limited in mono-blue anyway, Acorn Catapult is the only other card coming to my mind right now).
I'm slowly going through a big list of ETB blue cards I've compiled, so I'm going to wait a bit to decide on them.
Something about the idea of throwing acorns at friend and foe sounds amazingly fun!
If there was a card I would put in for laughs it would be this or Scornful Egotist. Probably have to go with this, since it's actually useful. Though perhaps Trading Grounds would be more practical... If I can't throw acorns at everybody at least I can fill the land with goats.
My deck building style isn't really the most organized. I typically just through a bunch of cool stuff together and then playtest until I've eliminated the bad and found the gems.
I decided to add Sundial of the Infinite, it's a card I really like and I haven't removed my flash granters yet.
Thanks for the tips!
Sorry for being lazy with the quote tags, there must be some easy way to do it that I'm missing...
Well here's a rather rough draft: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/ixidor-as-reality-fades/
The tappedout playtester is slow(like about an hour or so slow) to update library changes, so it's rather hard to test. Definitely in it's early stages.
Problem is I rarely have more than 2-3 morph on the battlefield and I rarely use Ixidor's ability because it targets (which will often lead to cost more mana than just use the special action which can't be responded to), and looking at my creatures, there are only 2-3 creatures that have a really high morph cost. Training Grounds is likely a win-more card.
Okay. For me Ixidor's out almost immediately, and for as much of the game as he can be. I'm always happy to have him boosting my morphs, and having him out means my three untapped mana could flip up an card in my deck. It makes bluffing a bit easier. So Training Grounds is awesome to have around. It can easily turn the tide of a game for me. But then, I rarely have less than 2-3 morphs on the field.
I do play Write into Being already. It took me time to add it, I decided to only play Cloudform at first, but later on, I realized that the new manifest mechanic really make Ixidor shine, because he can flip non-creature permanents (mostly artifacts and enchantments since planeswalkers would die due to not having loyalty counters). So yeah, this is a really good reason to play Ixidor and I noticed, since I added the 2 manifest spells, that I tend to play a little bit more Ixidor. If I have nothing to do with my mana, I play him anyway.
And even more shenanigans with Ixidron. It's nice to be able to get back an creature you didn't want face down, or if your into politics you can barter to flip someone's commander. Though I can't say I ever have...
Infinite Reflections is fun with morph too. I almost considered playing it, but then I started cutting a few morphs and realized it was impractical. It's nice to have a bunch of face down willbenders, or shapeshifters, or spellsnatchers. Unfortunately too pricey and too niche-y to run.
Also don't forget that Wash Out also bounce Cloudform, which happened a couple of times already in the games I played.
Duly noted. I hoped I to get a manifest engine going, but it seems it'll be too mana intensive. I'll probably have to settle for additional effects that happen to bring Cloudform back.
Basilisk Collar goes well with Riptide Entrancer and Fledgling Mawcor. It's also something I have to keep in mind. I think of Heidar as an alternative general, not a card in the 99. I don't know. I played a couple games with Teferi as my general when I'm playing against stronger decks. Maybe I could use Heidar instead. But i don't see him in the 99 for some reasons.
I like it. Doesn't quite fit the theme of my deck, but it seems quite useful. I do wish they'd make a blue deathtouch morph. I like the idea of having a battle of wits with my opponent, but there's not much I can swing with that they wouldn't want to block.
I always feel bad sending my Riptide Entrancer to his inevitable doom. I think I'll probably end up cutting him.
Thank you, I'd be interested to take a look at what you are actually running exactly.
I must confess that I haven't made my dream deck yet. I've been spending the past few days searching for cards and strategies. My current idea is roughly a morph+bounce deck. Reuse morphs and ETB, and bounce as a form of protection/evasion. When I have spare mana/cards left over I'll bounce my opponents creatures as well. So cards like Deadeye Navigator, Erratic Portal, Crystal Shard, Equilibrium as well as Heider and a few other bounce creatures will definitely be considered for the rough draft. I like to battle wit to wit with my opponent, so I like to have a morph or two in my hand to help keep which morphs I'm playing when a bit more confusing.
At present, my current un-dream deck has cards like Helm of Awakening and Sky Diamond, as well as Dizzy Spell and Muddle the Mixture almost exclusively for the purpose of grabbing dream chisel and training grounds. Though I always regret spending 3 extra mana to grab them.
At any rate, I'm about ready to get down to business. So probably in a day or two I'll post a link to tappedout or to my own thread here. I'd be happy if you took a look at it.
Have you thought of adding something like Contagion Clasp, or just a bit of a proliferate mechanic in general? I guess there's not much available, but it's could be a good way to speed up Yisan.
Having finished reading through the thread, I know realize that your deck and playstyle is quite a bit different than mine. We both want to keep morphs at the forefront, but as for support we're a bit different. You prefer using artifact/wizard shenanigans, where as my focus is primarily on bounce shenanigans. Both are good, but I must admit that I have a tendency to hyperfocus on my theme and overlook anything that doesn't fit it. Often times I'll refuse to put in otherwise good cards simply because they don't fit the theme. But I digress.
The main reason I like Heidar over Equiibrium is because I have more options. Namely I can reuse cloudform. Seemed like such a novel idea at the time that I focused on it. Anyway, since I'm playing bounce, lightning greaves will make bounce cards like Heidar more useable.
I must admit that I do use a few counterspells in my deck. I'm wondering how feasible it might be to bounce my board in response to a board wipe. Maybe I'll be able to drop a few counters. My decks still very much in the planning stages as it were, and it's relatively depended on recasting my field. And bluffing, of course.
Enough about my deck though.
I think you should put Training Grounds in. I know you've said that you don't like it since it only really synergizes with Ixidor. But you've also expressed being somewhat discontent with Ixidor, since you don't feel you have any reason to pop him in. However once Training Grounds is on the field, you'll have every reason to put him in. Being able to flip any morph for 1 mana is amazing. Plus don't forget about that +1/+1 boost to all face down creatures.
Of course, I can't claim to know your meta. In my own I have little trouble protecting Ixidor once I'm set up, and Training Grounds only seems to develop a target once I actually have a relatively setup board.
I'll also make an argument for Write into Being. For me at least, not only do I get another "morph" out, but I also get to clean up my draws a bit. It's not much but it helps. But, my deck doesn't have many draw spells since I'm mainly replaying my morphs.
I was wondering how Everflowing Chalice is working for you. I dropped a while back, before I altered my deck theme. Seemed a bit slow for me in the early gam, and with my old theme it was annoying to draw in the late.
Anyways, good deck. I'll definitely have to examine it closer while I'm perfecting my own.
Edit:
Well I'm an idiot, it would appear you've already added Write into Being. Well that's what I get for not double checking the deck list I guess.
Yeah, it really depends on what direction you want your deck to go in. Heidar's great if you want to reuse morph/ETB triggers as well as bouncing every bodies things. His ability is strictly better than Equilibrium since he can bounce any permanent. However I still prefer Ixidor. I like playing morph, and Ixidor makes it great. For me anyway Heidar's a nice card to have, but Ixidor is the card that I need to be able to cast at a moment's notice. Plus it forces me to stick with my morph/manifest theme. And it's always nice to know that by leaving the necessary 3 mana untapped I'm able to flip up any of my morphs, and my opponents will never know which cards I have on the battlefield.
I never though of using Cloudform with bouncing, I was actually contemplating dropping it to make room for something better, but now that I realize I can bounce it ever turn using Heidar it'll almost definitely be staying. I think I'll have to reconsider some of the bounce engines I passed up. It's a pity Equilibrium is creature only (and can't target the cast spell), if it could we would have something very, very, broken. Or at the least a 2 card psuedo-Mastery of the Unseen
Edit:
Just realized I got this thread mixed up with with this one:
No matter, what I said still holds.
If you toss in some Lightning Greaves you can avoid the "penalty" of creature tap abilities.
I don't/probably won't run Patron Wizard myself. It's a nice card, but I don't really want to lean to heavily on the wizard theme. However I like the idea of it. If done properly with Crystal Shard and Erratic Portal you could force someone into a pickle. Especially if you leave them untapped. If you manage to empty their mana by attempting to counter something integral, you could potentially bounce 4 or their permanents to their hand.
Thanks for making such a great deck, and to everyone else for populating such a thread. This is a great reference to me while I work on perfecting my own Ixidor deck. Also thanks for not focusing too much on a Wizards. I never liked that subtheme, sorta ruined the point of running Ixidor.
I suppose you might not play Ixidor much anymore, but I guess I'll post my suggestions for you or anyone else who might be considering this deck anyway.
I'm slightly surprised you decided to Heidar, Rimewind Master out, he's the primary reason I even considered going snow-lands. You do realize he's unspecific. You can bounce anything on the battlefield with him, opponents creatures included.
Deadeye Navigator would be amazing in this deck. I was originally reluctant to run him since there were seldom occasions when I'd want to have a morph entire face up, but when I did try him out he was amazing. He combos with Vesuvan Shapeshifter, as well as the bounce creatures I'm currently stuck using (not that they're bad or anything, I'll probably be keeping some of them in when I'm do my upgrade). Plus he can get the occasional morph out for a bit cheaper than Ixidor when necessary. Plus if you decided to reinclude training grounds he can flicker an of your cards for 2 blue. (That is, one to flicker himself and resoulbind himself, and the other to flicker his partner). Great for dodging a counter spell, and if you have a bounce creature in play, mass removal as well (and for one mana cheaper, assuming you reattach to said bounce creature as it reenters the battlefield).
Also, I'm slightly surprised you removed Familiar's Ruse, seemed like a great counterspell. Bounce and counter sounds perfect, and I can't see many situations when you wouldn't have a creature to bounce. I guess I haven't play tested it yet, so I can't say for certain.
I know you already use Kheru Spellsnatcher, but it's hard for me not to gush at it. It's a card I like to reuse a lot. The idea of being able to use all of your leftover mana to cast a spell and spellsnatch it to save for later is intriguing. Particularly with cards like Familiar's Ruse, where it can be used as a bounce spell, and then as a counter spell ready to be cast at a moments notice.
Have you thought of Winding Canyons? Having flash to use with any unused morphing mana is nice, it's one of the problems I run into when I'm trying to decided how much mana to save. Of course we have Teferi, but he's a decision in and of himself.
Are you sure of Master of the Veil? He's one of the cards I'm rarely happy to draw, since I rarely draw him when I need him. And when I do, a bounce spell would've sufficed just as easily. I've taken him out personally, and I had Weaver of Lies removed as well for a pretty long time.
Also Halimar Depths is a nice land to have. being able to fix your next draw is nice. And it's bounceable in desperate situations.
Have you looked at the knew manifest cards? I like them a lotWrite into Being is nice. Plus, Ixidor can flip most non creatures up. Also, Deadeye is useful for the enter the battlefield effects. And if your stuck with a sorcery or instant you can always bounce it. I'm still a bit disappointed that Mastery of the Unseen isn't blue. It would be amazing in this deck.
Can I just take a moment to rant about how dissappointed I am with megamorph? It was just...I was so excited for it...a variant of morph if Ugin hadn't died and manifest hadn't faded from the world...and then...we get a +1/+1 counter? (If you hadn't noticed, megamorph crushed my hopes for the new morph variation they were toting, and to top it off it doesn't work with ixidor).
At least a few of the creatures are worthy of consideration.
Well that's all for now.
Thanks for a great decklist!
Goblin Pikeman RR
Creature - Goblin
Defender, Double Strike
3/1
I've always liked the idea of a double striking "wall." If the first hit doesn't finish the job, the second one will at the cost of itself. Maybe the goblin synergy was a bit much. Couldn't think of a good name. Pikeman sorta made sense though.
I'd recommend it. It is a thirty dollar card for a reason. And this is EDH we're talking about, versatility often trumps CMC. That's why Man Lands are useful, sure the usually only produce colored mana. But when you need just one more wizard to tap or a chump blocker to keep you going just one more round. And it's why Trinket Mage would be better than a 1CMC card that always fetches Elixir of Immortality It's also why Clever Impersonator is usually preferable to other clone cards.
When you only get 1 copy of a card, you have to be more careful what you choose. You'll probably usually be happier drawing Cryptic Command than you would be drawing Counterspell.
Thank you, but those cards aren't terribly good.
The only possible advantage that Qarsi Deceiver has over Vedalken Engineer or Silver Myr is that it's a wall. But in generally, you especially don't want to generate purpose specific mana when your playing EDH. If you don't have a morph in your hand, or a morph/manifest on the field, it's basically a dead card. If your looking for mana acceleration in blue, your best bet is probably Apprentice Wizard.
The problem with Silumgar Spell-Eater is that it pails in comparison to the other counter spells this deck has. It has nothing on Willbender, Voidmage Apprentice, Voidmage Prodigy, or Kheru Spellsnatcher the only advantage it might have is that it can be a 3/4. But it's still not spending 8 CMC for.
Thanks though, we appreciate the thought. (Or at least I do. :3)
Nor mine, I knew there was some card that was used I just couldn't remember which.
I know the feeling. Getting off the pickles combo, or winning one to many games virtually guarantees your eventual demise.
Yeah, sorry. It's functionally similar anyway. I can't seem to justify mainboarding Voidmage Husher either.
To each their own. My deck calls for a lot of bounce, so I use both along with the inferior Man o' War (but then wizard synergy isn't a huge deal in my deck).
On the contrary, it functions wonderfully. I'd like to direct your attention to rule 706.3:
706.3. The copy's copiable values become the copied information, as modified by the copy's status (see rule 110.6). Objects that copy the object will use the new copiable values. Example: Vesuvan Doppelganger reads, "You may have Vesuvan Doppelganger enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield except it doesn't copy that creature's color and it gains 'At the beginning of your upkeep, you may have this creature become a copy of target creature except it doesn't copy that creature's color. If you do, this creature gains this ability.'" A Vesuvan Doppelganger enters the battlefield as a copy of Runeclaw Bear (a 2/2 green Bear creature with no abilities). Then a Clone enters the battlefield as a copy of the Doppelganger. The Clone is a 2/2 blue Bear named Runeclaw Bear that has the Doppelganger's upkeep-triggered ability. Example: Tomoya the Revealer (a flipped flip card) becomes a copy of Nezumi Shortfang (an unflipped flip card). Tomoya's characteristics become the characteristics of Stabwhisker the Odious, which is the flipped version of Nezumi Shortfang. Example: A face-down Grinning Demon (a creature with morph) becomes a copy of a face-up Branchsnap Lorian (a 4/1 green creature with trample and morph {G}). The Demon's characteristics become the characteristics of Branchsnap Lorian. However, since the creature is face down, it remains a 2/2 colorless creature with no name, types, or abilities, and no mana cost. It can be turned face up for {G}. If it's turned face up, it will have the characteristics of Branchsnap Lorian. Example: A face-down Grinning Demon (a creature with morph) becomes a copy of Wandering Ones (a 1/1 blue Spirit creature that doesn't have morph). It will be a face-down Wandering Ones. It remains a 2/2 colorless creature with no name, types, or abilities, and no mana cost. Its controller can't turn it face up as a special action. If an effect turns it face up, it will have the characteristics of Wandering Ones.as well as a bit of the errata from Vesuvan Shapeshifter:
If another creature copies Vesuvan Shapeshifter while it's face up, the new creature will become a copy of whatever Vesuvan Shapeshifter is copying and gain the "you may turn this creature face down" ability. It won't gain morph {1}{U}. If that creature is then turned face down, its copy effect will continue and it'll be a face-down version of whatever it's copying. If the creature it's copying has morph, it can be turned face up. If the creature it's copying doesn't have morph, it's stuck face down forever unless some other effect (like Break Open) turns it face up again.As far as I can tell, (And I'm no judge or anything) Body Double would enter as a copy of Vesuvan Shapeshifter and as Vesuvan Shapeshifter enters it would enter as a copy of X, but with Vesuvan Shapeshifter's ability. However when Body Double/Vesuvan Shapeshifter/X is turned face down it's copying X ability would wear off and it would return to being a Vesuvan Shapeshifter/Body Double Which could be flipped up as normal.
However, I do now realize that Clever Impersonator wouldn't work as well copying Vesuvan Shapeshifter.
I really wanted to give a second thought to this. This card is in the same category as Dream Chisel, but it's actually better. I currently play 23 morph permanents, 22 being creatures (Zoetic Cavern doesn't work with Mask). Also, a creature like Aphetto Runecaster gets additional value from being turned face up, since it will trigger for itself. Fathom Seer with Mask is awesome, for 2 mana, I can attack the next turn to draw 2 cards. Same could be said about A LOT of the morph creatures I play, and will usually make it cheaper to morph a creature (which is usually 3 + morph cost, while with Mask it's just the cost of the creature itself assuming I can tap or damage the creature somehow (Fledging Mawcor useful here again).
If it was instant speed, it would be a no brainer, I would buy one right now. As it is, the problem is mostly the same than with Dream Chisel, with only about ~20 cards getting a benefit from it, it will be a lot of times dead.
[/quote]
That's a good question. My intuition says it'll be useful, but I've been wrong before. Worse case scenario, it's good for bluffing. It'd probably be considered in my own deck if I weren't on a budget. But then I am running 40 creatures. Pity Training Grounds is creature only. I guess you have to decided if it's usefulness exceeds Dream Chisel enough to justifyit.
I'm mainly considering the Coffin because it's also useful for recursion. Comboing with Cloudform is an added bonus. The natural alternative to Pithing Needle is Voidmage Husher, but the cost to effect ratio can be rather high. easy recursion is nice though.
Having just drawn a Spellskite in a booster, I might recommend that. Good as a counter, and you already have artifact recursion built into the deck.
Dermoplasm is a good card in theory, but in practice it's practically useless(in blue anyway). It's a pity there aren't more morphs to choose from. Sometimes it can be hard to justify running them, and by extension, Ixidor. But we press on. Someone has to be the forerunner.
Torpor Orb and Pithing Needle are too passive for my tastes, but I must admit they can be devastating against the right decks. Maybe sideboard them?(If you do sideboards that is)
I took a quick look through my own ETB/Bounce focused Ixidor deck, (shameless plug). Unfortunately Blue/Colorless ETBs tend to fall under a few select categories. There's Scry/Draw/Pseudo-scry(Halimar Depths), Clone, and Bounce. There are a few gems in the bunch though. Ixidron and Trinket Mage follow your theme perfectly. Of course there are quite a few that fall outside of those categories. It's been a while since, I've looked through gatherer.
I'd recommend Aether Adept and Venser, Shaper Savant if you want good bounce/recursion.
Body Double is amazing in the late game for recurring Vesuvan Shapeshifter and Trinket Mage, though the way you cycle your graveyard might make it less useful.
Blue does have a few pseudo-Impulses
Chromescale Drake, Neurok Familiar, Saprazzan Bailiff and Faerie Mechanist for artifacts.
Ixidor; As Reality Fades
1x AEther Adept
1x Augury Owl
1x Body Double
1x Brine Elemental
1x Chromeshell Crab
1x Clever Impersonator
1x Coral Trickster
1x Deadeye Navigator
1x Drake Familiar
1x Dulcet Sirens
1x Fathom Seer
1x Floodgate
1x Gilded Drake
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
1x Ixidron
1x Kheru Spellsnatcher
1x Maelstrom Djinn
1x Man-o'-War
1x Mischievous Quanar
1x Mistfire Weaver
1x Monastery Loremaster
1x Nevermaker
1x Quickling
1x Quicksilver Dragon
1x Riptide Entrancer
1x Riptide Survivor
1x Shaper Parasite
1x Sea Gate Oracle
1x Slipstream Serpent
1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1x Thousand Winds
1x Tradewind Rider
1x Unblinking Bleb
1x Vedalken Mastermind
1x Venser, Shaper Savant
1x Vesuvan Shapeshifter
1x Voidmage Apprentice
1x Voidmage Prodigy
1x Willbender
1x Cloud Key
1x Cloudstone Curio
1x Conjurer's Closet
1x Crystal Shard
1x Extraplanar Lens
1x Mimic Vat
1x Sol Ring
1x Soul Foundry
1x Thran Dynamo
1x Vedalken Shackles
1x Wash Out
1x Write into Being
1x Equilibrium
1x Leyline of Anticipation
1x Mark of Eviction
1x Monastery Siege
1x Training Grounds
1x Halimar Depths
1x Riptide Laboratory
34x Snow-Covered Island
1x Terrain Generator
1x Winding Canyons
1x Zoetic Cavern
1x AEtherize
1x Capsize
TappedOut
So you want to play Ixidor:
Ixidor a great change of pace to your normal commander. He's clever and crafty, and loves to keep your opponents guessing.
Is he the greatest commander? Maybe not, but that doesn't mean he can't pack a punch. Ixidor can be suprisingly versatile, and his ability allows you to bluff regardless the morphs you have on the field.
Reasons to play Ixidor:
- You like being tricksy
- The idea of knowning more about the battlefield than your opponent sounds exciting
- You like to bluff
Reason's not to play Ixidor:This deck is filled with subtle synergies. The list is kinda huge, so I'll go over the major ones:
Ixidor
If it wasn't immediately obvious, Ixidor's a prime component. He's obviously useful for flipping morphs and he's really good at it. Some of the subtle things about Ixidor can be missed though. When playing him it's integral to always make sure to leave the mana untapped that you need to activate his ability. This can't be forgotten, even if you don't intend to flip a morph. The mere fact that it's untapped keeps your opponents on their toes. For all they know your Dulcet Sirens could very well be a Willbender or Voidmage Apprentice. This is something that should almost always be exploited. What your opponents don't know could kill them.
Another small interaction Ixidor has is his synergy with Manifest cards. He can flip most noncreature permanent manifest just as easily as creature ones, something that the manifest mechanic doesn't normally allow.
Lastly, don't forget you can flip your opponents face down creatures as well. This is particularly useful with Ixidron and depending on your play group you might be able to make some sortof trade to flip an opponents valuable creature
Riptide Entrancer & Maelstrom Djinn
The moment I cast either of these two I typically swing with them, especially in the early game. My opponent is given a choice: take the chance with the Entrancer, or risk losing a creature to the Djinn. Of course, this is boardstate dependent, sometimes your opponent can block a 5/6 with impunity. But other times, this can be pulled off. If you swing with your other big creatures like your Slipstream Serpent your opponent may be less likely to put up the blocker. Keep in mind this is basically a mind game, and there's never a guarantee it will work out.
Vesuvan Shapeshifter
Combos with all morphs ever. He basically speaks for himself. The most noteworthy is the pickles combo he has with Brine Elemental. Locking your opponent out of the game for a measly 2 mana.
Ixidron
Ixidron synergizes with both Ixidor(who can flip non-morph cards) as well as all blink cards ever. It's easy to flip a morph up with either Deadeye Navigator or Conjurer's Closet. Also he's also my favorite pseudo-boardwipe. If a commander is face down, it's pretty tricky to get him face up again short of killing him. He virtually guarantees that you can lock out an opponents commander for a few turns.
Bounce & ETB & Flicker
This deck is full of bouncers. Some of them are spells, but most of the time they're reusable permanents. They serve two purposes, to return and reuse either morphs or ETBs. There are numerous ETB effects in this deck, but I'm particularly fond of the leave the battlefield effects. Both Floodgate and Nevermaker are ever present threats that can never be truly eliminated, and with cards that have flicker/bounce abilities such as Deadeye Navigator and Crystal Shard respectably, they can be used at a moments notice.
Anyway's I'd love to here everyone's thoughts!
Big thanks to both rhakee and DnLL. Their threads have been hugely useful in making my own Ixidor deck.
I'm slightly reluctant to cut Soldevi Excavations. It's a nice card to put leftover mana into at the end of turn. But then, I haven't playtest against an opposing deck yet, so I'm mostly leaving mana untapped as force of habit.
As much as I like the cuteness of Acorn Catapult(I know, the reasons behind some of my card choices is awful.), I'm thinking Trading Post might be a better fit. It's a bit more versatile. On the other hand there are lands to consider.
Regeneration can be huge so Swarmyard could be cool, and the possibility of regenerating my allies creatures can be useful on occasion. On the other hand, Springjack Pasture synergizes with Trading Post amazingly well. Plus it works independently if necessary.
Decisions Decisions
Yeah, it's virtually completely useless in EDH. I've joked about playing it for it's full mana cost just to be anticlimactic.
It doesn't really combo with anything. It's just a card a like. For me it just screams shenanigans. As far as usefulness goes, it does two things for me.
1: It's an emergency counter spell
2: It stops all those annoying people who like to cast spells on the end of other peoples turns. In my playgroup, that happens allot.
I haven't play tested this against an opponent yet, so it's hard to eliminate cards like Sundial of the Inifinite. Hopefully I can remedy that soon.
To the cutting board!
Well I try to get a counter morph set up before hand. Now that I'm polishing my deck, I'm starting to run into your problem though. It's getting harder and harder to justify casting Ixidor. I really wish there were some more commander viable blue morphs. At any rate I've added a handful of activated abilities, so maybe I'll be able to justify Training Grounds still.
It's not obvious initially, but after reading this I discovered that infinite reflections applies to both sides of a card. So if you were to say enchant Vesuvan Shapeshifter all of you face downs would be Vesuvan Shapeshifter that could be flipped up as normal. Of course, that's a bad example since Vesuvan Shapeshifter would just fizzle when it's toughness hits zero. Plus it's somewhat tricky to get him on the battlefield without him dieing right away.
And then you have to either disable your Infinite Reflection or pull some crazy shenanigans to actually get Ixidor on the battlefield for use with bigger spells.
True, I might just have to put it in anyway. Maybe I'll toss in Maestrom Djinn as well for the same purpose. I'm a bit of a chicken when it comes to attacking, I'm always hesitant about swinging with something I don't want to lose. Even if the battlefield seems completely safe. Something I'll have to work on.
I understand, I'm somewhat the same way with the pickles combo. It feels like a mean way to win, and I always try to find an alternative. Nobody plays Deadeye in my playgroup, so it's somewhat foreign to me. If I can drop it I might, but flickering is quite a bit trickier without it. Perhaps after I finish polishing, if it seems to powerful, I'll try and switch it for an Erratic Portal.
Yeah, I prefer AEtherize for it's versatility. It can get me out of a pickle, and it let's me choose exactl which of my cards I want to return to my hand. It basically functions as a cheaper Thousand Winds.
Chain of Vapor is sorta just an emergency escape.
Have I ever used it?
No....
...Okay fine, I'll probably cut it.
I agree. I'm thinking of switching to a Caged Sun and dropping the snows... Or maybe drop a few special lands. We'll see.
I haven't played Mark of Eviction in a real game yet, so I don't know how well it'll do. But in theory, it's a cheap, albeit slow and prone to death, Capsize. At the very least, it's a great at self-bouncing.
I'm slowly going through a big list of ETB blue cards I've compiled, so I'm going to wait a bit to decide on them.
Something about the idea of throwing acorns at friend and foe sounds amazingly fun!
If there was a card I would put in for laughs it would be this or Scornful Egotist. Probably have to go with this, since it's actually useful. Though perhaps Trading Grounds would be more practical... If I can't throw acorns at everybody at least I can fill the land with goats.
My deck building style isn't really the most organized. I typically just through a bunch of cool stuff together and then playtest until I've eliminated the bad and found the gems.
I decided to add Sundial of the Infinite, it's a card I really like and I haven't removed my flash granters yet.
Thanks for the tips!
Sorry for being lazy with the quote tags, there must be some easy way to do it that I'm missing...
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/ixidor-as-reality-fades/
The tappedout playtester is slow(like about an hour or so slow) to update library changes, so it's rather hard to test. Definitely in it's early stages.
Okay. For me Ixidor's out almost immediately, and for as much of the game as he can be. I'm always happy to have him boosting my morphs, and having him out means my three untapped mana could flip up an card in my deck. It makes bluffing a bit easier. So Training Grounds is awesome to have around. It can easily turn the tide of a game for me. But then, I rarely have less than 2-3 morphs on the field.
And even more shenanigans with Ixidron. It's nice to be able to get back an creature you didn't want face down, or if your into politics you can barter to flip someone's commander. Though I can't say I ever have...
Infinite Reflections is fun with morph too. I almost considered playing it, but then I started cutting a few morphs and realized it was impractical. It's nice to have a bunch of face down willbenders, or shapeshifters, or spellsnatchers. Unfortunately too pricey and too niche-y to run.
Duly noted. I hoped I to get a manifest engine going, but it seems it'll be too mana intensive. I'll probably have to settle for additional effects that happen to bring Cloudform back.
I like it. Doesn't quite fit the theme of my deck, but it seems quite useful. I do wish they'd make a blue deathtouch morph. I like the idea of having a battle of wits with my opponent, but there's not much I can swing with that they wouldn't want to block.
I always feel bad sending my Riptide Entrancer to his inevitable doom. I think I'll probably end up cutting him.
I must confess that I haven't made my dream deck yet. I've been spending the past few days searching for cards and strategies. My current idea is roughly a morph+bounce deck. Reuse morphs and ETB, and bounce as a form of protection/evasion. When I have spare mana/cards left over I'll bounce my opponents creatures as well. So cards like Deadeye Navigator, Erratic Portal, Crystal Shard, Equilibrium as well as Heider and a few other bounce creatures will definitely be considered for the rough draft. I like to battle wit to wit with my opponent, so I like to have a morph or two in my hand to help keep which morphs I'm playing when a bit more confusing.
At present, my current un-dream deck has cards like Helm of Awakening and Sky Diamond, as well as Dizzy Spell and Muddle the Mixture almost exclusively for the purpose of grabbing dream chisel and training grounds. Though I always regret spending 3 extra mana to grab them.
At any rate, I'm about ready to get down to business. So probably in a day or two I'll post a link to tappedout or to my own thread here. I'd be happy if you took a look at it.
The main reason I like Heidar over Equiibrium is because I have more options. Namely I can reuse cloudform. Seemed like such a novel idea at the time that I focused on it. Anyway, since I'm playing bounce, lightning greaves will make bounce cards like Heidar more useable.
I must admit that I do use a few counterspells in my deck. I'm wondering how feasible it might be to bounce my board in response to a board wipe. Maybe I'll be able to drop a few counters. My decks still very much in the planning stages as it were, and it's relatively depended on recasting my field. And bluffing, of course.
Enough about my deck though.
I think you should put Training Grounds in. I know you've said that you don't like it since it only really synergizes with Ixidor. But you've also expressed being somewhat discontent with Ixidor, since you don't feel you have any reason to pop him in. However once Training Grounds is on the field, you'll have every reason to put him in. Being able to flip any morph for 1 mana is amazing. Plus don't forget about that +1/+1 boost to all face down creatures.
Of course, I can't claim to know your meta. In my own I have little trouble protecting Ixidor once I'm set up, and Training Grounds only seems to develop a target once I actually have a relatively setup board.
I'll also make an argument for Write into Being. For me at least, not only do I get another "morph" out, but I also get to clean up my draws a bit. It's not much but it helps. But, my deck doesn't have many draw spells since I'm mainly replaying my morphs.
I was wondering how Everflowing Chalice is working for you. I dropped a while back, before I altered my deck theme. Seemed a bit slow for me in the early gam, and with my old theme it was annoying to draw in the late.
Anyways, good deck. I'll definitely have to examine it closer while I'm perfecting my own.
Edit:
Well I'm an idiot, it would appear you've already added Write into Being. Well that's what I get for not double checking the deck list I guess.
I never though of using Cloudform with bouncing, I was actually contemplating dropping it to make room for something better, but now that I realize I can bounce it ever turn using Heidar it'll almost definitely be staying. I think I'll have to reconsider some of the bounce engines I passed up. It's a pity Equilibrium is creature only (and can't target the cast spell), if it could we would have something very, very, broken. Or at the least a 2 card psuedo-Mastery of the Unseen
Edit:
Just realized I got this thread mixed up with with this one:
No matter, what I said still holds.
If you toss in some Lightning Greaves you can avoid the "penalty" of creature tap abilities.
I don't/probably won't run Patron Wizard myself. It's a nice card, but I don't really want to lean to heavily on the wizard theme. However I like the idea of it. If done properly with Crystal Shard and Erratic Portal you could force someone into a pickle. Especially if you leave them untapped. If you manage to empty their mana by attempting to counter something integral, you could potentially bounce 4 or their permanents to their hand.
I suppose you might not play Ixidor much anymore, but I guess I'll post my suggestions for you or anyone else who might be considering this deck anyway.
I'm slightly surprised you decided to Heidar, Rimewind Master out, he's the primary reason I even considered going snow-lands. You do realize he's unspecific. You can bounce anything on the battlefield with him, opponents creatures included.
Deadeye Navigator would be amazing in this deck. I was originally reluctant to run him since there were seldom occasions when I'd want to have a morph entire face up, but when I did try him out he was amazing. He combos with Vesuvan Shapeshifter, as well as the bounce creatures I'm currently stuck using (not that they're bad or anything, I'll probably be keeping some of them in when I'm do my upgrade). Plus he can get the occasional morph out for a bit cheaper than Ixidor when necessary. Plus if you decided to reinclude training grounds he can flicker an of your cards for 2 blue. (That is, one to flicker himself and resoulbind himself, and the other to flicker his partner). Great for dodging a counter spell, and if you have a bounce creature in play, mass removal as well (and for one mana cheaper, assuming you reattach to said bounce creature as it reenters the battlefield).
Also, I'm slightly surprised you removed Familiar's Ruse, seemed like a great counterspell. Bounce and counter sounds perfect, and I can't see many situations when you wouldn't have a creature to bounce. I guess I haven't play tested it yet, so I can't say for certain.
I know you already use Kheru Spellsnatcher, but it's hard for me not to gush at it. It's a card I like to reuse a lot. The idea of being able to use all of your leftover mana to cast a spell and spellsnatch it to save for later is intriguing. Particularly with cards like Familiar's Ruse, where it can be used as a bounce spell, and then as a counter spell ready to be cast at a moments notice.
Have you thought of Winding Canyons? Having flash to use with any unused morphing mana is nice, it's one of the problems I run into when I'm trying to decided how much mana to save. Of course we have Teferi, but he's a decision in and of himself.
Are you sure of Master of the Veil? He's one of the cards I'm rarely happy to draw, since I rarely draw him when I need him. And when I do, a bounce spell would've sufficed just as easily. I've taken him out personally, and I had Weaver of Lies removed as well for a pretty long time.
Also Halimar Depths is a nice land to have. being able to fix your next draw is nice. And it's bounceable in desperate situations.
Have you looked at the knew manifest cards? I like them a lotWrite into Being is nice. Plus, Ixidor can flip most non creatures up. Also, Deadeye is useful for the enter the battlefield effects. And if your stuck with a sorcery or instant you can always bounce it. I'm still a bit disappointed that Mastery of the Unseen isn't blue. It would be amazing in this deck.
Can I just take a moment to rant about how dissappointed I am with megamorph? It was just...I was so excited for it...a variant of morph if Ugin hadn't died and manifest hadn't faded from the world...and then...we get a +1/+1 counter? (If you hadn't noticed, megamorph crushed my hopes for the new morph variation they were toting, and to top it off it doesn't work with ixidor).
At least a few of the creatures are worthy of consideration.
Well that's all for now.
Thanks for a great decklist!