I personally have been trying to take this deck in a slight graveyard interaction direction. Since we get access to a few ways to get instants and sorceries back from our grave with Archaeomancer, Izzet Chronarch, and Snapcaster Mage, I have been trying to add in more cards that let me draw and fill up my graveyard like Fact or Fiction, Faithless Looting, Windfall, etc. If you are able to cast any of these cards multiple times it ends up being super strong because it lets you find your combo pieces quicker or just gives you enough matching pieces to out value your opponents.
We also have Magus of the Will to get all our stuff back, which is pretty sweet. Oh, and magus of the bazaar to continue looting. And that new guy from Hour of Devastation, champion of wits, loots in a pinch.
A great card for this style of deck, and super underrated imo, is ancient excavation.
Awesome work, man! Continue testing, and see what works for you. I might try shadowmage infiltrator in my own build, you're kind of selling me on it...
Well, remember: EDH is about having fun! The most I can advise you on is efficiency. If you like a card but don't mind the hit you take to efficiency by including it in your deck, play it!
The following wizards are cards I feel either don't help your game-plan, or are not efficient enough to deserve a slot:
Riptide director: This is a pretty interesting card, and has the potential for huge amounts of card advantage... but we're in colors that are chock-full of card advantage already. He's expensive, only really works when you have a full board, and isn't really all that good with Inalla's trigger (as you would be paying 9 mana for his ability at that point.)
separatist voidmage: He's simply too expensive for what he does. If you're in a creature heavy meta, then go for it. Otherwise, I'd cut him.
Shadowmage infiltrator: There are better ways to get card advantage, and better wizards than this guy. The combat damage he deals doesn't matter for the purposes of your deck.
Lich Lord of Unx: 'going wide' with wizards doesn't really net you enough, imo. Of course, you do have things to do with wizard tokens (voidmage prodigy, Azami, lady of scrolls and barrin, master wizard all use them effectively) so I could see keeping him in.
POSSIBLE ADDITIONS:
Here are some cards I'm running in my own Inalla deck that are absent in yours. You may not wish to run them for your build, but I've found them to be effective in testing.
Trophy/Trinket mage: Normally I wouldn't say that Trophy mage is a 'requirement,' but many of your combos require Ashnod's/phrexian alter, a pair that are tutor-able with trophy mage. With 1 more mana requirement, you can get both at once!
Vela the night-clad: Vela does two important things for you- she makes your wanderwine prophets difficult to block, and she provides a win condition for any of your infinite sacrifice loops in the form of direct 'damage' to the dome. That's pretty important, as you could run into situations where you have infinite wizards, but simply cannot attack! She's like a second Inalla (as a win condition) in that regard, with a little added utility.
Sneak attack: This really abuses the fact that Inalla's ability is on ETB, not cast. It's slightly awkward as it increases your red color requirements, but the ability to 'discount' your win conditions by an extreme amount (turning wanderwine prophets or bloodline necromancer into a simple casting cost of 'R' apiece is no joke) and it becomes even more ludicrous with cards like Kindred discovery in play. I've found it to be a better 'Vedalken Orrery' effect, for the most part. (the sacrifice clause doesn't really matter for most of what you want to do.)
magus of the will/wheel: these guys have been pretty interesting for this deck. They put a target on your head when cast, but that's easily gotten around with Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and Sneak Attack, respectively.
Beacon of Unrest: Your win conditions mostly rely on Ashnod's/phyrexian alter. It's nice to have a reanimation spell that can hit either one of those, or a creature. I believe the flexibility is worth the slightly inflated cost.
For the record, here's my current list:
Creature (31)
1x AEther Adept
1x Anathemancer
1x Apprentice Necromancer
1x Azami, Lady of Scrolls
1x Barrin, Master Wizard
1x Bloodline Necromancer
1x Body Double
1x Champion of Wits
1x Changeling Berserker
1x Dualcaster Mage
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
1x Havengul Lich
1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy Flip
1x Magus of the Wheel
1x Magus of the Will
1x Patron Wizard
1x Sage of Fables
1x Sea Gate Oracle
1x Sea Scryer
1x Snapcaster Mage
1x Sower of Temptation
1x Stonybrook Banneret
1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1x Trinket Mage
1x Trophy Mage
1x Vedalken AEthermage
1x Vela the Night-Clad
1x Venser, Shaper Savant
1x Viscera Seer
1x Voidmage Prodigy
1x Wanderwine Prophets
Artifact (13)
1x Ashnod's Altar
1x Chromatic Lantern
1x Dimir Signet
1x Diviner's Wand
1x Fellwar Stone
1x Herald’s Horn
1x Izzet Signet
1x Panharmonicon
1x Phyrexian Altar
1x Rakdos Signet
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sol Ring
1x Talisman of Dominance
Sorcery (6)
1x Beacon of Unrest
1x Living Death
1x Rite of Replication
1x Toxic Deluge
1x Vandalblast
1x Windfall
Enchantment (5)
1x Kindred Discovery
1x Mana Echoes
1x Phyrexian Reclamation
1x Rhystic Study
1x Sneak Attack
I'm running 37 lands. The major utility lands I'm running are:
Path of Ancestry
Cabal Coffers + Urborg, tomb of Yawgmoth
Phyrexian Tower
Volrath's Stronghold
Reliquary Tower
NOTE: I did not include Demonic/Vampiric tutor as a conscious decision to keep it a bit lacking in speed. I have made certain card choices in my deck (Champion of Wits, Magus of the Wheel, etc.) in a reaction to this, putting a greater focus on burning through my deck than stalling. The list is still in flux, I'm a little iffy on some of my own choices (viscera seer,
You could probably do without the Nevinyrall's disk and torment of hailfire. Torment in particular isn't on game-plan, and doesn't seem to do enough for the cost. (This deck won't ramp much, and when it does, it goes infinite. With infinite mana, there are better outlets.)
There are also a few wizards which seem a bit iffy and more 'cute' than actually effective.
With your average cmc of 3.5, you could also go down to 37 lands.
This deck seems pretty sweet! The colored mana costs in this deck will certainly be extreme. I suggest running the Talismans (Talisman of dominance and Talisman of indulgence) to help with that.
I'm a little confused by this statement. Not just any mana rock would allow Mairsil to go infinite; you would need to have a mana rock that makes 3 mana and blue mana if you cage Quicksilver Elemental, right? (You'd need 1 to untap, U to activate Quicksilver elemental, and a U to float to get infinite activations, it seems.)
I'm pretty interested in making a less streamlined artifact-oriented version of this deck, as there are a lot of fun value artifacts like planar bridge that Mairsil can get good use out of.
Activating Quicksilver Elemental's ability once gives you a copy of all activated abilities Mairsil has, without the once per turn restriction. You need U to kick it off, after that you only need 1 to untap each loop. There's no need to activate Quicksilver's ability multiple times.
Quicksilver Elemental is one of the cards I'm skipping for that reason. Too easy to go infinite with it and that's not what I want out of the deck.
Oh, I see! Thanks for clearing that up for me. I've been thinking of playing a subgame with Mairsil. Maybe seeding my deck with X number of cards that he has to cage to win the game... there's a lot to do with him, and I do like that he makes every new set exciting, as every set will have some good activated ability for him to abuse (one would hope...)
I do like him as one of the weirdest voltron commanders possible. Aetherling and Co. seem really great when you can also slap a sword or two on him. Could be a fun take.
I'm a little confused by this statement. Not just any mana rock would allow Mairsil to go infinite; you would need to have a mana rock that makes 3 mana and blue mana if you cage Quicksilver Elemental, right? (You'd need 1 to untap, U to activate Quicksilver elemental, and a U to float to get infinite activations, it seems.)
I'm pretty interested in making a less streamlined artifact-oriented version of this deck, as there are a lot of fun value artifacts like planar bridge that Mairsil can get good use out of.
That seems good with the likes of Living Death, too. In addition to all the normal wheels, we have two major wizards that wheel:
Jace's Archivist = Windfall
Magus of the Wheel = Wheel of Fortune
We also have Magus of the Will to get all our stuff back, which is pretty sweet. Oh, and magus of the bazaar to continue looting. And that new guy from Hour of Devastation, champion of wits, loots in a pinch.
A great card for this style of deck, and super underrated imo, is ancient excavation.
The following wizards are cards I feel either don't help your game-plan, or are not efficient enough to deserve a slot:
Riptide director: This is a pretty interesting card, and has the potential for huge amounts of card advantage... but we're in colors that are chock-full of card advantage already. He's expensive, only really works when you have a full board, and isn't really all that good with Inalla's trigger (as you would be paying 9 mana for his ability at that point.)
separatist voidmage: He's simply too expensive for what he does. If you're in a creature heavy meta, then go for it. Otherwise, I'd cut him.
Shadowmage infiltrator: There are better ways to get card advantage, and better wizards than this guy. The combat damage he deals doesn't matter for the purposes of your deck.
Lich Lord of Unx: 'going wide' with wizards doesn't really net you enough, imo. Of course, you do have things to do with wizard tokens (voidmage prodigy, Azami, lady of scrolls and barrin, master wizard all use them effectively) so I could see keeping him in.
POSSIBLE ADDITIONS:
Here are some cards I'm running in my own Inalla deck that are absent in yours. You may not wish to run them for your build, but I've found them to be effective in testing.
Trophy/Trinket mage: Normally I wouldn't say that Trophy mage is a 'requirement,' but many of your combos require Ashnod's/phrexian alter, a pair that are tutor-able with trophy mage. With 1 more mana requirement, you can get both at once!
Vela the night-clad: Vela does two important things for you- she makes your wanderwine prophets difficult to block, and she provides a win condition for any of your infinite sacrifice loops in the form of direct 'damage' to the dome. That's pretty important, as you could run into situations where you have infinite wizards, but simply cannot attack! She's like a second Inalla (as a win condition) in that regard, with a little added utility.
Sneak attack: This really abuses the fact that Inalla's ability is on ETB, not cast. It's slightly awkward as it increases your red color requirements, but the ability to 'discount' your win conditions by an extreme amount (turning wanderwine prophets or bloodline necromancer into a simple casting cost of 'R' apiece is no joke) and it becomes even more ludicrous with cards like Kindred discovery in play. I've found it to be a better 'Vedalken Orrery' effect, for the most part. (the sacrifice clause doesn't really matter for most of what you want to do.)
magus of the will/wheel: these guys have been pretty interesting for this deck. They put a target on your head when cast, but that's easily gotten around with Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and Sneak Attack, respectively.
Beacon of Unrest: Your win conditions mostly rely on Ashnod's/phyrexian alter. It's nice to have a reanimation spell that can hit either one of those, or a creature. I believe the flexibility is worth the slightly inflated cost.
For the record, here's my current list:
Creature (31)
1x AEther Adept
1x Anathemancer
1x Apprentice Necromancer
1x Azami, Lady of Scrolls
1x Barrin, Master Wizard
1x Bloodline Necromancer
1x Body Double
1x Champion of Wits
1x Changeling Berserker
1x Dualcaster Mage
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
1x Havengul Lich
1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy Flip
1x Magus of the Wheel
1x Magus of the Will
1x Patron Wizard
1x Sage of Fables
1x Sea Gate Oracle
1x Sea Scryer
1x Snapcaster Mage
1x Sower of Temptation
1x Stonybrook Banneret
1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1x Trinket Mage
1x Trophy Mage
1x Vedalken AEthermage
1x Vela the Night-Clad
1x Venser, Shaper Savant
1x Viscera Seer
1x Voidmage Prodigy
1x Wanderwine Prophets
Artifact (13)
1x Ashnod's Altar
1x Chromatic Lantern
1x Dimir Signet
1x Diviner's Wand
1x Fellwar Stone
1x Herald’s Horn
1x Izzet Signet
1x Panharmonicon
1x Phyrexian Altar
1x Rakdos Signet
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sol Ring
1x Talisman of Dominance
Sorcery (6)
1x Beacon of Unrest
1x Living Death
1x Rite of Replication
1x Toxic Deluge
1x Vandalblast
1x Windfall
Instant (7)
1x Arcane Denial
1x Chaos Warp
1x Counterspell
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Pongify
1x Swan Song
Enchantment (5)
1x Kindred Discovery
1x Mana Echoes
1x Phyrexian Reclamation
1x Rhystic Study
1x Sneak Attack
I'm running 37 lands. The major utility lands I'm running are:
Path of Ancestry
Cabal Coffers + Urborg, tomb of Yawgmoth
Phyrexian Tower
Volrath's Stronghold
Reliquary Tower
NOTE: I did not include Demonic/Vampiric tutor as a conscious decision to keep it a bit lacking in speed. I have made certain card choices in my deck (Champion of Wits, Magus of the Wheel, etc.) in a reaction to this, putting a greater focus on burning through my deck than stalling. The list is still in flux, I'm a little iffy on some of my own choices (viscera seer,
I hope this helps!
There are also a few wizards which seem a bit iffy and more 'cute' than actually effective.
With your average cmc of 3.5, you could also go down to 37 lands.
Acc. to this ruling, Mairsil can go infinite provided you can float 3 mana (1 blue) per each tap?
If I copy Mairsil's abilities with a 'live' Elemental, will that elemental still suffer from the once per turn rule?
Oh, I see! Thanks for clearing that up for me. I've been thinking of playing a subgame with Mairsil. Maybe seeding my deck with X number of cards that he has to cage to win the game... there's a lot to do with him, and I do like that he makes every new set exciting, as every set will have some good activated ability for him to abuse (one would hope...)
I do like him as one of the weirdest voltron commanders possible. Aetherling and Co. seem really great when you can also slap a sword or two on him. Could be a fun take.
I'm a little confused by this statement. Not just any mana rock would allow Mairsil to go infinite; you would need to have a mana rock that makes 3 mana and blue mana if you cage Quicksilver Elemental, right? (You'd need 1 to untap, U to activate Quicksilver elemental, and a U to float to get infinite activations, it seems.)
I'm pretty interested in making a less streamlined artifact-oriented version of this deck, as there are a lot of fun value artifacts like planar bridge that Mairsil can get good use out of.