Hey everyone, it's been a while and I'm here with a huge wall of text!
Oath of the Gatewatch has come along and it brought us some new toys! This obviously means new additions and cuts for the deck. However, the biggest change wasn't Oath, it was the change of the Mulligan rule.
At first glance, I didn't think it'd affect this deck as much as it did. Play-testing proved me wrong on that one.
While the chances for land drops stay about the same, the overall dark shadow of the new rule set itself on a more subtle matter. High cmc.
This deck runs a High Risk - High Reward type of playstyle, which reflects in it's decklist with a Low CMC vs High CMC curve. Cometh with the new Mulligan, the chances of keeping those "few" high CMC costs that our deck runs on, increase. We do not want these in our starting hand at all and yet we have no choice to keep it if it accompanied a nice ramp package. It becomes increasingly difficult for this deck to lift off when you have two or more cmc7+ cards in your hand at the start.
And it got problematic fast.
As such, my first order of business was shifting around what I could, and unfortunately, cutting some high cmc cards. Darksteel Forge has been cut. Void Winnower (which was still in the test build, but lacking either way) has been cut. Akroma's Memorial (which hurts the most) has been cut.
Accompanying these, is Myr Turbine. While it doesn't have the biggest of CMC, it had to make room for additional ramp to keep this deck running smoothly.
While this is still a play-testing build, it is a stable one and I reccomend using it to further iterate on it.
I will update the OP with it and hope to see everyone's feedback and play-testing experiences!
any stories to share? These are HUGE changes. I don't feel safe without darksteel forge.
How is the ability to counter targeted removal/board wipes not good in EDH?
Or some one else's wincon.
too conditional perhaps? what if u don't have the card with the cmc required to be discarded? someone do the math, but i think the probability is quite low.
1. conditional amount of draw
2. most abilities can't be strionic'd
3. less threat by losing annihilator
I could be wrong though. Playtesting of course is required. Newkoz still have a spot on the deck though. Switchable with oldkoz the commander.
today I fought marchesa, kaervek the merciless, and prossh. Got my engine running: mana vault, grim monolith, unwinding clock, hedron archive, doubling cube. Loreseeker stone was activated every turn until my hand is more than full, trading post 1st ability bought me some time. Strionic resonator while casting kozi (drawing 8) and mr. ceaseless hunger himself to exile 4 permanents (sadly he got exiled before he attacked). Storm cauldron was in play. But Most of the board got gaze of granite 'd which destroyed anything >=6cmc. Managed to come back, re-casting koz, getting some infinite mana combo shenanigans, then finally finished by beating downs survivors with unblockable kozilek via rogue's passage.
I think I might be giving the deck a bit of a rest for a while now. I just did one of the most degenerate and awful things to an entire table of people in my life.
In a 6-man EDH game I locked down the board really early with Tangle Wire, allowing me to play Kozilek without fear, and proceeded to 2-hit kill everyone over the next 8 or so turns while the stax engine was humming, keeping them from casting anything relevant or even playing magic in general for the most part. I felt awful. I could sense how helpless they all felt.
I was in between 2 monoblue decks today in the turnorder.
People wonder why i got kinda salty today when they counter 3 out of 4 of my spells while they let a Norin player with a godhand (Mana Crypt, Skull Clamp, Squee, you name it) resolve a Confusion in the Ranks. He had Genesis Chamber out as well.
Maybe it was just to tick me off, since they focused and hated on me the whole night. Sure i got kinda salty when they focused me down, even when i had 2 bouncelands in play they stripmined me with Karn (in a non-kozilek game). Yeah, they tried to mess with me/hate me out of the table.
Then all other games they had some kind of Artifact removal engine that i had to get rid of somehow, still eating counterspells etc.
I reaaaally want to get those staxcards now.
Im really getting tired of seeing UG decks and the swords, maybe im just getting bitter overall when it comes to magic.
when they hate you outta the table, it means the time to call it a day is upon you. This is why I seldom play Kozilek. The deck is deadly and arch-enemy-ish. What's left is your attitude towards the opponents. Consciously or unconsciously, you may salt their wounds directly or indirectly with your attitude. Ever being hated so much that everyone seems to counter every spell you have and every permanents you have while you're begging their attention that you're already crippled beyond belief while the next door opponent freely builds 7 nuclear silos and giant robots and leviathans to wipe you guys up whenever you guys are done with me? That's blind hatred. That's the I-will-drag-you-to-hell-with-me. That's the let's-make-you-lose attitude. That's the cue of an F-word for you in their most polite nonverbal way. Learn to read this and just call it a day.
Kozilek decks. It's all so fun and games until someone lost 4 permanents and 12 general damage on turn 2.
Haha, that's awesome and I totally understand. I'm one of those people that always thought infect was inherently overpowered, but when playing Kozilek the amount of pressure everyone puts on you makes me have no qualms about using every trick at my disposal short of infinite combos. Yesterday I was at 5 life and decided that even though I was going to be knocked out before my next turn, I wasn't going to be the first one to be knocked out. So I turned Inkmoth Nexus into a creature and slapped Eldrazi Conscription onto it much to the amusement of the two other players at the table who had enough flyers to protect them, and knocked the one player who didn't have a flyer out of the game. Then promptly lost the next attack phase to a chromat player swinging with a bunch of tokens.
I'm thinking about trying Winding Canyons as a sneakier hall of the bandit lord. It adds 2 to Kozilek's cost but it can flash him in any time.
add flash to anything will wreck havoc, man. WRECKING HAVOC I will tell you. It makes everything in your deck unpredictable. Really adds spices to each and every game. I'd recommend you try it.
any stories to share? These are HUGE changes. I don't feel safe without darksteel forge.
too conditional perhaps? what if u don't have the card with the cmc required to be discarded? someone do the math, but i think the probability is quite low.
1. conditional amount of draw
2. most abilities can't be strionic'd
3. less threat by losing annihilator
I could be wrong though. Playtesting of course is required. Newkoz still have a spot on the deck though. Switchable with oldkoz the commander.
I want to see conduit of ruins, void winnower, etc so bad, but I didn't draw any
mmmm annihilator is an appetizer while this is the main course.
and this... THING.... can be reanimated. Any colorless tool cards that can reanimate this... THING?
keep playing like that but behind a bulletproof glass.
I assume GG short after?
when they hate you outta the table, it means the time to call it a day is upon you. This is why I seldom play Kozilek. The deck is deadly and arch-enemy-ish. What's left is your attitude towards the opponents. Consciously or unconsciously, you may salt their wounds directly or indirectly with your attitude. Ever being hated so much that everyone seems to counter every spell you have and every permanents you have while you're begging their attention that you're already crippled beyond belief while the next door opponent freely builds 7 nuclear silos and giant robots and leviathans to wipe you guys up whenever you guys are done with me? That's blind hatred. That's the I-will-drag-you-to-hell-with-me. That's the let's-make-you-lose attitude. That's the cue of an F-word for you in their most polite nonverbal way. Learn to read this and just call it a day.
Kozilek decks. It's all so fun and games until someone lost 4 permanents and 12 general damage on turn 2.
I did this a lot of time, that my inkmoth got destroyed everytime it's on the field. Good times, good times. Surpriseeee!
add flash to anything will wreck havoc, man. WRECKING HAVOC I will tell you. It makes everything in your deck unpredictable. Really adds spices to each and every game. I'd recommend you try it.