I don't actually mind (heh) playing it, given that my playgroup tends to run fairly abusive cards, so it's nice having a powerful effect to keep me alive or enable a big turn.
If you could design a card that supports everything the deck needs it for, what would that card look like?
I feel like I've trained myself to require Mind Over Matter for most of my wins, and I'm pretty sure my group has caught on how effective that card is. Need to review ways to win without it.
Turn one I start things off with an aggro flourish, hitting Mox Diamond into an Izzet Signet, which resulted in a turn 2 Zedruu. I started giving away things in the attempt to keep the heat off me and draw cards.
Regardless, Phenax and Sharuum were going after me, milling a bunch of lands and swinging for some amount of commander damage, because that's usually how things go in my group, regardless of what I'm playing. I manage to stay under the radar enough that everyone eventually redirected their attention to the Sharuum player because, well, Sharuum.
Said player gets a Gilded Lotus in play and starts threatening some sick reanimations. A few turns earlier I resolved an Academy Rector and Swans of Bryn Argoll. I convinced the Intet player to block my attack with the human, which died and tutored a Rest in Peace to keep things from getting out of hand.
So the next turn things got out of hand. I resolved a Mind Over Matter and copied the Lotus with a Phyrexian Metamorph. Blasphemous Act drew me 13 cards and the Phenax player left to watch some League of Legends streams.
In the end I had Aetherflux Reservoir and Eye of the Storm with a Temporal Mastery and Turnabout exiled under it, so I kept playing instants and sorceries, drew 21 more cards off Myojin of Seeing Winds, piled up I don't know how many turns, then got up to 200 life and blasted everyone with Aetherflux Reservoir, mostly because I couldn't find my copy of Mind's Desire, and it was sweet to show off the new tech anyway.
I was just about to ask if there were any updates. I haven't been playing Zedruu much these days. Most of the games I play involve three people, and the deck never seems to fare well (for me) in situations like that. And in the last five-person game, another guy in my group ran a Jhoira deck that included a lot of the same chaos elements Zedruu does. So I played something else.
Looking forward to picking it up again sometime soon, however. Unfortunately I don't have Nahiri (and the $15 price tag makes me not super excited to chase after that one) but I do have Show and Tell (which I own because of Legacy Reanimator, totally contradicting my previous statement about not wanting to spend money...), so I'll give that a try.
I was never a huge fan of Shared Fate (I think the one time I did play it, I ended up locking someone out of the game). Looking forward to trying out Drogskol Reaver (currently in my Shu Yun deck) and Aetherflux Reservoir.
Anything to share about the interaction between Shared Fate and Possibility Storm? Possibility Storm only triggers when you cast something from your hand, but Shared Fate says cast it as if it were in your hand. I assume that casting something exiled with Shared Fate would not trigger Possibility Storm, but I just wanted to be sure.
Trying to exclusively pilot the most current list you have posted until I don't feel so lost. Played a wild game tonight. Ended up with Alhammarret's Archive and Mindmoil in play. Felt pretty smart, but then once I had a 40-card hand, I realized that I would end up decking myself the next time I played something (I had Thought Vessel in play, so discarding wasn't an option). Unfortunately Mindmoil still triggers off casting Zedruu. Something to remember for future games.
I do have a question, specifically with some of the more chaotic cards:
If I have Possibility Storm and Eye of the Storm in play, what happens when I cast an instant? Does Eye copy both it and whatever spell I hit with Possibility Storm? Does the original card remain exiled or go on the bottom of my library? Does it matter how I stack the triggers?
Will casting a spell with Possibility Storm and Mindmoil in play trigger Mindmoil twice?
I like this list a lot. I might make a few changes to the sideboard (just out of personal preference), but overall it's extremely close to what I would be running. Kudos. Looking forward to hearing how it does.
Question regarding Enlightened Tutor: If I include it in the board as a one-of, does it make sense to decrease copies of Rest in Peace and Ethersworn Canonist?
If you are going the GW route, please be aware that Gaddock Teeg is spiking hard in price right now. I think there was a buyout. Hard to get copies for under $30 (CFB and other big-name dealers have them for nearly $50).
Seeing so many instances of Spirit of the Labyrinth makes me want to put it back in my main again. But then I think that the only actual optimal situation with SOTL is having Vial on 2, responding to your opponent's Brainstorm. In all other situations, it's really just a fragile 2-drop.
What do the rest of you think? Please let me know if this has been discussed ad nauseum in previous posts.
At what point did Aven Mindcensor fall out of favor? Does it fare well against Miracles to merit more consideration now? Or would redundant tax effects serve better?
Made it to the quarter finals in a Seattle Grand Prix Trial today, losing to Mentor Miracles. Ran Sword of War and Peace in the main. It was a rockstar, all day. Forcing Miracles decks to lean entirely on Terminus was huge. It did great work against Esper Mentor, too.
Quick matchup summary:
First round - Shardless BUG. Took the first game quickly. Remaining two games were such a grind we went to time. Started things off in the draw bracket.
Second round - Miracles. Couldn't get much gas going in the first game. A very fast Entreat ended it for me. Managed to stick Sword of War and Peace on a Flickerwisp to win game two. Then with a SOWAP-equipped Mother of Runes in game three. Seriously.
Third round - Elves. My first time playing this matchup. Lost game one to a turn four Natural Order. Took game two with some well placed Revokers. For the third game, he missed his third land drop. So I Wasted his Bayou, trying to keep him off black mana. He played a fetchland and passed. On my turn, I top-decked Pithing Needle, played it, to which he said, "Sure." I named the fetch. An active Jitte finished it for me. I got lucky that game. Pretty sure he was holding Abrupt Decay, so him making that mistake was key.
Fourth round - Death and Taxes. I couldn't keep up in game one. He had the Swords to Plowshares for my creatures. An equipped Mirran Crusader cleaned up. Game two, Manriki-Gusari prevented me from playing any of my equipment long enough for him to assemble a small army that I was unable to deal with.
Fifth round - by this point, given that we were only doing five rounds, I was in eighth place. My opponent asked if I wanted to draw (he was in seventh) into top 8. I said I didn't feel comfortable about my odds with that, choosing to play. He did not seem pleased at this. I knew he was on Esper Mentor, which I've never really had an issue with. Game one, I land Thalia and Vryn Wingmare. He payed three mana (choosing not to use life) for a Gitaxian Probe. I laughed. He did not share my enthusiasm. He couldn't get anything going with the double tax.
Game two, he landed double Mentor.
Game three, Sword of War and Peace again! Not sure what I stuck it to, but it was enough (probably one of the three Thalias I drew). Opponent was visibly upset at the end.
3-1-1 put me at 7th going into the top eight.
Quarter finals - Mentor Miracles.
Still a strong deck. I got run over by Mentor tokens multiple times. He always had a Swords to Plowshares to respond to any equip trigger. Always had Terminus floating. I couldn't get any pressure going. And I'm still unsure how to board for this. Against normal Miracles, I cut Swords to Plowshares. Not sure what to cut against Mentor.
I made a key miss play in game two. Sort of blanked, I guess. Opponent played Mentor while I had an active Jitte on board with two counters. Then he cast Wear on my Jitte, mutter something about playing things out of order. Like I said, I blanked. I responded by gaining four life. Instead of, you know, the obvious play of responding to the prowess trigger by attempting to kill the Mentor.
So, yeah, got run over by many, many tokens. He was even able to Entreat. With no hand, I top-decked a nice Cataclysm, which bought me some time. After drawing three more consecutive lands to his multiple cantrips, that was it.
Based on my understanding of the deck, 4 Thalia and 4 Wasteland (and 4 MoM) is the essential core of Death and Taxes. If you're considering cutting that stuff, you're probably playing a somewhat different deck.
This is what I initially thought, too. Against Elves, however, it seems like the goal would be to connect with an equipped creature. Thalia does little to disrupt their plan, and has no evasion. Wasteland doesn't prevent a just-played Gaea's Cradle from generating a ton of mana, so the mana denial plan isn't as strong, either.
If you could design a card that supports everything the deck needs it for, what would that card look like?
Turn one I start things off with an aggro flourish, hitting Mox Diamond into an Izzet Signet, which resulted in a turn 2 Zedruu. I started giving away things in the attempt to keep the heat off me and draw cards.
Regardless, Phenax and Sharuum were going after me, milling a bunch of lands and swinging for some amount of commander damage, because that's usually how things go in my group, regardless of what I'm playing. I manage to stay under the radar enough that everyone eventually redirected their attention to the Sharuum player because, well, Sharuum.
Said player gets a Gilded Lotus in play and starts threatening some sick reanimations. A few turns earlier I resolved an Academy Rector and Swans of Bryn Argoll. I convinced the Intet player to block my attack with the human, which died and tutored a Rest in Peace to keep things from getting out of hand.
So the next turn things got out of hand. I resolved a Mind Over Matter and copied the Lotus with a Phyrexian Metamorph. Blasphemous Act drew me 13 cards and the Phenax player left to watch some League of Legends streams.
In the end I had Aetherflux Reservoir and Eye of the Storm with a Temporal Mastery and Turnabout exiled under it, so I kept playing instants and sorceries, drew 21 more cards off Myojin of Seeing Winds, piled up I don't know how many turns, then got up to 200 life and blasted everyone with Aetherflux Reservoir, mostly because I couldn't find my copy of Mind's Desire, and it was sweet to show off the new tech anyway.
Looking forward to picking it up again sometime soon, however. Unfortunately I don't have Nahiri (and the $15 price tag makes me not super excited to chase after that one) but I do have Show and Tell (which I own because of Legacy Reanimator, totally contradicting my previous statement about not wanting to spend money...), so I'll give that a try.
I was never a huge fan of Shared Fate (I think the one time I did play it, I ended up locking someone out of the game). Looking forward to trying out Drogskol Reaver (currently in my Shu Yun deck) and Aetherflux Reservoir.
I do have a question, specifically with some of the more chaotic cards:
Enjoying the deck a lot.
My ideal D&T playmat would be a high resolution image of Brainstorm with an adjusted casting cost of 1U.
I like this list a lot. I might make a few changes to the sideboard (just out of personal preference), but overall it's extremely close to what I would be running. Kudos. Looking forward to hearing how it does.
My board currently includes:
3 Rest in Peace
1 Enlightened Tutor
2 Pithing Needle
1 Cataclysm
1 Dismember
1 Council's Judgment
1 Batterskull
2 Containment Priest
Cutting one from each would open up two slots, so there's that.
What do the rest of you think? Please let me know if this has been discussed ad nauseum in previous posts.
Quick matchup summary:
First round - Shardless BUG. Took the first game quickly. Remaining two games were such a grind we went to time. Started things off in the draw bracket.
Second round - Miracles. Couldn't get much gas going in the first game. A very fast Entreat ended it for me. Managed to stick Sword of War and Peace on a Flickerwisp to win game two. Then with a SOWAP-equipped Mother of Runes in game three. Seriously.
Third round - Elves. My first time playing this matchup. Lost game one to a turn four Natural Order. Took game two with some well placed Revokers. For the third game, he missed his third land drop. So I Wasted his Bayou, trying to keep him off black mana. He played a fetchland and passed. On my turn, I top-decked Pithing Needle, played it, to which he said, "Sure." I named the fetch. An active Jitte finished it for me. I got lucky that game. Pretty sure he was holding Abrupt Decay, so him making that mistake was key.
Fourth round - Death and Taxes. I couldn't keep up in game one. He had the Swords to Plowshares for my creatures. An equipped Mirran Crusader cleaned up. Game two, Manriki-Gusari prevented me from playing any of my equipment long enough for him to assemble a small army that I was unable to deal with.
Fifth round - by this point, given that we were only doing five rounds, I was in eighth place. My opponent asked if I wanted to draw (he was in seventh) into top 8. I said I didn't feel comfortable about my odds with that, choosing to play. He did not seem pleased at this. I knew he was on Esper Mentor, which I've never really had an issue with. Game one, I land Thalia and Vryn Wingmare. He payed three mana (choosing not to use life) for a Gitaxian Probe. I laughed. He did not share my enthusiasm. He couldn't get anything going with the double tax.
Game two, he landed double Mentor.
Game three, Sword of War and Peace again! Not sure what I stuck it to, but it was enough (probably one of the three Thalias I drew). Opponent was visibly upset at the end.
3-1-1 put me at 7th going into the top eight.
Quarter finals - Mentor Miracles.
Still a strong deck. I got run over by Mentor tokens multiple times. He always had a Swords to Plowshares to respond to any equip trigger. Always had Terminus floating. I couldn't get any pressure going. And I'm still unsure how to board for this. Against normal Miracles, I cut Swords to Plowshares. Not sure what to cut against Mentor.
I made a key miss play in game two. Sort of blanked, I guess. Opponent played Mentor while I had an active Jitte on board with two counters. Then he cast Wear on my Jitte, mutter something about playing things out of order. Like I said, I blanked. I responded by gaining four life. Instead of, you know, the obvious play of responding to the prowess trigger by attempting to kill the Mentor.
So, yeah, got run over by many, many tokens. He was even able to Entreat. With no hand, I top-decked a nice Cataclysm, which bought me some time. After drawing three more consecutive lands to his multiple cantrips, that was it.
In sum, Sword of War and Peace!
This is what I initially thought, too. Against Elves, however, it seems like the goal would be to connect with an equipped creature. Thalia does little to disrupt their plan, and has no evasion. Wasteland doesn't prevent a just-played Gaea's Cradle from generating a ton of mana, so the mana denial plan isn't as strong, either.