Voltaic key is excellent in a variety of ways. Being able to tap for mana with thran dynamo or grim monolith out, or giving Nevy's disk "haste" are great tools to have.
mine was a 1v1 game vs a guy that, would "ROFL-Stomp me because his deck is aggro and EDH is usually a slow format...so it probably wouldn't be much of a game"
i tutor up darksteel forge instead, and force him to blow the o-stone when i cast my darksteel forge. well, after that, i lay down extraplanar lens, and the cage of suns i drew without fear of him shattering my extraplanar lens (snow-covered swamps :-D). the tower of fortunes ends up drawing me 16 cards, one of which is our favorite high-tide monstrosity "candelabra of tawnos" so i'm making upwards of 30 mana each turn.
he had been talking about his combo pieces to help him win since i had a giant board position and he wasn't going to aggro me out by the time i'd be able to assemble the big mana spells i normally use to win so i get an idea in my head.
life's finale
i cast it, killing a few of his guys, and graveyard-binning his combo creatures.
i don't know how his deck works, but i see 2 goblins that have sacrifice abilities so i grab them and a seige-gang commander. (skirk prospector was one of them).
well, i cast geth that turn, and with the 40 mana i have left, i use 2 of it to steal skirk prospector
then use 6 to steal siege gang commander which mills him for 5. sacrifice 4 goblins to make 4 colorless mana. use 2 black and the 4 colorless to mill 5 more, and steal siege gang again and again 30 times till i put his whole deck into the yard. :-D
Going to go ahead call BS on this. I played from unlimited to Ice Age using power 9 and won many tournaments with mox and such as prizes in this era. I have a 6 digit DCI number to prove it. And I can't even think of any instant win or infinity combos in that time frame. Certainly not from day one or just alpha as a set. I would be surprised if you could even show me one. Much less one that saw tournament play pre-iceage.
I would the top archetype at the time was land destruction. Sinkhole and strip mine where things as was crumble and such for moxes. I always had 4 consecrate lands in my sideboards. I admittedly was not playing when combo rose to power and seemly replaced land destruction as a archtype. But it was years after magic started.
The most played archtimes at the time (revised era) were Aggro, Land destruction, Counter (now called control) Mill (no really, feldon's cane in sideboard because you saw it at least 1-2 times a tourney).
how bought channel + fireball?
binding agony + fire covenant?
stasis decks are combo although some players would argue they are control
(instill energy + birds of paradise...add kismet and serra angel)
combo has been powerful ever since the game started.
i like this deck! I am mentally building a big red deck as well so this one has my gears turning.
your recursion is quite excellent:
buyback
phoenixes
crucible
charmbreaker devils!
buried ruin
haunted fengraf
some slots that could be improved upon IMO:
power matrix
adamaro
how do these work for you? power matrix seems fun, but maybe another piece of equipment would work better or maybe something powerful like past in flames.
can adamaro be tauren mauler instead? both play well in multiplayer and but while adamaro will almost always be a 6/6 or bigger, the mauler can get absolutely monsterous in size. BUT...sometimes orcish artillery can get the job done too...how bout bottle gnomes? maybe you can recur them with some of the lands you've got.
either way... i really like this deck! well done sir!
a trick i did when i built my mono-black deck, was to switch to snow-covered lands so i could run scrying sheets. it's nice to scry with your crystal ball, and then draw a land EZ with scrying sheets so you really just never miss land drops.
ulamog is IMO the most powerful finishing creature. he can attack at will, knocks off chunks of life and causes your opponent to sacrifice permanents. he even knocks out a particular permanent upon casting, so things like moat, and or ensnaring bridge won't have an impact.
Yes...with more solid sac outlets, we can make better use out of the times when we draw mulitples of mox opal. A cradle can generate enough mana to power through energy flux and null rod although the legendary status can hurt us.
To play around wasteland, I wait to play it until the turn I need all that mana...which is hard to do but possible.
What I like about this version, is that when the game stalls out, against other creature decks, we can start flying over them with thopters, and just win by having disciple out.
Deck tags please. Either use the button at the top or put the following in without the spaces:
[ DECK ] 60 plains [ / DECK ]
Have never tested Gaea's Cradle . . . but not sure what we need all the green mana for or how it helps you get more Disciples into play.
Deck tags are sorta cumbersome with iPhone...Apologies
Basically, the chromatic stars help us draw more cards. Once there are a lot of creatures out...pump colorless/green mana into thoptor foundry and make a bunch of flying dudes :-D it works like an ancient tomb that doesn't deal us damage :-D
Drawing more cards helps us get more mox opals out, which can keep the combo fueled.
I recommend adding the card draw in place of some of the 1for1's. Replace lava axe with crystal ball and Khamal's desire with a tower of fortunes. Try and get a sensei's divining top if you can...since they really help. Also...the token generation will work really well for you since each token gets your generals bonus! This deck makes me want to build my own version!
Also, elish norn costs 7
mine was a 1v1 game vs a guy that, would "ROFL-Stomp me because his deck is aggro and EDH is usually a slow format...so it probably wouldn't be much of a game"
i tell him that my Geth, lord of the vault deck is pretty good and prone to fast starts so we sit down to play. he is playing Wort, Boggart Auntie, the black red goblin
my opening hand has vampiric tutor, extraplanar lens, 3 swamps, ashes to ashes and tower of fortunes. i'm thinking i'll tutor for phyrexian arena or necropotence but he lays out an early oblivion stone and my first two draws are more artifact mana such as basalt monolith and mana-vault.
i tutor up darksteel forge instead, and force him to blow the o-stone when i cast my darksteel forge. well, after that, i lay down extraplanar lens, and the cage of suns i drew without fear of him shattering my extraplanar lens (snow-covered swamps :-D). the tower of fortunes ends up drawing me 16 cards, one of which is our favorite high-tide monstrosity "candelabra of tawnos" so i'm making upwards of 30 mana each turn.
he had been talking about his combo pieces to help him win since i had a giant board position and he wasn't going to aggro me out by the time i'd be able to assemble the big mana spells i normally use to win so i get an idea in my head.
life's finale
i cast it, killing a few of his guys, and graveyard-binning his combo creatures.
i don't know how his deck works, but i see 2 goblins that have sacrifice abilities so i grab them and a seige-gang commander. (skirk prospector was one of them).
well, i cast geth that turn, and with the 40 mana i have left, i use 2 of it to steal skirk prospector
then use 6 to steal siege gang commander which mills him for 5. sacrifice 4 goblins to make 4 colorless mana. use 2 black and the 4 colorless to mill 5 more, and steal siege gang again and again 30 times till i put his whole deck into the yard. :-D
pass turn
:-D
how bought channel + fireball?
binding agony + fire covenant?
stasis decks are combo although some players would argue they are control
(instill energy + birds of paradise...add kismet and serra angel)
combo has been powerful ever since the game started.
terramorphic expanse is the one card i'd remove and replace with either undiscovered paradise, primal beyond, tarnished citadel, gemstone mine, or tendo ice bridge.
probably tarnished citadel is the best choice, or maybe primal beyond.
crib swap is fun to use in horde of notions, because you can recur it.
that means any card with the word "shuffle" on the card is not allowed.
your recursion is quite excellent:
buyback
phoenixes
crucible
charmbreaker devils!
buried ruin
haunted fengraf
some slots that could be improved upon IMO:
power matrix
adamaro
how do these work for you? power matrix seems fun, but maybe another piece of equipment would work better or maybe something powerful like past in flames.
can adamaro be tauren mauler instead? both play well in multiplayer and but while adamaro will almost always be a 6/6 or bigger, the mauler can get absolutely monsterous in size. BUT...sometimes orcish artillery can get the job done too...how bout bottle gnomes? maybe you can recur them with some of the lands you've got.
either way... i really like this deck! well done sir!
a trick i did when i built my mono-black deck, was to switch to snow-covered lands so i could run scrying sheets. it's nice to scry with your crystal ball, and then draw a land EZ with scrying sheets so you really just never miss land drops.
To play around wasteland, I wait to play it until the turn I need all that mana...which is hard to do but possible.
What I like about this version, is that when the game stalls out, against other creature decks, we can start flying over them with thopters, and just win by having disciple out.
Deck tags are sorta cumbersome with iPhone...Apologies
Basically, the chromatic stars help us draw more cards. Once there are a lot of creatures out...pump colorless/green mana into thoptor foundry and make a bunch of flying dudes :-D it works like an ancient tomb that doesn't deal us damage :-D
Drawing more cards helps us get more mox opals out, which can keep the combo fueled.
Here's my version:
3 gaea's cradle
4 seat of the synod
4 vault of whispers
4 ancient den
4 mox opal
4 chromatic star
4 thoughtcast
4 signal pest
4 ornithopter
4 memnite
4 frogmite
4 myr enforcer
4 arcbound ravager
4 disciple of the vault
3 master of etherium
3 thopter foundry
This build focuses on getting as many disciples in play as possible, then sacrificing lots of artifacts to finish off our opponent.