If you have a Sydri deck of your own, I'd love to hear any stories of how the reservoir plays out for you.
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- bobthefunny
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Oct 17, 2016
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command - Kaladesh Post-ReviewYou are right that it is a fitting choice in a Sydri deck as well. Sydri's ability to give lifelink to a large number of artifacts will quickly put you over the required life total, and then giving the Reservoir lifelink allows it to immediately recoup the life payment that you put into it, and eliminate all of the opponents in quick succession. This is especially synergistic with the popular pillowfort/control versions of Sydri, which use artifacts like Caltrops (given deathtouch) or Timebomb to deter attacks and keep the board clean.Posted in: Articles
If you have a Sydri deck of your own, I'd love to hear any stories of how the reservoir plays out for you. -
May 4, 2016
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command 12 - Commander Gets a ClueThanks for the feedback, I'll try and keep that in mind for future articles.Posted in: Articles
You raise a good point about the Sundial's resilience, and you're right that it'll still see play in a number of decks/strategies that value that more highly. Something very controlling with a lot of wraths, for example, would likely prefer the sundial rather than the tracker, if it was looking for that effect. Overall though, for the decks that can run both, I agree the tracker will be the more valuable inclusion. -
Apr 14, 2016
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command 12 - Commander Gets a ClueA fair point, but the larger point is how to keep the cards flowing as the game goes on, and Clues are just a tool in that regard. When building a deck, it's important to utilize the tools you have, but also to use the correct tools.Posted in: Articles
The Tariel deck was continued from last month's article, where we discussed land ramp, in an effort to show the ongoing development of a deck concept. In this case, when adding the draw package, I looked at what tools would best fit the deck's strategy. Of several things in the deck, the Bygone Bishop fits with the reanimation strategy, having synergy with return-to-hand cards like Oversold Cemetery. Obviously the list is not finalized, and he may possibly be cut further in development if we don't have a lot of low drops... or more cards may be added to have synergy with him, like Phyrexian Reclamation. That pairing has shown itself to be quite potent in my Karador deck list.
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Overall, I have had excellent success with Clues in my Commander decks, and if you're looking for additional examples, then my Karador deck list would be a good place to start. It utilizes Bygone Bishop, Ulvenwald Mysteries, and Tireless Tracker to great results, and the Clues have increased synergy with Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest.
Likewise, another deck that has loved the inclusion of clues has been my Trostani Primer which uses both Ulvenwald Mysteries and Tireless Tracker as well, and the Clues have extra synergy with the token doubling enchantments, and with Rings of Brighthearth.
I also run Clues in my Kurkesh decklist, in the form of Tamiyo's Journal and Magnifying Glass, but that list is built more to be silly. Copying the Magnifying Glass' ability with Kurkesh, and then copying the Clues' abilities, which amusing, isn't the greatest return on card draw, clocking in at 4 cards for 12 mana (which isn't bad, just not great).
I hope that helps you out a bit more on how these tools can be used! I'm still looking through my decks for improvements, and I know that my Nemata deck will be picking up Tireless Tracker at the least, and that my Tibor and Lumia deck will be picking up Trail of Evidence. Whether I make additional changes to further support these cards remains to be seen.
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Mar 8, 2016
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command 11 - A Basic ManabaseThanks for your thoughts! I'd like to respond with my thoughts and reasoning to a few of your points, and hopefully explain a bit more where these points came from, so I'll break them out below.Posted in: Articles
General: Keep in mind that my writing is distilled from my own play experiences and philosophies. You can look at any of the decks I've built and see that I actually use a number of principles that I outline here. Most of my decks do run the expensive dual lands/shocks/fetches as I have been playing for a long time, but even so all of my decks tends to remain relatively high in basic land counts, compared to other lists I have seen online. Of my recent decks, even my 3 color decks tend to keep about 13-16 basic lands in each, and I have built several 3 color and even a 5 color deck with basics only, for various reasons, including: budget, high non-basic hate, and because I could.
Fixing lands (and vivid lands): I'm probably fairly unique in being unimpressed with vivid lands. I see them in a number of lists, but I've never found their benefit to outweigh coming into play tapped. My experiences in watching other people play them mirrors this, as I often see the counters go unused throughout a game, meaning that this is one more land providing little benefit, but that you can't thin out of your deck. I do believe that various fixing lands have great intrinsic value to lists, especially when starting out on a budget, but I tend to more highly value basic fetch lands, and various filter and other multi colored lands more highly. Even storage lands I place higher on the list, since they can act as a filter land the turn they come in, can still gain and benefit on off color mana by the turn after (when an etb tapped land would come online), provide an outlet for stockpiling extra mana, and can assist in big plays or surprise tricks in the future. I still believe that land search/fetch effects, such as given from Burnished Hart, is some of the best 'fixing' that you can get in general level Commander games, and that any fixing lands you run should be to complement that - not be the first line of fixing. That is my philosophy based off of my own experiences, however, and other people may align differently.
Thinning: Thinning from land ramp spells is a very large benefit to land ramp, and is likely one of the reasons I favor it so highly. I may not have emphasized this point as much in the article, which is my own fault. Since the benefits of thinning a deck are more widely known, I wanted to focus a bit on the tradeoff, and what the benefits on the other side of the equation were.
Mana rock cost: You raise a good point about their immediate value in the late game. Colorless mana rocks are indeed the cheapest ramp available, since they enter untapped, but on turn 2 that doesn't matter as much, though this often means they can be worked into future turns more easily than traditional land ramp. For a colored source of mana, it's typically a 3 cost for a mana rock that produces colored mana untapped, or 2 mana for one that enters tapped (which is way signets are above par for their cost). This generally makes them on par with Rampant Growth, but with added flexibility, and often with other benefits. There are, however, a whole host of artifacts that break these general values, and provide greater value than their cost, or provide additional effects that greatly increase their value to a deck. -
Mar 8, 2016
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command 11 - A Basic ManabaseI'm glad you liked it, and I'm glad it made you think! It's a slight advantage to the mana rocks that's not often considered, which can make a difference in the goals of some decks.Posted in: Articles
I still lean towards a heavier land ramp set up for most of my decks, but that's primarily due to being in sweeper heavy and slower meta, where the mana rocks become collateral damage very easily. Even so, it's important to consider the goal of the deck you're building, and what tools will best serve that end result; also consider what other cards would benefit from shared synergy. In the past I've included a higher number of artifact mana when I've had other cards that could interact with them, such as Goblin Welder, Vedalken Archmage, or Trading Post, where the artifacts can be more easily recurred or used as an alternate resource as well.
Likewise, decks that have required an exceptionally high amount of mana, but compensated with a high amount of draw found that playing lands on turn, and bolstering with quick mana rocks, provided the early game boost needed, and the late game stability. -
Feb 4, 2016
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #10 - Swearing an Oath of the Ban ListPosted in: ArticlesQuote from lastdaysgunslinger »Wait so now we cant play celestial dawn and use other lands as colorless? What the heck BS is this.
Celestial says it right on card " others produce COLORLESS" .
So basically wotc has F'ed up the soup and now we have to eat it.
Celestial Dawn makes all of your lands plains. If you have some other way of making them produce a different color (perhaps because of a chromatic lantern) then that ability will indeed produce colorless, as stated on the card.
The card itself has not changed, what has changed was the rule in Commander that would cause mana generated outside of your color identity to become colorless. This was used to lock players out of the game by donating a celestial dawn to a player with a non-white color identity. With the removal of the rule, that interaction no longer exists, and that player would be able to tap their plains for W.
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Likewise, this rule in theory could have been used to allow Darksteel Ingot to produce colorless if your Commander was not 5 color, as you could attempt to tap for an offcolor, and have it changed into colorless. This would have made it considerably easier to use colorless matters effects in Commander than was perhaps intended. -
Nov 20, 2015
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #7 - Combating CommandersPhasing in/out isn't a Zone change though, so you can't send the Commander to command zone on phasing. It's simply a status change.Posted in: Articles
And there are many reasons why phasing can never be made a zone change. -
Apr 24, 2015
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #7 - Combating CommandersIf an object phases out, any objects attached to it phase out with it, indirectly. When it's time for things to phase back, anything that phased out indirectly phases in with the object it phased out with.Posted in: Articles
So, if you phase out a creature with an aura, the aura phases out with it, and when the creature phases back in, the aura with it.
Tokens do not phase back in though. Thus, if you have equipment on a token - Batterskull perhaps - and you phase out the token, the batterskull will never return, since it can't phase back in with the token.
So - now the complicated part - turn the general into a non-creature (Soul Sculptor), then turn it into an artifact (Liquimetal Coating), make that non-creature artifact into an equipment (Bludgeon Brawl), attach it onto a token (Magnetic theft), and phase out the token (Reality Ripple). The Commander is now phased out, and can't phase back in since it phased out indirectly.
There are other cards that can do most of those things, but Bludgeon Brawl and Soul Sculptor are fairly unique. (the best is to make a token copy of Vulshok Battlemaster, since then it'll steal all the lands and stuff too. Even without the token copy, if you have Teferi's Veil, you can make it so their lands only ever phase in on your turn**).
Technically, they can use Time and Tide to phase it back in... but that's a corner case on a corner case. And no one would ever run that. Also, it's slightly confusing and debatable.*
The rule in question is this:
702.25f When a permanent phases out, any Auras, Equipment, or Fortifications attached to that permanent phase out at the same time. This alternate way of phasing out is known as phasing out “indirectly.” An Aura, Equipment, or Fortification that phased out indirectly won’t phase in by itself, but instead phases in along with the permanent it’s attached to.
702.25k Phased-out tokens cease to exist as a state-based action. See rule 704.5d.
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* I've never gotten an answer if Soul Sculptor's ability can wear off while the Commander is phased out, because it's technically not a creature until that effect does wear off - It's clear that the temporary effect can end while phased out, but what I don't know is if it regains its types immediately, or when it phases back in.
This rule is a bit unclear on that:
702.25e Continuous effects that affect a phased-out permanent may expire while that permanent is phased out. If so, they will no longer affect that permanent once it’s phased in. In particular, effects with “for as long as” durations that track that permanent (see rule 611.2b) end when that permanent phases out because they can no longer see it.
The line I bolded would indicate that while the soul sculptor's ability would end while phased out if someone were to play a creature spell, that the ability would only cease to affect the Commander only when it phased back in (which we already decided won't happen). Because of that, technically Time and Tide might not be able to return it (Because it won't be a creature).
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** I have never gotten an answer whether indirectly phased out lands can untap when they are phased out. This usually isn't a problem since things phase in on the untap step, but since these lands are now phasing in on YOUR untap step, they are phased out when they would normally untap.
The rules of the untap step make it clear that things have to phase in before you determine what untaps, and that you have to choose things to untap, and that things that are phased out "don't exist" (thus can't be chosen?) - so it would seem that phased out things don't untap, but it's a bit unclear.
502.1. First, all phased-in permanents with phasing that the active player controls phase out, and all phased-out permanents that the active player controlled when they phased out phase in. This all happens simultaneously. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack. See rule 702.25, “Phasing.”
502.2. Second, the active player determines which permanents he or she controls will untap. Then he or she untaps them all simultaneously. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack. Normally, all of a player’s permanents untap, but effects can keep one or more of a player’s permanents from untapping.
702.25b If a permanent phases out, its status changes to “phased out.” Except for rules and effects that specifically mention phased-out permanents, a phased-out permanent is treated as though it does not exist. It can’t affect or be affected by anything else in the game. -
Apr 23, 2015
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #7 - Combating CommandersIndeed, there are still ways to permanently remove a Commander. The 3 existing mindslaver variants, as well as a convoluted rules loophole involving phasing.Posted in: Articles
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Apr 23, 2015
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #6 - Preventing a Blast from the PastPosted in: ArticlesQuote from Jemolk »One card I haven't seen mentioned (not entirely sure how much it's played, but I play it in every deck I can) is Rakdos Charm. It's basically never dead, it's multipurpose removal: it can remove an artifact, or an entire graveyard, or it can remove that player who just went infinite with squirrels. I originally started running it as a way to deal with infinite combos by killing people who use them, but it has been fantastic as an instant-speed, whole-graveyard exile effect for 2 mana. That, and removing swords, greaves and memorials.
It doesn't fit into any of the categories here, but I felt that it was worth mentioning.
Versatility is always a definite plus. I focused mainly on mono-color options to highlight the specifics what what each color has access to, but you are 100% right that Rakdos charm is excellent in each of those regards. It's also cheap to cast and takes the opponent entirely by surprise to boot! -
Mar 28, 2015
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #6 - Preventing a Blast from the PastAs ISB said, Stonecloaker is Graveyard spot removal. At 3 mana per iteration you don't really want to be attempting to keep everyone's yards clear, but it's useful to foil that Chainer activation or Glissa trigger. Having that surprise shot will definitely ruin someone's day, and then they have to take it into consideration for all of their future moves.Posted in: Articles
Since it can act as a save spell in a pinch as well really gives it that flexibility to react in a lot of situations. You're obviously going to need to keep mana open for it, so I really see it shine in control decks, such as Bant Blink, or a white deck that feeds mana into token producers, such as Heliod - where I've used it to save my Sun Titan in a pinch.
Rest in Peace has been highly successful in my Heliod deck. While it turns off my own Emeria and Sun Titan, my own recursion is more 'incidental.' If I'm casting it, it's because it's making someone else's day a lot worse than mine. -
Mar 18, 2015
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #6 - Preventing a Blast from the PastOuch, a good catch Elemental; that does indeed lower his value tremendously. Sadly even Animar and Mayael will not even look his way now.Posted in: Articles
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Mar 18, 2015
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #6 - Preventing a Blast from the PastI was trying to highlight some of the lesser used options this go around. I did at least mention the other ubiquitous choices, so I guess it's a bit out of place that I didn't discuss the Ooze, who is pretty much green's version of Withered Wretch, with plenty of upside.Posted in: Articles
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Feb 12, 2015
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #5 - Fate Reforged ReviewThese are great points. A friend of mine who plays at my LGS also has a Karrthus deck, and he'll probably agree with everything you said.Posted in: Articles
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Feb 12, 2015
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #5 - Fate Reforged ReviewMy goodness, How I am embarrassed!Posted in: Articles
Thank you so much for catching these!
For Dromoka, it's true that if a creature has +1 counters it will affect where it can be chosen in the line up of triggers to get counters, if the difference in counters is only 1, it will still get the counters, but will be the last one to do so. If it's 2, then on the last trigger you can choose any creature, etc. It was just a bit complicated of a corner case to go into.
About Dark Deal, I agree that Shattered Perception fits the similarities as well. I feel Perception itself is also a semi-mashup of Wheel and Winds, in that it affects everyone, but everyone is limited based on their own amount (the way winds does). Wheel and Winds were simply the ones that more immediately popped into my mind, also due to their larger prevalence in Commander games.
About Outpost Siege you raise another good point. Most similar effects (at usually higher strength) tend to be dies effects, so this enchantment certainly plays nicer with other forms of flickering, including even Rush as a mechanic. At the same mana cost though you can pick up Purphoros though, who again has much higher strength for that style of play, but switching sides again, any form of redundancy or consistency can only help your game plan. I still feel that the option this card (and the other sieges) opens though, is the capability to give you options for both ongoing development, or to help close out a game. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
You don't need this rule to pull lands out of your deck at 1 per turn, in order to get Abundance to stack the deck, when Abundance already pulls lands out faster and better.
My biggest fear would be people intentionally building on light land, and counting on this rule to catch up, while drawing only gas when they actually want it. Even at a 2 land deficit requirement, there will be someone at the table ramping, and allowing them to possibly only miss a single turn land drop. It also allows much greedier keeps, such as Sol Ring, or Necropotence hands.
Abundance already does this? Why pay 2 life to replace your draw with a land search... when you could just cast Abundance to replace your draw with a land search?
AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
For those not on the inside joke - The mods played together, and I played a turn 2 Stigma Lasher while Jiv was playing Oloro, and apparently had no answers to it.
That said, for regular EDH, mono white can absolutely be a blast. White has some weaknesses, but it's not hard to shore those up, and White has a huge host of strengths to play off of in order to make some one-sided options. White has a strong set of removals, from excellent single-target Creature, Artifact and Enchantment removal, and mass removal of Creatures, Artifacts, and Enchantments as well. White also has mass land removal, but many groups may frown upon that. White also has a strong set of protection spells to contribute to fighting on the stack, and even some (very) limited counter magic. White also has excellent access to Equipment tutoring, which can shore up some weaknesses quite handily. White also has absolutely insane recursion potential as well, of almost any permanent type. Playing Mono-White also has some hilarious anti-multicolor tech, such as Ravnica at War, and Renounce the Guilds, which can be quite valuable plays.
Your main issues will be ramp and card draw, but both of these are easily overcome. My heliod deck will often times outramp even some green players, though this speaks more to my dedication to ramp. Obviously green players who dedicate to ramp will far outpace you, but White (and any color, thanks to colorless options) can generally hold its own.
Equipment: White can use cards like Stoneforge Mystic and Relic Seeker to grab Sword of the Animist and Skullclamp to offset some of the Ramp/Draw issues. If mystic is outside your pricepoint, or depending on your commitment to equipment, Several other options exist. Sword of Fire and Ice and Sword of Feast and Famine can also shore up the draw/ramp in a pinch as well.
Ramp:
For ramp, some white-specific options also include: Boreas Charger, Knight of the White Orchid and Kor Cartographer, which play well with Blink Effects, or with Resurection effects. You also have Legion's Landing, which at worst can be a sort of White rampant growth.
Some of my favored colorless options of ramp include Rings of Brighthearth with fetchlands, as fetches also pair well with Sun Titan and Crucible of Worlds. Thawing Glaciers also pairs well with Rings, and also with Deserted Temple, though be careful there as Deserted Temple and Rings can go infinite with a land that produces enough mana, such as Nykthos or Serra's Sanctum.
Burnished Hart goes well with Gift of Immortality, and also gets reclaimed by Sun Titan. Solemn is a solid add as well. From there, a few mana rocks should set you up well.
Card Draw:
Card draw will often be limited to Artifact and Colorless sources, but there are a few good white options, such as Mentor of the Meek and Bygone Bishop. Dawn of Hope is a new one I'm trying out, and Inheritance, while mana-hungry, can be potent.
From there, I've generally liked Endbringer as a useful utility creature for card draw and other stuff, while Mind's Eye and other generic artifacts can also do their thing. If you're really confidant about your mana base, you can also run the Kozilek pair.
Recursion:
Where to even Begin? Sun Titan slots in well with most of the cheap sides of the ramp/draw packages, especially since he can bring back lands. I like to pair him with Mirrorpool, since you get to immediately bring it back. He also works well with Emeria, the sky ruin, as many others have said. Emeria Shepherd is all sorts of crazy bonkers, if you hold onto it well. I've also liked Marshall's Anthem as a way to recover post-wipe. Angel of Serenity has also been recommended to me, and despite being high cost has served as a powerful multi-utility card. Multiple cards exist to recover artifacts, creatures, and enchantments, in single or in mass. I personally am a fan of Salvage Scout, since mono color decks run a lot of artifacts, and he is quickly returned by Sun Titan, or Sword of Light and Shadow (which is fetched by the equipment package...). Restoration Specialist is a new potential addition as well. Certain powerful spells, like Rally the Ancestors can provide a potent surprise as well, especially as you return some of your other recursion pieces to bring stuff back permanently, and use a sac outlet to not lose yours, or use blink effects/Teferi's protection in response to the delayed trigger... etc.
In the lands section, I like to add Buried Ruin, and even sometimes Haunted Fengraf. Don't forget Mistveil Plains as an option, especially if it feeds back into a tutor loop.
In short, White has a lot of recursion options that feed into each other and protect each other piece, while also having the capability to tutor/fetch multiple pieces of it.
Removal:
White has plenty, so I'm just going to list my favorites:
Single Creature: Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile. Dispatch, Crib Swap, Declaration in stone.
Single Artifact/Enchantment: Return to Dust, Banishing Stroke
Attack Deterence: Wing Shards, Dispense Justice, Settle the Wreckage
Mass: Rout, Tragic Arrogance, Hour of Revelation, Hallowed Burial, Akroma's Venceance, Austere Command, Descend upon the Sinful
Mass Enchantment/Artifact: (of those not included above) Patrician's Scorn.
Colorless: All is Dust, Oblivion Stone, Ugin. (stone can be recured, Other two, you likely have more artifacts/colorless than most).
Grave Hate: Hallowed Moonlight, Rest in Peace, Containtment Priest, Scavenger Grounds, Angel of Serenity, Stone Cloaker.
I'm curious to other people's thoughts and impressions though:
To that end, it's not really any worse than most other infinite mana combos, or which there are many.
If you add it into your deck, you know that whether it's there to be a quirky ramp card, or if it's there to be an infinite combo - there's not much middle ground. And if you add it as an infinite combo, there's no "oops" situation there - you know full well it will infinite, and by that point, you should know exactly where your playgroup stands on such matters.
Way back when, there was one player who ran a mindslaver - no lock, no recursion or anything. Just a literal one shot effect to mess with a boardstate. Coincidentally, 3 times in a row that he aimed it at my Nemata deck, I had a Chain of Acid in hand. He was kind enough to leave me my lands, but that was it.
TBH, that's probably the best data point then.
What moments are truly memorable to you?
Here are a few of mine to get things started:
So what are YOUR truly lasting memorable stories?
To me, this sounds like you want to start more casual - you can always increase power far more easily. You may also want to go more token-build, with various anthems or ways to use creatures entering the battlefield, while avoiding infinite combos.
Dire Undercurrents is an immediate first thought for me, though the discard half might be a bit brutal. Kindred Discovery does much the same for you as well, though would be specific to a more tribal route. Bident of Thassa and Coastal Piracy seem like good token strategy cards for card draw. Of course, skullclamp will always be an allstar.
Favorable Winds, Grand Architect, Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun, etc, can make for good lord effects.
Of course, you'll want a bit of redundancy with your commander for token generation in case your Commander gets removed a few times. Talrand, Sky summoner, Docent of Perfection, Bloodline Keeper, Cemetery Reaper, etc, can help make some tokens.
You'll want some mana ramp, and I find that Sword of the animist, Burnished Hart, and mana rocks can make a decent start.
Personally, I'm a fan of Salvaging Station, and the tokens you'll be producing can make some excellent fuel for the station. Blue/Black is an excellent color combination for it, with plenty of tutors such as Artificer's Intuition. Be aware that the Salvaging Station package can usually take up to 10 card slots from you, though each can be individually useful.
You could also go Blood Artist style routes, but I personally would be more iffy of those, as they can lead to un-interactive styles - As a sub theme, it could be a potent alternate win though - to make sure you'll have options.
Removal will be primarily in black, though Blue can offer things like Curse of the Swine. Artifacts and enchantments will be an issue, so you may need some colorless options like Scour from existence.
I don't want to go too far into building a deck - but my initial thoughts personally take it in a very artifact-centric token direction, and looks like this, take from it what you like:
Some parts will obviously need to be removed, or changed, such as Talrand or Metallurgic Summongings if the decks ends up spell light, or Sai, if it ends up artifact light - Those probably offer a choice of a split in how you want to build your deck.
6 Oona, Queen of the Fae
Artifact
1 Chromatic Sphere
1 Chromatic Star
1 Conjurer's Bauble
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Scrabbling Claws
1 Phyrexian furnace
1 Universal Solvent
1 Skullclamp
2 Sword of the Animist
2 Spawning Pit
2 Thaumatic Compass
3 Proteus Staff
4 Bident of Thassa
5 Gauntlet of Power
6 Caged Sun
6 Salvaging Station
7 Summoning Station
7 Spine of Ish Sah
Mana Rocks
1 Sol Ring
2 Mind Stone
2 Felwar Stone
2 Dimir Signet
3 Commander's Sphere
3 worn powerstone
3 Darksteel Ingot
2 Nezumi Graverobber
2 Oona's Blackguard
3 Burnished Hart
3 Sai, Master Thopterist
3 Trinket Mage
3 Trophy Mage
3 Treasure Mage
3 Chasm Skulker
3 Grand Architect
3 Thief of Sanity
3 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
4 Solemn simulacrum
4 Talrand, Sky Summoner
4 Bloodline Keeper
4 Faerie Artisans
4 Golden Guardian
4 Orc Sureshot
5 havengul Lich
6 Grave Titan
6 Frost Titan
7 Abhorrent Overlord
Instant
1 Undying Evil
1 Supernatural stamina
2 Cyclonic Rift
3 Murder
4 Silence the Believers
4 Memory Plunder
7 Scour from Existence
3 Mnemonic Betrayal
4 Mutilate - deals with indestructible
9 Connive/Concoct
2x Black Sun's Zenith
2x Curse of the Swine
Enchantment
2 Artificer's Intuition
2 Favorable Winds
2 Search for Azcanta
4 Death Pit Offering
5 Coastal Piracy
5 Dire Undercurrents
5 Metallurgic Summonings
Planeswalkers
5 Tezzeret the seeker
5 Tezzeret, Artifice Master
6 Tezzeret, Master of Metal
6 Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge
6 Vraska, Scheming Gorgon
Lands
0 Bojuka Bog
0 Scavenger Ground
0 Buried Ruin
0 Seat of the Synod
0 Vault of Whispers
0 Darksteel Citadel
That's funny. My sister has chickens. First she got 6 chicks, but 4 were roosters, so she had to give them away, and had only 2. So she got some more... long story short, there are currently 10 chickens, 2 of which are roosters and will need to go, and another 6 chicks that just hatched.
This has happened to me with several decks, including Nemata, Chainer, Trostani, etc.
Often times, this for me is a cue to build a new deck, and start the process over again. This allows me to start a new path to start the process over again, and redo a lot of that exciting discovery, and end up with a new creation to be proud of.
In some cases, this may mean taking apart and reinventing a deck or theme. My Cromat deck (first deck) I rebuilt multiple times across different themes, before it was fully retired - though Cromat himself is sitting in my prefered pile, waiting to be rebuilt some day. Tibor and Lumia have likewise been rebuilt across multiple themes, and though I still have the deck together, it hasn't been updated in years, as current options have far outclassed them.
Other decks, such as Chainer and Trostani, I still keep together, and even lightly update them - but play them much more rarely. I carry a large number of decks with me (13 currently), so I can always adapt to the table's power. If I feel like pulling those decks again I ask if anyone would want to play a more 'evil' game, or a more tuned game, or might even request certain decks from other people - My brother's Glissa deck has a lot of graveyard removal, and I find it makes for a fun game against my Chainer deck.
Sometimes, I reserve certain slots in decks for "fun cards." Sandwurm Convergence isn't a powerful card, and is stupid expensive, but is one of several 'fun slots' that I've put into Trostani that are intended to be un-optimized.
Finally, one thing you can do is gauge reactions to certain cards, and whether they are meeting your expectations for a fun game. For me, certain cards have been cut from my decks, such as Torment of Hailfire. On paper, I was excited to try Torment, because it seemed to make for interesting decisions or be an interesting wrath type effect. In practice though, it's simply a kill spell that you crank enough into X that they can't outclass it, or an underwhelming impact spell in desperation. Every time it's been played, it's always been a bit of a deflation of the intrigue and interest of the game. Anti-climactic. Other cards that have made my list are Craterhoof Behemoth, Seedborn Muse (came off the list during Prophet of Kruphix times, but is now back on), Prophet (when legal), Vicious Shadows, Parallax Wave, etc.
Not all cards will be met with happiness and joy - some cards, such as counterspells and wraths are intended to impede or negate - but balancing how much is important as well. A few counterspells are healthy, but if you are doing a Forbid lock, or Familiar's Ruse + E.Witness, or Mystic Snake blinks... Well, that can get oppressive rather quickly and it might be a good idea to scale back part of the combo.
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I always have an intrigue for one sided fogs, but have never gotten around to building a deck that can use them well. I've mostly stuck to repeatable effects so far, or Sunforger options.