The best cards I've found for Zedruu are the ones that trade lands with your opponents. Honest. I know it sounds strange, but it ensures you are drawing extra cards every turn. Drawing +2 or +3 cards a turn is a massive, massive advantage. Vedalken Plotter, Political Trickery, Shifting Borders. Its surprisingly difficult to get rid of a land you control, so giving an opponent a basic plains in exchange for their ... anything, means that it will stick around a long, long time.
Basically, my Zedruu deck became card advantage, somewhat control~y deck, that had a few "oops that's gotta hurt" cards thrown in. R/W/U goodstuff, sort of, with things like Statecraft to give to opponents who attack with creatures, and Form of the Dragon for the life-gaining types.
Yeah, I too was looking at Karn planeswalker, but I love Ugin so much more. Get rid of pesky Azusa's and Coursers? Yes, please. Also, our deck is CHOCK full of permanents for the Ult if that ever happens. Plus, I love that its a mirror to Nicol Bolas, the original big dragon. Except, this doesn't just target one player, this is a bonus for you, completely alone.
((edit))
Also ... the -X is SUPER tasty. Like ... one-sided board wipe please? Yes, I'll take a second All is Dust please.
Purphoros is SO good in something like Krenko, Mob Boss or other purely token strategies. If I really, really wanted to go in that direction, I would probably pick Krenko as the General.
Since this is an artifact recursion deck, I don't want to water it down TOOOOO much. Thus, my choice not to play Purphoros. Like I said, I'm going to be testing Steel Overseer just to see what its like, but I'm thinking it will probably not make the cut. The sub-theme is fine and dandy, but I don't think there is enough production to really make it the main strategy.
Yeah, I have not been using the dragon. I've been debating with myself about the possibility of trying something like Eldrazi Monument and/or Akroma's Memorial as a way to power up the tokens. The token theme is nice, but there just isn't enough of it to be the MAIN theme. Most of the tokens are colorless, so Honor of the Pure type effects don't help. They are odd creature types, so Goblin King don't work either. However, I am testing a Steel Overseer, but with the Holidays coming up, it might be awhile before I get some games in.
In reality, I've just been playing like Guerte: use the tokens as board presence, but swing away with the fatties.
I'm going to add my decklist here. Take a look. Let me know what you guys like or don't like. This is just my version of Daretti Spaghetti:
I like it a lot. Have you considered replacing any of those equipments with swords of x and y?
Yes, absolutely. The equipment package most likely will be upgraded .... whenever I can get my hands on them. The only Sword of Stuff and Stuff I own are a trio of Sword of Body and Mind which aren't useful enough in EDH. I would really like to slide in a Feast and Famine (untapping shenanigans HOOOOOOO!) or the two Mirrodin ones for their card advantage, which both would be useful (draw or recursion). But at this time, I'm limited.
The token subtheme has really been holding water for me. Because they are flying artifacts, they run double duty in both combat and feeding Daretti / Welder. Even recurring a single token generator makes really solid offense/defense.
Stonehewer Giant is VASTLY superior to Godo. Seriouly. Its repeatable. And you can get Lightning Greaves as first item, and STILL auto-equip things with Stonehewer since he doesn't target. You can attach through the shroud. Plus, Vigilance means you can swing and still leave it up as a blocker. And nobody attacks into Stonehewer untapped since it could easily pick up any number of equipment in response to being declared as an attacker.
In multiplayer games, Stonehewer is so good.
I'm not saying Godo is bad. There are many instances where the free second attack phase is just too good to pass up. But, if I could only choose one, I prefer Stonehewer as he's more versatile.
Precursor Golem fits more into what I'm trying to do with MY version of Daretti, but Blightsteel is kind of a nice big single threat. At this time, I won't bother with him, but I'm going to keep him on my radar. Since Precursor creates board presence and can leave a blocker behind, I like him better. Politics are a thing in multiplayer, and swinging all in on one guy, in my LGS anyway, usually leaves you open to everyone else swinging back at you. Thus, being able to provide both offense AND defense is a major consideration for me.
If you played like a Sneak Attack varation, then Blightsteel might be just the card to go in. And maybe I need to look at Sculpting Steel for versatility ....
A couple of guys at my LGS have tried it. It is mostly a 1v1 format, from what I understand. Would make a GREAT option for stuff to do between multiplayer traditional EDH games. They seem to like it, and it completely changes the way you value cards.
I might throw one together at some point just to try it out. I'm already leaning toward something aggro like Brimaz, King of Oreskos/Isamaru, Hound of Konda white weenie aggro. Its so opposite of what my normal EDH decks are, that it seems fun.
Some of the Commander 2011 generals are really fun, but you can buy them individually for much less than $100:
Ghave = $6.50
Riku = $8
Mimeoplasm = $7
Animar = $14
Edric = $2.50
Skullbriar = $5.50
*StarCityGames.com pricing as of Dec 2014.
Then with the rest of your $100 budget, you can build some really fun decks with them.
Basically, my Zedruu deck became card advantage, somewhat control~y deck, that had a few "oops that's gotta hurt" cards thrown in. R/W/U goodstuff, sort of, with things like Statecraft to give to opponents who attack with creatures, and Form of the Dragon for the life-gaining types.
((edit))
Also ... the -X is SUPER tasty. Like ... one-sided board wipe please? Yes, I'll take a second All is Dust please.
Purphoros is SO good in something like Krenko, Mob Boss or other purely token strategies. If I really, really wanted to go in that direction, I would probably pick Krenko as the General.
Since this is an artifact recursion deck, I don't want to water it down TOOOOO much. Thus, my choice not to play Purphoros. Like I said, I'm going to be testing Steel Overseer just to see what its like, but I'm thinking it will probably not make the cut. The sub-theme is fine and dandy, but I don't think there is enough production to really make it the main strategy.
Remand basically says 1U: Delay the game for one turn and keep your hand full of cards.
In reality, I've just been playing like Guerte: use the tokens as board presence, but swing away with the fatties.
.
Yes, absolutely. The equipment package most likely will be upgraded .... whenever I can get my hands on them. The only Sword of Stuff and Stuff I own are a trio of Sword of Body and Mind which aren't useful enough in EDH. I would really like to slide in a Feast and Famine (untapping shenanigans HOOOOOOO!) or the two Mirrodin ones for their card advantage, which both would be useful (draw or recursion). But at this time, I'm limited.
The token subtheme has really been holding water for me. Because they are flying artifacts, they run double duty in both combat and feeding Daretti / Welder. Even recurring a single token generator makes really solid offense/defense.
What happened?
I'm using Karn, but I feel that sometimes I wish there were more ways. I guess Bosh, Iron Golem ... in a way. Missing anything?
In multiplayer games, Stonehewer is so good.
I'm not saying Godo is bad. There are many instances where the free second attack phase is just too good to pass up. But, if I could only choose one, I prefer Stonehewer as he's more versatile.
If you played like a Sneak Attack varation, then Blightsteel might be just the card to go in. And maybe I need to look at Sculpting Steel for versatility ....
I might throw one together at some point just to try it out. I'm already leaning toward something aggro like Brimaz, King of Oreskos/Isamaru, Hound of Konda white weenie aggro. Its so opposite of what my normal EDH decks are, that it seems fun.
Ghave = $6.50
Riku = $8
Mimeoplasm = $7
Animar = $14
Edric = $2.50
Skullbriar = $5.50
*StarCityGames.com pricing as of Dec 2014.
Then with the rest of your $100 budget, you can build some really fun decks with them.