You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar But I Feel Like A Millionaire

Woof. This is a great song for a mess of a deck. 

3 Thopter Foundry
3 Sword of the Meek
4 Sapphire Medallion

1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
2 Magister Sphinx
3 Sharding Sphinx
4 Stormscape Familiar
4 Etherium Sculptor
1 Sharuum the Hegemon
1 Sphinx Sovereign

3 Oblivion Ring
2 Engineered Plague

1 Spinal Embrace
4 Thirst for Knowledge

6 Island
4 Seat of the Synod
2 Vault of Whispers
2 Ancient Den
1 Plains
2 Arcane Sanctum
4 Esper Panorama
1 Swamp
2 Dromar's Cavern

So, the original deck idea came from one that was using Time Sieve in order to take multiple, if not infinite turns. 

Where's the Time Sieve, my dude?

But OK fine: I don't have Time Sieve. Budget combo with Sword of the Meek and Thopter Foundry isn't a terrible idea. 

Why is there all this other stuff? I get the idea: I was thinking that four copies of Sapphire Medallion would make it easy to ramp into cards like Sharuum. 

But even if they are, what is Sharuum getting back for me? 

So, there's a bunch of work to do here. 

Sandstorm

Well, now we have a name for the deck! As an added bonus, it's also the name for a Transformer so I'm kinda double-dipping. 

In addition, despite the last decklist working really well, Secrets of Strixhaven gave us a card that I am testing, because I think it's very powerful: Stirring Hopesinger. This is in addition to the new removal spell upgrade, Erode, which is definitely better than Unwanted Remake. 

However that's not all! Hopesinger is a bird, and that means it gets a boost from Valley Questcaller.

Sadly, this means that something has to go, and Mabel is my cut. She's very good-and she creates an additional mana tax with Cragflame. In a deck with so few mana sources, having a flier that could boost the team just seemed better. 

Mice

 I need a name for this deck, but right now it's got it where it counts, kid.

4 Shuko

4 Heartfire Hero
3 Manifold Mouse
3 Valley Questcaller
3 Emberheart Challenger
2 Mabel, Heir to Cragflame
3 Flowerfoot Swordmaster
3 Seedglaive Mentor
1 Feather, the Redeemed

4 Monstrous Rage
4 Unwanted Remake
2 Loran's Escape|
3 Legion Leadership
2 Shelter

7 Plains
7 Mountain
4 Elegant Parlor
2 Restless Bivouac

Obviously this started as a riff on the mice deck in Standard-hey, why not build on a proven idea? Without the limits of Standard, Shuko becomes available and the deck can get sick very, very quickly. 

With 20 lands, the deck is running very lean, and I'm absolutely hoping that Elegant Parlor along with Shelter and Loran's Escape can help smooth my draws out, while not slowing me down, despite Restless Bivouac and Parlor entering tapped.

Fast All The Time

So....I don't care about Merfolk.

What about this? 

4 Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student
2 Kutzil's Flanker
3 Sigrid, God-Favored
4 Brineborn Cutthroat
2 Aven Interrupter
2 Merfolk Trickster

4 Fire Nation Occupation

4 Opt
4 Counterspell
4 Path to Exile
4 Consider

4 Tundra
9 Island
6 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Contaminated Aquifer
1 Sunlit Marsh

Flash decks can be a thing and I have seen some neat ones. They're usually UB but I'm wondering if WU with a little Black can work. 

Fire Nation Occupation is one of the obvious rewards but my real goal was to implement a deck that did nearly everything on my opponent's turn. It's a little underpowered: Brainstorm, Meticulous Archive, and Flooded Strand would probably all help. 

Still, a Tamiyo is apparently incredibly powerful, Brineborn Cutthroat is a scaling threat, I highly doubt anyone is goign to see Merfolk Trickster coming so let's see what can be done!

The deck's name is taken from a great track by Nylitia. 

Paranoid Android

 Alright, so I abandoned a deck because I said I had an idea. That idea starts with this deck, which wants to do some recursion things with artifacts and is named after a Radiohead song.

2 Chromatic Sphere
1 Dispeller's Capsule
2 Executioner's Capsule
4 Pyrite Spellbomb
2 Skeleton Shard

2 Extruder
4 Disciple of the Vault
2 Nova Cleric
3 Perilous Myr
3 Gorilla Shaman
2 Junk Diver
3 Myr Retriever
3 Salvage Titan

4 Shrapnel Blast

4 Ancient Den
4 Glimmervoid
4 Great Furnace
1 Swamp
4 Mountain
4 Vault of Whispers
2 Plains

First, we have the classic old me deckbuilding problems of trying to solve every problem: Nova Cleric, Executioner's Capsule, Gorilla Shaman. Next, for a three color manabase, there just isn't enough versatility there. Glimmervoid is a neat card, but there's just too much pressure on that card alone to solve all the mana issues. 

Now, obviously I think I can do much better than before--and it might all be due to Weapons Manufacturing. 

Piranacon

Don't worry folks, I'm not quite done with Kingbreaker but I need more time to test. So instead we have a true callback, we have:

2 Lord of Atlantis
3 Tidal Courier
1 Wake Thrasher
2 Galina's Knight
4 Judge of Currents
2 Merrow Harbinger
3 Merrow Reejerey
3 Stonybrook Schoolmaster
3 Jolting Merfolk
2 Sejiri Merfolk
1 True-Name Nemesis

4 Plumes of Peace

2 Toils of Night and Day
3 Ghostway
3 Akroma's Blessing

7 Plains
3 Wanderwine Hub
4 Tundra
8 Island

That's right. Merfolk. Before they decided that Green was a better pairing than white. 

Originally, this deck was using a Merrow Commerce/Drowner of Secrets combo to mill the opponent out. 

That...did not work. There wasn't enough control to give the deck time to mill sixty cards, and the win conditions were vulnerable to the most common removal in the format; creature removal. 

This new version is more midrange, with the idea being that I can tap down my opponent's creatures long enough to do 20 damage, with boosted Merfolk. Let's see what happens--especially since this deck hasn't seen an update since Llorwyn. 

The deck is named after the Transformer, of course. 

Kingbreaker

 Once upon a time, I had an idea. This is what I turned it into.

Named after The Armed's song, thanks to Rebecca for the song idea. 

3 Dark Confidant
4 Tifa Lockhart
4 Veteran Explorer
3 Voice of Victory
3 Elvish Reclaimer
2 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Scythecat Cub

2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Fatal Push
4 Crop Rotation
3 Berserk

2 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Forest
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Plains
4 Ghost Quarter
1 Temple Garden
1 Bayou
1 Godless Shrine

4 Cabal Therapy
3 Scale Up

This is what I ended up going with. It took some refining, as I didn't have Berserk to start with. Turns out you can do a lot with this deck just using cards like Royal Treatment.  

However, I really wanted this to work, so I started cannibalizing other decks for a Bayou, and I happened to open a Godless Shrine from my Edge of Eternities pre-release!

With an appropriate level mana base, I want to test this out. 

Note: no posts until the 25th, I'm out of town!

Shallow Ground

I've been holding off on this one, but it's time. I named this after the Corrosion of Conformity song, just to give y'all a sense of how long ago I first started on this deck.

2 Talisman of Unity

3 Quirion Elves
3 Terravore
3 Werebear
3 Watchwolf
3 Soltari Champion
3 Mother of Runes
2 Titania, Protector of Argoth

2 Seal of Cleansing

3 Wild Might
4 Swords to Plowshares

8 Forest
1 Havenwood Battleground
4 Windswept Heath
2 Flagstones of Trokair
6 Plains
2 Horizon Canopy

4 Armageddon
2 Catastrophe

Why have I been resisting playing this deck? 

First, Magic has largely moved on. Armageddon was once a terrible spell to witness. Now, it barely registers. Mana has gotten a lot better since Armageddon's heyday, the game has sped up significantly and losing all your lands doesn't sting like it once did.. 

Second, Armageddon creates unfun game states. That's just a fact and it's why WorC hasn't printed a Standard legal version of this card in literal decades. 

But now; now I'm wondering if this should still exist--and if it does, should it just be combined with Xnoybis. 

Burn To Shine

 Taken from the delightful Ben Harper song, I started off with this R/W Liege deck:

4 Cursed Totem

4 Balefire Liege
3 Hearthfire Hobgoblin
2 Boros Swiftblade
3 Skyknight Legionnaire
3 Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
4 Boros Recruit
4 Swiftblade Vindicator

4 Squee's Embrace

4 Lightning Helix
3 Chance for Glory

4 Scabland
7 Plains
7 Mountain
4 Needle Spires

Years ago, this started off as a Cursed Totem deck, if you can believe that. Inspired by a writer at Starcity Games, who used the Totem to remove the drawbacks to cards like Glittering Lion and Flailing Manticore, while also serving as a way to pre-emptively deal with other problem cards at the time (notably the Rebels deck) this deck was an easy one to morph into a Balefire Liege deck. The tech was SO old, why not make it a fun aggro deck? 

But here it languished until a card I've had for years but had forgotten about was brought to my attention via a Thraben U video: General Ferrous Rokiric. 

Let's get going. 

Let's Take A Trip Together

Taken from the groovy Morphine song, this deck is based off the OLD Astral Slide decks

    

2 Venerable Monk
4 Tilling Treefolk
4 Phantom Centaur
2 Phantom Flock
2 Disciple of Grace
3 Titanic Bulvox
2 Bloated Toad

1 Darkwatch Elves
2 Peacekeeper
1 Disciple of Law
1 Krosan Colossus
1 Pale Recluse

3 Aura Shards
4 Astral Slide

2 Drifting Meadow
3 Slippery Karst
4 Secluded Steppe
2 Tranquil Thicket
1 Grasslands
2 Plains
2 Forest
4 Scattered Groves
4 Overgrown Farmland

4 Edge of Autumn

So what is the plan here? Get out an Astral Slide, then use cycling cards to turn cards like Titanic Bulvox from morph creatures into beaters, or reset the counters on Phantom Centaur, gain life via Venerable Monk, or just lock out my opponent's combat step with Peacekeeper, while still being able to attack myself. 

Astral Drift was printed back in Modern Horizons 1 so I think it's high time to give this deck an update. 

The Retired: Prisoner

I really wanted this to be a clever thing...

4 Frost Raptor
4 Mistfolk
3 Blinding Angel
4 Somnophore

4 Coalition Flag
3 Martial Law
2 Faith's Fetters

4 Mana Leak
3 Dismantling Blow

3 Boreal Shelf
9 Snow-Covered Island
5 Snow-Covered Plains
2 Flood Plain
4 Island

3 Ponder
3 Supreme Verdict

And I suppose it is? Using certain creatures to draw the opponent's removal spells with Coalition Flag then the abilities of those creatures-especially Mistfolk-to render that removal useless is clever.

The problem of course is that it isn't good. Sure, creatures matter far more than when I first built this deck, but so what? The plan to win is terrible-and by terrible I mean it's grindy without locking an opponent out, taking far, far too long without nearly enough disruption.

I can put the Flood Plains, Ponders, and Supreme Verdicts in a deck where they will be a lot more helpful. 

Zero Signal

 I fell in love with the card Reincarnation. 

4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Protean Hulk
3 Archon of Justice
3 Eternal Witness
2 Cloudthresher
2 Timbermare
2 Woodfall Primus
3 Twilight Shepherd
2 Saffi Eriksdotter
2 Weatherseed Treefolk

2 Serenity

4 Reincarnation

8 Forest
4 Wooded Bastion
6 Plains
4 Branchloft Pathway

4 Rout
3 Search for Tomorrow

The idea is fairly simple: with cards like Timbermare I can repeatedly loop for 5 points of damage per turn, or Woodfall Primus that I can use to take out important permanents. But Zero Signal wants to generate a ton of mana and then use Reincarnation, as opposed to the much more efficient idea of putting something huge in the graveyard and then bringing them out off the sacrifice of a Sakura-Tribe Elder. 

And what I'm really wondering here is: would this deck be better if I added Black for access to some kind of Entomb effect? I'm not trying to make a bad Nic Fit deck, I really want to make this a deck that can use Reincarnation to do nasty things. 

Let's see where we go.

Binary Brutality

I got to play a few games with Matt and he was messing around with a couple new decks. I got beat pretty good; they were combo decks using Creative Technique and Maelstrom Wanderer, the other Sunbird's Invocation, Panantir of Orthanc and Approach of the Second Sun. 

What I learned from those games was that my sideboards wasn't quite where it needed to be. If I was going to deal with Storm decks like this, I needed Mindbreak Trap to help. And I know that the cards listed don't say Storm on them, but they work the same way and I believe if I am able to remove spells from the stack, that should put a big monkeywrench into the plans. 

But I will say that the Urza's Saga addition has been great, and Lavaspur Boots a very helpful addition to the deck. With those changes, I got some games against Fuz and the deck did very well. 

Here's the list:

2 Mishra's Bauble
4 Urza's Bauble
1 Aether Spellbomb
3 Barbed Spike}
1 Lavaspur Boots

3 Sai, Master Thopterist
3 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
2 Master of Etherium
4 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Patchwork Automaton
3 Kappa Cannoneer
2 Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender

3 Dispatch
1 Swords to Plowshares

3 Seat of the Synod
3 Ancient Den
4 Razortide Bridge
1 Plains
2 Island
1 Otawara, Soaring City
4 Mystic Gate
4 Urza's Saga

2 Thoughtcast

15 Sideboard|
SB: 4 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Sunbeam Spellbomb
SB: 2 Hydroblast
SB: 1 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 2 Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Metallic Rebuke
SB: 2 Archive Trap

Finally, I'm going to be on the road this weekend so no Tuesday post, but hopefully I'll have some cool things to talk about on Thursday. Cheers!

The Wrath Of Code

The Wrath of Code, named after a song by the excellent Dan Terminus, is my turn on the Thopter decks. I know, this is where Kappa Cannoneer has found a home but Cannoneers are spendy! Why pay for those, when I can swarm the air with tokens?

2 Mishra's Bauble

3 Urza's Bauble

1 Aether Spellbomb

1 Sunbeam Spellbomb

4 Sai, Master Thopterist

3 Emry, Lurker of the Loch

2 Master of Etherium

4 Ethersworn Canonist

2 Esperoza

3 Thopter Spy Network

4 Tempered Steel

3 Dispatch

2 Metallic Rebuke

3 Seat of the Synod

3 Ancient Den

4 Razortide Bridge

4 Plains

4 Island

1 Otawara, Soaring City

4 Mystic Gate

3 Tezzeret, Artifice Master

This should be a lot of fun.

Commander Tune Up: Kaalia of the Vast

Instant 1 Wrecking Ball 1 Mortify 1 Terminate 1 Master Warcraft 1 Sulfurous Blast 1 Cleansing Beam 1 Comet Storm 1 Return to Dust 1 Bathe in Light 1 Orim's Thunder 1 Congregate 1 Path to Exile	Artifacts 1 Lightning Greaves 1 Sol Ring 1 Orzhov Signet 1 Rakdos Signet 1 Boros Signet 1 Darksteel Ingot 1 Armillary Sphere 1 Tenza, Godo's Maul
Enchantment 1 Stranglehold 1 Pyrohemia 1 Vow of Duty 1 Vow of Lightning 1 Vow of Malice 1 Righteous Cause 1 Soul Snare	Sorcery 1 Earthquake 1 Akroma's Vengeance 1 Diabolic Tutor  1 Evincar's Justice 1 Syphon Flesh  1 Syphon Mind  1 Into the Maw of Hell
Lands 1 Command Tower  1 Barren Moor  1 Forgotten Cave  1 Rakdos Carnarium  1 Orzhov Basilica  1 Boros Garrison  1 Secluded Steppe  1 Bojuka Bog  1 Akoum Refuge  1 Evolving Wilds  1 Rupture Spire 1 Molten Slagheap  8 Swamp  8 Plains 8 Mountain  1 Haunted Fengraf  1 Terminal Moraine	Creatures 1 Oros, the Avenger 1 Tariel, Reckoner of Souls  1 Basandra, Battle Seraph  1 Bladewing the Risen  1 Malfegor 1 Angel of Despair  1 Mordant Dragon  1 Mana-Charged Dragon  1 Akroma, Angel of Fury  1 Anger  1 Deathless Angel 1 Angelic Arbiter  1 Voice of All  1 Shattered Angel 1 Serra Angel  1 Kokusho, the Evening Star  1 Reiver Demon  1 Dread Cacodemon  1 Rune-Scarred Demon  1 Requiem Angel  1 Moonveil Dragon  1 Krav, the Unredeemed  1 Regna, the Redeemer  1 Archfiend of Despair  1 Stormbreath Dragon 1 Sylvia Brightspear  1 Khorvath Brightflame

 SB: 1 Kaalia of the Vast

I've been teaching my friend Rebecca to play Magic, and with that has come an education on how Commander works. She decided she wanted to build a Commander deck and Kaalia was one of her choices, so I thought I'd let her take mine for a spin. 

After the games were over, I recognized that I really hadn't done anything to Kaalia and that this deck could be incredibly powerful. Far more powerful than what it is. I also noted that, unlike my version on Cockatrice (which I pasted in here) my paper version has two copies of Bladewing the Risen. So let's give this a tune up. 

Commander: Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis

Instant 1 Arcane Denial 1 Benefactor's Draught 1 Oblation 1 Beast Within 1 Entrapment Maneuver 1 Reins of Power 1 Sylvan Reclamation 1 Consign to Dust	Artifacts 1 Sol Ring 1 Empyrial Plate 1 Howling Mine 1 Commander's Sphere 1 Temple Bell 1 Assault Suit 1 Prismatic Geoscope 1 Venser's Journal
Enchantment  1 Evolutionary Escalation 1 Oath of Druids 1 Ghostly Prison 1 Propaganda 1 Rites of Flourishing 1 Sphere of Safety 1 Lurking Predators 1 Hoofprints of the Stag 1 Dictate of Heliod	Sorcery 1 Minds Aglow 1 Collective Voyage 1 Cultivate 1 Kodama's Reach 1 Tempt with Discovery 1 Wave of Reckoning 1 Migratory Route 1 Seeds of Renewal 1 Reverse the Sands 1 Treacherous Terrain 1 Blasphemous Act 1 Cleansing Meditation
Lands 1 Ash Barrens 1 Azorius Chancery 1 Command Tower 1 Evolving Wilds 1 Exotic Orchard 1 Forbidden Orchard 1 Frontier Bivouac 1 Gruul Turf 1 Homeward Path 1 Izzet Boilerworks 1 Jungle Shrine 1 Krosan Verge 1 Myriad Landscape 1 Mystic Monastery 1 Opal Palace 1 Rupture Spire 1 Seaside Citadel 1 Selesnya Sanctuary 1 Terramorphic Expanse 1 Transguild Promenade 5 Plains 5 Island 5 Mountain 5 Forest	Creatures 1 Veteran Explorer 1 Humble Defector 1 Hushwing Gryff 1 Orzhov Advokist 1 Chasm Skulker 1 Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer 1 Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist 1 Selvala, Explorer Returned 1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest 1 Akroan Horse 1 Selfless Squire 1 Windborn Muse 1 Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa 1 Horizon Chimera 1 Psychosis Crawler 1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs 1 Kraum, Ludevic's Opus 1 Realm Seekers 1 Rubblehulk 1 Progenitor Mimic 1 Blazing Archon 1 Archetype of Imagination

Alright, here's the commander for those unfamiliar. 

I got to play this once-after having not done much with this deck-and thought one thing: This should just be the ultimate value engine deck. Draw more cards, play more lands get free stuff off of doing that. Let's go.

So that's what I'm going to do: Free Shit, the Deck.

The Retired: Cutthroat

 "What if I had a deck that just took care of all the problematic permanents?"

2 Rith, the Awakener
1 Cloudchaser Eagle
2 Aven Cloudchaser
2 Tephraderm
4 Flametongue Kavu
3 Elvish Visionary
1 Godsire
3 Uktabi Orangutan
3 Stonecloaker
3 Civic Wayfinder
2 Meglonoth

3 Reinforcements

3 Rith's Grove
1 Naya Panorama
8 Forest
6 Plains
6 Mountain

3 Lava Burst
4 Gift of the Gargantuan

Well, the answer is: you do all the things sorta and none of the things well. In this respect, this deck isn't living up to the song it's named after. 

This is a frequent theme in decks I build. I rarely want to focus on the one thing; I want to have outs to problems, instead of insisting that my opponents respond to me. I've been getting better about this, but I still have to fight against those tendencies. 

Cutthroat is a fine example of the old way of thinking and that's a good reason to retire this one. 

The Retired: Creeping Death

 I haven't touched this deck since Urea's Block and it shows, right?

2 Skull of Orm
3 Smokestack
3 Chimeric Sphere

2 Opal Acrolith
1 Opal Archangel
2 Opal Champion
2 Opal Gargoyle
1 Opal Titan
1 Lurking Evil
2 Lurking Skirge
4 Tainted Aether

3 Mortify
4 Dark Ritual

3 Tainted Field
1 Serra's Sanctum
7 Plains
9 Swamp
4 Godless Shrine

2 Wrath of God
4 Vindicate

A very old notion for a control deck, this one wanted to use removal coupled with creatures that weren't always creatures to overwhelm the opponent. Sweep the board with Wrath of God, use Vindicate and Mortify to take out everything else

The trick is that a card like Opal Acrolith needs my opponent to do something for me to get a win condition. That might work in a Limited environment, especially when the card works with the others around it. In an environment with a bigger card pool, those necessities can leave me cold.

Then with cards like Lurking Evil, I could end up paying a ton of life for a sizable creature with evasion-but no protection. It can be chumped by the smaller fliers out there, and eaten alive by not just removal, but cards like Murktide Reagent. 

So let's let it go. 

Black Silence/White Noise

I don't remember where the title for this deck came from, exactly. It was a song, and Fuz suggested it-a search reveals a Black Silence White Noise album, and a song from Dark Tranquility: White Noise Black Silence. I suppose either is possible!

The notion, at the time, was to create a taxing White deck with Black disruption. The disruption of an early game would allow for late game effects to take over. Effects like Pillory of the Sleepless would whittle down the life total while Windburn Muse would keep my opponent at bay and provide me with an attacker that's difficult to block.

But this is using some old tech, and White's taxation cards have changed. Let's see what I started with.

4 Shrieking Grotesque
4 Spelltithe Enforcer
3 Windborn Muse
3 Silent Specter
2 Noble Templar
2 Twisted Abomination
4 Chancellor of the Annex

4 Phyrexian Arena
4 Pillory of the Sleepless

3 Disenchant

8 Swamp
10 Plains
4 Silent Clearing

1 Mind Shatter
1 Pulling Teeth
3 Persecute

There are some obvious shifts that need to be made here. Mind Shatter is so clearly a filler card, and Disenchant effects really belong in the sideboard. In addition, White has better taxation effects, and while I have a place in my heart for Persecute, that card is really a card for the Commander format. Games generally move too quickly in 60 card matchups for Persecute to do what I hope it does, namely ravage the opponent's hand. 

Then, there's cleaning up that manabase a little: Noble Templar and Twisted Abomination are from a simpler time. So let's get to work.  

Busload of Faith

I am not sure why I called this deck Busload of Faith, beyond really liking the song by Lou Reed but here we are. The song doesn't have anything to do with elf tribal that I know of: I would guess that when I built it I knew that it was doing a wing and a prayer. 

4 Thorn of Amethyst

2 Llanowar Elves
2 Elvish Champion
2 Sylvan Messenger
2 Viridian Zealot
2 Fyndhorn Elves
3 Llanowar Knight
4 Glowrider
3 Imperious Perfect
2 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
2 Wren's Run Vanquisher
1 Elvish Archdruid
3 Selesnya Guildmage
3 Priest of Titania
1 Joraga Warcaller
2 Tribal Forcemage

4 Brushland
8 Plains
10 Forest

You might notice the obvious thing: there is no removal. This deck wants to see if it can tax you on non-creature spells, while building up a go-wide ground game that can use Ezuri to trample over everything. 

However, without removal or an instant "I win" moment this deck is definitely hoping to dodge mass removal spells. It's also pretty old, so let's put a shine on this, eh?