Ethereal Haze + Hana Kami + Soulless Revival = repeatable 6 mana fog.
2x Petalmane Baku + Dripping-Tongue Zubera + Ashnod's Altar + Death Denied + Hana Kami = infinite mana, tokens, grave recur, and death triggers.
Little explanation here for how this deck works:
-Brainstorm and Ponder are incredible with the silly number of fetchlands in the deck. I'm even considering going up on fetchlands. They don't do much in terms of card advantage, but they help you fix your hand to get the right cards for the match. Play on turn 2 or 3 so you know what deck you are playing against first and so you get the shuffle effect.
-Game 1 is kinda weak compared to game 2 usually which is the nature of 4 color / transmute / control / combo decks. It tries to do everything, but can't do anything perfectly. Brainstorm and Ponder are great to get the cards you want and not dead cards.
Burn: matchup is terrible game 1, and you might as well just hide your good cards, so they don't know how to sideboard. Counterspells, transmute, Circle of Protection: Red, card draw, life gain, etc. give you a good chance in game 2 and 3.
Tron: Game 1 try to win as fast as possible. The deck can only power through so many counterspells in game 1. Try to play Ashnod's Altar when they are tapped out. Once you have Ashnod's Altar zubera become very good, and you can threaten enough mana to play multiple threats in a turn. Transmute can't be countered, which is a great mana sink if you know they have a counterspell to go off on the next turn. The combo is a 6 card combo, so it's obviously a bit tough to resolve through counterspells, but if you get Petalmane Baku, Ashnod's Altar, and/or any 2 zubera, you are already threatening a win every turn. It's not hard to recast the same Floating-Dream Zubera 2 or 3 times in a turn with nothing but a bunch of lands and Ashnod's Altar. If you resolve some sort of draw 4+ cards (Floating-Dream Zubera or Brilliant Spectrum) in the first 5 or so turns, you are in a good position to win in the next turn or two. Perplex and Muddle the Mixture protect the combo. If you can win on turn 4 or 5 that is preferred, but you will be lucky if you can win before turn 7. After sideboarding you have much better odds. I think anyone would be discouraged when you replace 12 cards. Replacing literal dead cards with counterspells, card draw, grave hate, tutors, and a wincon makes the match way better. Game 2 you can be slightly more patient, less greedy, and less risky. You actually have a good chance of winning in the late game against Tron as crazy as it sounds. You want to win in the first 8 or 9 turns still obviously, but it should be pretty easy.
-UR delver (and mono blue delver): You win if the game lasts long enough. Crypt Rats is great in this match. Fogs are also good for stalling. Thief of Hope can be good too. Your opponent will have to counter your fog lock and your combo while applying enough pressure to get your life low enough to win before you get another good draw. The fog lock in this deck is way too fast for delver's clock, and you can recur the combo multiple times before your life is dangerously low. This is combined with the fact that your combo clock is faster than delver's combat clock. Obviously, counterspells can ruin your best laid plans. Your best bet in game 1 is that your opponent won't know what to counter, or won't have the right counterspells, or won't have enough counterspells, or their clock is too slow, or they don't have a Ninja of the Deep Hours. Overall things are in your favor. After sideboarding is even better when you get more transmute, counterspells, and card draw.
-Boros monarch: This is practically a free win. It is unlikely Boros has an answer for the fog lock. The fog lock can't be interacted with with anything other than counterspells and grave hate. No other comments really necessary.
-UB delver: Ditto everything from UR delver. Crypt Rats is worse though and Rend Flesh is better. I should mention that Rend Flesh can be recycled the same way Ethereal Haze can.
-Bogles: Fog lock is generally a bit faster than bogles can win, but tapping out every turn can give bogles time to draw a non combat wincon. You need to play strategically and a bit risky, tapping mana for other things to try to combo asap, before they can win outside of combat. After sideboarding, they match becomes way in your favor being able to transmute for Leave No Trace and ruin their day.
-Elves: Predictably Crypt Rats is great in this matchup. Elves can be ridiculously fast sometimes, so it's a pretty random match. A lot of decks run cards like Harsh Sustenance in the main deck to get around fog locks (and just for speed) which is probably a good idea with the deck thinning provided by Distant Melody. That pseudo-combo is usually faster than the infinite combo in this deck, so Crypt Rats is kinda the only option in the main deck. After sideboarding as usual is a bit better, as now there are answers for Harsh Sustenance effects, and more tutors for Crypt Rats.
-Affinity: Haven't played the matchup yet, but I don't have artifact hate in sideboard because I feel like the match is already decent, and splashing red is unnecessary. Fog lock is great against affinity. Even if I don't get a lock, a single fog or Rend Flesh, for when they buff Atog can win the game. A real fog lock shuts down other threats faster than regular combat from affinity stands a chance. Fling is the only real threat, but if I preserve my life with chump blockers my combo should be just as fast. If I stabilize, I can even transmute for Muddle the Mixture, so they have no chance of winning. That's just before sideboarding, and it gets even better after sideboarding. I have extra answers for Fling, circle of protections, and card draw.
-Stompy: I haven't played this match yet, but I think it's in my favor. Chump blockers and fogs are good. Rend Flesh and Crypt Rats are both decent. Stompy doesn't really have an answer for fog lock. When they bring in Relic of Progenitus I bring in Circle of Protection: Green.
-Green Tron: I also haven't played this match yet, but I don't see this deck often so idk. Rend Flesh is good. I should mention again that Rend Flesh can be recycled for a lock the same way Ethereal Haze can. This deck produces plenty of creatures to sacrifice to Ulamog's Crusher and even chump block if necessary. I feel like this deck can combo much faster than an crusher clock, but I'll have to see the deck more.
-BW pestilence: Hilarious matchup as Pestilence is so weak against my deck, that I run Crypt Rats in the main deck. I force pestilence to play the aggro game, I am much faster than pestilence, and pestilence's interaction is not super effective against my deck, so obviously this is a decent matchup. This deck doesn't have a decent way to gain life faster than pestilence because Thief of Hope will get killed and obviously, I won't have many targets for Devouring Greed. I need to play around an endless stream of creature destruction and a big chunk of hand disruption, which isn't too hard to combo through. Castigate might hurt because the cards get exiled. Overall, pestilence wins too slow, they don't have enough card advantage, they might not have enough mana, and they might not even get Pestilence. I just have way too much card advantage and grave recursion for pestilence. Pestilence is not well equipped against resilient infinite combo decks. It becomes even more devastating after sideboarding with counterspells, card draw, and even removal, tutors, and combo pieces.
-mono black: I haven't tested this match yet either, but it seems like I have a disadvantage (I could change a card or 2 in the sideboard after playtesting, but mono black is rare enough that it doesn't matter that much). Mono black might be a bit slower than some decks, but I don't think it's slow enough to set up my combo in time. Gray Merchant of Asphodel gets around fog locks and every counterspell I use. Every card in my deck is useful, and mono black doesn't have enough card draw to be consistent, so I certainly could set up my combo through whatever interaction mono black has, but I suspect I have the disadvantage.
-UW familiar: Every deck I have seen takes a unique spin on the deck, but the common threat is counterspells. My sideboard is incredible against counterspells, and considering the Tron matchup, I think I have decent odds. Basically ditto everything I said about Tron.
-slivers: Ditto everything from stompy.
Logging games with this deck:
-Game 1 v. tron:
-Kept bad hand, but had Island, Evolving Wilds, and Brainstorm, so I figured it would get better
-relatively slow start from Tron. no Prophetic Prism, turn 4 tron, and no counterspells until turn 5.
-my hand got way better with draws, and a second Brainstorm. Turn 6 I was able to zubera storm, but got bad draws from that. No Petalmane Baku I was well set up to go off again on the next turn. Turn 7 I won. Tron was completely overwhelmed. Didn't stand a chance with their relatively slow hand.
-Game 2 v. Tron, after sideboarding:
-Kept bad hand for 3 lands, Ashnod's Altar, and Dispel. Opponent had early Dinrova Horror with double Prophetic Prism.
-We both exchanged tons of resources in counter wars. The end result left me without Ashnod's Altar, while Tron had 6 power on board, and I had 8 power. Tron had no cards in hand while I had 1 land in hand.
-he drew Mnemonic Wall and got back Ephemerate for his muldrifter
-I drew Brainstorm which cycled into a Brilliant Spectrum which drew into Ashnod's Altar, and I won.
It seems the Tron match is decent. As crazy as it seems, it might even be in my favor, but it's probably 50/50 unless I tune the deck more. Edit: I recently added 2 Mystic Remora to the sideboard replacing 2 zubera in the maybeboard, so Tron and UB delver type matches should be even better matchups.
If anyone has any feedback or suggestions for me, I would love to hear them. I really want this deck to be decent because it seems so fun. The more perspectives, opinions, and experiences, the better. I'm still pretty unsure about a number of things for this deck. This deck has gone through numerous iterations and this is not the final one. I'm actually getting really excited because it seems like this deck has real potential.
-One obvious thing I'm unsure of is whether Distant Melody or Brilliant Spectrum is better. I feel like if I have 3 spirits, and I draw 4 and discard 2, I am about to win the game anyways. It's definitely going to take more playtesting.
