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Legality
| Format | Legality |
| 1v1 Commander | Legal |
| Archenemy | Legal |
| Block Constructed | Legal |
| Canadian Highlander | Legal |
| Casual | Legal |
| Commander / EDH | Legal |
| Commander: Rule 0 | Legal |
| Custom | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Highlander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Premodern | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Discombobulate
Instant
Counter target spell. Look at the top four cards of your library, then put them back in any order.
Deadpoo111 on
Your lands are my lands
4 years ago
Alright, first off, put in Lantern of Insight. It's gonna make your life a helluva lot easier. In terms of cuts, there are some obvious exclusions you just don't need. Discombobulate, Geistblast, Descendant of Soramaro, and a bunch of overcosted stuff. For a deck like this, you wanna keep that curve LOW.
RoarMaster on
Melek
5 years ago
Heyo
R/U always has issues with enchantments, thats just a handicap that those colors have, and you dont have much in the way of answers honestly. Aside from Chaos Warp, you are basically relying on blues ability to counterspell/bounce for these things. Yes its rough, but hey, you wanted a challenge, right? ;)
There are ways to dissuade people from attacking you, although if you are wanting to stick to inst/sorc, its pretty limited. Illusionist's Gambit, Disrupt Decorum, and weird stuffs like that can offer temporary protection while being instants. Otherwise, you are looking at adding more artifacts and enchantments that will protect and dissuade attacks. Collective Restraint is a shitty propaganda here, Meekstone can slow things down but doesnt solve token threats well, and Dissipation Field taxes pretty good but can allow your opponents to re-use ETB creatures n stuff. Bonfire of the Damned could be added to your burn list, since it shouldnt be hard to get it on the top of your deck when you need it. Volcanic Vision is also a good add.
Metallurgic Summonings, Goblinslide, and the pyromancer are decent chump blocker engines. Summonings is an alt wincon even :D
As far as ramping goes, there is a lot of static ramp effects for inst/sorc. You have quite a few in your SB already, and Id suggest adding a few if you are intending on doing a lot of spellcasting each turn. I would not suggest arcane melee however, its symmetrical effect can be rough I have found.
If you are wanting to keep all of that artifact ramp in there though, I would suggest switching some around for draw effects, such as Commander's Sphere, Mind Stone, ect, as they can be very useful drawing past non-inst/sorc when needed.
Its hard to get any decent lifegain in these colors and without much in the way of creatures. I mean, Basilisk Collar is probably your best bet...? haha
More copies are are good, and Cast Through Time and Swarm Intelligence do it for free.
Random secret tech, Bosium Strip.
Final advice, run more topdeck manipulation. If you want to be all tricksy, run a bunch of the instant ones to make some super convoluted stacks with Melek out. It can get pretty nutso.
Impulse, Spy Network, Trickery Charm, and Telling Time are probably the go-to cards for that. Otherwise theres a bunch of sorcery ones, must haves being Ponder, Preordain, and the MVP Mystic Speculation. Portent and Index also pull their weight here. But if you want to be more proactive with your topdeck manipulation, theres stuff like Discombobulate, Condescend, and Fated Conflagration.
RoarMaster on
Niv-mizzet turn and burn
5 years ago
Thought Vessel over vensers journal.
Guttersnipe possibly.
Sphinx-Bone Wand is a great win-con.
Condescend , Discombobulate because have blue, will counter
Bloodwater Entity because putting stuff on top is clutch
Riverwise Augur , Conch Horn getting stuff from hand to top is a must
Sol Ring auto include
Goblinslide , Prodigal Pyromancer
Rapid Hybridization , Pongify blue removal
Riddle of Lightning , Fated Conflagration scry removal
Bosium Strip weird tech, basically gives flashback to all spells in a turn
Telling Time instant speed, gets something in hand, and on top
Preordain because
potential further topdeck manipuation if you wanted, in the form of Portent , Index , Trickery Charm .
maxon on Favorite blue deck manipulation?
7 years ago
What is your favorite blue deck manipulation? I ask because I'm considering ways to take advantage of Thassa, God of the Seas scry effect. I'm thinking in the spirit of Descendant of Soramaro and Discombobulate. I can set it up so that the scry effect can be used more effectively to get rid of what I don't need, and get me swinging with monsters faster.
If you want to see the deck in question: As Cruel and Untamable as the Sea
ej133 on
7 years ago
Ok, man, this isn't going to be a funny conversation, but I'll try to help you sorting things out.
Mill is not a very consistent strategy in modern. It never was. Basically, Mill is a bad burn deck where you need to deal 53 instead of 20, and there's no such thing as 4 extra copies of Tome Scour, as much as there are many similar cards to Lightning Bolt. Please keep this in mind this while building.
If you want to control, play control. If you (REALLY) want to mill, then play mill. What you have here is a in-between breed of these two archetypes that is not reactive enough to hold back an aggro modern deck, neither fast enough to mill them down before a Glistener Elf kills you for 10 damage.
Let's split in two directions:
- The point of playing control is to hold your oponnents back with cost-efficient cards, such as Path to Exile, Fatal Push, Mana Leak, etc, to win yourself some time until you can actually put a strong wincon, let's say Celestial Colonnade.
- The point of playing mill is to get your oponnents deck over as fast as you possibly could. Fast, got it? Traumatize does nothing if you need speed. It would be a much better slot if you were running 4 Mesmeric Orb and Hedron Crab. The best mill card ever printed is possibly Glimpse the Unthinkable, but if you're trying to keep it budget, I assume you're not intending to get these in a closer future.
Now that we're done with the archetypes, I assume you can decide what you're acutally playing and proceed with the deckbuilding.
In a control shell, the lower the cost of a counterspell the better it gets. Cancel is not in this tag, if you're wondering. Use some Negate and more creature removals (Fatal Push is probably the best one, but Go for the Throat and Ultimate Price are very useful too).
For these reasons, cards as Counterbore and Discombobulate are very often good for nothing. I'm not very comfortable with the two copies of Turn Aside either. I understand you want to protect your Ulamog, but Dispel is probably better for this and many other various uses.
For Milling strategies, there are some key cards that cannot be out of your list: Archive Trap, Mind Funeral, Breaking, Mind Sculpt and the obvious Tome Scour. If you really want to mill someone down, you have to use 4 copies of each.
Consuming Aberration. Yes, I know. I'm pretty sure you love this card. Pretty much everyone that tried playing mill once in a lifetime had a little bromance with Consuming Aberration. But this is far from good. The card take a lot of mana, to deal a very small value on the board, and has a ridiculous chance of just getting a Murderous Cut and, boom, you just threw 6 mana in the trash. You would make a much better slot for a Manic Scribe there.
So, I know this is a lot of information, but if you read this with a little patience I'm sure you will understand. I'm not trying to diss your deck off, but I live with a dude who had something very similar a few years ago, and I play an Esper. control, so I believe I have some good advice for you.
I'll come with another comment about the lands soon.
Bibbo on
Genious Niv-Mizzet Izzet EDH
7 years ago
Here are some initial thoughts about cuts and adds.
Vortexflame on
7 years ago
Discombobulate is a 4-mana counterspell. You might want something cheaper for at least 2 out of 4 of its spaces. Consider Spell Rupture or Thassa's Rebuff, which both go well with Stormtide Leviathan.
Ashmed on
Talrand and His Minions of Flying Doom
7 years ago
Hi The_2ndpanda, thank you for the comment and the upvote! I have been considering both of those cards, possibly using them to replace Trail of Evidence and Discombobulate. I'm more in favour of keeping Trail of Evidence and just running Desertion, however I am planning to playtest all the options :)
