Arixmethes: Early to Bed, Early to Rise

Commander / EDH* harbingerofduh

SCORE: 68 | 21 COMMENTS | 8692 VIEWS | IN 34 FOLDERS

Update: Honing the spells —Aug. 30, 2018

After some playtesting and nosing around on Gatherer, I've made the following tweaks to this decklist:

OUT: Aeon Chronicler /// IN: Windfall

Aeon Chronicler was originally in the deck as a draw engine and a suspend spell to go with the Clockspinning subtheme of the deck. In testing, however, I found that Aeon Chronicler didn't net me much value. I had to spend five mana just to draw a single card, and to draw multiple cards simply costs too much when I'm in a hurry to start attacking with my 12/12 commander. Meanwhile, the suspend on the card didn't prove to be much benefit - the deck simply wants to move too fast to durdle around with such a clunky card.

Windfall, meanwhile, does everything this deck wants. Its mana cost is relatively low. It typically gains card advantage because I play out my hand in the early game faster than most people. And in conjunction with my suite of Cyclonic Rift effects, it turns the mass bounce into board wipes!

OUT: Simic Signet /// IN: Edge of Autumn

I never felt good about playing the Signet. It was too vulnerable to my opponents' random artifact destruction, and it combined poorly with cards like Thing in the Ice  ^Flip and Treasure Cruise, which want me to be casting lots of instants and sorceries. At the same time, curving out with turn-2 ramp into turn-3 Arixmethes was so important that I didn't think there was a better option. I was already playing all the two-mana Rampant Growth effects I could! Or so I thought.

While going through some old cards, I stumbled across Edge of Autumn. In casual Commander, Edge of Autumn tends to be mediocre: Ramping up to high mana counts is more important than early acceleration, and EoA is only good at the latter while its cycling ability actively hinders the former. But this deck cares only about hitting the all-important four-mana mark, at which point it really wants cantrips more than ramp spells. Edge of Autumn is perfect for that purpose and in any case is vastly preferable to a mana rock.

OUT: Noxious Revival /// IN: Sleight of Hand

This one is fairly simple: with this deck's relatively low land count, being able to dig for land in the early game is occasionally necessary. There simply aren't enough high-impact spells in the deck to justify both Regrowth and Noxious Revival, so out goes the weaker version of the effect.

OUT: Seal of Primordium /// IN: Predict

This might require more testing, but my current feeling is that this deck wants the cantrip more than the spot removal. Plus, with all the scry and the Brainstorm effects in the deck, Predict draws two cards more often than you might think.