Important News!
I've entered a multi-week EDH tournament. Two rounds every week. After the first week, I'm 2-0. First round was a 3-pod against Kemba and Ghave combo. An early game entwined Tooth and Nail for Prophet of Kruphix and Vorinclex warped the game too much in my favor for me to lose. Game two was a 4-pod against Oloro, Zegana, and my own Drana deck. I resolve an early Consecrated Sphinx, and use Chord of Calling to get Sower of Temptation to take my opponent's Prophet of Kruphix. My opponents all scooped them up when I showed a Forbid. For the tournament, Deadeye Navigator is banned, so I'm playing Oracle of Mul Daya in it's place.
Well,I scrubbed out round two. I'm now 2-2. Thankfully, nobody has more than two wins though, so I'm not doing too bad. I also had two great games, despite losing both pretty badly. I had the same problem both times. I ended up loaded up on counterspells, and couldn't find many value spells in game one. I was also playing against one of my opponents who I beat round one, so a bit of vengeance came my way. All around great game in the end. I was playing against Ghave, Melek, and Derevi. Melek ended up getting that one. Game two I got paired against the Melek player again. He had to mulligan to 4, but he did pretty fantastic. Everybody ended up opening up Sol Rings and other powerful acceleration in game two, while I got to miss a few land drops. I still managed to prevent a few immediate win conditions, but I didn't get off of three mana until my opponents had full fields and way more card advantage. I was playing against Omnath and Zegana, and Omnath ended up getting it with both the Eldrazi titans. It was quite the game, there were handshakes all around.
My main EDH deck. Damia Goodstuff. Now with a defined win condition!
About the Deck
I've been building on this here Damia deck for the past few years. I started playing Damia after my friend sold me his collection, which included his EDH deck. Since getting that deck, I've changed every single card in it, except for Damia. Over time, I've rotated win-conditions in and out of the deck. In the past, I've had Survival of the Fittest toolbox, Wizard tribal, Rite of Replication/Kokusho, and even some janky as hell four card infinite combo that involved Omniscience and some planeswalkers. I've since added a few actual infinite combos into the deck (winning by hard lockdown is actually less fun for people than infinite combos, as it turns out). The deck works in a funny way. There is no real set in stone game plan, but with the large amount of search effects (hence the name), I try to sculpt the perfect board state to deal with what other people are doing. The goal is to get ahead of your opponents and bury them under lots of value spells and creatures. Every card in the deck needs to be consistent, flexible, cost efficient, and powerful.
Win Conditions
Tooth and Nail My strongest tutor. Most Damia decks feature this as their primary win-condition, and for good reason. While most decks that resolve this usually find Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Triskelion, I personally find this clunky and unnecessary (both of those creatures are narrow, expensive and weak on their own the exact opposite of what I'm looking for). What I do instead is find the two best creatures for the board state, and try to win from there. Every creature in my deck (aside from Birds, I suppose) is worth fetching with T&N for some purpose or another. I can't really think of any games I've lost after resolving a T&N, so I think my lack of a creature based infinite combo is just fine. It's something I learned when Omniscience was my win condition playing stuff for free is so broken, you don't even need a win condition.
Goblin Charbelcher
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Mana Severance
Probably my best and fastest 1v1 win-condition. I feel Mana Severance is a drastically underrated card. Everyone knows the Charbelcher interaction (potshot things for like 40+ damage), but few seem to catch on to how powerful it is on it's own. It's just 2cmc, and it ensures every card you draw for the rest of the game is nothing but gas. Considering one of Damia's inherent weaknesses is getting a hand of land, this card was pretty much sculpted for the deck. Goblin Charbelcher is a wee bit more clunky than Mana Severance (to be fair, Severance is undercosted as hell), but it's very searchable (like everything else in the deck), and in my metagame, little dorks run rampant. In multiplayer games, you can add Rings of Brighthearth to fry two players at the same time. Usually the whole I get to stack now part of Charbelcher's effect takes care of any remaining players, however.
Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth + Sensei's Divining Top
I draw my deck with infinite colorless mana. From here, I try to make use of what colored mana I either have or can make (I can make five mana of any color(s) with nothing but colorless mana after drawing my deck). While this is a three card combo, all of the pieces are low cmc, colorless artifacts that are flexible enough without the other pieces to warrant searching for them with my tutors.
Deadeye Navigator + Eternal Witness + Time Warp
What self-respecting BUG Goodstuff EDH deck doesn't have a Deadeye Navigator combo? Pretty simple combo, just take an extra turn, and add Time Warp back to your hand. I don't really win with this too often, unless the game is dragging on entirely too long, or I've already drawn my deck with the Rings combo (though, you really just need one extra turn at that point). This combo is particularly tenacious because every piece of the combo is incredibly broken on it's own. Just what I'm looking for.
Damia, Sage of Stone / Consecrated Sphinx + Forbid
I've always said that if I untap with Damia, I win the game. The whole draw like 3+ cards for free deal will almost instantly crush my opponents under my card advantage. Of course, that usually doesn't cause too many scoops, so I just throw in Forbid so people know their game is over. Consecrated Sphinx can also be used instead of Damia to fuel Forbid (pseudo-Erayo style bullshittery!). For this win condition to be safe, it's imperative to have Prophet of Kruphix to keep my lands untapped on other people's turns.
Deadeye Navigator + Mystic Snake
Classic. 1U: Counter target spell. Usually either my second or third Tooth and Nail, although I can sometimes get this lock out by turn 4 with a Prophet of Kruphix to seal the deal. Not too much can break this lock.
Karn Liberated My 7cmc win engine. Planeswalkers really don't work too well with this deck (my creatures tend to only pop up when I'm about to win), but Karn breaks the mold/game. I just have to protect him until I can restart the game (if necessary), or until he's put me too far ahead of my opponents. He puts in even more work with Rings of Brighthearth. It's a pretty important win-condition though, because it means if I can buy enough time, I can't lose to anything.
Crucible of Worlds + Strip Mine
Definitely my most politically incorrect and disgusting win-condition. Not really viable in four player pods, but in the 1v1, I can set this up on turn one if I open reasonably well. Throw in a Rings of Brighthearth for extra back breaking. This lock is pretty cheesy, and I really prefer to actually play the game, so I never search for it. It's just one of those things that happens.
Meet the Tutors
Vampiric Tutor While Tooth and Nail is my strongest tutor, Vampiric Tutor is my best tutor. One card doesn't make an EDH deck good, but V-Tutor does make your EDH deck more consistent, and in this format, that goes a long way. Good at any stage of the game. Great for finding Sol Rings (turn two is better than never!), boardstate answers, and combo pieces (i.e. everything).
Demonic Tutor Second only to Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor is useful for almost everything V-Tutor is good for. Find whatever you need for whatever situation. Truly broken.
Tooth and Nail- See Win Conditions.
Mystical Tutor While no tutors cast a net as wide as D/V-Tutor, Mystical Tutor still has an astonishing 30 cards to pull from, including several win-conditions, and if all else fails, you can always search for a stronger tutor with it.
Worldly Tutor While only having half the toolbox of Mystical Tutor, the individual value of each of my creatures makes Worldly Tutor one of my better tutors. This deck's primary win-condition is creatures, and the faster I can find the ones I need, the faster I win the game.
Sylvan Tutor Strictly worse than Worldly Tutor, but the redundancy is great. Not being able to decide what I want right before my untap severely limits the card, but finding key creatures is way too good to pass up for 1cmc.
Mystical Teachings One of my more expensive tutors, but it has a huge (and incredibly relevant) card pool to search through, on top of being an instant. The flashback can put huge pressure on my opponents during stalemates. This card is great for searching out the other tutors for whatever I need. Need Prophet of Kruphix? Worldly Tutor. Need Tooth and Nail? Mystical Tutor. All possible at end of turn for only five mana.
Trinket Mage The narrowest of my tutors, but the quality of cards it finds makes it really good. As I said before, Sol Ring is better late than never. It also finds Sensei's Divining Top and Mana Vault. The former is of course a combo piece and a damn strong artifact to simply have out. Finding Mana Vault can let me get out a turn 3-4 Damia, which can seal the deal really quickly. Edric is a part of my metagame as well, so being able to block him off the field and prevent excessive card drawing is also super relevant.
Fabricate Strictly wider than Trinket Mage, though it can't block Edric. It can find Charbelcher or any of the pieces of the Rings combo if I want to win, or just whatever mana rock I need at the time. If I'm having hand problems that even Top can't fix, Scroll Rack is a great option.
Green Sun's Zenith A second copy of all of my green creatures, and it even shuffles into the deck to be used again later if necessary. I can find Birds of Paradise for x=1, Lotus Cobra for x=2, Eternal Witness for x=3, Mystic Snake (very useful, actually) for x=4, Prophet of Kruphix for x=5, and Vorinclex for x=8. It's a small pool of cards, but they're all incredibly relevant for getting into my win state.
Chord of Calling A wee bit more expensive than Green Sun's, but the instant speed utility is laughably nuts. Convoke doesn't usually help, but it certainly can if I'm set up for it. This one can really take people by surprise. Suddenly I have a Prophet or Teferi out, and I can cast stuff uninterrupted at the end of a player's turn.
Muddle the Mixture I think this card is awesome. Not only is it a counterspell for two incredibly relevant card types, it can open an incredible toolbox for 1UU. If what you need isn't 2cmc, find Demonic Tutor. It finds Mana Severance, Cyclonic Rift, Regrowth, Phantasmal Image, etc.
Lim-Dul's Vault While not quite Vampiric Tutor status, this is still one of my best tutors. With enough life investment, it gets you exactly what you need, and it can even find multiple combo pieces with some luck. Instant speed is pretty godly, too.
Intuition Last, but certainly not least, we have Intuition. I can search out anything I want. If I want a certain card, I find it, Regrowth and Eternal Witness. The mind games that ensue are hilarious, and at the end of the day, I get the card I want. Of course, sometimes good redundancy is all you need (if something needs countering, find three counterspells, etc). Somehow Gifts Ungiven is banned and this card isn't. I seriously don't get it.
