Iroas, God of Land Reform
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 6 | 2 COMMENTS | 1388 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS
Exciting changes! —Dec. 27, 2019
I pulled the trigger and made several swaps that I had been considering. Changes are below:
Removed: Oreskos Explorer, On Thin Ice, Flagstones of Trokair, Gift of Estates, Hammer Mage, Aura Fracture, Act of Authority, Gratuitous Violence, Faithless Looting, Library of Leng
Added: Boreas Charger, Planar Collapse, Arena, Magus of the Wheel, Shenanigans, Seal of Cleansing, Grasp of Fate, Cavalier of Dawn, Gratuitous Violence, Elixir of Immortality
Previously I wasn't sure if taking out mana fixing cards was a good idea, but Oreskos Explorer was a pretty weak card even for this deck. Boreas Charger has a much higher ceiling, and effectively gets played the same turn (Oreskos is never played on T2 even if I have it in my opener). Charger is more variable in when I can get value out of it, but that might be helped with some table talk. Gift was swapped with Magus as the latter does what the former does even better: putting more cards into my hand. Having another wheel effect is also really great with Alhammarret's Archive (I have already added it to the deck but don't remember what I took out for it), Smothering Tithe, and all the other cards that care about having a hand to discard stuff to.
On Thin Ice was cut for Planar Collapse. While the latter is slowed and susceptible to getting blown out, again, the ceiling is way higher. It's recurrable with several cards since it's an enchantment, better suited to a multiplayer environment, and it's a wrath so it can hit things OTI couldn't. In that vein, I also swapped Act of Authority with Grasp of Fate. This is just a straightforward upgrade here.
Flagstones and Aura Fracture were removed. Flagstones was only good when Fracture was out, and otherwise neither card really did anything impressive. I liked the ability to destroy enchantments at instant speed, but this deck can't afford to sac too many lands as it'll fall too far behind just to stabilize the board. Arena replaced Flagstones and is a machine gun with an active Iroas out, so I'm excited to try that. Seal of Cleansing took Fracture's place as it effectively does the same thing without the downside of costing me lands, plus it has the upside of hitting artifacts and being easily recurrable.
As awesome as Gratuitous Violence is, I had to think long and hard as to whether it was really pulling its weight. It just doesn't quite do enough... Granted, it's intended as a finisher, but I already have enough of those (and I still run True Conviction to boot!). I added Cavalier of Dawn in its place as it has so much more utility while still providing a huge Devotion boost.
Goodbye went Hammer Mage. With the plethora of low CMC artifacts, it had a lot more potential to hit my own stuff as well as my opponents. I added in Shenanigans, as even though it is slower, I can use it multiple times, and I can even take advantage of the Dredge ability since the deck has lots of single-use card draw.
Finally, I took out Library of Leng and replaced it with Elixir of Immortality. This is probably the swap I'm most excited about. Elixir just does so much crazy stuff for this deck. In multiple tests I've just loved the ability to refuel my deck. It's also integral to some of the new crazy plays I can do with the deck now that Archive is in. If you've ever Wheeled with Smothering Tithe out, Archive just makes that experience even more disgusting. In my last playtest I was able to Parallax-combo a Cavalier of Flames several times with a Seismic Assault and Archive out. I could discard all my lands, discard and double up my hand, and if I drew into Elixir I could just keep the ball rolling provided I had the mana to cast and activate (which I had just enough to do for lethal).
Next step is to find a way to fit in Glint-Horn Bucco again. With the sheer amount of discarding I do, it would give me a huge damage boost.