deck chart

Nin-sane in the Membrane

Commander / EDH* Seraphim755

SCORE: 3 | 9 COMMENTS | 1056 VIEWS | IN 4 FOLDERS

Playtest City —June 21, 2015

Hello once again, O excellent community of Magic Players! This weekend I got the opportunity to do a lot of playtesting with the help of my good friend anglophile_ws. After playing four games with Nin, I am pleased to report that the deck is all I hoped it could be. The results were as follows:

Rippling Demons versus Nin-sane in the Membrane:

Rippling Demons won. Once Thrumming Stone is out on the battlefield there's very little you can do to stop that deck from going crazy.

First Changeling Tribal versus Nin:

Nin won. Managed to get Chasm Skulker out on turn three and proceeded to build a powerful board presence. Managed to equip Nin with both Darksteel Plate and Illusionist's Bracers, and took advantage of Vedalken Shackles to take control of some of my opponent's stuff. The end result was a win by simple combat damage, which doesn't happen very often.

Second Changeling Tribal versus Nin:

Changeling won. Started off fairly well by leveling Lighthouse Chronologist to level 7 and nabbing some extra turns. My opponent managed to look through my deck and pull out Blasphemous Act to board wipe me though, killing a large amount of synergy I was building. From there, his board presence got bigger and he eventually killed me with combat damage.

Third Changeling Tribal versus Nin:

Nin won. Got extremely lucky and pulled Venser's Journal and Sol Ring in my opening hand, letting me the journal our on turn 3. This led to an obscene amount of life gain and the freedom to draw into as many cards as I wanted. The winning combo turned into Niv Mizzet, the Firemind + Curiosity + Laboratory Maniac + Vedalken Orrery. I couldn't rely on pure damage from drawing, since I'd already drawn a fair amount of my deck and my opponent had around 80 life from putting lifelink on his creatures. Instead, drew into Laboratory Maniac, played it at instead speed with the help of the Orrery and then milled myself out from there. Not the cleanest or quickest win, but certainly good enough.

So, two losses and two wins, with one of the losses against a very fun deck that can be hard to stop without burn damage or counters. This round of playtesting also helped me get an idea of how I want the deck to play. I realized quickly just how much I enjoy being able to draw into my deck, since it makes combos much easier to set up. It also ensures that I can get some fun synergy going with what I play. I'm a Timmy first, then a Johnny, so that's right up my alley.

The biggest change I'm thinking about right now is how to improve the use (and number) of instants and sorceries in the deck. At the moment I have a lot of X cost instants and sorceries, so being able to cast any without paying their mana cost isn't really an option. I'd like to add in more to take advantage of Djinn Illuminatus and other fun instant and sorcery related cards, but I'm not sure where to make changes.

Some additions and subtractions:

  • Removed Melek, Izzet Paragon and replaced him with Galvanoth. Since I'm constantly drawing cards with Nin and Melek leaves the top card of my deck revealed, everyone knows what's going into my hand at all times. In addition to this, Melek's copying ability isn't hugely important when I already have Increasing Vengeance and Wild Ricochet. Useful, yes, and I may find a way to put him back in the deck later, but I'd much rather preview what I'm drawing and play it for free than let everyone know what I'm drawing.

  • Considering adding Charmbreaker Devils and Echo Mage to fluff up sorceries and instants. These would be especially helpful for giving me extra turns, since Charmbreaker Devils would let me build the combo back up without using Past in Flames and exiling all the cards. Echo Mage would also speed things by letting me copy Time Stretch, giving me up to 6 extra turns instead of just 2.

  • Considering adding Wild Evocation for a little extra Timmy-ness to the deck. This would help everyone else in the game with land presence, but with Vedalken Orrery it would give me the opportunity to get expensive creatures, enchantments and artifacts out for free. Still a little on the fence about it, but it could be fun.

  • Lastly, considering adding Elite Arcanist and Thoughtbind. Elite Arcanist would be added depending on what changes I make to my instants. If I add enough instants to the deck he could let me copy a useful counter like Counterspell or a useful combo card like Increasing Vengeance. Thoughtbind is just a useful counter that I would reserve for situations where someone has tried to counter a useful card. The vast majority of counter spells usually have a CMC of 4 or less, so it's an added piece of insurance.

This deck is still very much a work in progress, but it works well enough and quickly enough that I'm ready to bring it out of the prototype phase and just make small adjustments here and there. As always, any and all feedback is appreciated. Thanks!