So before throw the decklist at you people and hope that some of y'all have some ideas, let me explain how I got here and why this deck means so much to me. And also why in the world anyone would want to play this deck.
!!(Attention, unnecessary and long narrative)!!
"Well can't you play regular Muldrotha?"
Just for a second, let's be honest with ourselves (the Johnny-types out there). We like to see people suffer. It's not that we like to inflict pain on people, but what gets me everytime is the look on their faces when they know that sh*t is gonna hit the fan.
That meant obviously, that when i played Standard in the early 2000's, i played Combo decks. Lots of them. Decks involving Heartbeat of Spring and Sensei's Divining Top, or Locket of Yesterdays with Whispers of the Muse.
As a result it is pretty obvious that im not the most pleasant type of Magic Player. I'm the Archenemy of all Timmys.
My turns take 25 minutes. I play Vedalken Orrery and have a full turn on your upkeep, on the one hand because its efficient, on the other hand maybe a little bit because it pisses you off. And we all know how that attitude mixes with Commander. It doesnt. At least if you like having friends to play with.
I figured that out when I build a fairly consistent Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain deck out of some artifacts and a treasure-based pirate commander deck i had lying around. My playgroup wasnt prepared. After the deck won 5 or 6 games in a row, with multiple people playing the deck, and at one point in a 15 minute turn, it generated 500 mana and then did absolutely nothing with it- we knew that this could not go on. At least my friends knew.
For me, this was the pinnacle of Magic. Having a deck that drew a new card out of 60% of cards drawn- not gonna lie, it was amazing. And not even a 75% deck. There was no expensive cards, no Duals of even Shocks, no card above 10€.
My Playgroup went through the classic stages, I was "accused" of being competitive, to "win out of nowhere" or to play stuff that people cant do anything against. The worst thing probably this lead to, was me becoming the Archenemy whenever i played the deck.
I had what i wanted. People acknowledged the fact that the deck was threatening. They also congratulated me for being a decent player and having build a nice deck. It felt good for a moment, but after that I was cofronted with the decision to, either: get focused by the whole table and die Turn 4, or play another deck. And still get focused because my pals were afraid of me.
I think most Johnnies have been in this situation. And many seem to struggle with that issue. The deck im talking about now, is my try, to get what it want. Whilst still maintaining playgroup peace. I am on a mission, to build decks with the sole purpose of breaking my petcards.
(Playgroup knows the deck and they think its a little op to have the possibility of infinite turns, but the deck did a great job of not being archenemy, having clear points to disrupt/delay the combo for my opponents, but still being able to win, almost no matter what gets removed or is exiled.)
To answer the most important question: The deck fizzles. It does it alot.
I will do more of these kinds of decks and I will try to go to Janktown as often as possible- and I can seriously recommend it for every Spyke and Johnny out there. We dont want to go to Timmies place. This is how we dont have to.
If you feel like me, and you want to contribute, I'm looking for interesting ways to optimize this list, whilst not making it more competitive, but more interesting, versatile, synergistic or resilient. I want this to be difficult to beat, difficult to play, but not easy to win with.
tl;dr:
My playgroup hates me because I play Combo and Control decks, so I decided to cry a bit and build stupid decks that can just win when they mess up badly.
Xcuse my english, im a german that watches a lot of american TV shows and reads Grisham novels. If you dont understand my gibberish, blame it on that^
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Cardchoices and Synergies
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I will just put "-" after cards that are self-explanatory or dont contribute massively to our deckplan.
Creatures:
Acidic Slime:-
Archaeomancer: Gets back Diabolic Intent to go infinite with TN(Timestream Navigator) and Muldrotha, gets back Carddraw and Counterspells, turns Muldrotha into Kess, Dissident Mage with a Sac-Outlet basically. Theres almost nothing this card doesnt do. And its a wizard. Which is important for some of the other cards.
BoP:-
Bramble Sovereign: Whats better than 1 TN? 2?
Eternal Witness, aka Queen of Valuetown:-
Etrata: She's pretty much our second TN. In the rare case that it goes somewhere we cant get it back, or someone exiled our anti-exile stuff, we just do the same routine with Etrata. She does broken things with most of the combos that work for TN, though she lacks the pirate and wizard subtypes.
Forerunner of the Coalition: This boy does a lot of work. He gets TN, Hostage Taker, Siren Stormtamer and Deadeye Navigator. He also drains opponents when we get pirates. So sometimes it might be better to make 10 Hostage Takers to win.
Hostage Taker: He is a pirate. And Spotremoval. And a steal spell. And making many of him is really nice.
Jin-Gitaxas: He is our corporate "you win the game" card. Sometimes you have to go a bit Timmy on one of your slots, just to make sure you have something for every eventual outcome.
Lazav: You have a TN in your GY and no Muldrotha? Fear not! Lazav will do things. He also fakes copying something, just to copy our navigator and get around summoning sickness this way. And he shuffles himself in the deck, while our TN stays in the GY. He has a lot of potential, but didnt have the impact in recent games.
Mulldrifter:-
Sakura-Tribe Elder:-
Salvager of Secrets: Archaeomancer#2. And a wizard.
Siren Stormtamer: Its Muldrotha, hes broken with her. And a Pirate. And a Wizard.
Solemn Simulacrum:-
Timestream Navigator: The secret Captain of this boat. The card they couldnt make Legendary because it wouldve broken a format. The card that is breakable, but only with effort. The card that is so cool and flavourful, that it made me build a deck around it. And did you know? Its a pirate! And a Wizard!
Vedalken Aethermage: One of my petcards, and great in this deck! It having Wizardcycling is great in a lot of ways, and he is never dead. He gets us our most important utility and combopieces.
Vesuvan Shapeshifter: My favorite Shapeshifter. Just because EVERYBODY thinks its a Willbender. Gets us around Summoning Sickness for TN, also gets himself shuffled away so we get 2 activations, which again gets us aroung the issue of not having Boots sometimes.
Viscera Seer: Hes a wizard. And I heard that Scry is pretty nice in a deck that deals with the bottom of its library.
Artifacts:
(without Manarocks)
Crucible of worlds:-
Culling Dais: Been trying to convince people that its a good card. And it is a good card.
Helm of the Host: Having enough mana, it goes infinite with TN. The most easy and most broken of my combos, but also the one that costs 17mana to assemble in one turn, is easy to disrupt and until now, actually never happened. People see this coming long ahead, but its fine, at some point they'll forget about it and it will sneak a win or two. If you dont have TN, it still does silly things.
Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots: These are very important. Without these, going off on the turn one plays the TN is difficult to say the least. If you ever play against this deck, get rid of those ASAP.
Mirror of Fate: I love this card, because its unplayable, except in this deck (and some others maybe). Just exile your library and put your exiled TN as your library. Success. Repeat as often as necessary, because you just get it back with Muldrotha.
Everything else:
Vraska: I too, am guilty of Goodstuff-ing sometimes. This is that.
Assassins Trophy: -
Brainstorm: What a broken card dude. (me, 2001)
Counterspell:-
Delay:-
Fact or Fiction: see: brainstorm
Memory Lapse:-
Mission Briefing: A card made for this Commander. 5/7 would recommend.
Muddle the Mixture: One of my favorite cards it gets us almost everything
Mystical Tutor: see: brainstorm
Nexus of Fate: Well, its the one extraturn Spell that synergises really well with the deck,
and also I think my friends dont hate it enough yet. I can almost guarantee though, if you put more extraturns in this, people will hate you more.
Price of Fame: Just your mediocre removal, but with a twist that makes it better in Commander and better in this deck.
Putrefy:-
Sinister Sabotage: see: Price of Fame
Vraska's Contempt: Needed exile-spell, had this lying around.
Decree of Pain: Solves a lot of issues without people flaming you for playing Damnation. Especially if you have a dozen ways to get it back.
Diabolic Intent: Does silly things with Archeomancer and Muldrotha. And does it better than other Tutors.
Diabolic Tutor: The cheapest playable Tutor, to appear as Casual as possible.
Explosive Vegetation, Far Wanderings,: Ramp
Final Parting: The best Tutor for this deck. Getting 2 Combopieces is better than one.
Gaze of Granite: Had no Pernicious Deed lying around.
Masterminds Acquisition: Borderline to powerful for this deck to be Casual.
Quasiduplicate: Turns a tight game into a win.
Spitting Image: Finally a home for this card. Like it a lot in this deck.
Treasure Cruise and Windfall: The Carddraw that is necessary. No more.
(May contain exaggeration and sarcasm)
