Cloudblazer

Creature — Human Scout

Flying

When Cloudblazer enters the battlefield, You gain 2 life and draw two cards.

Discussion (50)

Ize19 on Pattern Recognition #182 - Flicker

2 months ago

Very nice article, berryjon! This was a fun look at one of my favorite mechanics, and was a pleasure to read. I will dispute the article's conclusion though, as whether or not flickering wins games depends entirely on what's being flickered.

Everybody knows card draw can win games, by ensuring you have the cards you need to win, so one of the most powerful effects flickering can abuse is card draw.

Watcher for Tomorrow and Sea Gate Oracle are great blink targets because they not only put a card in your hand, they also filter through your deck quickly, digging 3 or 4 cards deep with each ETB. Mulldrifter and Cloudblazer don't dig as deep, but make up for it by giving you 2 cards with every blink.

Another powerful, potentially game-winning ETB effect is token creation. Thragtusk is well-known for being a great flicker target, as it's 3/3 Beast token comes with a side helping of 3 life, and Armada Wurm starts as a great deal, with 10 trampling power for 6 mana, and just gets better with every flicker.

My personal favorite blink targets are the Splicers, e.g. Blade Splicer who not only produce 3/3 Golems, they boost their abilities as well. Nothing says inevitable victory quite like a couple of Soulherder flickering a Blade Splicer and a Master Splicer every turn, before you finally drop that Wing Splicer and have your Golem army fly in for the win!

Thanks again for covering one of my favorite subjects, I had a fun time both reading and replying to this one! As always, I look forward to your next article!

slashdotdash on

5 months ago

Hey there Kronhamilton,

First of all, I like the improvements you’ve made to your deck. It’s already looking a lot slicker and I can see you’ve made some very fun looking changes to how the deck plays.

You’ve got a nice array of threats (I always love to see the Bringers and Ur-Dragon) and a decent amount of ramp which are both a big plus. Additionally, you’ve got the beginnings of some nasty graveyard synergy shaping up, which looks really, really cool as a sort of plan B.

That being said, I’d like to make a few suggestions to help guide you toward a more consistent and powerful Golos deck. Please remember that these suggestions are just my informed opinion, and that I totally respect whatever deck choices you decide to make. I really just want to help you get comfortable with deck building and learning what to look for in a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ card.

Broad Suggestions

I would encourage you to add 2 Lands, 3 Removal cards, and 8 Draw cards. I’d also think about adding 2 more Ramp cards, but that is less critical to the overall health of the deck. Your Threats look great and I think your Sweepers are also appropriate. Anything that synergizes with your graveyard backup plan is great.

There are a couple of things to think about as you play this deck; 1. “Am I happy or sad to be holding this card in my hand or drawing it off the top of my deck?” – If a card seems to constantly be ‘the wrong card’ for the situation, or you can never seem to cast it, or you always play other cards instead, or you tend to die while holding a certain card, then you probably want to think about how well that card fits in your deck and whether or not you should cut it or modify the deck to support it. 2. “What ongoing advantage does this card give me?” – Some cards seem like a decent card based on having decent power/toughness, a fair cost, and some neat keywords or abilities. Just having those upsides alone though doesn’t make a card truly powerful. Instead, try to think about what ways a card can synergize with your deck to create crazy effects or otherwise how it will become more dangerous as the game progresses (like a Quartzwood Crasher, Scute Swarm, or Giant Adephage). Additionally, try to find cards that do multiple things such as Chasm Skulker which gets bigger when you draw cards and also explodes into tokens when it dies, or even Ravenous Chupacabra which deals with a threat and also acts as a blocker when you are facing pressure. The key is finding a way to levarage the most amount of value in each individual card – even a 2 mana ramp spell will set you up to play all of your future spells 1 turn earlier than normal for the rest of the game, which can be an insane advantage when you think about it. 3. “Am I out of options?” – If you can’t seem to find a solution to a problem or you’re ‘running out of steam’, then it is likely that you need more card draw and more ways to create ‘engines’ that accrue value. An example of an engine would be Fertilid + Evolution Sage or Rampaging Baloths + Elemental Bond or Kruphix, God of Horizons + Victory Chimes or Atraxa, Praetors' Voice + Ajani, the Greathearted or Anointed Procession + Endless Ranks of the Dead or Search for Azcanta  ^Flip or Deadbridge Chant or Mind Unbound, etc.

Ramp

Your ramp looks pretty good with 10 dedicated Ramp cards. I’d suggest adding 2 more Ramp spells to really help speed things up early. Examples would be Kodama's Reach, Llanowar Elves, Wild Growth, Farseek, Rampant Growth, Springbloom Druid, etc.

Ramp - 10

• Fertilid

• Palladium Myr

• Solemn Simulacrum

• Cultivate

• Arcane Signet

• Commander's Sphere

• Ketria Crystal

• Raugrin Crystal

• Savai Crystal

• Sol Ring

Not Ramp

• Azusa, Lost but Seeking - you don’t have enough land + card draw to really capitalize on Asuza’s ability.

• Empowered Autogenerator – this card is vastly too slow to be considered a true Ramp card. At best I would call it a ‘Ramp Support’ card, because it is there to slowly help you in the late game, not propel you in the early game like a true Ramp card (Rampant Growth, Farseek, Fertile Ground, Llanowar Elves, Wild Growth)

Draw

Overall, I think your card draw package needs a little bit of love. I want to note I see a lot of ‘looting’ effects like the ones on Teferi, Master of Time or Obsessive Stitcher and while these cards are great for a graveyard strategy they still don’t count as card draw. I’d keep most of these ‘looting’ type cards, but try to find cards that get you about 2 or 3 cards such as Harmonize, Concentrate, Escape to the Wilds, Urban Evolution, Moldervine Reclamation, Deathreap Ritual, Recurring Insight, Mind Unbound, Underworld Connections, Cloudblazer, Mulldrifter, Drawn from Dreams, Return of the Wildspeaker, Harvester of Souls, Momentous Fall, Dream Trawler, Keeper of Fables etc.

Draw - 2

• Bringer of the Blue Dawn (nice)

• Reconnaissance Mission

Not Draw

• Barrin, Tolarian Archmage – drawing 1 card does not really count. If anything, Barrin is like slow, bad removal for dealing with your opponents’ stuff temporarily. If you’re interested in reusing Golos’s land finding ability I would recommend playing Soulherder instead.

• Solemn Simulacrum – He has sort of ‘incidental value’ with his death trigger but doesn’t actively net you a bunch of cards like Keruga, the Macrosage or Beast Whisperer. Sad Robot is still great though.

• Titanoth Rex – still keep this guy because he is a threat that isn’t dead in your hand on turn 5.

• Void Beckoner – same story as the Rex

• Teferi, Master of Time – Teferi’s great, but he is really at his best when you’ve got 4-7 card in hand so that you can throw a bunch of big threats to the graveyard and hopefully draw a reanimation spell. Other than that, Teferi isn’t going to refill your hand so he doesn’t count as true draw.

Removal

Your removal package looks like it needs a couple more additions to keep your deck responsive and able to handle imminent-doom type threats. It is worth noting that cards like Blatant Thievery or Mythos of Illuna can save you in certain situations, but be wary of their crazy mana costs and the fact that they are not instant-speed answers. Examples include Mythos of Nethroi, Beast Within, Price of Fame, Reality Shift, Terminate, Return to Nature, Putrefy, Utter End, Eat to Extinction, Murderous Rider, etc.

Removal – 4 (aim for 7)

• Mortify

• Despark

• Barrier Breach

• Disenchant

Cuts

There are several cards that I would consider cutting first when modifying the deck.

• Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast - he relies very heavily on luck and only interacts with creatures. This makes him good with only 30% of your deck. Additionally, Lukka can’t ‘protect’ himself like Garruk can (making tokens to block for him), nor does he have an immediately accessible removal ability like Teferi. Overall, Lukka is interesting but a little lacking in consistency, defensibility, and power.

Azusa, Lost but Seeking – you don’t have enough land + card draw to really capitalize on Asuza’s ability. Yes, you can use the double lands (like Gruul Turf) to bounce a land to hand and then play that land with Asuza, but realistically that’s such a narrow and relatively tame synergy (in this non-landfall deck, that is) that you would be better off playing a Farseek or a Rampant Growth or even a Fertile Ground.

• Sparkhunter Masticore - This little fellow has a major drawback and no seriously crazy abilities that make him worthwhile. Yes he can deal with planeswalkers, but so can a Murderous Rider or an Eat to Extinction. Yes he can be an indestructible 3/4, but you have to pay 3 mana just to make him indestructible. Under normal circumstances that’s 6 mana for a 3/4 that dodges death one time - a 3/4 just isn’t fantastic. The biggest bad news about this robocat is its “additional cost to cast” ability which means that even if you hit it with Golos’s ‘Rainbow Wheel of Death’ ability, you still have to discard a card for a 3/4. I just honestly think you’d rather have a removal spell (Beast Within, Mythos of Nethroi) instead of this cat any day.

• Pursued Whale - While this whale is kinda cool and he does force combat, he is just sorta expensive for what he does. 7 mana for an 8/8 is pretty standard and giving your opponents tokens (that they could just attack you with or sacrifice to an effect) can be a bad idea in some situations, such as when they have an Beastmaster Ascension or a similar effect on the field. While his semi-hexproof ability (3 more mana to target) seems nifty, that is one of the only really powerful highlight abilities of this card, meaning that ability is protecting a relatively low-powered card. A couple immediate alternatives come to mind for me; Geode Rager to force combat AND keep you safe, and Dream Trawler for a flying, hexproof, lifelinking, card drawing threat.

• Renata, Called to the Hunt - She just isn’t fantastic. You aren’t playing a devotion centric deck in which she might become a 10/10, and your strategy doesn’t really care about 1/1 counters either. I would consider replacing her with a Harmonize or another 3 or 4 drop with more impactful abilities. Heck, even another reanimation spell could be nice like Unburial Rites or Grave Upheaval since your deck seems to have some tendency to but things in the graveyard for later.

• Lorescale Coatl - Cards like this (or his bigger cousin Chasm Skulker) are really designed for “wheel decks” that play “wheel effects” like Windfall or Reforge the Soul. He is fine, but really not much better than that. If you want a threat that can grow faster and do more important things, try Managorger Hydra or even Scute Mob.

• Colossification - This aura is too expensive, taps your creature down, and worst of all is an aura. Auras are generally quite bad because your opponent can destroy your creature and the aura attached to them with one spell – and odds are they’ll do that because it is usually too juicy not to. The fact that you can’t attach Colossification and attack immediately means that your opponents will have a full turn to deal with it before you get a chance to use it (and keep in mind your Colossified creature needs to survive 3 opponents’ turns!). This means you’ll most likely run out of cards in a hurry without accomplishing anything.

• Door to Nothingness - Unlike Progenitus, you can’t reanimate the Door, nor can you get its full value off of the Rainbow Wheel of Death. The only time this card does anything at all is when you literally have 10 mana of the exact color combination necessary to use it. It’s still your call, and I know some people make it a goal to Door their opponents, but be warned: you probably don’t have as much ramp as you need to make this work well. I’d consider supporting this crazy cards (and your many expensive threats for that matter) with a few more ramp spells – Boundless Realms, Migration Path, Circuitous Route, Kodama's Reach, Explosive Vegetation, Zendikar Resurgent

• Azor's Gateway  ^Flip – This card belongs in a very specific variant of Golos. That variant is the Minamo, School at Water's Edge Golos deck which also runs stuff like Vizier of Tumbling Sands, Fatestitcher, Kiora's Follower, and other payoffs like Jegantha, the Wellspring, or Captain Sisay. Especially considering that Sanctum of the Sun (the flip side) adds X mana of only 1 color, I think this card is just rarely going to work like you want it to unfortunately.

• Lathliss, Dragon Queen - Basically, you only have 3 other dragons in the deck so I would either exchange a bunch of cards for more dragons or cut Lathliss, since she will rarely be able to use her best ability (5/5 tokens). Keep in mind, you could also run a bunch of cards with the ‘changeling’ keyword if you wanted to get really funky, in which case you may as well also play stuff like Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, Reaper King, Crested Sunmare, The First Sliver but that’s a very slippery and insane slope that I’m not sure you want to get sucked into.

Summary

Nice changes Kronhamilton, I can see that your deck is really starting to shape up as a rampy graveyard-mingling Golos deck, and that’s really cool. I encourage you to try and pay attention to what situations you find yourself in, as that’s often the best way to tell what cards you need to cut or add to the deck for it to work best. As a default, I’d consider making a few of the changes I mentioned in the Broad Suggestion section, as those changes should just generally help with your deck’s consistency.

Please do let me know how you decide to tune your deck – it’s really fun to watch honestly, and I’m always down to help advise you. Other than that, take care and enjoy Golos!

Best,

-Slashdotdash

Conwash42 on Token Temmet

6 months ago

Desolation Twin = Too slow, I would remove it.

Angelic Accord: Not enough lifegain in the deck to make it worth.

Path of Bravery: Meh, mostly you will be attacking with a creature or two so not worth. Only at the very end will you swing with a lot, but at the very end your life total doesn't matter too much.

Embalmed creatures are zombies so stuff like Eternal Skylord works really well.

Cloudblazer is a great target for copy target creature spells.

Lazotep Plating Hexproof is a great save something card and you get a little bonus with the amass.

Forsake the Worldly Great removal plus cycling option. A personal favorite.

Fact or Fiction Great because you get to search the top 5 and get a few into hand. Sneaky trick though is that you can embalm any creatures that go into the grave. It's a win win.

Embalmer's Tools I think it makes embalm cost 1 less and remember that embalm creatures are zombies so you can mill others or yourself to get more creatures to embalm. Almost like drawing a card if you mill an embalm creature.

Rogue's Gloves Equip to a token then make it unblockable with your commander to draw a free card on your turn. Same with Staggering InsightCuriosityCurious Obsession

Throw in your Geist of Saint Traft?

Peoni on Brago, King of Blink

6 months ago

Cloudblazer and Silence are both good choices. With Silence and Archaeomancer you can selectively lock people out of their turns.

Nice deck. :^)

slashdotdash on 5 color no theme deck

10 months ago

Dear Kronhamilton

Golos, Tireless Pilgrim is my favorite commander, and I've been brewing around him ever since he was teased. Let me just say you've chosen an excellent commander.

(I’ve written quite a lot in an attempt to make a sort of guide for you, so if you want the short version, check out the Suggestions panel)

Intro

Golos can be tricky to build around since he can do literally anything pretty well. The easiest way to make an effective Golos deck is to lean into Golos's 7 Mana Rainbow Wheel Of Death. Before getting into that though, we need to cover some EDH deckbuilding basics.

I think the most useful advice I can give someone who is just beginning to explore the deck-building territory of EDH is to structure your deck and mind your Ratios. By this I mean it is useful to categorize the cards in your deck according to the role they fulfill.

We’ll begin by looking at some core categories that you’ll want to make your deck function effectively. Then I’ll present the Ratios (how many of each category of card) you will want to make a generic Golos deck function effectively. Next, I’ll include a detailed (but not totally complete, because I’d be here all day) catalogue of cards within some of those categories. I’ll also offer up some suggestions and input about some of your specific card choices. Lastly, since I’m about to unpack a lot of information, I will include a brief list of suggestions (see the bottom) for a generically good Golos ‘Shell’ that should be able to support most Golos strategies.

Categories

Categories

• Draw

• Ramp

• Removal

• Sweepers

• Threats

• Support

• Land

Draw Show

Draw cards are cards that draw you additional cards. There are two subcategories for Draw cards; Draw Spells and Draw Engines.

• Draw Spells are one-time use cards that immediately get you 2 to 3 cards.

• Draw Engines are cards that might not get you cards immediately but will gradually draw you cards as you play your deck and the game goes longer.

Either variety of Draw card may either be generically powerful or may instead be dependent on synergy (meaning you need to do something specific in order to draw cards). Some cards are hybrids that are generically powerful but get better with additional synergy.

Ramp Show

Ramp cards are cards that increase your capacity to produce mana while also accelerating the pace of your mana production. This is generally done by either the card acting as a permanent that creates mana or by finding a land card from your deck and putting it into play. By definition, a Ramp card should be cast within the first 3 turns of the game in order to allow you to cast more/larger spells sooner in the game. For a Golos deck, you should try to ramp once by turn 3 so that you can cast Golos on turn 4 (this won’t always happen, but your deck should be able to do it regularly – see Ratios for more).

There are 3 main subcategories of Ramp; Ramp Spells, Mana Rocks, and Mana Dorks.

• Ramp Spells are one-time use cards that find a land from your deck and put it into play (usually tapped).

• Mana Rocks are artifacts that produce mana.

• Mana Dorks are creatures that produce mana.

Resilience, Speed, and Synergy of Ramp Cards

Ramp Spells are the most Resilient type of Ramp card, as lands are not usually destroyed in EDH. Ramp Spells also trigger Landfall Synergies (Rampaging Baloths, Avenger of Zendikar, Tatyova, Benthic Druid, Omnath, Locus of the Roil, Field of the Dead) which can be incredibly powerful over the course of a longer game. Ramp Spells can also “Color Fix” by finding specific basic lands that you might need to cast a spell or complete the Rainbow to activate Golos’s Rainbow Wheel of Death. However, it should be noted that Ramp Spells are purely slower than Mana Rocks as they almost always bring lands into play tapped.

Mana Rocks are not especially resilient due to the presence of cards that destroy artifacts(Reclamation Sage, Bane of Progress, Acidic Slime, Hellkite Tyrant, Hostage Taker). They do synergize with Artifact themed decks though, making them extremely useful in Artifact-heavy decks (Metalwork Colossus, Shimmer Dragon, Padeem, Consul of Innovation, Sai, Master Thopterist, Inventors' Fair). Mana Rocks also possess a distinct advantage in being the fastest type of Ramp, since most Mana Rocks come into play untapped, allowing you to use them immediately.

Mana Dorks are extremely fragile, as they die to Sweepers (Board Wipes like Wrath of God), Combat, and Combat Triggers (Drakuseth, Maw of Flames, Balefire Dragon, Silumgar, the Drifting Death). That being said, Mana Dorks definitely have a place in Green-Creature-heavy decks that enjoy the effects of Creature synergy (Beast Whisperer, Soul of the Harvest, Pathbreaker Ibex). Without haste, Mana Dorks cannot activate their mana producing abilities the turn they enter the battlefield, making them slow like Ramp Spells. Think of them like fragile lands – very risky to invest in.

Removal Show

Removal spells are Instants that destroy a target (typically a creature). These are essential for survival, as you can defend yourself or dismantle an opponent’s plans at a crucial moment and most often during their turn.

The Importance of Instants

Non-instant spells that destroy creatures are never considered Removal because you cannot count on them to save you if your opponent has an explosive turn (for example, they resolve Ghalta, Primal Hunger with Lightning Greaves on the board and they immediately equip the boots and attack you. Only an Instant could respond to the equipping of the boots and destroy Ghalta before it acquired Haste and Shroud.)

Sweepers Show

Sweepers are spells that destroy or ‘bounce’ (return to hand) all creatures and/or other permanents.

These may also be referred to as ‘Boardwipes’.

Deciding to play Sweepers

The decision to include Sweepers may depend on the state of your playgroup (your Meta). For example, if someone in your playgroup is playing an Ezuri, Renegade Leader deck (or similar) then you will almost definitely need to include Sweepers just to keep the nonsense at bay, because otherwise that opponent will likely overwhelm you with a small mountain of creatures. While that is a fun and powerful strategy, it can be counteracted by the presence of a few Sweepers in your deck. A well-built creature deck with the appropriate amount of Draw will still be able to recover, so this isn’t necessarily going to force your opponent to have a miserable time. Think of Sweepers as a way to buy time against faster, more aggressive decks – something that you’ll need to be wary of since you are playing a 5 color deck with a 5 Converted Mana Cost Commander.

Threats Show

Threats are cards that present a challenge to your opponents, most often in the form of a large creature that is capable of killing them and/or smashing their plans to pieces. Threats may take a different form though, such as enchantments, artifacts, planeswalkers, or even lands.

Golos in particular loves threats because of the simple, spicy fact that he can hit them with his Rainbow Wheel Of Death. This makes building a threat-centric Golos deck both incredibly fun and terrifyingly effective.

Support Show

Support cards are somewhat obscure cards that don’t fulfill any of the usual roles, but instead enhance some aspect of your deck by improving your Engines (such as Draw Engines or other Value Engines like a Token Generator) or Threats.

Generally speaking, support cards are the cards that make your deck go from good to crazy and they often empower you to win the game if uninterrupted.

• An example of a support card is Leyline of Anticipation which allows you to cast your spells at any time, but doesn’t do anything by itself.

• In a Blink deck, Panharmonicon (Yarok, the Desecrated too) makes an appearance as the premium support card, doubling Enter-The-Battlefield effects (ETB’s).

• For a Reanimation deck, you might see Deadbridge Chant or Debtors' Knell make an appearance.

Almost any Golos deck particularly enjoys the inclusion of incredibly powerful support cards such as Zendikar Resurgent, Mirari's Wake, Nyxbloom Ancient, or other options that increase the amount of mana you can create to use with Golos’s Rainbow Wheel Of Death.

Land Show

Lands are an obvious inclusion for most Magic decks, but I will mention them anyway.

I am familiar with three main categories of lands; Basic Lands, Utility Lands, and Color Fixing Lands.

Basic Lands are always useful in small quantities for decks that play many Ramp Spells (I recommend this for most Golos decks).

Utility Lands may or may not generate colored mana (for our purposes, we will assume they only generate colorless mana) but they come equipped with a powerful ability.

Color Fixing Lands are lands that are nonbasic but allow us to ‘fix’ our colors by providing us with an option of mana to choose from. These are very helpful for most Golos decks.

Cascading Cataracts

I will mention right now that Cascading Cataracts is the ultimate Color Fixing Land because it can be immediately fetched by Golos and it allows you to consistently Spin The Wheel regardless of your color availability (note that you need 7 mana plus the Cascading Cataracts, which often implies you need 8 lands). If you are plan on playing a deck with few color requirements (mostly one or two primary colors) then this card can singlehandedly enable The Wheel.

Ratios

The art of Ratios is all about determining what combination of cards from each category makes your deck run the most smoothly.

Please note that these Ratios will not total to 99 cards. This is because you will invariably have extra flexibility to choose how your deck behaves even after establishing functional Ratios. Also keep in mind that although these Ratios do recommend you adhere to the minimum number of cards in each category, you still can choose which cards will fill those slots. The point is not to restrict your options, but instead to create a ‘Shell’ that is reliable enough to power your Threats cards, Support cards, and other cards. Whatever you do, make sure you have at least the minimum number of Draw and Ramp cards. THE MOST IMPORTANT CARDS IN THE DECK ARE DRAW AND RAMP!!!

While I ultimately suggest Ratios resembling the Basic Golos Shell, I will lay out the Ratios for several different Shells;

• Template: a sort of baseline beginner’s guide which is commonly promoted as a place to start.

• Basic Golos: a modified version of the Template that suites most Golos decks.

• Control: a version tailored for a slower game with many Sweepers.

• Aggro: a version designed to act quickly and deploy Threats before the opponents are prepared.

• Big Mana: a version invested heavily into Ramp with the goal of deploying many end-game Threats.

• Mega Mana: an even more extreme version of Big Mana with extremely expensive Threats.

Template Show

• Ramp – 10-12

• Draw – 10-12

• Removal – 6-8

• Sweepers – 1-3

• Threats – 8-13

• Support – 5-10

• Land – 35-37

Basic Golos Show

• Ramp – 12

• Draw – 13

• Removal – 7

• Sweepers – 2

• Threats – 12

• Support – 7

• Land – 36

Total: 89

Control Show

• Ramp – 8

• Draw – 15

• Removal – 7

• Sweepers – 6

• Threats – 10

• Support – 10

• Land – 36

Total: 92

Aggro Show

• Ramp – 15

• Draw – 8

• Removal – 6

• Sweepers – 0

• Threats – 20

• Support – 8

• Land – 35

Total: 92

Big Mana Show

• Ramp – 14

• Draw – 14

• Removal – 7

• Sweepers – 2

• Threats – 16

• Support – 8

• Land – 36

Total: 97

Mega Mana Show

• Ramp – 20

• Draw – 13

• Removal – 7

• Sweepers – 2

• Threats – 12

• Support – 8

• Land – 36

Total: 98

Catalogue

Draw Show

Generic Draw Spells

• Read the Bones

• Drawn from Dreams

• Urban Evolution

• Harmonize

• Ambition's Cost

• Ancient Craving

• Syphon Mind

• Concentrate

• Ugin's Insight

• Rush of Knowledge

Synergy Draw Spells

(Many Creatures)

• Shamanic Revelation

• Tishana, Voice of Thunder

• Regal Force

• Voice of Many

(Big Creatures)

• Rishkar's Expertise

• Return of the Wildspeaker

• Soul's Majesty

• Keruga, the Macrosage

(Blink – using effects like Ephemerate to ‘Blink’ or ‘Flicker’ cards for enter-the-battlefield [ETB] effects)

• Mulldrifter (if you cast an Ephemerate after Mulldrifter ETB’s but before it sacrifices itself, you can stop it from dying and draw four cards)

• Cloudblazer

• Cavalier of Gales

• Wall of Blossoms

• Wall of Omens

• Elvish Visionary

• Watcher for Tomorrow

• Generous Patron (I promise you, the two cards is worth giving away two counters)

(Tribal – Many creatures of one type, such as elementals or goblins)

• Risen Reef

• Distant Melody

Generic Draw Engines

• Underworld Connections

• Phyrexian Arena

• Bringer of the Blue Dawn

• Vilis, Broker of Blood

• Mind Unbound

• The Magic Mirror

• Thought Reflection

• Damia, Sage of Stone

• The Ur-Dragon

Synergy Draw Engines

(Many Creatures)

• Beast Whisperer

• Primordial Sage

• Soul of the Harvest

• Guardian Project

• Chulane, Teller of Tales

(Big Creatures)

• Elemental Bond

• Temur Ascendancy

• Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner

• Garruk, Primal Hunter

• Colossal Majesty

• Drumhunter

(Combat Matters)

• Reconnaissance Mission

• Bident of Thassa

• Ohran Viper

• Ohran Frostfang

• Keeper of Fables

• Oakhame Adversary

• Cold-Eyed Selkie

• Coastal Piracy

Ramp Show

Ramp Spells

• Rampant Growth

• Farseek

• Into the North

• Nature's Lore

• Search for Tomorrow

• Sakura-Tribe Elder

• Growth Spasm

• Beanstalk Giant

• Far Wanderings

• Harrow

• Cultivate

• Kodama's Reach

• Explosive Vegetation

• Skyshroud Claim

• Migration Path

• Circuitous Route

• Wood Elves

• Springbloom Druid

• Yavimaya Dryad

• Farhaven Elf

Mana Rocks

• Sol Ring

• Fellwar Stone

• Arcane Signet

• Simic Signet (also see signets for: Azorius, Rakdos, Gruul, Golgari, Dimir, Boros, Izzet, Selesnya, Orzhov)

• Everflowing Chalice

• Mind Stone

• Chromatic Lantern

Mana Dorks

• Birds of Paradise

• Arbor Elf

• Llanowar Elves

• Llanowar Tribe

• Faeburrow Elder

• Elvish Mystic

• Paradise Druid

• Sylvan Caryatid

• Ilysian Caryatid

• Leafkin Druid

• Leyline Prowler

Removal Show

• Swords to Plowshares

• Dire Tactics

• Heartless Act

• Rapid Hybridization

• Pongify

• Terminate

• Despark

• Putrefy

• Mortify

• Price of Fame

• Path to Exile

• Utter End

Sweepers Show

• Wrath of God

• Day of Judgment

• Fumigate

• Supreme Verdict

• Flood of Tears

• Sublime Exhalation

• Coastal Breach

• Time Wipe

• Duneblast

• In Garruk's Wake

• Plague Wind

• Cataclysmic Gearhulk

• Mythos of Snapdax

• Massacre Girl

Threats Show

• Quartzwood Crasher

• Avenger of Zendikar

• Rampaging Baloths

• Artisan of Kozilek

• Kogla, the Titan Ape

• Tendershoot Dryad

• Many, many, many more…

Support Show

• Zendikar Resurgent

• Nyxbloom Ancient

• Mirari's Wake

• Sunbird's Invocation

• Maelstrom Nexus

• Support cards often depend on the deck…

Land Show

Utility Lands

• Field of the Dead

• Reliquary Tower (only if you expect to draw a billion cards)

• Westvale Abbey  ^Flip

• Kessig Wolf Run

• Slayers' Stronghold

• Vault of the Archangel

• Alchemist's Refuge

• Temple of the False God

• Halimar Depths

Color Fixing Lands

• Command Tower

• Evolving Wilds

• Terramorphic Expanse

• Ash Barrens

• Exotic Orchard

• Krosan Verge

• Sandsteppe Citadel

• Savage Lands

• Seaside Citadel

• Opulent Palace

• Nomad Outpost

• Crumbling Necropolis

• Arcane Sanctum

• Jungle Shrine

• Mystic Monastery

• Frontier Bivouac

• Indatha Triome

• Ketria Triome

• Raugrin Triome

• Zagoth Triome

• Savai Triome

• Cinder Glade

• Canopy Vista

• Prairie Stream

• Sunken Hollow

• Smoldering Marsh

• Fabled Passage

Suggestions

Please remember that any suggestions I make are because I am trying to help. Ultimately, the choices you make with your deck are up to you, and I can only provide constructive criticism based on my own experience and opinions.

Good luck :)

Ratio Fixing

The most effective change to your deck would probably be adjusting the Ratios, especially with regard to your Draw cards. Applying the most basic Template Shell, you want to have at least these three quantities nailed down for a smoother and reasonably powerful deck;

• Lands – 36 --> You have 40 Lands (Cut 4 Lands)

• Ramp – 10 --> You have 5 true Ramp cards (Add 5 to 8 Ramp cards)

• Draw – 10 --> You have 3 true Draw cards (Add 7 to 10 Draw cards)

Ramp & Draw Additions Show

Ramp

• 1 Rampant Growth

• 2 Farseek

• 3 Sakura-Tribe Elder

• 4 Sol Ring

• 5 Cultivate

• 6 Kodama's Reach

• 7 Springbloom Druid

• 8 Search for Tomorrow

Draw

• 1 Read the Bones

• 2 Harmonize

• 3 Drawn from Dreams

• 4 Syphon Mind

• 5 Ugin's Insight

• 6 Ambition's Cost

• 7 Ancient Craving

• 8 Underworld Connections

• 9 Elemental Bond

• 10 Urban Evolution

What I counted in your deck Show

Under the Ramp category I counted:

• Humble Naturalist

• Fertilid

• Dimir Locket

• Ketria Crystal

• Raugrin Crystal

These cards are NOT Ramp cards:

• Farfinder

• Dryad of the Ilysian Grove (fantastic Support card)

• Migratory Greathorn

• Parcelbeast

• Adventurous Impulse

Under the Draw category I counted:

• Reconnaissance Mission

• Chevill, Bane of Monsters (this is not a good Draw card)

• Dreamtail Heron (well, maybe)

These cards are NOT Draw cards:

• Farfinder

• Adventurous Impulse

• Cathartic Reunion

• Channeled Force

• and others

I see a few cards that Recover cards from the graveyard and that is fine but it is not Draw.

Cycling cards are not Draw cards if we define Draw cards as being able to find you 2 or 3 cards and thus help refill your hand.

Mutate

Depending on how strong your Mutate subtheme is, some of your Mutate inclusions may act as engines. However, I must state that Mutate is a VERY risky and even fragile strategy since your Mutate ‘Pile’ of creatures will all be destroyed at once if your opponent uses a Removal spell or a Sweeper. For that reason, I recommend leaning out of the Mutate theme (unless the Mutate card is just straight-up insane, as in the example of Nethroi, Apex of Death).

With that said, playing a Mutate theme is your decision and I totally respect that and if you want to stick to a Mutate theme then by all means do so. I just want to be sure you know that Mutate is a risky strategy that you cannot depend on to fulfill your Ramp and Draw slots (so you’ll just need to supplement it with other cards).

Cut or Include?

At a glance your deck seems like something you have created using just your collection – and that’s great! However, if you want to incrementally upgrade your deck, then I recommend replacing most of the cards in your deck with more powerful options over time.

Here is a list of cards you should probably keep playing: - Barrier Breach (Removal, because exiling 3 enchantments is helpful in some situations)

• Reconnaissance Mission (Draw, especially if you plan on attacking constantly)

• Ruinous Ultimatum (Sweeper)

• Mythos of Illuna (Other, sometimes Removal)

• Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger (Threat)

• Klothys, God of Destiny (Support)

• Dryad of the Ilysian Grove (Support)

• Drakuseth, Maw of Flames (Threat)

• Extinction Event (Sweeper)

• Titanoth Rex (Threat)

In my opinion, there are other, better options for all of the other nonland cards in the deck, however it is up to you to decide on how you would like to proceed so I won’t intrude.

I strongly recommend cutting the Planeswalkers though – Calix, Destiny's Hand doesn’t seem to synergize much with the deck and I feel that Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast is not very potent.

Lands

Just as a recommendation, I would suggest the following spread of Basic Lands;

• 8 Basic Forests

• 3 of each other Basic Land

The remainder of your lands could be either more basics (which is really, really, risky if you don’t have tons of Ramp – think like 15 Ramp cards and about 12 Basic Forests) or Color Fixing Lands (see the Catalogue for more options). It is rough to have your lands enter the battlefield tapped, but unless you want to either lean into Green or spend a lot of money on lands, you will just have to live with it (I play around 5-10 tapped lands in a normal Golos deck and it isn’t really that bad).

Shell

In this section, I will list out an example of the Basic Golos Shell complete with the necessary Ratios and some examples of good/fun cards in each category. I’ll try to keep it relatively Budget sensitive and most of these cards will be relatively random – this won’t be based on any particular theme so don’t expect it to be optimal.

As a reminder:

Basic Golos Show

• Ramp – 12

• Draw – 13

• Removal – 7

• Sweepers – 2

• Threats – 12

• Support – 7

• Land – 36

Total: 89

The Shell

Ramp – 12

• Farseek

• Rampant Growth

• Springbloom Druid

• Wood Elves

• Sakura-Tribe Elder

• Cultivate

• Farseek

• Sol Ring

• Search for Tomorrow

• Paradise Druid

• Into the North

• Migration Path

Draw – 13

• Harmonize

• Read the Bones

• Syphon Mind

• Ancient Craving

• Ambition's Cost

• Drawn from Dreams

• Ugin's Insight

• Rush of Knowledge

• Urban Evolution

• Elemental Bond

• Underworld Connections

• Kumena's Awakening

• Concentrate

Removal – 7

• Dire Tactics

• Heartless Act

• Despark

• Beast Within

• Terminate

• Price of Fame

• Reality Shift

Sweepers – 2

• Ruinous Ultimatum

• Plague Wind

Threats – 12

• Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger

• Quartzwood Crasher

• Kogla, the Titan Ape

• Artisan of Kozilek

• Drakuseth, Maw of Flames

• Sephara, Sky's Blade

• Vilis, Broker of Blood

• Tyrant's Familiar

• Teneb, the Harvester

• Scute Mob

• Blood Tyrant

• Rampaging Baloths

Support – 7

• Klothys, God of Destiny

• Dryad of the Ilysian Grove

• Inspired Ultimatum

• Genesis Ultimatum

• Emergent Ultimatum

• Eerie Ultimatum

• Brainstorm

Land – 36

• Command Tower

• Ash Barrens

• Exotic Orchard

• Krosan Verge

• Terramorphic Expanse

• Evolving Wilds

• Sandsteppe Citadel

• Savage Lands

• Jungle Shrine

• Frontier Bivouac

• Opulent Palace

• Temple of the False God

• 4 Forest

• 2Snow-Covered Forest

• 1 Plains

• 2 Snow-Covered Plains

• 1 Mountain

• 2 Snow-Covered Mountain

• 1 Swamp

• 2 Snow-Covered Swamp

• Cinder Glade

• Scattered Groves

• Prairie Stream

• Smoldering Marsh

• Sunken Hollow

• Nomad Outpost

• Mystic Monastery

• Crumbling Necropolis

• Cascading Cataracts

Good Luck :)

-Slashdotdash

TrooperXS on I want to ride my bicycle

11 months ago

Hey, the list looks good to start off with. I would recommend building it more focused around New Perspectives by adding some tutors that can grab it. you might want to make it more focused on turning through your deck to get the combo kill rather than beating your opponents down with tokens. I would recommend that you look at edh rec for some ideas. I would recommend that you take out Anointed Procession, Improbable Alliance, Lightning Rift, Ominous Seas, Shark Typhoon, Zenith Flare, Windfall, Brallin, Skyshark Rider  ^Flip, Eternal Dragon, and Shabraz, the Skyshark. In addition to tutors, you might want some more ramp, some better payoffs, Mulldrifter and Cloudblazer to synergize with your blink effects. I feel that most of the cards in the deck won't matter much because it is a rare thing that you will cast them, therefore you should try to keep the cost of cycling cheap in your deck. It's also okay if some of the cards with cycling are situational so the cards that have cycling can be chosen just by personal preference, play-style, and playgroup. I hope that this advice was helpful.

DankMagicianD on Bantman, He Never Sleeps, He Only Blinks!

1 year ago

Really cool deck! Have you tried Cloudblazer or Hornet Queen? Bramble Sovereign is a bit pricey, but also very powerful as well.

Archon_Bel on Athenian Legacy (Ephara, God of the Polis)

1 year ago

MapPsycho Thanks for the comment and the upvote! While I do like your suggestions as cards, I don't think they'll be as efficient in this deck since I've found that I'm often using up a lot of my mana during my turns to cast creature spells. If I do end up running counterspells, they would have to be 2 CMC or "free" (i.e Pact of Negation, Force of Negation, and Force of Will) for me to best use my mana.

Too bad those counters I mentioned cost too much, though :(.

I'll probably still consider Foundry of the Consuls, though. It'd be a one time use, but I haven't really been using Castle Ardenvale or Kjeldoran Outpost to generate tokens much. I mostly put them in the deck as "just in case" cards.

FrogBoy95 And another thanks to you for the nice comment and upvote! I'm glad you guys have been liking what I've made; gives me a bit more confidence that the deck won't be a complete dud once I actually buy it in paper lol.

I recently edited the decklist to show some changes I made over the past week or so. Instead of Vedalken Orrery, I'm using Leyline of Anticipation since it basically has the same effect, and more importantly, is waaayyy cheaper than Vedalken Orrery.

On the subject of counterspells, I've also been thinking that better cards for me to use would probably be redirecting effects such as Narset's Reversal, Redirect, and Commandeer. While I don't think counterspells are a complete waste in EDH, I do think they're tougher to use efficiently since you're dealing with more than one person and ultimately end up losing some card advantage. Those redirect spells can help turn opponent's cards completely in your favor and will more or less replace themselves in doing so.

I haven't put those cards in the maindeck, however; currently those "flex slots" are being taken up by Phyrexian Metamorph and Stunt Double, which will ideally let me get more mileage out of my own deck by acting as extra copies of my EtB creatures.

Luminarch Ascension is a cool card, but my issue with it is that it will quickly put a target on your head, and my deck doesn't really have a lot of ways to completely dissuade people from attacking me. Dawn of Hope is much more lowkey and comes with an added bonus of potentially drawing cards, but that mana cost to make one token is a bit too high for my liking, and I don't really have a lot of ways to reliably gain life other than Cloudblazer, Elite Guardmage, and Charming Prince.