Dack Fayden

Legendary Planeswalker — Dack

+1: Target player draws two cards, then discards two cards.

-2: Gain control of target artifact.

-6: You get an emblem with "Whenever you cast a spell that targets one or more permanents, gain control of those permanents."

Discussion (51)

Dawncaller7777777 on Austin Howes's [UR] cEDH Nin (PRIMER)

3 weeks ago

In a cEDH setting, Nin is an artifact combo list with a healthy dose of interaction and a little stax. This is because we are slightly slower than the dedicated fast combo decks anyway (Food Chain, Storm, Flash Hulk, etc.), so it is best to pack more interaction to help control the game until we can safely win. Yes, I know Thrasios is king of the infinite mana generals, but I've got a soft spot for Nin and I've enjoyed tweaking the absolute highest power list with her as possible over the years. (I'm confident she's solid tier 2 material. She actually has some advantages over fish man!)

I'll start with the deck's plan, win conditions, my local meta, then break down the card choices by card type. To keep this from being the length of your average thesis, I'm not going to go in-depth into play patterns and such, but I hope you can absorb some of that type of information from my discussion on each of the cards in the list.

Basic Metrics / Gameplan:

Land count: 31

Average CMC: 1.81

cEDH Nin is an infinite mana combo deck. I have tried everything else (Theft, Storm, Sneak Attack Eldrazi) but nothing matches the power and efficiency of the artifact mana kill. Our gameplan is to generate infinite mana using one of our compact 2-card combos and find an outlet to kill the table. Nin fills the role nicely since infinite mana with Nin means you draw your deck (and win, presumably).

Here's how you can get infinite mana:

Plan A: Isochron Scepter imprinting Dramatic Reversal + 3 mana from artifacts

Plan B: Grim Monolith + Power Artifact

Plan C: Metalworker + Staff of Domination + 3 Artifacts in hand

After you have infinite mana, you have a few options. In order to win, you usually play Walking Ballista for X = 1 million and activate its second ability a million times (holding priority) to kill the table. If you don't have it in hand, you can use Nin, the Pain Artist's ability on herself (or another creature you control) to draw your deck. You can also use Staff of Domination (or the suite of artifact tutors to find Staff) to achieve the same effect. If the Ballista gets exiled somehow, you can still kill the table with Expansion / Explosion by casting it and flashing it back with Mission Briefing. If everything has gone wrong and none of those options are available, it's time to start hitting opponents' creatures with Nin to deck them.

Why Nin over X General?

First, no, Nin is not as strong as 4-color Thrasios (No deck is, I believe it is the best deck in the format). This is partially since Thrasios doesn't care about summoning sickness to draw your library, and the extra colors allow you to take advantage of the best green and black spells out there.

But, Nin has a few unique advantages that I've found very enticing. First, the red splash offers a variety of helpful stax pieces (Blood Moon, Stranglehold) and enables unique cards that few other cEDH decks can take advantage of (Dack Fayden). This makes for a deck with all the payoff cards of a mono blue deck (High Tide, Vedalken Shackles) while still having the spiciest interaction. Second, she can hit herself midgame to refill your hand when running low on gas. Since cEDH is so fast and mana costs are so low, it's common for decks to peeter out quickly without a good draw engine. Nin fits the bill extremely well here, and there have been many situations where I've been able to ping Nin with her ability for 5 cards or so EOT, then win with my massive advantage the next turn. That efficiency just draws more cards than Thrasios/Tymna on average, which gives us an edge.

As for other infinite commanders, most either are useless without infinite mana/storm (Oona, Circu) or need colored mana (Tasigur, Breya) and require more complicated combos than the ones seen in this deck. Among other Izzet commanders, the biggest competition is new Jhoira. But that deck is too glass cannon IMO (reliant on the commander) and is forced to play tons of weaker artifacts just to hit critical mass to reliably draw cards. If Jhoira is taken out, it's very hard to get the ball rolling again. Nin can play both the control role and combo role just as effectively.

My meta:

As any tuned deck should, this list is tuned for my local playgroup. If you're looking to take inspiration from this deck, feel free to adjust things if you find they won't be as helpful in your pods. cEDH has a lot of silver bullet stax cards, so it's expected to pick and choose the best for your most frequent opponents. On a given day, I'll be against:

Thrasios + Tymna

Prime Speaker Vannifar

Chain Veil Teferi

Animar, Soul of Elements

Karador, Ghost Chieftain

Arcum Dagsson

Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain

Muldrotha, the Gravetide

Brago, King Eternal Stax

Gitrog Dredge

Yisan, the Wander Bard

Kess Storm

Jace, Vyrn's Prodigy

Food Chain Tazri

Alesha Stax

Meren Stax

Approximately 8 million Flash Hulk variants (Tasigur is the main one in this group)

All of these are at or near the cEDH level. If you're not against other cEDH decks, don't build a deck like this. You'll be seen as a pubstomper asshole and it's kinda rude.

Let's dive into the decklist. Here you'll find a quick explanation for every card in the list - separated by card type.

Creatures:

Gilded Drake: Simply best in slot for commander theft. Obviously better than just killing an enemy commander since they'll need to kill it to use it again. Plenty of cEDH decks rely on their commander (Yisan, Selvala, Animar, Yannifar, etc.) and this stops them dead in their tracks (particularly greedy decks like Gitrog that don't interact at all).

Dockside Extortionist: Excellent new guy from C19 - he serves as a piece of ramp and leaves a body to be hit by Nin afterwards.

Metalworker: Yikes, what a card. Any card that can generate more mana than it costs is a contender for cEDH, and lil' robot provides. With 3 artifacts in hand, he combos for the win with Staff of Domination. Otherwise, often taps for a lot of mana, then gets sacrificed to Nin for a fresh hand.

Spellseeker: Can find Dramatic Reversal for the combo, Transmute Artifact to find the Scepter, or countermagic to protect the combo if you already have it in hand. If you're really in a pinch, go find Cyclonic Rift.

Trinket Mage: Basically Sol Ring on a stick. Still worth it even at 3 mana. Sometimes can snag Grafdigger's Cage when an opponent is eyeing their graveyard or about to tutor something directly into play.

Snapcaster Mage: Excellent all-arounder. Works as a double of your essential card draw spell or interaction against disruption. I prefer this over Mission Briefing since the body is relevant (you can ping him with Nin later to draw cards).

Tribute Mage: An even better variant, since it can find combo pieces such as the Scepter or Monolith. If you need to, it can find a different rock or hate piece.

Thing in the Ice  ^Flip: A recent addition but welcome one. It blocks well, has a big butt so I can hit it with Nin for cards, and applies pressure when it flips. A 2 mana creature wipe is extremely rewarding, and shines when your meta is dominated by creature combo decks (as mine is).

Walking Ballista: The kill card of choice. With infinite mana, you win the game. Remember to hold priority after each activation of his damage ability to prevent people from interacting with you. Can find it with Trinket Mage, Inventor's Fair, and several other artifact tutors.

Instants:

Pact of Negation: Cheap countermagic is the king of interaction in cEDH. Who cares about the upkeep cost if you win the game the turn you cast it?

Brainstorm: Legacy staple for a reason. Good here because of our shuffle effects (Ponder, Fetches, tutors, etc.). Handy for hiding cards you want in your library right before a Wheel of Fortune.

Chain of Vapor: No one's going to sac a land to copy it. 1 mana bounce is great.

Galvanic Blast: A metagame choice. Brago, Linvala, Meren, Atraxa, Karador, Zur, and Kess are tough to deal with - Blast helps me efficiently deal with these pesky 4-toughness commanders. Sometimes you just have to kill a commander or lose (Yisan, Selvala, Zur). Most don't expect it, and punishes people who go a little too deep with Ad Nauseum. Most often gets rid of a hatebear, which is just fine. Also is a nice spell to imprint under the Scepter when I'm going for Plan D to win, which has happened a few times.

High Tide: 1 mana to make like 5 mana? OK. 1 mana = 1 card with Nin, so I'm down for that. We have lots of basic islands to afford to play with this.

Mental Misstep: A LOT of cEDH cards are CMC 1. The fact that this is free is even better.

Mystical Tutor: Not much that needs to be said here, generically useful tutor effect.

Swan Song: 1 mana hard counter for 3 card types. The bird doesn't matter.

Pyroblast: It's good disruption and combo protection all in one, especially if you know there will be a lot of countermagic trying to interact with you.

Abrade: Very versatile interaction - either blows up a piece of fast mana (Sol Ring, Mana Crypt), hatebear or other relevant creature (Yisan, Thalia, Baby Jace), or stax piece (Trinisphere, Null Rod, etc.). Really helps round out my removal suite since most of my other interaction doesn't hit artifacts or creatures.

Counterspell: Classic. 2 mana is good enough for an unconditional counter.

Cyclonic Rift: One of the remaining board wipes left in the deck, and the one with the most punch. Some decks cut this, but I think Nin makes enough mana to reliably overload it when really necessary.

Dramatic Reversal: Part of the primary combo. Not even terrible when you aren't imprinting it under the scepter, especially when you need to reset Grim Monolith or Mana Vault.

Expansion / Explosion: I'm interested in this as a replacement for Comet Storm (previous back-up plan kill card), so I'm trying it out. You can get Comet storm with Muddle the Mixture, but you can get this with Merchant Scroll. I like that it is a good early interactive spell that can counter opposing counters, or borrow some of black's tutor power when an opponent casts something, all while still being a good outlet for infinite mana when it's time to win (burn an opponent and make another deck themselves, or deck myself and draw into Walking Ballista if I don't have it yet). Besides, I'm not using the burn portion of Comet Storm much since I've been happy with Abrade and Galvanic Blast.

Impulse: Handy and efficient card draw when Nin isn't online. (Can put it under the scepter in grindy games.)

Mana Drain: Oof. I hope you don't need me to explain why this card is busted.

Muddle the Mixture: Secret powerhouse. It finds both pieces of Plan A and Plan B combos, and can also counter things when needed.

Narset's Reversal: Wonderfully tricky interactive spell. Can borrow some of black's tutor power while delaying opponents' tutors, or redirect their removal at their own board. This works nicely against counterspells since you can return your own spell to your hand in response, then recast it.

Negate Unless your meta is filled with Elfball and Creature combo decks, negate will always be great.

Whir of Invention: Chord of Calling for artifacts. The fact that this is instant is huge - not much else to say here. It's a tutor = It's good.

Fact or Fiction: Recently added back into the deck. I thought 4 mana was too much, but turns out that's still a great rate for what you get here.

Force of Will: See Pact of Negation. If this was some 4 color nonsense deck, I'd think twice about using this. We're nearly monoblue, so no regrets.

Sorceries:

Gitaxian Probe: Free card draw. Useful for checking if the coast is clear to combo off, and 0 mana to get a Paradox Engine trigger sounds great to me.

Ponder: Obviously good card selection. Cheap and effective.

Preordain: See Ponder.

Vandalblast: Every cEDH deck uses fast artifact mana, and most use even more artifacts as engines, stax pieces, or kill cards (Like this deck). 5 mana to kill 8+ mana worth of rocks, Cursed Totem, and your Chain Veil? Insane. 1 mana to get your Sol Ring? Still good.

Merchant Scroll: Obvious generically good tutor. Main targets are counterspells, Dramatic Reversal, and Cyclonic Rift.

Transmute Artifact: Best there is. Easiest tutor to sneak Paradox Engine into play early.

Fabricate: Obvious generically good tutor. A tad expensive, but can't complain.

Pyroclasm: Wrecks the elfball / hatebear decks. I wanted a cheap sweeper to fight against creature decks since most of my remaining removal is designed to fight blue.

Wheel of Fortune: 3 mana for 7 cards. We want as many of these as we can get after dumping mana rocks early. Try to use this right after an opponent tutors for something to hand.

Windfall: See Wheel of Fortune.

Artifacts:

Chrome Mox: A lot of these will be busted mana rocks, so let me lay it out here - fast artifact mana is absurd in cEDH. In a game like magic that is balanced by limited resources, if you can have 5 or 6 mana on turn 2-3, you'll win a vast majority of those games. There's no mystery why every powerful deck is filled with these 0-2 CMC rocks (minus Animar). In our deck, more mana = more cards with Nin, and a greater likelihood of doing something insane with Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter or Paradox Engine the moment they hit the field.

Lotus Petal: Yeah, still good enough. See Chrome Mox.

Mana Crypt: Busted. See Chrome Mox.

Mox Amber: It's a mox, albeit the weakest of the bunch.

Mox Diamond: It's a mox.

Mox Opal: it's a mox.

Grafdigger's Cage: Stops Reanimation, Hulk combos, Yisan, and Chord effects. Hardly affects me at all.

Mana Vault: Busted. See Chrome Mox.

Sensei's Divining Top: Provides a little bit of extra digging when you need it. You can stack draw triggers when you have a Paradox Engine loop to draw through your deck.

Sol Ring: Busted. See Chrome Mox.

Fellwar Stone: 2 mana, comes into play untapped, makes colored mana. "Rock" solid.

Arcane Signet: Great new rock! Even better than Fellwar.

Grim Monolith: Busted. See Chrome Mox. One of the pieces for Plan B infinite mana combo.

Isochron Scepter: One of the pieces for Plan A/D infinite mana combo. Don't be afraid to imprint something other than Dramatic Reversal if you can't find the combo after a while. Mana Drain / Impulse / High Tide / Whatever every turn is still pretty sick.

Izzet Signet: 2 mana, comes into play untapped, makes colored mana.

Mind Stone: Weakest among the rocks here, but cycles when I'd rather have something else. Still good enough.

Talisman of Creativity: 2 mana, comes into play untapped, fixes mana when you need colored.

Scroll Rack: One of the best ways to dig through your deck, especially after scooping up a bunch of cards after using Nin to refill your hand or a Wheel of Fortune effect.

Staff of Domination: an infinite mana outlet, and a piece to achieve infinite mana in Plan C. Usually we use this to draw our deck.

Vedalken Shackles: A little expensive mana-wise, but much stronger than it looks. Most creatures in a competitive environment are small, so I usually only need a few islands to threaten to steal anything. Makes strategies that rely on a commander very difficult (Yisan, Brago, etc.). Sometimes just steals mana dorks, which I'm fine with since I can hit it with Nin and steal another one the next turn.

Enchantments:

Mystic Remora: A cEDH staple that has still gone under the radar in a lot of casual circles. Will either force everyone to play slower for a few turns or draw you like 8 cards.

Power Artifact: The other piece of the Plan B infinite mana combo. Usually find this guy via Muddle the Mixture.

Blood Moon: I live off the tears of greedy 4-color manabases. Straight up locks some decks out of colored mana, and doesn't affect me at all. Stops other stuff that's tough to interact with (Gaea's Cradle, Cabal Coffers, etc.).

Back to Basics: Another excellent payoff for being primarily blue with a light red splash. Decimates greedy manabases of 3+ color decks. Unlike Blood Moon, you can play this when opponents are tapped out to completely lock them off of mana (instead of giving them a bunch of mountains).

Planeswalkers:

Dack Fayden: Consistently awesome and one of the biggest payoffs for going UR. There is always a good mana rock to steal.

Narset, Parter of Veils: One of the more recent heavy-hitters in cEDH, Narset is an excellent stax and card advantage piece all in one. Notably, you can Nin opponents' creatures with Narset out, and they'll only draw 1 card (0 if you're doing it on their turn). Also pairs especially well with Wheel effects, since you'll strip opponents of their hands.

Tezzeret the Seeker: Expensive, but excellent. Think of it like a copy of Transmute Artifact, but if you're lucky you can use it twice.

(Notable) Lands:

Academy Ruins / Buried Ruin: Our tiny recursion package, just in case critical cards get milled or destroyed.

Inventors' Fair: It's a tutor!

Notable Exclusions:

Timetwister / Mishra's Workshop / Volcanic Island: The benefit just isn't worth it in real world dollars. I'm not doing any infinite Timetwister loops, so it's just an insanely expensive wheel effect. Mishra's Workshop is not even good, and while including Volcanic Island would be nice, the benefit is marginal for how much it costs.

Past Inclusions + Currently Testing:

Paradox Engine: Goodnight, sweet prince. It was nice while it lasted. RIP

Kuldotha Forgemaster: Too expensive / clunky.

Consecrated Sphinx: Casual all-star, but 6 mana to maybe draw some cards is too much to ask.

Magus of the Moon: Great when Karador, Animar, Kess, and T&T are at the store, but lately there's been a lot of Edric, Yisan, Yannifar, and Teferi (who don't care about this effect).

Great Furnace: Used this to make sure Mox Opal would be active more often, but I've found it's more important to just have Islands (Vedalken Shackles, Blood Moon effects, etc.)

Annul: The blue 1-mana disenchant. The cards I'm most terrified of are Stony Silence, Null Rod, and Cursed Totem - all of which are hit by Annul. Also, there are plenty of scary targets besides the one I mentioned. There are other 1 mana answers that are more useful though.

Thought Vessel: Got cut as the weakest of the 2cmc rocks as more hatepieces made their way into the deck (Grafdiggers, Blood Moon, Stranglehold, etc.)

Voltaic Key: If we're treating this as a mana rock, it doesn't net mana often enough to be worth it. (Grim Monolith, Mana Vault, Sol Ring, Mana Crypt are the only good targets)

Torpor Orb: Karador has mostly left the local meta, so I feel better about taking this one out. The only deck this really messes with nowadays is Animar and Brago, but I have some tech for him already.

Stranglehold: Gets better the more competitive your group is. Brutal when powered out early, since it also turns off fetchlands. Love playing this against Yisan and Sisay players in my group.

Gamble: This card was in the list for years, and it was only recently that I took it out. I understand why it's popular (it's a 1 mana tutor in red!), but in my years of experience I've found it to be overrated. You usually use tutors to find the second piece of your two card combos (Iso/Scepter or Grim/Power). By that time, there usually isn't much else left in your hand, so discarding one of your combo pieces is likely. So, perhaps you use this to just tutor for fast mana or silver bullet stax pieces? But you can't do it when you have any combo piece in hand, since you're SOL if you discard it. Sometimes you're just unlucky. Generally, I only use this card when I've drawn a lot of cards with Nin and the probability of discarding something critical is low. So, most of the time Gamble is a win-more card. I'm testing taking this card out, but who knows. Most cEDH lists use it, maybe I've been using it wrong.

Spell Snare: Just like Mental Misstep, most people in cEDH play cheap spells. This slot was at first reserved for protection against the scariest stax pieces (Stony Silence, Null Rod, Cursed Totem), but I realized that Spell Snare is more useful than most counters not just against these hate cards, but tons of others. Hits Survival of the Fittest, Kataki, tons of hatebears, Isochron Scepter, several counterspells, Grim Monolith, Flash, Thrasios, etc. Currently replaced with Into the Roil since it's more versatile.

Dispel: Turns out cEDH has a lot of good instants to counter. Most non-elfball decks run at least 20-25. Handy for protecting Nin when attempting to shoot herself to refill my hand, or countering disruption during combo turns.

IN GENERAL: the 1-mana "narrow" counter/removal slot(s).... I'm constantly flip-flopping between Spell Pierce, Pyroblast, Annul, and Spell Snare. Judging from other cEDH lists, Spell Pierce is the most popular, followed by Pyroblast...but I'm not too fond on any of these cards.

Thanks for checking out the guide! If you have any questions/suggestions about the deck, feel free to comment below.

(Sidenote: My playgroup allows PEngine, which I've replaced narset's reversal with.)

SideBae on We have our heading!

3 weeks ago

So Rishadan Cutpurse, Rishadan Footpad and Rishadan Brigand are all pirates. I've always been successfully annoyed when an opponent plays them against me.

I suggest running 2-drop rocks over 3-drops. I think you should run cards like Rakdos Signet over Obelisk of Grixis. I think Talisman of Indulgence, Talisman of Dominance and Talisman of Creativity are probably better than the signets though.

Snap seems better than Depths of Desire.

Dack Fayden is probably a good fit for this deck. He's powerful and a thief (sorta a land-pirate, I guess).

Ponder and Preordain belong in any blue deck, including this one. Brainstorm is good if you get fetch-lands, but I wouldn't run it unless you have fetch lands.

Spectral Sailor is a good way to sink extra mana. Dockside Extortionist is good for getting mana.

Rhystic Study and Mystic Remora are good draw-engines.

I think Bribery is worth including. Also Coastal Piracy.

The cuts are going to depend on how much you're willing to compromise flavor. Captain's Hook, Prying Blade, Fell Flagship and Dusk Legion Dreadnought seem like good cuts. There're also a bunch of creatures you can cut for better ones or to get down to a hundred cards: Brazen Buccaneers, Crafty Cutpurse, Rigging Runner, Siren Lookout, Slippery Scoundrel and Talas Warrior. I don't think they do enough to be included.

That's all I got -- hope this helped.

Good luck

Lord_Grimm on marchesa

3 weeks ago

Cards to add: Phyrexian Altar, Gilded Drake, Phyrexian Tower, High Market, Zealous Conscripts, Viscera Seer, Arcane Denial

Cards to subtract: Warstorm Surge, Torment of Scarabs, Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch, Dack Fayden, Rewind

Lastly, maybe swap all the signets for the same colored talismans

SideBae on Krenko, Mob Boss

4 weeks ago

I don't know how mean your meta is, but to take a page from legacy goblins you may want to pack some disruption in the deck. Thorn of Amethyst is a favorite of mine for decks that run 30+ creatures, and you may want to run something like Ruination in addition to your Blood Moon. Trinisphere is good if you want to be a douche. Since you're not running all TOO many artifacts with activated abilities, you could adjust the list to be more conducive to running something like Null Rod. It can be brutal in the right pod.

If you do run Null Rod, it'll turn off your Skullclamp. There are, luckily, non-artifact-based card advantage sources you have access to. Consider Outpost Siege, Experimental Frenzy (maybe), Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Commune with Lava, Wheel of Fortune/Reforge the Soul, Dark-Dweller Oracle, Sensation Gorger, etc. I think you can get away with hating on artifacts without giving up too much. Note that Null Rod does not turn off your Ruby Medallion.

Price of Glory is good. Grafdigger's Cage is arguably the best piece of disruption in EDH right now, and unless I'm missing something it doesn't hurt you at all. I'd definitely run it.

You may want to consider Mass Hysteria instead of Fervor. Being one mana is a big deal, since a quarter of your deck is three-mana and Mass Hysteria will free up t3 to cast a creature. My only reservation is that if you're playing against a mono-green elves strategy, it's not as good a card. 'Course, they frequently run Concordant Crossroads, so it may not matter...

Gamble is a pretty good tutor in mono-red.

Goblin Assassin is a card to consider if you want to go more midrange-y. You can sac the tokens Krenko, Mob Boss makes and effectively have a repeatable edict effect on the table.

You may also want to consider running a few more powerful non-basics. Since you're running Pyroblast, I assume you're in a relatively blue-heavy meta. If you have $50 to blow, Cavern of Souls is a great card. Ancient Tomb is also good, but it's also pricy.

A note on Pyroblast: In mono-red, I think Red Elemental Blast is very, very marginally better. In 99% of cases, it won't matter, but Red Elemental Blast can't get Misdirection-ed or Commandeer-ed onto a non-blue spell. People frequently run Pyroblast over Red Elemental Blast when they run Dack Fayden so that if he ults then they can steal a permanent for {r}. Here, though, I think Red Elemental Blast is technically better. By a tiny, tiny bit.

Faithless Looting gives you a good measure of card-selection. Same with Thrill of Possibility, which is an instant.

Right. That's all I got -- let me know if you have any questions.

Good luck

PhyrexianGameplay on Red Hulk

1 month ago

if you are going to play this deck, you probably should be playing Biomancer's Familiar, Mox Diamond, Dack Fayden, as well as removing kiki, pod, felidar, and other bad wincons that don't allow you to win at instant speed. adding another land would also be good, as well as playing pyroblast.

Berndh01 on UR Spellslinging

2 months ago

I really like your list. The low 2 drop slot is hard. I feel like you're already playing the good ones. I would maybe recommend considering: Condescend ? Maybe even: Into the Roil or Blink of an Eye . I feel like once certain threats are in play your deck doesn't have a lot of answers to them and late game bouncing a mid-range threat and drawing a card is super relevant. An argument could also be made for Censor and Lat-Nam's Legacy ? Eh?

For your threats, I really like Brineborn Cutthroat . I'm also a fan of looter Jace Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip. I personally would maybe play them over the goblins. They come in a turn sooner and I feel like they're both viable threats even if they don't start producing tokens. Not to make your list literally the list by WindyDelcarlo, but I'm also a big fan of Dack Fayden and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer .Taking a tinker'd out target or Crucible of Worlds with Dack Fayden feels reeaaallly good. I could see the goblins you have maybe being a bigger threat than Saheeli, because you don't always have a relevant threat to make a copy of. I'm also a sucker for Baral, Chief of Compliance .

Two cards that I think could be better slots are: Dive Down and Ionize . I think I would value things like: Disallow , or Supreme Will . I also like Divert better than Dive Down . It's more versatile and will probably save your creatures from the same spells as well as win you a counter war.

I would also strongly urge you to play Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon . Maybe Back to Basics .

SideBae on Narset, Enlightened Master

2 months ago

I mean, the easiest way to improve the deck as I see it is to improve the mana situation, both in the lands and in the rocks. For the lands, I suggest cutting one or two, since if you play more rocks (see below) you'll play faster and still have all the mana you need. Fetch lands (like Scalding Tarn or Windswept Heath ) are the easiest way to improve your mana consistency, but unfortunately they tend to be prohibitively expensive. I suggest running more duals like Shivan Reef , Battlefield Forge , Sea of Clouds , etc. instead of your ETB tapped lands like Mystic Monastery .

With regards to rocks, you're already running two of the best ones ( Sol Ring and Arcane Signet ). However, I've never liked 3-mana mana-rocks like Chromatic Lantern or Jeskai Banner , since in my experience things like Talisman of Progress , Talisman of Creativity , Fellwar Stone etc. are simply better. I'd advise increasing the number of cheap (CMC<=2) mana rocks in your deck, as well as cutting one or two basic lands for the same number of cheap rocks. This'll both speed up your deck in the first few turns AND increase the number of hits you get from your general's attack trigger.

Speaking of the attack trigger, consider Strionic Resonator . I play it in my Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger deck, and I've found it to be a pretty good way to press an advantage. Being able to see 8 cards rather than 4 with Narset, Enlightened Master 's trigger seems pretty good.

Depending on your personal theory of ethics, you may wish to consider mass land destruction (MLD) as another method of winning. I personally have no problem with it, but some people might not like it. Anyway, if you want to go that route you should run Armageddon , Cataclysm and (potentially since it's about $100) Ravages of War . Note that Jokulhaups doesn't really work, since it'll kill your general, too.

Wear / Tear is, I think, an auto-include in any deck including Boros colors. It's an extremely efficient method of spot removal.

Reconnaissance is a card you may wish to include, depending on your meta. It'll allow you to attack and trigger Narset even if all your opponents have profitable blockers. Same goes for Maze of Ith .

I've always loved Dack Fayden in EDH. He steals rocks, loots you to where you need to be, and only costs three mana... If you have access to him, I highly advise including him.

Preordain is a good cantrip on par with your Brainstorm and Ponder . While it is admittedly less powerful when it comes to leaving a card you want to cast with Narset on top of your library (since you'd have to scry both to the top), it is a powerful enough turn 1 play that I think you should run it anyway. I have frequently found one-land hands keepable on account of cantrips, and running Preordain will make it that much more likely for you to hit a good opening 7.

The last card I want to mention is Proteus Staff . If you cut all the creatures in your deck except your general (which I honestly think you should strongly consider doing), you can use Proteus Staff to reorder your entire deck. The way it works is this: second main phase, after you've attacked with Narset, Enlightened Master and (hopefully) gotten an extra turn coming to you, you target Narset with the staff's ability. That tucks her to the bottom of your deck, but then immediately finds her again and puts her into play (since she's the only creature in your deck). Because Proteus Staff says to put the other revealed cards on the bottom of your library IN ANY ORDER, you can then put all the other cards in your deck in any order you wish (since your whole deck has been revealed). That means you can stick 4 extra turn spells on top, cast them during your extra turn, rinse and repeat.

Good luck! Hope this helps.

SideBae on Augustin helps you to lose all you friends

2 months ago

Hey man! Deck looks pretty good already, but I have a few suggestions:

1. Counterbalance is an interesting card in EDH you have in your maybeboard, especially since you're already running Sensei's Divining Top . It works pretty well with Mystic Sanctuary and blue-fetches, like your Scalding Tarn , which I think you should also run.

2. In general, I don't like Land Tax . The overwhelming majority of your cards are under 4 mana, so you're probably not going to need all the basics out of your deck most games. Land Tax is generally good with repeatable loot-effects like Dack Fayden or Faithless Looting , but I don't know if it'd be good here. Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip or even Jace, the Mind Sculptor are both okay ways to capitalize, if you want to run Land Tax .

3. If you start running things like Prismatic Vista , you can run non-basic hate like Back to Basics . In my experience, it can win games REAL fast against Thrasios-Tymna and similar decks.

4. Force of Negation is, I think, better than Negate . It doesn't work for 0 on your turn, but since you're a control deck you don't need to protect things like Ad Nauseam .

5. Deafening Silence is an absurd card. On your opponents' turns, you probably only need to counter one spell, and on your turn you probably just need to land a stax piece.

6. When I used to play Arbiter, I noticed one major issue was running out of cards. Consider Sphinx's Revelation , Dig Through Time and Treasure Cruise as ways to refuel.

Good luck!