Action Painting Spellslinger

Commander / EDH Aristocrats Casual Combo Counterspell Magecraft Midrange Primer Spellslinger UBR (Grixis)

Crow-Umbra

Land (35)

• 1x Blightstep Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Emergence Zone
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Haunted Ridge
• 3x Island
• 3x Island
• 2x Mountain
• 2x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Riverglide Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Shipwreck Marsh
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stormcarved Coast
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Training Center
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Xander's Lounge

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Ghoulish Procession
• 1x Underworld Breach
• 1x Black Market Connections
• 1x Curse of the Restless Dead
• 1x Cryptic Pursuit
• 1x Leyline of Anticipation
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Double Vision

Instant (18)

• 1x Pongify
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Pull from Tomorrow
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Reverberate
• 1x Thrill of Possibility
• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Brimstone Volley
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Kolaghan's Command
• 1x Big Score
• 1x Breath of Malfegor

Creature (14)

• 1x Bloodghast
• 1x Birgi, God of Storytelling  ^Flip
• 1x Dualcaster Mage
• 1x Morbid Opportunist
• 1x Poppet Stitcher  ^Flip
• 1x Veyran, Voice of Duality
• 1x Archmage Emeritus
• 1x Atsushi, the Blazing Sky
• 1x Faerie Artisans
• 1x God-Eternal Kefnet
• 1x Storm-Kiln Artist
• 1x Talrand, Sky Summoner
• 1x Lier, Disciple of the Drowned
• 1x Wandering Archaic  ^Flip

Commander (1)

Sorcery (15)

• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Do or Die
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Jaya's Immolating Inferno
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Twinflame
• 1x Arterial Flow
• 1x Jeska's Will
• 1x Painful Truths
• 1x Seize the Spotlight
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Syphon Mind

Artifact (9)

• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Decanter of Endless Water
• 1x Twinning Staff
• 1x Veilstone Amulet

Maybeboard

Creature (21)

• 1x Errant, Street Artist
• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Electrostatic Field
• 1x Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia
• 1x Kessig Flamebreather
• 1x Thing in the Ice  ^Flip
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat
• 1x Chasm Skulker
• 1x Guttersnipe
• 1x Vial Smasher the Fierce
• 1x Aura Thief
• 1x Death-Priest of Myrkul
• 1x Kess, Dissident Mage
• 1x Naru Meha, Master Wizard
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Deekah, Fractal Theorist
• 1x Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Hullbreaker Horror
• 1x Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant

Artifact (5)

• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Liquimetal Torque
• 1x Lightning Coils
• 1x Mimic Vat
• 1x Victory Chimes

Sorcery (17)

• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Release the Gremlins
• 1x Acidic Soil
• 1x Solve the Equation
• 1x Tasha's Hideous Laughter
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Mizzix's Mastery
• 1x Talrand's Invocation
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Mana Geyser
• 1x Skull Rend
• 1x Syphon Flesh
• 1x Choice of Damnations
• 1x Immolating Gyre
• 1x Surge to Victory
• 1x Fevered Suspicion

Planeswalker (6)

• 1x Ral, Storm Conduit
• 1x Ashiok, Nightmare Muse
• 1x Liliana, Death's Majesty
• 1x Lolth, Spider Queen
• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General
• 1x Professor Onyx

Land (2)

• 1x Luxury Suite
• 1x Morphic Pool

Instant (15)

• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x High Tide
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Rotten Reunion
• 1x Sacrifice
• 1x Baleful Mastery
• 1x Cathartic Pyre
• 1x Comet Storm
• 1x Deadly Dispute
• 1x Startle
• 1x Seething Song
• 1x Big Score
• 1x Blood Oath
• 1x Unexpected Windfall

Enchantment (14)

• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Bastion of Remembrance
• 1x Curse of Disturbance
• 1x Curse of Shallow Graves
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Metallurgic Summonings
• 1x Open the Graves
• 1x Rite of the Raging Storm
• 1x Arcane Bombardment
• 1x Shark Typhoon
• 1x Thousand-Year Storm

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There isn't anything abstract about Anhelo's art - Be splashy, be grandiose.

More up to date version of my decklist

"Action painting, sometimes called 'gestural abstraction', is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied. The resulting work often emphasizes the physical act of painting itself as an essential aspect of the finished work or concern of its artist."

• Wikipedia

Action Painting seems like it would be Anhelo's preferred technique.

Instead of trying to copy spells every possible turn with Anhelo, I will focus on generating value moreso off of Spellslinger payoffs with some occasional, to minimal, Aristocrats payoffs. The more I look at the aristocrats effects, the more I think they should be the accentual piece to the deck overall.

This deck has a combo wincon option, with potential to win from copying group damage effects. The current combo wincon is Dualcaster Mage + Twinflame to create "infinite" hasty tokens into combat. Additional pieces such as Impact Tremors can be added to this combo to circumvent the necessity for combat.

With a spellslinger first emphasis, this version of the deck would instead utilize the Casualty 2 on Anhelo to copy "Quality spells", such as:

• X spells: Exsanguinate, Torment of Hailfire, Pull from Tomorrow, or Blue Sun's Zenith
• Cruelty effects like: Skull Rend, Syphon Mind, or Seize the Spotlight
• Burn spells like: Jaya's Immolating Inferno, Acidic Soil, or Brimstone Volley
• Good stuff & Rituals like: Jeska's Will and Cabal Ritual
• Draw spells with "as an additional cost to cast" draw backs: Big Score and Thrill of Possibility

Options for more specific pathways

Extra Turns

A quick review of my binders revealed that I have the following spells in my possession:

• Alrund's Epiphany
• Part the Waterveil
• Temporal Trespass

I hadn't included any of these extra turn spells because I kinda forgot I had the others aside from Alrund's Epiphany. If I include extra turns, I want to ensure that I can definitively close out the game during those turns. It's not fun for anyone if I'm just spinning my wheels and can't end things.

Hand Destruction

I have a copy of Waste Not, and I can't help but be excited at its potential as a value engine for this deck. I think that copying group hand destruction, with the addition of Tergrid, God of Fright   and Syr Konrad, the Grim could throw plenty of damage around. Possible includes:

• Windfall

• Bite of the Black Rose

• Capital Punishment

I started a version of this deck that has more of the discard support from above. It's much more rough and less well thought out than this version of the deck.

Combo options

None of these are in the deck yet:

• Chain of Smog + Professor Onyx

The Professor Onyx/Chain of Smog combo was pretty hyped shorlty after Strixhaven dropped. 8 mana is a deep investment, especially if Chain of Smog will force me to discard my hand, and leave me open without combo protection in hand.

Not under consideration (right now)

• Doomsday Piles, Ad Nauseam, Tainted Pact, Thassa's Oracle, and Demonic Consultation

I have no doubts that more cEDH leaning iteratitions of Anhelo decks will use some mix of these cards to achieve a combo finisher. I will not be running any of these combos since my play group isn't that high-powered.

Ramp and Rituals

To take advantage of Anhelo's capabilities, I wanted to run a mix of typical mana rocks, as well as Ritual effects which can potentially be copied with Casualty 2 or other copy effects in the deck:

Rituals

• Cabal Ritual

• Birgi, God of Story Telling - Kinda ritualish in spell cast

• Jeska's Will - Excellent copy target for the ritual effect in addition to its impulse draw.

Rocks

• Sol Ring

• Arcane Signet

• Fellwar Stone

• Talisman of Creativity

• Talisman of Dominance

• Talisman of Indulgence

• Thought Vessel

Other mana acceleration

Not necessarily "ramp", but effects that can help accelerate mana beyond Turn 3

• Mana Drain

• Seize the Spotlight

• Big Score

• Storm-Kiln Artist

Anhelo's Muses - draw effects and tutors

As an artist, Anhelo needs to draw his inspiration from somewhere. Alright, I'll see myself out. Similar to the ramp and mana acceleration, I wanted to get a mix of repeatable draw effects on permanents, as well as draw and cantrip effects on instants and sorceries that can be copied if needed. This is definitely a section that I think needs a bit more fine-tuning.

Draw & cantrip effects

• Xander's Lounge

• Night's Whisper

• Pull from Tomorrow - Scales as needed and can be copied

• Thrill of Possibility - Can be copied and will only have to discard for the original copy. Decent for drawing on someone else's end step.

• Blue Sun's Zenith - The most restrictive in terms of single color investment, but has the benefit of shuffling back into library.

• Jeska's Will

• Morbid Opportunist - Draw from Casualty 2 instances and when opponents' creatures die.

• Painful Truths

• Seize the Spotlight

• Atsushi, the Blazing Sky - A nice target for Casualty 2, stapling on some Treasure or impulse draw.

• Archmage Emeritus - Great spellslinger payoff especially since Magecraft also checkes for spells being copied.

• Big Score

• Syphon Mind

• Harnfel, Horn of Bounty   - Impulse draw available if needed.

Tutors

Since I'm still getting a feel for what combos (if any) will end up in this deck, I wanted some tutors that I know aren't currently commited to any of my other decks.

• Muddle the Mixture - Part counterspell, part tutor.

• Demonic Tutor

• Lim-Dul's Vault - a pseudo-tutor, in the sense that it can dig down through 5 card increments until I hit on a batch of 5 that could be helpful.

Potential Tutor additions:

Some other tutor effects that I have in my collection or in other decks that I could proxy or swap in if this list becomes more combo focused.

• Scheming Symmetry

• Solve the Equation

• Merchant Scroll

• Grim Tutor

Removal and Interaction

In general I tend to view "Removal" as any effect that can destroy/exile single targets or multiple permanents at once, and "Interaction" as any effect that prevents opponents from interacting with your board and resources, or their own board and resources in a beneficial manner.

One can split hairs on the "Interaction" section, but I also tend to lump in "protection" effects into Interaction, since they prevent my opponents from interacting with my things lol.

Removal

• Pongify

• Vandalblast

• Feed the Swarm

• Jaya's Immolating Inferno - Can be used to remove creatures, but will more often than not be aimed at my opponents' faces.

• Rakdos Charm

• Reality Shift

• Chaos Warp

• Kolaghan's Command - Nice set of modal options.

• Toxic Deluge - Currently the only creature based board wipe in the deck. May be replaced with Cyclonic Rift at some point, especially if I feel I need a wider net for my boad wipe options.

• Dictate of Erebos - Adds some sting to Casualty 2 activations, and gives some pause for using creature removal on my board.

Interaction

• Bojuka Bog

• Swan Song

• Counterspell

• Mana Drain

• Muddle the Mixture

• Rakdos Charm - Instant speed graveyard hate and "Each creature deals 1 damage to its controller" have come in clutch for me plenty of times in my playgroup, due to the prevalence of graveyard and token strats in our meta.

• Acidic Soil

• Seize the Spotlight - A copy target that can steal creatures before a combat, or force opponents to give us some draw and treasures.

• Torment of Hailfire

• Veilstone Amulet

• Lier, Disciple of the Drowned - Double edged sword of combo protection, but can also help opponents push through their own spells and combos.

• Breath of Malfegor

• Skull Rend

• Wandering Archaic   - One of my favorite cards. I tend to frame the copy ability as a collaborative effort.

Tokens & Casualty fodder

To improve the likelihood that Casualty 2 pops off I've included various spells that can create 2/2 tokens:

• Bloodghast - Will be helpful to have a creature that can recur itself back to field with minimal mana investment to do so.
• Ghoulish Procession
• Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia
• Curse of the Restless Dead - Ideally cast on someone playing Green, or Landfall in best case scenario.
• Poppet Stitcher  
• Cryptic Pursuit - I'm very excited to try out this card. This feels like exactly the value engine this deck needed as I was brewing prior to the precon lists being spoiled.
• Faerie Artisans - Gives the deck a chance to copy creatures with ETB effects, and also gives opponents some pause on giving me a copy of their creatures.
• Talrand, Sky Summoner - Althougth those Drakes are useful as Casualty fodder, they are also useful for crucial flying blocks, or turning sideways in a pinch.

Spellslinger decks aren't my forte, so I'm still getting a feel for the ratio of creatures to instants/sorceries, as well as the right balance of token production and spellslinger payoffs.

Top Ranked	Achieved #7 position overall 1 month ago Achieved #4 position in Commander / EDH 1 month ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Aristocrats 2 months ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Casual 1 month ago
Date added	2 months
Last updated	2 weeks
Key combos	Dualcaster Mage + Twinflame
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 46 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.78
I Token	Ape 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Drake 2/2 U, Manifest 2/2 C, Morph 2/2 C, Shapeshifter 3/2 C, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B w/ Decayed
Folders	Uncategorized, Inspirations, Good ideas from random people, EDH busild future decks, Decks I'm Interested In, COMMANDER