I am working on the deck again after not having played for some time. The primer is out of date in many spots which I will work on soon.
This deck was a very personal creation for me, but I would be remiss to not give due respect to the many informational resources made available by the internet, and the exceedingly kind help of strangers, whom I met at r/CompetitiveEDH.
The deck follows a stax control game plan. Stax as a style of play is actually extremely wide: anything which denies resources in some way can be considered a stax effect. Because of this there are many different ways to play stax: discard focused, sacrifice focused, and mana denial cover three of the largest strategies. This deck focuses on a strategy of mana denial, using taxing effects to increase the cost of spells, and various effects which deny mana such as keeping lands/permanents from untapping or destroying lands. Many stax effects are universal and affect their controller along with their opponents. So the ultimate goal of the deck is to be better able to play the game through these stax effects. In this way, Stax is able to carve out a respectable niche for itself in competitive metas even though it is much slower than all-in combo decks. The deck runs many cards which I categorize under stax which still aren't directly a part of this strategy. Stax also includes the use of static effects on permanents which control certain strategies - certain cards will hose certain strategies while doing nothing against other strategies. So the deck must adapt to its meta with specific cards. With this deck I've done my best to create something powerful for my own local meta, but which can still compete in an unknown meta.
Quick Note: Many competitive Zur decks talk about him as a back-up plan. This is certainly appropriate for Combo decks, which would only be slowed down by a reliance on Zur. Stax can take a different approach though. It is still almost never appropriate to rush into playing Zur as quickly as possible, because rushing into Zur means that the player has probably yet to establish a stax lock. The deck is indeed capable of playing without Zur, but as long as the player is smart about using Zur, stax decks can use him as a reliable value engine, and one which should absolutely not be ignored. I was originally a follower of the idea that one should never really bother going for Zur because of how big a removal magnet he is. Over time though, as I've increased in skill with the deck, I've become much better at gauging how and when to use Zur and now use him quite often as an amazing value engine (btw the first Zur trigger tutors Necropotence Every. Time.). This has led to the inclusion of a couple Zur support cards that weren't in the original deck: two haste enablers and Empyrial Armor.
T1-T2: Ramp City Bitch: first and foremost I must ramp in order to begin interaction to protect myself against the fastest opponents. 8 mana rocks are in the deck - I originally ran far more, thinking that the more rocks I ran, the better I could play through my own Winter Orb lock. However, I often played my hand out far too quickly by ramping at ridiculous speed, creating tons of efficient mana, but losing so much card advantage doing so that losses caused by rock flood were a legitimate worry of the deck. The number may go up or down over time but I doubt by much. For now 8 feels nice. Also a couple of my utility cards are great drops early: Lightning Greaves, Sensei's Divining Top, and Crucible of Worlds all shine early, doing wonders by setting up major future value engines at very little significant risk.
T2-T4: We Pick an Archenemy: This is the point where, in my meta at least, one player will break significantly far ahead of the others in mana, cards, creatures, etc. This point in the game is a balancing act between making good plays that will help you win, and overextending; flying too close to the sun, and having your wings burnt to a crisp. Here a careful managing of stax and removal is required to actually achieve optimal play. I'm certainly not the best at this, but I am steadily becoming better and better at it as I play. This is also the point where I will begin to think about Zur. T2 is definitely possible with the amount of ramp the deck runs, but the only way I would ever go for that is with some ludicrous god hand that could play both Zur and Lightning Greaves turn 2 preferably with Force of Will protection. T3 however, Zur becomes a more legitimate line of play. It's still fairly early, but there are far more theoretical card combos that would make me comfortable with it. A haste enabler would definitely be preferred, but then again it always is. Also, with or without haste, I'd want some counter protection in hand to keep him on the table.
T4-T7: The Game is Won or Decided: I think our meta is a tad bit slower than many competitive metas, although most of that I believe is due to us often sacrificing efficient lines of play for shenanigans. A decent number of games end around T4, more on T5, and we don't keep statistics but I would imagine that most are over by T6-T7. This doesn't necessarily mean that the game has been won or lost, but by this point the winner of the game is fairly clear barring a miracle comeback from any remaining player(s).
T8-: If everyone were playing very seriously and thoughtfully, getting to this point in the game heavily favors Zur as I just get more and more resources to turn off the other decks. Worth noting though that a rallying of the others that can break through a lock this late in the game will likely be ably to kill me due to Necropotence damage.
Meta Calls: cards that I'm running for my Meta
Linvala, Keeper of Silence and Cursed Totem: These shut off a couple of creature-based combo decks in my meta. The decks are good enough to warrant hate, and these just completely shut them out of the game until they can get rid of her.
Torpor Orb: Run because it's usually a decent hate card that hits a lot of decks in at least some way. Helps me turn off Sharuum + Clone in graveyard, and stop the nasty Magister Sphinxs floating around my meta.
Rest in Peace: I mention on the technicality that it is "just" grave hate, but even at a table not abusing their graveyard (for reference I play with a Sharuum Engine Deck most games, and the card is soaked with his tears) it is part of a reliable if slow win-con.
Top Locks, Zur Target Hall of Fame, Best Kills
Necropotence = Broken card is broken. It's even better when it's your commander ;P. I suppose there are theoretical situations where it might be strictly speaking "smarter" play to grab an O-ring or something, but the call of Necropotence is, well, potent. I have a few ways to get a Reliquary Tower out of my deck before Necropotence, but it would not be worth putting Necro off a turn just to do it. If i can do it without delaying the Necro activation though, it's so damn useful to have.
Necropotence Tips:
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This is not a speedy Gonzalez combo deck. Going into Necropotence for +30 life at once is a damn good way to get killed.
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After the first activation I rarely stop removal for Necropotence. That drops down to essentially never stopping it if I had a reliquary tower. Even with Necropotence on the field draw steps are fun. Also it makes using top-deck tutors more difficult.
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Necropotence with a plan, but do not have it set in stone; be open to the gifts of the Necropotence and it shall open to you the secrets of efficiency and reliability.
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If someone is going to kill you, remember to save the last bullet for yourself.
Rest in Peace + Helm of Obedience (+ Mind Over Matter/Tezzeret the Seeker): Great stax win-con, one colorless to exile target player's library. Rest in peace is a Zur target and there are multiple graveyard decks in my meta so I would run it anyways. On the downside, Helm is dumb without the RiP, and the combo can only kill one person at a time without MoM or Tezzeret, and Tezzeret is very unlikely given how often he is played just to blow himself up and tutor the Helm into play.
Mind Over Matter + Stasis + Necropotence = an expensive lock for a deck that is built to run effectively on very little mana, but two of the pieces are viable Zur tagets (and one will always be Zur's first target anyway), and it is definitely the most oppressive lock to drop. At this point a table scoop is almost guaranteed. But if not it should typically be simple to pull together a "real" win con.
Necropotence + Near-Death Experience + Solitary Confinement : I'll admit, the Near-Death Experience thing is pretty cheesy but only because of having to protect it for a turn. If I have Necropotence out, protection is likely plentiful.
The following story is a silly background piece I wrote for the deck and none of it is important. Read it if you like, you might get a laugh. Then again you might not, so, you know, your decision and stuff.
Once there was a little boy named Zur. All Zur wanted to do was to be a silly Johnny deck with a funny enchantment/pillowfort theme. But all of the other boys hated Zur. They saw his potential and decided they must beat him at all costs, even though little Zur just wanted to have some fun. Zur grew bitter at their hatred. Zur just wanted to play some silly enchantments. But as time passed Zur's bitterness turned into hatred of his own, and eventually the hatred twisted about for so long so deep within him that even that was transcended. Now Zur did not hate his bullies. Zur had found the secret - their decks loved nothing more than to ramp all the time, and drop big splashy bombs. But bombs cost mana. And their ramp was laughable when lands no longer untapped. Zur had learned something from the bullies, in a way his greatest teachers. They had taught him that "fun" was a zero-sum game. There was a limited supply of it. And so Zur was resolved - if he could keep the other boys from having any of their mana, from playing any of their cards, then of course they would be having no fun. And if they had none of the fun, then that must mean by default Zur gets all of it! And so Zur began a long series of physical and mental changes. What emerged from the other side of these changes bore only a passing resemblance to the Zur of old. He was faster, and stronger. He no longer hated the boys who had once tortured him - they were beneath him as ants had once been, and only the foolish man curses the ants for their occasional bite. Ants are not killed. Ants are exterminated. And exterminate them he did, but not with the joy and maniacal laughter he had once imagined. Zur's soul was gone, shriveled away and crumbled to dust in some forgotten corner of his chest while he inexorably sought knowledge and power, power and knowledge. The boy was gone. Zur is dead. Long live Zur!
Like I said, general silliness, the story is basically all just me being dumb and giving my deck a background story because I could and because this deck is my baby.
Stax Effects: The bread and butter of the deck! The various artifacts and enchantments that try their best to make your opponent unable to play the game. The number of various kinds of effects which can be considered "stax" is actually rather enormous. Certainly in my deck I categorize several cards which might more appropriately be under a narrower section for hatebears/silverbullets under stax instead for streamlining purposes.
Stax Creatures:
of the four creatures in the 99, two of them fall into the stax categorization.
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV: was actually cut from the original list for space but luckily after play-testing in the wild, tweaking, and balancing the deck, he found his spot and god has it been amazing. He's easily my favorite creature in the 99, and one of my top cards in the deck. Not only does he create a taxing effect, he ONLY taxes you're opponents, and it's on everything they do! Then on top of that, he also REDUCES the cost of my blue and white spells (also known as by far the most common colors in my deck) by one! While the effect does stack, this has a limited amount of utility, as Grand Arbiter is the only blue/white spell in the 99. Luckily it does stack for dat Zur commander tax, so if I ever need to recast him because, well... shit happens, I can still get him for the original price after one death.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence: Note: each have their own advantages/disadvantages but this card can be treated functionally as a copy of Cursed Totem which doesn't benefit from artifact synergy and is more expensive, but comes with a 3/4 flying body... and also has gorgeous art. The deck can't afford too many silver bullets that don't unilaterally affect everyone, so cards like Linvala and the totem really come down to a meta call. The best advice I can give is to know your opponents lists and play styles. This is really the only way to be sure if a silver bullet is even worth testing, much less permanently adding. If you don't know the meta ahead of time, either try to call it if you're confident enough, or just fall back into stax staples that are unilateral: don't worry, there's enough of them. In my meta at least, she turns off a couple of significant combo decks until she is dealt with, and comes with the additional bonus of having absolutely no effect on any of my own creatures - all of my creature abilities are either triggered or static with not a single activated ability on any of my 5 (including Zur) creatures.
The Sorcery!
Armageddon: The only sorcery in the stax section, Armageddon is an interesting card. The MLD just doesn't feel appropriate in the "answer" section and so I've categorized it in Stax. I used to run Catastrophe for another MLD spell, but found it too expensive to justify its slot, and didn't need the additional utility of a creature wipe - Merciless Eviction has been enough for me in that area. Armageddon on the other hand is fairly inexpensive, is moderately easy to tutor for (certainly not as easily as I can tutor for artifacts and enchantments, but I can't have everything, eh?), and is very flexible for the deck. Used from behind, it can even out seemingly insurmountable playing fields, and used from far enough ahead (in terms of mana rocks at least), I can put myself in the enviable position of having 3-5 times as much mana as some/all of my opponents. Personally I am not afraid to Armageddon as soon as I start falling behind mana-wise in any significant way to the rest of the table, but readers should be warned that many playgroups become salty at the mere mention of Armageddon, and even more will be salty if it's used to generate incremental value/advantage rather than set up a play to immediately win the game.
Stax Enchantments:
Counterbalance: this card definitely causes a bit of a split in opinion. Many call it a waste of two mana, one which is far too likely to sit about and do nothing while your opponents make legitimate plays. Personally I lean towards the other side of the argument: I admit that it is not a particularly reliable effect, but when the effect is as powerful as a straight up counter at the input of no additional cards or mana I consider it ridiculous enough to justify it's slot. If it counters one spell, it has already paid for itself in value; while I do not get to simply pick a spell to counter, as with Counterspell, This effect will remain on the battlefield until it is removed (and also has a chance to counter any removal). Add to that the fact that it is a legal Zur target, and although I can't really imagine a situation where I want to use a Zur trigger on it, that is only an advantage for the deck. Finally there are several ways to really start exploiting this card in the deck. Of my tutors, three of them are at instant speed and put the card on top of my deck, meaning I can use them to find something that is both relevant to the current board state, and will counter something relevant. Sensei's Divining Top is the real all star for synergy here, letting you not only arrange the top three cards of your library in response for more counters, but ensures that any spells with 1cmc will be automatically countered, because you can tap the top in response to the Counterbalance trigger. Rules Note: lands DO counter 0 cmc spells, which has been hilariously relevant against my friend's Sharuum Engine deck - watching a basic Island counter a Lion's Eye Diamond was one of the most gratifying moments the deck has ever given me.
Stasis: A classic stax enchantment, and easily the most difficult lock for the average deck to play through.Fairly common win con in the deck is simply a table scoop to a lock composed of Stasis, Mind Over Matter, and often some card draw enchantment (Preferably Necropotence). The card was actually cut for a short while, until it finally sunk through my thick skull that Mind Over Matter (ironically the exact card that Stasis was cut for) creates a Stasis lock that any sane, self-preservative, and non-masochistic player will scoop to as long as I have at least 3-4 cards in hand.
Humility: An extremely powerful enchantment that is "balanced" by being a unilateral effect. Admittedly, it can hurt to turn off my own creatures' abilities, but this is largely due to the fact that the deck runs so few creatures that the ones that it does run have to be extremely strong to make the cut - and therefore it hurts a little more to see them neutered. However, the benefits of it are just far too great to ignore. ALL creature abilities are turned off and they're all just basic 1/1s. That means activated abilities, triggered abilities, mana abilities, morphs, even etb abilities. As I understand, basically the only thing a creature can do with humility is an "on cast" trigger, like most Eldrazi abilities, or cascade. There are a few scenarios where it's appropriate to go for a Humility. 1. I have either swung with Zur and gotten the card that will start me towards one of my win cons (generally just Necropotence and then take my pick after that) and want to use Humility as extra insurance against shenanigans. 2. I have the right pieces/tutors to pull a win con together without Zur and there isn't a better use of the four mana, so I windmill Humility, again to help curb shenanigans as my opponents attempt to "play" the "game". 3. Occasionally it is actually required for defense - one of the decks I play against regularly is a well made Xenagod deck, which, while not super tuned, has made some waves in my college's competitive meta, mostly because there was no one playing a decent level aggro/stompy deck before him.
Rule of Law: Not too much to explain here. Screws over storm decks, and honestly just any deck which wants to cast lots of spells on a single turn (that is to say, basically every combo deck ever). It's at its best when Zur is in play, because he gets to tutor an enchantment into play, you still get to play a spell for the turn, and you get to counter on your opponents turns. To be honest I don't actually have a fast storm deck to deal with in my meta, this card is here because it's very good even against non-storm combo, and for the threat that storm decks represent in unknown metas. If a storm deck became extremely problematic for me, there's always Arcane Laboratory and Eidolon of Rhetoric for redundancy.
Aura of Silence: Completely hilarious to drop turn 2 against my friend's Sharuum deck. Seriously though, this card's great. The tax only hits artifacts and enchantments, but it also doesn't hit your own artifacts/enchantments, can be tutored with Zur, sacrifice itself for a free disenchant, and provides a somewhat narrow but often super relevant 2 mana tax - certainly a card that should always be in mind for the deck. This is a bit narrower card and could be cut for a meta where it is less relevant than a more universal form of stax. For my meta however, it has proved quite powerful.
Bitterblossom/Contamination: Both have very little utility by themselves but combine to shut off non black decks at the table. Bitterblossom is probably better to play by itself just for the chump blockers. In the right pod however with little black and not enough mana rocks, Contamination can be a worse (but legal!) version of Time Walk - one which unfortunately always gives your opponents their untap steps. These are probably the stax cards which I would trade out for more specific hate if I needed to adapt to a shift in my meta, just because too many decks in my meta are decent at playing through the lock.
Stax Artifacts:
Winter Orb: The classic stax piece. At its best when you've dumped a lot of mana rocks to really start abusing the lock, but against many decks is a legitimate early play even without much ramp, because the deck has such a low curve, and many decks use land ramp which is hit hard. Winter Orb can be an excellent early play even without a huge amount of ramp - this deck's chances of winning increases proportionally the longer it can drag the game out and winter orb is a fantastic way to slow down the game (also people are often willing to pour a huge amount of resources into removing it, and I very rarely actually care about it - if it affected even just a couple players untap steps and then ate someone's removal, it has provided more than enough value for me to love it with all my heart). The downside of course is that because it doesn't have any effect on your mana rocks it also doesn't hit enemy rocks or dorks. Sometimes decks will end up playing through a winter orb lock with more mana than you, which can be discouraging. You have to keep in mind though that in many of those cases, although they might be producing more mana, they are typically not actually playing the lock better, because this deck's curve and game plan is designed to intuitively and easily play with access to very little mana.
Static Orb: The nastier, grumpier, gothic little brother of Winter Orb! Harder to properly use than the good old polar bear orb, but has the potential to be far more powerful. Functions as a slightly worse version of Stasis for a Mind Over Matter lock. By itself, it is incredibly effective at stalling out a game until someone can save up to remove it. Also has fantastic synergy with Zur, as the first untap is used for Zur who can spend the turn getting the most relevant enchantment from your deck, and the second opens up a mana - often enough to pull off a tutor, or hold onto a counter for whatever your opponents manage to play. Side note: this card has some of the best fitting flavor text in the game - "Time passes, time crawls; Time doesn't move at all."
Sphere of Resistance: Simple, clean tax. A flat one mana addition to every spell. Fairly self-explanatory really: Sphere slows the game down, and that's advantageous for Zur. I know I sound like a broken record but this deck really does want the game to go long. Obviously no deck wants to be an Archenemy for too long - no matter how tuned a deck, being Archenemy for a table of competitive decks is almost always a recipe for disaster. But as long as I haven't been focused/hated on too hard during the course of the game, this deck is amazing at taking control of the late game. I generally prefer this to its little sister, Thorn of Amethyst, because I like the universal tax but I'm running both and believe both deserve their slots in the deck.
Thorn of Amethyst: The formerly mentioned little sister of Sphere! Generally worse for this deck with a small upside. The deck runs only 4 creatures in the 99, so the lack of creature tax will probably only be relevant for Zur himself, and he shouldn't be rushed out anyways. Honestly pretty much objectively worse for this deck than the Sphere because the creature clause has so little upside for me - it is far more likely to benefit one of my opponents who uses more creatures than it is to benefit me. This however does not make it a bad card - it is a cheap artifact and a solid tax effect, more than earning its slot.
Torpor Orb: a more silver-bullet style artifact, turns off all etb effects. While it will have little effect against certain decks (and it is a bit of a non-bo since I run both Snapcaster Mage and Sun Titan), the combos that it does turn off are generally completely turned off until the Orb is dealt with. Even after that, many decks will run at least some sort of utility suite and many of those include at least a couple creatures with etb effects. Finally, it turns off Aura Shards, which can otherwise be brutal for this deck to fight through. As far as my meta is concerned, it is mostly useful against the Sharuum deck I've talked about, moderately useful against the same player's Brago deck, and otherwise stays relevant by turning off various things like Aura Shards, the first trigger on an enemy Sun Titan, and holding off the Magister Sphinxs that my meta is so partial to.
Cursed Totem: Already discussed a bit with Linvala, Keeper of Silence. Cheap, efficient silver-bullet style hate card. Unlike Linvala, the Totem benefits from artifact synergy (aka metalcraft, artifact-only tutors, and Academy Ruins). If there was room for only the Totem OR Linvala in the deck, the smarter keep is almost guaranteed to be Totem (outside of a weird meta that is absurdly efficient at hating out artifacts). I however am a fallible human being, ruled by emotion, and so I would probably justify keeping Linvala by claiming that I wanted (the surprisingly large for her cmc) flying body and was willing to pay the extra mana, when in reality it would be because Linvala is expensive (cash wise) and has really beautiful art. Luckily, these cards are good enough in my meta that it's not a bad idea for me to run both.
Tutors: Any highly competitive deck should be running an appropriate tutor package. Even when not attempting to assemble a combo, they will always be helpful: finding the right answer, going for a pure value, or even just getting the right utility piece to enable some great play down the line. My tutor package is not particularly large but it is very efficient. It also reflects the roots of the original deck in that it is extremely efficient at tutoring for artifacts (designed to make it as easy as possible to start killing people with Helm of Obedience). A certain amount of reliability can be assumed even with a smallish tutor package just from the nature of running a commander that tutors directly into play.
Tezzeret the Seeker: His +1 is actually very relevant in the deck, but is almost never used, because Tezzeret enters the battlefield at 4 loyalty, meaning he can blow himself up immediately for a Helm of Obedience. I really do tend to just treat him as my second copy of the Helm which is why he falls under the tutor section instead of the utility section. I should probably be better about using Tezzeret for his extended utility. His +1 allows for an indefinite stasis lock as long as I have a mana rock tapping for blue (admittedly weaker than Mind Over Matter for that purpose, but that is less a weakness of Tezzeret and more a testament to how broken MoM can be). The -x ability is where things start getting really spicy. Tutoring any artifact into play is, well, good. There are no artifacts over 4 cmc in the deck, so it really is for any artifact. The ult is honestly not worth talking about - it's more in reach than many Planeswalker ultimates, but is almost exclusively just going to be a massive waste of loyalty because of how strong his -x is. Side note: gives the artifact lands some extra juice - he can -0 and put one of them into play if you need a land (he can also do this for any of the moxes).
Reshape: Also tutors Helm of Obedience directly into play. Pretty much objectively worse than Transmute Artifact, a card which I've been trying to get my hands on. I still might run both, but the list is fairly tight as is, so Reshape might end up on the cutting room floor eventually. It also continues the theme of gradually more expensive Helms. The Helm itself is 4cmc, Tezzeret sits at 5cmc, and Reshape clocks in at 6cmc to tutor Helm into play. Outside of grabbing Helm, the main use for reshape is to sacrifice a mana rock and turn it into a stax artifact. Side note: also gives the artifact lands extra value by making very good sacrifices.
Vampiric Tutor: The best of the 1cmc instant tutors in the deck, tutoring for any card in the entire deck with no restrictions, no revealing to opponents, and the only drawback is a negligible 2 life tacked on to the one mana.
Enlightened Tutor: The second best of the Esper 1cmc instant tutors. Enchantments and artifacts are INCREDIBLY relevant targets for this deck. Most of the time the difference between this and Vampiric tutor has nothing to do with the targets. Rather it often comes down to the fact that one costs life and one reveals the card.
Mystical Tutor: The last and definitely the weakest of the 1cmc instant tutors in the deck, still very strong. If nothing else it grabs a better tutor, but there should be more productive things to get in most situations. It can grab spot removal for any trouble permanent, and Merciless Eviction if i can afford it will really screw over another player or two. If I don't feel like thinking too hard about what I'm getting and/or I'm tired at the time I just sort of default to Force of Will, because that way I have a free counter in hand, and I can also try to take advantage of opponents playing around it until someone forces my hand.
Demonic Tutor: The one, the only. You know him, you love him, the tutor to end all tutors. Seriously though, 2cmc to put any card from your deck directly into your hand is horrifyingly broken. It always amuses me to see how some of the other black tutors are waaaay more expensive than Demonic because of rarity. (This deck for example, wouldn't actually run Imperial Seal even if I had one - Dat sorcery speed top-deck tutor is just too many drawbacks for me).
Expedition Map: Obviously the narrowest of my tutors as it only gets lands. I still like it because there are a few utility lands in the deck which are just amazing in the right situations, and besides this only Vampiric and Demonic tutor can actually get them (it's rare but I have used them to get an appropriate utility land a couple times). The map is used almost exclusively for Hall of the Bandit Lord, Reliquary Tower, or Academy Ruins. In EXTREMELY edge cases, it could theoretically go for a Command Tower/City of Brass if I was actually that desperate for fixing, but I've never actually done this in-game.
Card Draw: The card draw package is mostly enchantment based any of which can be grabbed by Zur - although this is largely coincidental. Even though all of the card draw enchantments are technically viable Zur targets, there are too many viable stax effects and winning enchantments that Zur can find to justify using one of his triggers on any card draw not named Necropotence. After the enchantments, the card draw package is rounded out with my two favorite, powerful, one use card draw spells.
Necropotence: Easily the most broken card draw effect that's legal in edh (there's a very good reason it's banned in French 1v1), with the possible exception of Ad Nauseam. This card is essentially guaranteed be the first Zur target any time he swings. Necropotence really is a hell of a general. I do try to use Zur to get it pretty often, as that allows me to save my tutors for protection/answers/win-cons, but it is absolutely legitimate to simply tutor for Necropotence if you don't believe Zur can be kept alive efficiently or at all for a swing. Biggest downside to hard-casting is honestly that triple black mana is easily the hardest color requirement for the deck to produce - even with Necropotence being as important as it is, black is still the individually least important and least represented color in the deck. Luckily the deck fixes well enough that it still shouldn't be any problem as long as I keep it in mind or am planning to hard-cast it multiple turns ahead of time- it's just harder to pull together than, for example, the four blue mana of Mind Over Matter.
Rhystic Study: Often Rhystic gets a bad reputation in competitive circles because it gives your opponents the delightful illusion of choice. This is really looking at it the wrong way. If they play around the study and pay the 1 they've been taxed, an effect my deck is already eager to have on the field, and then if they don't pay the tax, I still get to draw a card - including, because of how the triggers stack, the potential answer to what just drew me the card. I include this under card draw because in my experience, people far overvalue their own tempo as compared to enemy card advantage, although it is entirely legitimate to classify this as a primarily stax card. The study creates a sort of Prisoner's Dilemma, in which the first person to play a few cards a turn and refuse to pay any of the study triggers, appears to the others, to be at great advantage to themselves, making them more likely to go for plays without paying for the study. In reality however, the Rhystic owner, cackling maniacally, has come out far ahead of any of the other players and should be able to parlay their massive card advantage, if not into a quick win, then at least into a dominant position in the game.
Mystic Remora: The magic fishy! The obvious drawbacks of this card aren't nearly as bad as they appear at first glance, and are easily outweighed by the truly MASSIVE amount of cards which it draws. Cumulative Upkeep sucks, but I usually only pay for one upkeep and still get a ridiculous number of cards off of it. Occasionally I'll pay for a second upkeep if I really don't have anything particularly good and proactive for the turn - even then I would probably only do it I was pretty confident that I didn't need to counter too many things before my next turn. It only counts non-creature spells which does occasionally hurt, but is a very small issue against many top-tier decks. Finally, the tax for the fishy is no measly one mana like old rhystic, but a robust four mana tax that No One. Ever. Pays. Much cards, so advantage.
Phyrexian Arena: Arena is a great card to drop early to start producing card advantage at the very low cost of 1 life a turn. Trades some of the raw potential of Rhystic and Mystic for reliability. Not the most exciting card ever, but one which consistently proves itself worthwhile and will provide a constant stream of card advantage. Where Rhystic and Mystic often paint a large target on their controller's back once they start drawing too many cards, the Arena provides consistent, solid card advantage without attracting too much attention. Additionally, it is rarely if ever a target for removal (neither is the Mystic fish because of it's cumulative upkeep, but Rhystic Study eats removal quite often).
Windfall: Very powerful card draw for just three mana. Only two trade offs: it must be timed well to hit with full force, and it draws opponents cards (and often just as relevantly, lets opponents put cards into their graveyards). However, the raw card drawing power of this card more than makes up for it's drawbacks. Most satisfying use (for me at least) is dropping rocks and stax or utility cards in quick succession; just generally playing my hand out as quickly as I can into a very early windfall to decimate the still mulligan-crafted hands of opponents while gassing up - often with the counters and stax effects to neuter the cards my opponents just drew.
Gush: The one instant speed card draw I run. Just generally a very well rounded, strong card in this deck. If you don't have any lands in hand, you can play it on your turn netting a total of three mana out of two lands (tapping both the islands you will return for mana, return them, play one of the islands and bing bang boom, three mana from two lands, plus a land drop for your next turn. Seven lands in the deck are sub-typed Island (2 of the ABU duals, 2 of the Shocklands, and 3 Snow-Covered Islands), which is a bit light for Gush, but it must also be remembered that every fetchland in the deck can, and typically will, grab a land with Island as one of it's sub-types.
Ramp: Extremely important for the deck. I always want to have a couple mana rocks in hand at the start of the game, because rocks can play through most of my locks better than lands. It's very important to have enough of these, because I only run 32 lands.
Mox Diamond: My personal favorite of the three edh legal "moxes". Admittedly, with 32 lands, it can sometimes be a bit dicey to discard a land to it, but I still consider it well worth the slot. Also, it doesn't exile the land, it just discards it so it synergizes very well with Crucible of Worlds.
Mox Opal: My next favorite Mox! Metalcraft isn't very hard at all to achieve in this deck, especially between the Opal counting itself, and 3 artifact lands being run for the sole purpose of activating the opal.
Chrome Mox: My least favorite of the Mox. It's the easiest of the 3 to get actively tapping for mana, but comes with permanent/unavoidable card disadvantage of actual spells (as opposed to the Diamond which discards instead of exiling and requires just a land card instead of a colored spell). Finally, most importantly, the other two produce mana of any color, while this one makes only the imprinted card's color. Almost every nonland card in the deck is either colorless or one colored, with only three dual-color gold cards in the deck. It is still a 0cmc mana rock and it is still excellent ramp, it just takes a bit more thought to use effectively than the other two Moxen do; weighing the value of ramp and artifact density against card advantage and the inherent value of the imprinted card.
Sol Ring: It is Sol Ring. 1 cmc artifact that taps for 2 mana is good. Sol Ring is good. That is all.
Mana Crypt: Slightly better than Sol Ring turn 1, slightly worse afterwards. Admittedly not as broken in this deck as it can be in some fast combo decks but it can still enable some brutal turn 1-2 locks. Most of the time I would rather have this than a sol ring. The damage can be annoying by making big Necropotence plays more dangerous, but even then only if I'm having very bad luck and just keep taking three damage every turn. As long as it's averaging around 1.5 per turn it is still absurdly broken.
Talisman of Dominance/Talisman of Progress: The cycle are all excellent 2 cmc mana rocks. They are just much, much better than signets - the 1 damage for colored mana is more than worth it, whereas the signets often force you to hold up more mana than you want or need to. I desperately hope that Wizards will one day finally complete the Talisman cycle so that my 3-color decks can actually run 3 of them. They are strong enough that a new black/white one would Definitely warrant me finding something to cut for it.
Fellwar Stone: It's a bit situational, but I believe that in most metas it deserves a place in many decks. In my meta, between a Sharuum Engine deck and 5-color "Wombostorm", it's usually even better than the Talismans. Slight nonbo where it can be turned off by Armageddon. But not that bad considering it can be tapped first to pay for the Armageddon, and if your opponents still haven't played any lands by your next untap step, then they're dealing with much bigger problems than a dead Fellwar Stone.
Counters: The counter package has had every bit of fat trimmed from it. Every counter is either 1cmc, 2cmc, or can be played for free. This deck is designed to be played at a very competitive level, and at a competitive level it must be ready to fight much faster all-in combo decks. Unfortunately, those first 1-3 turns where the fast combos are looking to win, are often only the middle turns of setting up a good lock - the counters need to be cheap enough to hold off the combo decks while there isn't a full lock on the table yet, and still give me enough wiggle room with my mana to continue working on strengthening my lock. The counters need to be fast enough to interact with the fastest combo decks, so anything over 2 cmc is out.
Force of Will: Does it create card disadvantage? Yes. It is also a free counterspell that hits anything and is actually free. %100 worth it.
Pact of Negation: Some people aren't fans. I am. My curve is also extremely low so I can afford to play it and at the very least I can still have counter mana up afterwards.
Mental Misstep: A card that is very dependent on how fast the meta is for how good it is. My meta isn't blisteringly fast to end games, but there is a very large number turn 1 plays that a mental misstep can stop.Late game it can still counter the 1cmc counters, or something like a Sensei's Divining Top. And cards on the table, no matter how slow the meta was, as long as sol rings are in decks, I will run Mental Misstep. Misstep is the hero magic deserves, but not the one it needs.
Flusterstorm: helps with storm decks, although I don't face a traditional storm deck in my meta (a friend runs a bizarre Karona deck dubbed "Wombostorm" which can often go off in a way that triggers storm to be ridiculous, like a massive villainous wealth). Outside of Storm it's still a decent counter early game where it's a slightly narrower Spell Pierce (Admittedly, not the most comforting thing to say about such an expensive card). Anyways, even without a true storm deck in my meta, I still often get pretty high numbers of copies for it. It's a frickin boss at winning counter wars for 1cmc.
Swan Song: Great damn counter. It would have been called strong if it just hit instants and sorceries, but Wizards decided they might as well tack enchantments onto it too. The 2/2 flyer is very irrelevant in a 40 life format where practically no one is trying to win via traditional combat damage.
Stifle: The number of times this card has saved my ass... some people prefer Stifle, some prefer Trickbind. They're both very good to have in a list, but I think it would be overkill to put both into a deck. Which one you go with will definitely be influenced by meta and personal preference. I like stifle because there have been many times in my games, where the bonuses a Trickbind brings would be relevant, but the one less mana was extremely relevant. Again, this one really comes down to personal preference, because Trickbind really does have some huge advantages.
Arcane Denial: Countering target spell with no restrictions is for 2cmc and only one colored mana is a very powerful effect. Arcane Denial also replaces itself in your hand. I know I was initially uncomfortable with the idea of giving an opponent card advantage over me, but that's not actually an appropriate way to view it. Counters that don't cantrip are trading cards in hand 1 for 1, which in a multiplayer format puts both you and target opponent behind any and all other opponents in card advantage. Your opponent also lost a card in the exchange - what was countered. So really in terms of pure card advantage, when someone casts Arcane Denial, the majority of the table (including the caster of Arcane Denial) have no change in card advantage, and the player who had their card countered is given the consolation prize of getting +1 card advantage for having his spell countered. Also there's the always funny play of playing some small, unimportant spell and using Arcane Denial on your own spell to draw a full three cards - not a bad deal at 2 mana.
Negate: Great value at 2cmc for just 1 colored mana. Negate is about as wide as a narrow counter can be. Of the 6 potential types of spells that can be countered, Negate hits a full 5 of them, missing just creatures.
Counterspell: Simple and elegant. You cast a spell, I counter it. No fuss, no checking types or manipulating counters or drawing cards. Could be annoying that it costs two blue mana, but my fixing leans so heavily towards blue that it's really no big deal
Delay: An effective 2 cmc counter for only one colored mana. To a high level meta, three full turns is almost always going to be as effective as a straight counter.
Answers: Removal- for when they saved up their mana for something nice. I don't approve of my opponents having nice things.
Karn Liberated: I go back and forth on Karn... he will probably be removed at some point for something cheaper and more efficient. I do love getting to exile permanents, but 7 mana really is insanely high for this deck.
Vindicate: Destroy any permanent. Sweet. Utter End exiles, which is sad to miss and is also at instant speed which is the worse part to miss, but Vindicate cost less mana and and can also hit lands (I'm talking about you, Inkmoth Neus). The curve for the deck is low enough that yes, the one mana difference is actually significant.
Disenchant: Instant speed spot removal for any artifact or enchantment. Solid.
Swords to Plowshares: Absurdly cheap exiling removal. The life gain means nothing to this deck.
Oblivion Ring: If I absutively, positutely, have to get rid of something, Zur can fetch O-ring. Outside of that it will always be solid removal. Giving it back when O-ring is gone isn't ideal but it's still pretty damn good.
Merciless Eviction: My boardwipe. I love this wipe. It's got a pretty high cmc, but it's so goddamn modal, and it exiles whatever you pick.
Utility: Just the various cards which don't fit perfectly into one of my designated categories, often because many of them fill several different positions.
Mind Over Matter: Creates ridiculous locks with Static Orb and Stasis. An initial Zur tutor for a Necropotence, often leads to a lock the next turn because of this card. The deck is so blue-based, and the fixing is strong enough that the 4 blue mana symbols really aren't a big deal. Harder than that is just 6 mana. The land count is low enough that if I don't start with enough lands/rocks, things can get a bit dicey sometimes. Whats great about Mind Over Matter over my other curve-toppers is that I can tap out for MoM, and as long as I have a decent number of cards in hand, I'm not really tapped out.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor: infamous for being the most powerful Planeswaker card of all time for good reason. There's some real fringe use for his +2, fatesealing top-deck tutored or revealed cards, more often just scrying for 1 if you need to tick him up. But really, who wants to scry when we can pay 0 Loyalty and brainstorm. That simple. That amazing. Free brainstorm every turn. To top that off, his -1 bounces a creature to its owner's hand to help protect himself. The ult is just a worse version of my win condition.
Sun Titan: Many of the cards in the utility section are in there because, like Jace, they actually fill several different archetypes. Sun Titan isn't one of those cards. Sun Titan is just a machine of pure value, and once he's hit the field and started swinging, he is, no contest, the best way I have to take advantage of cards in my graveyard. That's not to talk down about the next utility card though. Sun Titan becomes broken once you start swinging, but this next one has faster impact.
Replenish: Such a simple phrase: Return all enchantment cards from your graveyard to play. One sided mass reanimation of the most important permanent type in my deck. Whats that? It's just 4 mana? Yes, please.
Snapcaster Mage: Just a way to squeeze a little extra value out of my used/discarded instants or sorceries. Like most of the ways I have to take advantage of my graveyard, he's sort of a nonbo with Rest in Peace, and to a lesser extent, Necropotence, but still well worth running for the pure value.
Crucible of Worlds: The last way my deck has to take advantage of my graveyard. Great Synergy with fetch lands, Strip Mine/Wasteland, just great value card in general.
Solitary Confinement: Great card to drop or Zur out if I'm being focused too hard, or an aggro deck that's fast enough to be scary is at the table. Turns the hell of a stasis lock into something almost comical.
Lightning Greaves: My haste enabler for Zur and Sun Titan. It also gives shroud but I care less about that than haste, it's just a pleasant bonus.
Sensei's Divining Top: Great synergy with Counterbalance and fetch lands. Even not considering that, card filtering is great, and the top is nearly unkillable with it's ability to tap to the top of your library.
Lands:
Not too much to explain here. For three colors I have City of Brass, Command Tower, and a Mana Confluence as soon as someone I know can actually trade for it. I have the in color ABU Duals, Shock lands, check lands, and the few basics that I run for colored mana. The deck is primarily blue, a lot less white, and even less black. Blue is used across the board from stax pieces, to counter magic, to card draw, to tutors, to plain old utility. White has some of the most efficient spot removal in the game, and every card in my answer package at least includes white as one of its two colors (2 of the 6 are white/black). I run the 4 possible fetch lands which I own, and I'm planning to upgrade to all 9 possible fetches as I can trade for them. I run the 3 in-color artifact lands for the sole purpose of turning on metalcraft for Mox Opal. I also run a decent number of utility lands:
Ancient Tomb: taps for two mana, and at high level tables an extra two damage a turn is basically nothing (Although it can make a big Necropotence more dangerous).
Academy Ruins: is definitely one of the best utility lands for the deck, and offers by far my best artifact recursion.
Hall of the Bandit Lord: I did not originally feel like haste enablers were worth slots in the deck, but after realizing that I could rely on Zur a bit more than fast combo decks could, I wanted to put a couple of the higher quality haste enablers into the deck. Hall is great because it just takes up a land slot!
Reliquary Tower: for those big Necropotence draws :). Also very useful when a Rhystic Study or a Mystic Remora get out of hand.
Strip Mine/Wasteland: Obviously at a multiplayer table it's extremely impractical to try and set up a strip mine/Crucible lock on one player, and these are included for dealing with problem lands (Cabal Coffers, Gaea's Cradle, Nykthos, etc.) while only taking up land slots themselves. Also occasionally for when I just decide that one player is going to have a bad game >:D
Mistveil Plains: recur anything from graveyard to the bottom of my deck; super relevant when its hitting Zur targets, meh otherwise, but it can still be relevant to put a win con back into your deck if you can tutor it up. Also has the plains sub-type so it gets hit by any white fetchland.
Finally, we come to Tolaria West: Perhaps it isn't the best but it certainly has the most potential. Easily the land requiring the most thought as to whether to keep/mulligan, when to use, and of course what to go for. Tolaria has several valid targets; if someone looks particularly threatening and I have 0-1 counterspells in hand it can search for Pact of Negation, Wasteland/Strip Mine for a Gaea's Cradle situation, Ancient Tomb or one of the moxes if I'm really desperate for mana, and Reliquary Tower if I'm setting up for a Necropotence, or have just drawn a ton of cards off of a Mystic Remora or a Rhystic Study.
And Finally, to the most exciting part of the deck! Drum roll...
WIN CONDITIONS!!!:
The primary win condition I'm shooting for is using Helm of Obedience while Rest in Peace is in play. When this happens, you can deck target opponent for 1 mana and tapping the helm. Then simply rinse, wash, & repeat for the rest of them! If, for some reason, the RiP/Helm combo isn't an option, there are several other alternate win cons.
Rest in Peace: A stax/hate card in and of its own right, it just so happens to be part of an extremely efficient kill.
Helm of Obedience: A very weird card, in that it doesn't actually do much of anything by itself but turns into a one mana, tap to exile target library when Rest in Peace is in play. This is yet another use of Mind Over Matter - if it's easier than the stasis lock, I can just use it to untap the helm as much as I want and make as much mana as I need for it.
Near-Death Experience: I play this because it can lead to a very easy win the third turn after I land Necropotence. The first Zur swing almost infallibly grabs Necropotence. At that point there's a few different paths I can go for to try and win. If I draw Near-Death Experience, or a way to tutor and play it that turn, I can just do that, then use Zur to grab Solitary Confinement, just to try and shut out shenanigans.
Empyrial Armor: A common win-condition to be used in a Necropotence+Mind Over Matter+Stasis/Static Orb
