Imagine voltron being consistent...

Commander / EDH WhatInTheWhoNow

SCORE: 12 | 8 COMMENTS | 1019 VIEWS | IN 8 FOLDERS


Maybeboard Update —May 19, 2022

Important stuff The maybeboard has been reorganized in leu of the nature of this deck. There is now an "out of five" ranking system where 1 is the most competitive and 5 is the most trolly. I've added quite a few more cards I've found whilst searching the interwebs and I have to say there are some really high potential memes/politics out there (looking at you, War Tax).

Rant Zur is definitely a casual, meme deck that can act high power if necessary. Having played it a while now, I can definitely say that there isn't much need for the "pillowfort / annoyance" section necessarily. I usually just reach a point in casual games that it wouldn't be nice to everyone else if I immediately won, so I end up playing some of my annoyance cards in the meantime. It is especially fun to play politics and shenanigans with Zur, since he is a toolbox to most of your library. I honestly think this deck would be no fun without meme cards simply because voltron is so incredibly straightforward.

DreadKhan says... #1

Since you're already running Vanishing, you might run Out of Time to fairly permanently deal with creatures. You could also consider Mirrormade, it's the cheapest of the Copy Enchantment effects, with the upside of also copying Artifacts, it's very good to copy Out of Time or All That Glitters. Cool deck!

May 3, 2022 3:01 p.m.

DreadKhan, these are great suggestions! I agree wholeheartedly. Out of Time really does work well with Vanishing and can be used with Zur the Enchanter's ability. Should protection like Energy Field fail, it can pick up the slack! Mirrormade is essentially another copy of All That Glitters in this deck.

Never thought of these cards, thanks!

May 3, 2022 6:49 p.m.

DreadKhan says... #3

Another cheap card that can do a ton of work sometimes is Energy Flux, a fetchable card that makes it impractical to keep around more than 1 or 2 artifacts. I run it with Skyclave Relic, but you can also use Darksteel Ingot for less, and you might even look at Dreamscape Artist to ramp. Very out there, but Retreat to Coralhelm works very well with Dreamscape, as well as with Stasis in general I suppose. I'd probably run Ash Barrens, it's floor is a Waste, but it can fix your mana for 1 mana, I love seeing it in my opening hand. If people run stuff like Blightsteel Colossus in your meta, Dance of Many is absolutely hilarious. Not sure any of that is especially relevant for you, but it's stuff that might be worth a look, depending on what you run into!

May 3, 2022 7:55 p.m.

DreadKhan,

Energy Flux: I did heavily consider Energy Flux when creating the deck, but ultimately decided against it because it doesn't fit my style. I think it would be dangerous to wait a full 4 turns using just land to get Zur out, however, that does not mean it may be worth using rocks and destroying everyone's artifacts after Zur is out. Also, it is important to note that sacrificing does not "destroy" a permanent, but simply places it in the graveyard; thus you would still need to pay Darksteel Ingot's cost (here it is on the Wiki https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Indestructible, under the "description" section). However you're still right, it is a good card in this deck and I think it would fit nicely, especially against any artifact decks. I don't doubt how good it is; maybe I'm just baby for being too scared to kill my own artifacts.

Dreamscape Artist: Hmm, it is definitely tempting. However, I think it would be better to use enchantments to guarantee land drops. It's for that reason that I included The Birth of Meletis and The Restoration of Eiganjo  Flip, and I have been debating the necessity of Blanket of Night.

Dance of Many: This looks to be a really fun card. Although it would be sad to commit to an opponent's creature and have to kill your own if you need to remove it. I'll keep an eye on this one should I feel like changing things up.

Ash Barrens: Seems like a shoe in to me. It's cheap and as you said, it fixes mana if necessary. Personally, with 48 mana (land + rocks) in this deck already, I think mana fixing won't be much of an issue.

Retreat to Coralhelm: Yeah, this one is a bit out there. Considering that there is already a lot of draw enchantments, it would seem like a bit of a waste to scry. As for tapping creatures, Zur should be unblockable sooner or later as well as have vigilance.

Darksteel Ingot and Skyclave Relic: These are both good cards, and do better than the cluestones and Sol Grail. I think Darksteel is cheap enough to throw it in without question.

May 4, 2022 2:52 a.m.

DreadKhan says... #5

Huh, it appears you're correct, Energy Flux's 'bury' effect has been ruled a 'sacrifice' effect, not a 'destroy' effect, so it will hit Kaldra Compleat, good to know! Anyways, I use Energy Flux in Zur, and I generally don't worry about losing my artifacts if Zur is out, it's such a useful effect when it's good that hurting my own deck I feel is okay. YMMV, in my case I have access to Necropotence and Back to Basics to make Energy Flux better. Much obliged for pointing this out to me!

Dreamscape btw doesn't just put lands into hand, it's a Harrow effect, so you put the lands into play untapped. It's one of the weirdest ramp sources in the game in my experience, but finding untapped lands can let you do some crazy stuff. Once you have enough mana to activate Artist, it's actually just 1 mana each time you ramp, for a net total of 3 mana to get your first land out, and you can actually use it repeatedly, each turn you get another use for 1 mana, and if you run Retreat to Coralhelm, you can untap it each time you use it for free, letting you use it until you're either out of Basic lands or are out of mana/cards.

I'm not sure if I'm understanding you correctly on Dance of Many, it doesn't matter if the original version of a copy dies generally, the copy will survive until the card Dance itself or the token copy itself die, or you don't pay UU to keep it around. It's a solid effect if people run creatures you'd want to copy, and the art is pretty neat I think.

The niche use of Retreat I was thinking was that you can untap any creature you can target, be it Zur or another of your creatures like Sun Titan, which could be helpful with Stasis. Without Dreamscape Artist it's probably not worth running.

Probably the last random idea, but Nighthowler can be big in some metas, assuming people run graveyard decks or lots of creatures. You can either Bestow it on Zur for 4 mana, or fetch it out with Zur to make a big vanilla creature, very meta dependent but potentially pretty good.

May 4, 2022 10:11 a.m.

DreadKhan,

I seem to have a better idea of what you had in mind, and have misread some of the cards as well.

I was under the assumption that Dreamscape Artist sacrificed himself, since that can be a pretty common occurrence (e.g. Burnished Hart). Since he can be used multiple times, I like it quite a lot; problem being he's not a guaranteed drop as opposed to the enchantments. Retreat to Coralhelm's main value as you described would be halted until we can draw Dreamscape. Has that been an issue in your experience?

Not sure what my brain was on when I read Dance of Many, but it seems to be a much better card now. Thoughts on what I should replace it with? - Definitely a shoe in.

Nighthowler Would be a great option to get big creatures. However it doesn't seem to jive well with any of the other themes in the deck. The only reason I could see wanting other creatures in the deck is to create blockers or avoid sac effects on Zur (not like it would be a problem with Vanishing).

May 4, 2022 12:01 p.m.