Not Infinite, but Larger than the Universe

Commander / EDH MagmaArmor0

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Ravnica Allegiance Pre-Release —Jan. 19, 2019

So, in addition to this prerelease, I played in another 2-headed giant edh tournament. My partner this time was playing a Muldrotha, the Gravetide list that featured a whole mess of extra land per turn effects and Strip Mine effects, which was pretty rude and really helped carry us to the first place slot! However, the unified decklist rules meant that a lot of cards had to come out of our decks so as to not overlap, and a few of them have stayed out since the last change to this deck were made (although many were reverted as soon as the tournament ended). Combine that with the new cards from Ravnica Allegiance, and we've got a large number of updates for this quarter!

As always, cards continue to be "blinged" out with expeditions and the like--those will not be mentioned here.

Solemn Simulacrum --> Rashmi, Eternities Crafter

The robot just didn't do enough for 4 mana (it was basically just a Thrasios activation), but Rashmi gives us value off of the spells we cast on our opponents' turns, and synergizes well with our topdeck manipulation to boot.

Bounty Agent --> Sensei's Divining Top

Speaking of topdeck manipulation, the top does that well, allowing us to find exactly what we want with our Thrasios activations, or draw the correct cards with Tatyova. It's also insanely good with Rashmi, allowing us to never "whiff" with her, since we can just tap the top to draw a card, and then reveal the top to the Rashmi trigger.

Mastermind's Acquisition --> Demonic Tutor

Part of the prizing for the tourney was a new Demonic Tutor for me. Fantastic cards are Fantastic.

Nezahal, Primal Tide --> Forbid

Wow, how did I not think of this before. Forbid, discard two creatures, upkeep get back a creature with Ravos, draw for turn is a repeatable three mana counterspell. This card does a ton of work and it's almost always worth buying it back.

Dread Cacodemon --> Dismiss

While Dread Cacodemon not affecting my ally was hilarious, ten mana is just way too much. Dismiss costs the same as a Thrasios activation, but also gets us the card we wanted to draw anyway.

Opulent Palace --> Misty Rainforest

Yeah, I finally shelled out to pick one of these up. Fetchlands are good.

High Market --> Phyrexian Tower

Two black mana is just way more valuable than 1 life.

Azorius Chancery --> Bountiful Promenade

The new card basically always enters untapped.

Dimir Aqueduct -->Morphic Pool

As above, so below.

Seaside Citadel --> Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Urborg helping my ally's mana too was great. On our own, though...

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth--> Dimir Aqueduct

Bouncelands providing 4 mana with Mana Reflection is just too tempting. Plus, this is one more blue source. We just don't play enough black to need urborg, although fetchlands being useful without fetches in the deck was nice.

Dismiss --> Biomancer's Familiar

Dismiss was nice, and it might find its way back into the deck. But for now, Biomancer's Familiar is a Training Grounds that we can find off of Chord of Calling, Green Sun's Zenith, Recruiter of the Guard, or our more generalized tutor effects. Doubling the number of times we can activate Thrasios is awesome.

Silumgar's Sorcerer --> Repudiate / Replicate

Recurring the Sorcerer to repeatedly counter commanders is really fun, and I'm not sold on the cut yet. However, most times we had Ravos out to actually get this back, the opponents' commanders were all already in play, which makes it much less valuable.

Qasali Pridemage --> Scroll Rack

While the pridemage being a recurrable Naturalize that also happens to have exalted and be a wizard was cool, often times we don't want to play it without good targets. If there are good targets, it's often too late to play it. It competes with our two-drop slot for Thrasios, so it won't come down on turn two ever, and it isn't the most exciting turn three either. Scroll Rack lets us put dead cards like Mirror Gallery or Riftsweeper back on top of our deck to be shuffled away by a fetchland, or scried away by Thrasios. It also lets us dump all the extra lands in our hand on top of our deck to be found by Thrasios. A very flexible, subtly powerful card, and that's not even counting its ability to set up Rashmi, Eternities Crafter or panic-draw for a counterspell.

Assassin's Trophy --> Deputy of Detention

I got tired of the Trophy giving my opponent free mana, and opted to try the deputy instead, giving myself some added flexibilty against tokens and Ravosian recurrability in exchange for 1 mana and instant speed. So far, I haven't regretted it, since I can be much more aggressive with my Deputy (since it's so much easier to get back), and the graveyard decks in my local meta can't just have their toy back for free.

Scroll Rack --> Mindbreak Trap

I am going to miss the pretty, pretty scroll rack a lot. But, as detailed in the "unmentionables" section, it's an infinite-combo-enabler, so it had to come out. I've been looking to include another counterspell in the deck for a while, so Mindbreak Trap took this opportunity to break into the deck; we'll see how well it does. If it's not that good, potentially look for Dismiss or Wilderness Reclamation to take this spot.

Future Sight: I'm also looking to pick up a Wilderness Reclamation as a pseudo-Seedborn Muse, to see if that's worth it at all.

Summary Dismissal --> Mindbreak Trap

These cards are really, really similar, and that makes it hard to decide which to run. Both answer uncounterable spells. Mindbreak Trap can actually protect our spells, unlike Summary Dismissal, and can sometimes be cast for 0, especially when someone starts to combo off. Summary Dismissal, on the other hand, can counter abilities, which helps against Eldrazi and other cast triggers, but also can stop a planeswalker ultimate in a pinch. Like the Austere Command vs. Cleansing Nova debate, I'm gonna start up a tally for how often I want one versus the other.

And that's it for now! I hope everyone is continuing to like the deck!