Wizards' Arcana

Commander / EDH UBR (Grixis)

machineghost

Land (34)

• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Grixis Panorama
• 10x Island
• 1x Izzet Boilerworks
• 3x Mountain
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Riptide Laboratory
• 5x Swamp
• 1x Swiftwater Cliffs
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Vivid Crag
• 1x Vivid Creek
• 1x Vivid Marsh

Ramp (9)

• 1x Apprentice Wizard
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Stonybrook Banneret
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Spell Tech (6)

• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Docent of Perfection  ^Flip
• 1x Dualcaster Mage
• 1x Izzet Chronarch
• 1x Kess, Dissident Mage
• 1x Naru Meha, Master Wizard

Unsummon (4)

• 1x AEther Adept
• 1x Galecaster Colossus
• 1x Separatist Voidmage
• 1x Venser, Shaper Savant

Defense (3)

• 1x Mirror Match
• 1x Polymorphist's Jest
• 1x Serendib Sorcerer

Other (2)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Urza's Incubator

Spell (18)

• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Insurrection
• 1x Kindred Dominance
• 1x Mirror Match
• 1x Polymorphist's Jest
• 1x Rite of Replication
• 1x Soul Manipulation
• 1x Steam Augury
• 1x Supplant Form
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Wizard's Retort

Draw (12)

• 1x Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1x Archivist
• 1x Azami, Lady of Scrolls
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cloudkin Seer
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Merchant of Secrets
• 1x Mercurial Chemister
• 1x Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
• 1x Sea Gate Oracle
• 1x Steam Augury
• 1x Watcher for Tomorrow

Enter Tech (5)

• 1x Conjurer's Closet
• 1x Flameshadow Conjuring
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Rite of Replication
• 1x Supplant Form

Charm (3)

• 1x Beguiler of Wills
• 1x Cytoplast Manipulator
• 1x Thalakos Deceiver

Search (3)

• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Trophy Mage
• 1x Vedalken AEthermage

Commander (1)

Enter (17)

• 1x AEther Adept
• 1x Apprentice Necromancer
• 1x Bloodline Necromancer
• 1x Cloudkin Seer
• 1x Cytoplast Manipulator
• 1x Dualcaster Mage
• 1x Merchant of Secrets
• 1x Merfolk Trickster
• 1x Naban, Dean of Iteration
• 1x Naru Meha, Master Wizard
• 1x Sea Gate Oracle
• 1x Separatist Voidmage
• 1x Thalakos Deceiver
• 1x Timestream Navigator
• 1x Trophy Mage
• 1x Venser, Shaper Savant
• 1x Watcher for Tomorrow

Counter (6)

• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Ertai, Wizard Adept
• 1x Patron Wizard
• 1x Soul Manipulation
• 1x Voidmage Prodigy
• 1x Wizard's Retort

Destruction (4)

• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Terminate

Win Condition (3)

• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x Insurrection
• 1x Kindred Dominance

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My take on WotC's Arcane Wizardry deck

The deck can be broken down into chunks, where each chunk has about ten or more cards revolving around it (although there's overlap between groups also).

• Land
• Ramp (mostly rocks but also Stonybrook Banneret and Apprentice Wizard )
• Counters/searches (for generic/obvious reasons ... although the deck has only a couple true " Counterspell s", with all the rest either having an extra feature or being Wizard-based: Ertai, Wizard Adept , Patron Wizard , and Voidmage Prodigy )
• Draw: there's a healthy mix of both great Enter the Battlefield draw wizards that Inalla, Archmage Ritualist can repeat (like Watcher for Tomorrow ) and repeatable "tap to draw" wizards (so many good ones, from Arcanis the Omnipotent to Azami, Lady of Scrolls to Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind )
• Enter the Battlefield Wizards and related tech: the heart of the deck, with cards like Conjurer's Closet , Panharmonicon , and Mirror March making it possible for EoB wizards to trigger many different times ... and then if you use some of the cards in the next category with a kicked Rite of Replication , that can be an entirely different kind of fun (with 10+ copies ... or more if you can use Rite on a copying wizard and then copy Rite itself)
• Instant/Sorceries and related tech (both ways to copy them and ways to recover them)
• Defense: his last group has several sub-groupings, with a mix of a few amazing "take your opponent's stuff" cards like Beguiler of Wills , a couple "your creatures are weak now" cards (eg. Polymorphist's Jest ), some repeatable (using Inalla) unsummon cards, including AEther Adept and Separatist Voidmage , but especially Venser, Shaper Savant (with an honorable mention going to the non-EoB but amazing Galecaster Colossus ) ... and of course a few good old destruction spells like Chaos Warp .

The idea is to combine all that as follows. Use the ramp, and card draw cards to build quickly in the early game. As you build, combine "enter the battlefield" tech with EoB cards, and instants/sorceries with instant/sorcery "tech" cards (many of which are also EoB wizards) to really get things going.

To stay alive destroy, unsummon, take control of, or turn your opponent's creatures into 0/2s . Do that until you can lock things down, possibly with the help of a few extra turns via Timestream Navigator , or by unsummoning anything good that your opponent's cast with Venser, Shaper Savant (once you have a healthy amount of mana).

Then, finish your opponents off with your small wizards (after disabling the rest of their board), or through Inalla's second power, or by using their own board against them with repeated uses of charm wizards or Insurrection .

What I Need Help With

At this point I'm pretty happy with the deck overall, so it's mainly down to tuning. Partly it's about "does this new wizard I didn't know about do ____ better than one I already have", but also it's about getting the relative ratios of the above groups to be better.

Do I take out an instant card draw card to put in an enter the battlefield wizard, or vice versa? More ramp, less ramp? More destruction, more control? More EoB wizards/instants/sorceries? More "tech" for those wizards/spells? Also it feels a little light on land, but that's always hard to get just right.

So again, both card suggestions and "relative balance of different deck aspects" feedback would be very welcome.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 28 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 24 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.61
Tokens	City's Blessing, Copy Clone, Human Wizard 1/1 U, Morph 2/2 C, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	3-Color
Based on	2017 Arcane Wizardry emac0488 EDH