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Offler
09-14-2009, 03:55 PM
Few months ago i found Nightmare's EDH deck with Azami. After months of desperation i have finally found something inspirative for deckbuilding :).

Some months have passed and deck has evolved. Which general should i choose? Teferi, Laquatus, Arcanis?

This deck si currently legal only in german highlander. For EDH has too much cards (110 currently) and Staff of Domination has been recently banned. However, since i dont want to copy allmighty deck by Nightmare while I decided to make this one legal on both formats I have to choose different general - not the Azami. Therefore i will mark legends which can be the generals for this deck. As you have seen there are three hot candidates for the general.


Teferi, mage of Zhalfir.

Lands (31 currently)
20 Snow-covered Island
Soldevi Excavations
Coral Atoll
Academy Ruins
Tolaria West
Mishra's Factory - Possible fihisher with unlimited untapping
Blinkmoth nexus - Possible finisher with unlimited untapping
Winding canyons

Esper Panorama Reserved for Armilarry sphere

Lotus Vale
Coral Atoll
Soldevi Excavations
Svyelunite temple

Other mana manipulation:
Expedition map
Grand Architect


Pre-combo control A (cards which makes my oponnent defensless for at least one turn, in response)
Power sink
Broken Ambitions
Condescend
Turnabout
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir (wiz) - Legend

Pre-combo control B (cards which can cause an opponent to waste at least one direct damage card, or counter the noncreature spell)
Glen Elendra Archmage (wiz)
Voidmage Prodigy (wiz)

Mana based control:
Static orb
Winter orb
Rhystic Study

Anti-monster control (tapping all creatures or similar way to make them unusable at least for one turn):
Cryptic command
Evacuation
Turnabout (again)
Ensnare

Filtering Engine:
Brainstorm
Ponder
Sensei's divining top
Scroll rack
Vendilion Clique (wiz)
Halimar depths
Vexing sphinx
Sage of Epityr (wiz)
Preordain


Tutoring:
Long-term plans
Fabricate
Recall


Tutoring via ability (Rings of brighthearth)
Vedalken Aethermage (wiz)
Drift of phantasms
Muddle the mixture
Ethereal usher
Dizzy spell
Tolaria West (again)
Tezzeret the Seeker - also possibility to use him as untapper - mana fix, or as finisher - with infinite turns, or artifact animator for infinite mana combo.

One slot reserved for Intuition

Other control:
Oblivion stone

Secondary combo cards:
those makes wonders when infinite mana or card draw is running. Else can be used as mana fixing, accelerating or drawing.

Savor the Moment - when the combo is ignited, grants infinite turns only by being in the deck.
Elixir of Immortality - means that i can reroll whole deck.
Gush - Combo enabler with Mind over Matter.
Also Ensnare works same way
Oboro Breezecaller - With Mind over matter can bounce lands, untap Lotus Vale/Gilded lotus to produce additional mana
Shared Fate Pretty nasty. With this deck exiles opponents library and gets bounced/destroyed or allows to play all spells in opponents library. Common finisher card after combo.


Combo:

Untapper Group A

Mind over matter
Freed from the Real
Pemmin's aura
Vigean Graftmage (wiz) - Secondary combo with Azami, MOM and Lotus Vale. Gets tapped to draw via Azami, card is discarded via MOM for 3 mana, gets untapped for 1U via its own ability.
Rings of Brighthearth (group special)

Untapper Group B:

Fatestitcher (wiz)
Tidewater minion
Aphetto alchemist (wiz)
Rimewind Taskmage (wiz)
Wind Zendikon (group special)

Drawing cards:
Azami, lady of scrolls (wiz) - Legend
Arcanis the Omnipotent (wiz) - Legend
Temple bell (group special)
Survivor of the Unseen (wiz)
Enclave cryptologist

Permanents producing more than one mana for TAP:

Soldevi Excavations
Coral Atoll
Lotus Vale

Gilded lotus
Khalni Gem

High tide
Extraplanar lens


Drawing for Infinite Mana:
Diviner's wand (wiz) - Possible finisher
Train of thought
Sphinx of Magosi - Possible finisher. Secondary combo with MOM and Lotus Vale/Gilded lotus
Blue Sun's Zenith - Possible finisher. Secondary combo with MOM.
Whispers of the muse

Creatures played to have some defensive or offensive creatures
Coralhelm commander
Conundrum sphinx
Wormfang Drake
Vendilion Clique (wiz)
Vexing sphinx


Cards reserved to come into deck, but all slots are currently full or I dont own the card yet:
Suq'ata Firewalker
Balduvian Frostwaker
Serra Sphinx
Intuition
Everflowing chalice

http://highlandermagic.info

undone
09-16-2009, 12:09 PM
The best way to tap a creature is to play and equip Lightning greaves lol. But seriously I like the deck Seems like its more fun in EDH but highlander is cool too.

Offler
09-16-2009, 05:38 PM
Well in HL i cannot use Merrow levitator, or Inspired Sprite alongside with Azami so effectively as in EDH, but the deck can be quite funny at all.

When i play it i get mostly offensive questions why i play Panoramas and not Fetch lands. Well they can "un-land" my deck a bit, and with Crucible they provide one land per turn as any other fetch land. Since i have monocolor i do not need to fix color, and i prefer these tutoring actions to be a bit slower as painfetch lands provide.

in early game i dont want to unland my deck so fast, since normally i want to draw some lands during first three turns. People around me just play fetch in their first round and fetch immediately some lands, and later they wonder why they have manascrew...

What people think about Panoramas here?

Lightning greaves - yeah, but its the fourth card and it lowers the efectivness of that combo, but that is something that cannot be avoided this time.

also, how exactly works Phantasmal Terrain?

As long i know it erases all printed abilities on target land and replaces it with chosen mana type ability. Land is still legendary or whatever, just basic subtype is changed and abilities. Also it does not affect creature part of a Manland...

Offler
09-22-2009, 03:05 AM
Ok. maybe something that will improve the deck a bit.

The best situation to start a combo is to lock your opponent, or tap his mana. Teferi was put in deck for this reason before, and now i got Mana short and Turnabout in deck already.

Also i removed gauntlet of power and I placed Reconstruct in the deck. Krosan grip will be no longer so dangerous for my artifacts.

And please somebody move this topic into "Casual and budget forum". Thanks.

Offler
10-05-2009, 07:19 AM
Zendikar and next trading was quite good for me...

New to deck:
Mindbreak trap
Future Sight

Out from deck:
Archivist

Also since i removed Riptide shapeshifter some time ago i am considering to replace Kederekt leviathan with comfortable instatnt called Evacuation. Also i need to fix my counterspells as well.

To improve the work of Gifts Ungiven i am considering Body double. It will work well with Arcanis, Azami and now when there is also Future sight with Magus of the Future.

Added Psychic venom - aggresive manafix and with MoM possible kill condition.

Offler
10-19-2009, 09:52 AM
Azami and Mind over Matter

I had this combo in deck for a while. Later i discovered that i can draw godlike hand, but if i have to wait for one turn it can be fatal for me.

therefore i created three combo trees. First is based on Future sight, Senseis top and Helm of Awakening . Second is based on Palinchron and High tide with Extraplanar lens.

Third is the most complicated.

Highest level:
Arcanis, Azami, Archivist, Fallowsage, Grimoire thief

Central level:
MoM, Pemmins aura, Freed from real

Lowest Level:
Psychic Venom, Paradise Mantle.

Levels are also connected with rest with branches. Two edge branches are fatal to opponents when on table(arcanis, MOM, Psychic venom or grimoire thief, freed from real, paradise mantle).

For two weeks i was thinking about removal of central parts of this combo just because it was not automatically fatal to opponent. Later i was attempting to made it fatal with Aeon Chronicler, but i was not sucessful. it cost too much mana.

Then i discovered that it is quite easy to make central part of combo useful... Lightning greaves.

I came up to situation when Grimoire thief was in play with azami and MoM was sucessfully played. Then i start to draw the deck until i had Pemmins aura and Paradise mantle on hand. Althought i had only one mana free i was able to play and equip paradise mantle to Grimoire thief. At this point i had no mana.

BUT i tapped grimoire thief to gain one blue mana and discarded one card through MoM to untap soldevi Excavations to gain 1U to my pool and I put Pemmins aura into play. Then i discarded last card from hand through MoM to untap Grimoire thief, and the combo was complete. On next draw step was my opponent without library.

Adding this combo was quite hard. I had to remove Tidespout tyrant, but it was worth it. Once Azami and MoM are in play i just need 4 cards on hand (lightning greaves is the fourth), and approximately 8 mana to play it. MOM and lands or mana producing artifacts can turn cards on hand to mana to fix the manacosts. Thats also reason why i search for Lotus Vale and why i play Gilded Lotus. 1 card = 3 color mana.

When this part of combotree was finished and sucessfully tested i added there also Archivist.

Also Psychic venom is very worth slot for a card. Even if i have only Mind Over matter in play i just need 20 cards in hand to kill opponent. In many cases opponents have to use land with this enchantment during play.

The last thing, i am considering to add sigil tracer, while it can cool down all opponents counterspells and save my spells or double my deck searching cards.

Offler
10-22-2009, 09:17 AM
Some weaknesses...

So after some playing i discovered that the weakest point is in the beginning of game, until fifth or sixth turn. Simply to say ... No monsters in play, althought my hand is quite filtered.

My common tactics are very simple - play land, wait until end of opponents turn, and when no counterspell was needed i play Brainstorm or something like that. This help to prepare hand for the right combo which can win the game, but the time is crucial.

Most wizards i use do not block, simply because they can do much more while they are alive.

Because of this situation I added cards such as Sage of Epityr which can be used as "Comes into play" sorcery and "Died blocking". The decklist will be updated soon. Also can be tapped for some extra cards with Azami, but its not the main purpose.

Deck already contains cards as Fog Bank, or Trip noose which can be used instead of blockers. Therefore i plan to use some other blocker wizards, but i dont know what should i expect from them.

For example Ringskipper, Thalakos seer, and Drifter ildal. Ringskipper is quite good blocker, just because it can fly, Thalakos seer cannot block at all, and opponent has to burn him if he does not want to be damaged by him, which sends me another card on hand. Drifter il-dal is pretty nasty creature for a blue one. all of them has their pros and cons but they miss something, they dont have CIP effect.

Venser or Voidmage Husher are pretty nasty. Both are working as counterspells and blockers at same time, but both cost 4 mana to play. To slow down the opponent it is better to have wizards which cost 3 or less mana...

Is this a good way of fixing the situation?

Oboro Breezecaller? hmm. Can you say "Landfall"? :) Also pretty nice with lands which produce more than 1 mana :)

Offler
10-26-2009, 09:14 AM
So, Tezzeret is going back to deck and being assigned to group of Tutors. Althought cost quite a lot of mana he can call up for two artifacts for Future Sight Combo.

also two small flying wizards have been added. Cephalid scout and Oboro Breezecaller. Cephalid scout is a replacement for Oonas grace and Oboro Breezecaller is experiment. will see.

Recall added to deck. single card able to put out of grave quite a large number of cards. It can put out of grave a lot of cards, enought to start up a combo.

Echoing truth might be able to solve a lot of problems with tokens.

Body double combined with Palichron.

Grimoire thief, paradise mantle, pemmins aura and lightning greaves have been sucessfully tested as Finishing move after start of any of the three main combos.

Edit: Fatestitcher and Aphetto alchemist in deck. They both can create infinite mana combo with cards already in deck. For this purpose i returned Khalni Gem back to deck. Fallowsage and Oboro Breezecaller are out of deck for now. Now i can produce infinite mana in my third round.

Offler
10-30-2009, 10:30 AM
I have updated the first post to put here complete decklist.

Basic strategy is to bring in play any combo and win with it. Problems with token decks have not been completely resolved, but i added some cards which can buy more time. From same reason I am considering Sunder as some sort of "blue wrath of god" instead of Nevynirrals disk.

Also i dont know if i shall add cards like Spell Burst - counterspell with buyback, which can be useful in situations with infinite mana.

Grimoire thief is a "table killer" with pemmins aura and paradise mantle. I was able to play this combo as a finishing move when Azami or Arcanis and Mind Over matter were the starter.

Mind over matter is also quite good way in providing additional mana by discarding cards. It is very good to know that some lands and artifacts produce more than one mana - khalni gem, gilded lotus, Lotus vale,... Once combined with Azami the only what is limiting is amount of cards on your hand and maybe too few mana. This characteristic value of this combo was connected with another two wizards to produce infinite mana.

Just not sure whether play Mind stone which can return to hand and be discarded, or another artifact which can produce two colorless mana per tap.

Now only what the deck miss is some sort of optimization. I still play too many cards.

Also i really dont know why i play Twincast and Commandeer, Until someone will use Sadistic Sacrament or infinite mana with Demonfire :) At this point I quickly remember why i play them. just considering if Deflection is not better.

Offler
11-24-2009, 04:46 AM
Drain Power - quite evil way how to manage opponents mana. Since deck is monoblue colorless mana (or mana with bad color) should not be a problem and will help against other decks which play cards at EOT.

Show and Tell - run and hide. I really dont have any opinion about this card and Braids, Conjurer adept. Easy way of playing cards with danger of being killed.

Transmute artifact, Reconstruct and Reshape have been removed. Cost of playing artifact and two cards is pretty expensive way.

Inspired sprite - will see how she helps with card draws
Cephalid broker - althought there is a combo with him he will help only with card management...

Some ideas:
Wake thrasher - with Aphetto alchemist or Fatestitcher he can grow and then hit. Two card synergy and almost combo. it just needs haste and unblockable to be really evil. Potentially large blocker at all, but he cannot fly...

Stinging licid - Combo with MoM and Arcanis can be used with Psychic venom to kill the opponent instantly by discarding 20 cards. Stinging licid can do similar job, but he needs one turn to survive one turn and get tapped. There is similar enchantment for artifacts which allows lifeloss or lifegain of target player, but i dont remember its name right now.

Some math ideas...

Azami + MOM will normally lead to Grimoire thief, Pemmins aura, Paradise mantle. Needs one turn or haste to activate - Lightning greaves or Time Warp.

When MOM on table i can discard a card to gain 1, U, 1U, UU, or UUU depending on lands and artifacts i control.
Combo require 4 cards to start, excessive amount of cards can be turned into mana. Is it better to play Lightning greaves or Time warp?

Lightning greaves - Artifact. Can be countered, Can be destroyed, his equip can be stifled Cost: 1card an 2 mana
Time Warp - Sorcery, Can be countered. Cost 1 card and 5 mana...

Effects. Greaves are cheaper so i can start that combo in same turn for 7 mana. Grimoire thief and Time warp costs 7 mana together, but also i will get another untap step, another card draw, maybe another land in play and Thief will not be affected with Summ sickness. what gives better opportunity?

Offler
02-01-2010, 05:48 PM
The main combo has been growing intensly for last weeks...

Arcanis, Archivist, Survivor of the unseen, Azami, (Body double), Grimoire thief, Aphetto alchemist, Fatestitcher, Tidewater minion.

in the central part still mind over matter, pemmins aura and Freed from the real

In the bottom are Khalni Gem, Coral Atoll, Gilded Lotus and Soldevi Excavations. Khalni gem and Coral Atoll can bring some lands to hand which can be quite interesting for fixing mana. Also untapping permanent which produces more than one blue mana can cause to untap aphetto alchemist (or similar) while keeping some infinite mana :D.

Also Gush... I did not like the card previously, but i realized that it can fix all trouble with Mind Over matter and Azami if i run out of cards or mana. Works well also with other wizards which draw cards. Also for same reason i added Ensnare.

also High Tide and Extraplanar lens found its way how to support main combo. If these effects are active i can use any Island to produce infinite mana with Pemmins aura and some untappers. those two cards were previously only part of combo with Palinchron, now they are very close to full integration to the combo.

Psychic venom still counts as one of the mass killers for me, until i get my own "Stroke of genius". As an opposite to it on other side of combo is Wake trasher. He can grow when i simply untap something. Oh wait... Aphetto alchemist and Tidewater minion can untap themselves without any other help :) Well another 2 card combo for 5 mana total with possibility to kill the opponent will surely help :)

Offler
02-13-2010, 07:19 AM
Some minor changes in deck:

Lightning greaves have been replaced by Savor the moment.
Savor the moment is a multipurpose card. My creatures in play will not be affected by summ sickness - same as boots do. But the Savor also say that i will draw a card in new turn i gain, and also that i can play another land.

Apprentice wizard changed for Worn Powerstone
Both cards cost same amount of mana, both need one turn to work, but powerstone does not need one blue mana for activation. Althought apprentice wizard can be used as blocker, or with azami as another card draw, its main purpose was to fix mana, and in this is Powerstone better a bit.

Reins of power have been replaced by Fade away
Althought it is really nice to steal my opponents creatures and attack with them i did not found this card useful in my deck. Its not enough to kill the opponent in one turn with is own cards, and i have no possibility to sacrifice all of them. Fade Away can act as both Wrath of God or Mana short - Depending on opponent..

Offler
02-27-2010, 01:51 PM
Since most wizards here have ability for TAP the deck any help which can speed up possibility to play their abilities should be useful. There is more than one choice...

Lightning greaves are quite useful ones, but activation of equip can trigger oponent to play quite large scale of destroy effects - no matter if for artifacts or for creatures.

There is also another equipment which grants haste, but costs much more mana.

Thousand year elixir is really nice choice, but also can be destroyed when the creature i want to speed up is coming into play.

Winding canyons - a land which grants flash for three mana. Interesting choice, but quite mana consuming.

Hall of bandit lord - for three life i will gain one colorless mana which make creature bit more hasty... Really interesting but this land does not grant normal mana for tap.

Minion reflector - instead of one wizard i will have two wizards, while one of them has haste and has to be sacrificed... This choice costs most but also grants some kind of protection. Even when the Minion reflector is destroyed his ability will still resolve, even when hasted copy of wizard is destroyed by targeted spell, original wizard still has to be destroyed. But does not work with legends at all (except kamigawa dragons, but thats different story). Azami does not need such help, but Arcanis?

Metathran aerostat: A creature for 4 mana, which can put into play creature with for cost UX where X is CMC of the creature. Another way how to play a creature with bit more haste.

Vedalken orrery all nonland cards can be played as instants, with no additional costs. Interesting indeed. Thousand year elixir can be disrupted when someone will destroy it, but this cant be affected. Even when someone attempts to destroy it i still have possibility to play my wizard in response...

any suggestions welcome...

Offler
03-15-2010, 05:51 AM
Persistent blockers:
Some creature cards which were intended as random blockers have been replaced recently. First of all Licids were in command to find a way how to block and survive. Costs mana indeed, but these hard to kill blockers might buy some time to me during play and make opponents dizzy (and furious).

Also i added Venser to deck. Same reason for a sneaky blocker but also storming engine with infinite mana.

Jixed choker - possible finisher for infinite mana, and also possible decoy.

Offler
06-27-2010, 11:31 PM
My attempts to find new sources of infinite mana brought me back to the cloud of faeries, palinchron and the Djinn. And attempts to burn it brought me to the new Magosi Sphinx.

Offler
07-11-2010, 01:14 PM
I have updated the decklist.

Any suggestions welcome. Current experience of playing is very mixed. In some situations i win in 5 turns, in other i play long games and then i do my 1 turn kill, but in others it is impossible to make the deck work.

Offler
07-17-2010, 08:17 PM
Most games when i lose have similar situation.

I have already combo on hand (lets say Mind over matter and Archivist). First I have to play Archivist and in next round the Mind over matter. This way there is shorter time between showing up the combo and its activation.

Its quite common to play Naturalize or at least one Krosan Grip in common HL deck, but much more common is to kill the Archivist instantly.

When the Archivist enters the battlefield he will most likely die until next round. Therefore i added cards such as basic counterspells or Lightning greaves. However the greaves can be equipped as a sorcery. Easy, fast and cheap, but not fast enough. when equipped the Archivist will receive some damage in reaction.

Its pretty tricky to protect these wizards...

While haste is not a matter of one mana in monoblue deck this is not a way how to trigger or prepare the combo. Right now seems that Savor the moment can do the work much more effectively.Also Renegade doppleganger can do its work (i have two targets instead of one, while one of them is not affected by summ sickness)

However its easier to make the creature shrouded at least for one turn that make it hasty...

edit:
Shroud is not solution at all. Mostly global effects which kills everything are in charge. Therefore a bit of counterspelling will be better. Glen Elendra Archmage and Stronghold machinist will do the job right here. Also i was bit confused when i saw that there is a blue creature which grants Haste - it is the Overtaker. No restriction to target only opponents creatures :D

Offler
07-19-2010, 08:49 PM
If someone of you reads this topic just focus on

Pre-combo control B:
cards which can cause an opponent to waste at least one direct damage card, or counter the noncreature spell

Glen Elendra Archmage
Stronghold Machinist
Daring Apprentice
Voidmage Prodigy
Lilting Refrain

4 creatures, 1 Enchantment. I had bit less creatures in deck and bit less countering effects.

One card of this list are famous. Voidmage Prodigy. I like the idea of card, however its a big failure of my past play. Sacrificing is not a choice in some situations, but it is a choice in others. Previously i was unable to play it effectively.

Daring Apprentice. One of the lowest rated cards i ever seen. Why to play it, aint Cancel better? Well just the possibility to pay cancels manacost one turn in advance to do something in next turn? Not enough... Possibility to remove cancel from hand to block creature? still not enough. Getting the Apprentice burned instead of wizard coming next onto battlefield-OR-countering different spell as well?

At this point much depends on which spell was wasted in attempt to kill the walking Cancel. never played this card before. Now i think i have seen all the possibilities of this card, but I am still not sure whether to play it, or not... What do you think?

Offler
07-24-2010, 10:44 AM
Definitely goes out of deck:

- Lightning Greaves - one of few ways how to get haste, also the cheapest way, but not very good for this type of deck. If i need to enchant the creature which is being hasted (equipped as sorcery) i will lose both wizard and enchantment when attempting this.

Old / New Ideas:
- Quicksilver elemental: for one U can copy activated abilities of creatures currently in play. Might be useful as haste via copying, when played 1 turn before the combo creature. Works also with legendary creatures.

- Skill borrower: works very similar. Can bring up some extra mana, be sacrified for extra land, be sacrified as a counterspell, the more wizards i add to the deck the more possibilities this card has. Works great with Scroll rack and also with Senseis Divining top or any other card filtering. Even Long Term Plans has very special meaning right now.

With these cards it is just a question of mana which to include or not.

By the way... i dont know if my english is so bad, or my deck is so bad, but really why no one comments anything i write here? :D Just curious.

Offler
10-10-2010, 07:06 PM
Possibly new additions:

Elixir of Immortality vs Feldons Cane
Althought requires more mana, it allows me to flip over the deck infinitely.

Augury Owl vs Telling time
Very good pet i must say.

Enclave cryptologist
Possible card drawing wizard for the combo with MOM. Whats good on this card - Playing it one turn before MOM can cause opponent to cast something destructive too early. However leveling cannot be stacked - can be played only as sorcery which means some trouble in the play.

at all bit expensive (7 mana total)

Counterspelling

I have taken a look at "pay X" counterspells. each of them can cause oppoent to pay the mana or left his card countered. That can be interesting. I can gain 1 turn for casting when he pays too much, or he will lost more than one turn when wainting for similar card which was countered.

Retraced image
Already tested. Very good when i put a land into play on first turn.

Offler
10-11-2010, 05:21 PM
Common finisher for Infinite mana combo was his excellency Ambassador Laquatus. However the opponents adapted with cards which allow to reshuffle the library or at least some cards back into library.

This degraded the combo even at his full potential. therefore i decided to use Tormods crypt to activate upon trigerring such ability. Guile or some eldrazi can be shuffled back, but they have to hit the graveyard first. If i exile graveyard serveral times i will be able to burn the deck completely.

Edit:
Vigean graftmage
Quite good untapper which can replace Pemmins aura or Freed from the real when there are permanents which offer 3 colored mana per tap.

Offler
11-05-2010, 06:26 AM
I have decided to make this deck legal on both EDH and HL. For this purpose the deck has to be thinned to 100 cards and general has to be chosen...

I have added a poll to the topic. You may choose more than one wizard if you wish to.

Offler
11-16-2010, 06:24 PM
Althought I post here only updates to deck and I dont thing anyone still reads this I will continue if no one will complain about it :D


Since i ran out of creatures with "untap target permanent" I had to look for some alternate ways how to archieve same effect as by enchanting the untapper wizard. I realized that both Pemmins aura and Freed from the real are enchantments for creatures, however i dont have any creatures which produce more than 1 mana per tap, so there was another way how to archieve this - transforming other mana producing permanents into creatures. Sounds fun? Just take a look at this.

Wind Zendikon
The allmighty Worldwake common.

Please note that Wind Zendikon can enchant any land, not only Islands. So I already have in my deck cards like High Tide , Extraplanar lens, Lotus Vale. now just add Freed from the real and you just have 3 card combo for infinite mana for U + 2u, "haste included" because you have just enchanted land which was already in play of course.

Tezzeret the Seeker

You have Gilded Lotus already in play. He comes into play, untaps something to get his counter. next turn you can animate your lotus and attach Freed from the real.

Similar can work Karn, Silver golem, Karn's Touch, March of the Machines, Genju of the Falls (althought limited only to high tide and extraplanar lens)...

Each "animation" done by those cards is much more effective as playing creatures, however as by creatures its divided to Land and Artifact animators.

Offler
12-04-2010, 09:25 PM
Some creatures able to harm the opponnent even with its muscles have been added. Card filtering improved. currently 110 cards which is still too many to be legal in EDH... (+- some banned cards)

Offler
01-06-2011, 07:47 PM
Silver Myr in deck.
Train of thoughts will replace Whispers of the muse Reason: Harder to counter, usable even without infinite mana
Doubling cube - does not work well. out of deck

Coralhelm commander, Condundrum Sphinx, Vexing Sphinx, Lighthouse Chronologist, Halimar Wavewatch in deck.

hyc8028
01-07-2011, 12:25 AM
Have you consider using Memnarch or Thada as general?

Offler
01-07-2011, 05:39 AM
I have Thada, however no - this card is not what I am looking for.

Memnarch - previously it was in deck to burn out the infinite mana possibilities, however, he is colorless, and his abilities are blue. Now I am really not sure if I can play monoblue deck with colorless general which has blue ablities. Will check the EDH rules.

The problem with Memnarch was that he could slow down opponent a lot, breaking his combos, stealing anything however even when I had infinite mana and i have stolen all of the opponents permanents some of them argued "ok, but i will not concede until you finish me". That could take another minutes. At all the most valuable argument was "It is artifact creature. It is easy to destroy". Not sure how will people react if he will be general.

At all if legal for blue cards as a general, could be more annoying as a single card in plain highlander.

Edit: Yes. Memnarch's Colour identity is blue.

hyc8028
01-07-2011, 02:35 PM
Memnarch is a legal general now. They changed the rule back in December. Beside Azami, I feel like he is the second best general.

Offler
01-07-2011, 05:09 PM
My deck is not fully legal for EDH. Currently struggling with 2 problems.

1. I play Gifts ungiven and Staff of Domination. Its not so problematic to remove Staff from the deck since it is just another choice to burn infinite mana, however - Gifts are quite often win condition.

2. I am unable to to drop below 110 cards... :)

Will update decklist tommorow. Any hints to make it legal for both formats are welcome. Currently there is no problem to remove the illegal cards for EDH play and put them back for HL play, but the amount of cards is the problem.

The tip with Memnarch is very useful. Wish I have such people in playgroup here, however they play Magister Sphinx in very specific manner. It does not make player to have 10 life, but 20...

Offler
01-11-2011, 02:50 PM
Now aware of the main combo of the deck I started to browse for all blue cards. I started with Enchantments, first auras and later non-aura enchantments.

I have re-discovered Shared fate. Before I was unable to find any practical appliance of this card except making mess during play, but if you are playing deck with infinite mana, and infinite card draw engine you can focus this limitless power on this enchantment.

With combo running I can draw this card from library, play it, then exile all cards of all opponnents, and now begins the fun - i can either play all cards of my opponnents, or when all are exiled from their libraries I can just bounce/destroy the enchantment and let the game continue.

It has advantage of Psychic venom which can kill opponent hidden beyond Imperial mask, but does not have the disadvantage when it can kill only single opponnent.

Also in comparation with Ambassador Laquatus it can remove all cards of all opponnents, however it is not limited only to discard so it can flush away cards like Progenitus or Emrakul. Also once again Laquatus can have trouble when opponnent has Imperial mask or similar protective spell

I can replace two cards with single one, mastering both effects from view of finishing, however without any other practical application during basic game. Thats the dillemma.

Offler
02-11-2011, 10:36 PM
I returned to some older cards...

Wormfang Drake
People still believe that combo creature for 1-2 mana hidden under this little-big drake will slow me down. 3/4 Flier for 3 mana? well if you can use it for some abilities, or as a form of protection for some creatures it will surely not slow you down.

Trickster Mage
Well, 5 mana in 3rd round under some circumstances sounds fun. Last time helped to get this mana and feed the card drawing for mana (leveled Enclave cryptologist with Freed from the real on it). Rest was just a question of time.

Vision Charm
Not in play yet... Slowing down by painting the mana, or at least will solve the immensly annoying Damping Matrix

Martyr of Frost
I was thinking of getting him out of deck until he saved the day :D

and I have taken a look on some newer ones

Blue Sun's Zenith
All right. Blue, Instant, burns colorless mana, draws cards, can kill an opponent, shuffles into deck.

Offler
02-14-2011, 07:01 PM
Attunement
The idea of playing this is pretty simple to me. Play it, keep the priority, put it back, draw three, discard four. some people believe that you have to discard 1 more you have drawn, however since it returns to hand the "play a card" part of cost is negated. surely has to remain in deck.

Merchant of secrets
A crappy card? well, playing him is like to have one card in play and another one which replaces him on hand ... not when it attacks, or when it dies... the math is clear, you get 2 benefits by playing it. a creature and the next card. I cannot take any opinion about this guy...

Rayne, Academy Chancellor
The effect reads like this "Kill me first". I can hardly believe that anyone will leave her alone for a long time. But this leads me to the black cards. Edicts, discarding stuff. When in play it completely negates most of discard. Against white its similar when it comes to Silence efects. She does not work against counterspells, but she works against some effects which taps, bounces ... At all she attracts any creature destroying effects no matter of color... At all i think i will not enchant her... maybe the Pemmins aura? :D

Now when i compare merchant of secrets with rayne its pretty clear which card can do more, and which one is crappy :D

Magus of the Bazaar
Really beatiful card, however the math is not so clear as with attument. In this case i will surely discard more cards i eventually drawn with his effect.

Offler
02-27-2011, 09:09 PM
Sooo after some time the deck has been thinned to 100 cards exactly while following both EDH and HL banlists.

Ambassador Laquatus is going to leave the deck since it breaks the synergy with other methods which burnts infinite mana. the synnergy will be improved by Whispers of the Muse as spell with 1 CMC.

Intuition has to replace some tutoring... Not sure which one exactly :)

General: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Cant wait for the new foil one from FTV: Legends.

At all deck is currently legal for both EDH and German highlander without any major negative effect on functionality (the Gifts Ungiven hurts a bit)

Few cards are missing in current list - the Trickster mage, but it might be replaced by Jushi apprentice soon.

Offler
03-12-2011, 07:22 AM
ok. Deck legal in both EDH and Highlander. This topic can be closed after this last comment and I will start new one with [EDH + HL] Teferi Deck.

About some new additions:

Suq'ata Firewalker, Desert- Elven and Goblin decks have convinced me to add them both just in case to kill some incoming creatures. Suq'ata Firewalker also seems as another possibility to finish up the game after started combo.

Balduvian Frostwaker - I need 4-5 blue mana to run this deck safely. Rest can be colorless. This allows me to send some flying creatures againsts opponents.

Serra Sphinx/Meloku - currently used Conundrum sphinx seems fine, however the ability is bit chaotic. Serra allows attack without necessity of being tapped. However this slot is also fine for Meloku which works pretty nice as token generator, with winter orb allows one untapping, generating one token per turn at cost of playing land... Also fact that meloku is wizard makes him more fit into deck.

Intuition - After removing banned Gifts ungiven the deck lacks the tutoring engine.

Everflowing chalice - Can be played as Mind Stone for 2, also as Ring of Sisay/ur golem eye for 4, or as Dreamstone hedron for 6... at all with Grand Arbiter works pretty fine.

Mikokoro, Center of the Sea - I played this card some time ago. Was good enough to make some extra draw, however i had no combo to run it. Now I have such combo, so I've decided to put it in deck instead Desert. Will see how many slots will be free.