Deck has been updated.
Tribal Wizard theme has been improved greatly by Patron Wizard. Therefore each wizard in play is potential danger for further play. To improve the wizard tribal I hope to place Sage of Fables
Also Echo mage and Sigil tracer with combination of some spells added non-obvious method which might produce infinite mana, infinite cards of infinite untapping. Both wizards also means grave danger, when someone dont realize that even his own spells can be copied. Great for tutoring, or X killer spells.
Petrified field improves lands which are needed to combo, and makes combo less sensitive to random land destruction.
Just looking for a way where to place Opposition. However i have version from 7th edition, and version from Urza's destiny is much more flavourful in this deck. For control reasons I also plan to return Oboro breezecaller, however the deck is just too full now :D
Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
Funny land isnt it. How it works besides Landfall? Well imagine situation where Winter Orb is in play and I have two lands in play.
a) those lands are Island and Soldevi Excavations
I need UUU - not possible.
I need UU - ok, possible. both lands are tapped, while next turn i can have only 1U from excavations + possibly another land, 1 mana is wasted.
b) those lands are Oboro and Soldevi excavations
I need UUU - tap both lands 1UU in pool. bounce Oboro, play again and suddenly i can tap it for another blue.
I need UU. tap both lands, bounce oboro for 1, play it, next turn I have U + 1U and next land possible.
Fixes color in non-traditional way, and makes winter orb easier to play...
Wake thrasher and Streambed Aquitects worked in infinite untapping combo, however if the combo was not producing infinite mana and further protection by Teferi was not optional but crucial what made them both less usable in HL mode of the deck.
Replacement for other Pinger is needed. Must be a Wizard.
Also storage effect of Saprazzan cove can be reached with Coalition Relic even when its much more temporary it does not matter.
Voidmage Prodigy, Patron wizard, Glen Eledra and other Wizards improved the deck in a way when amount of small wizards can either counter spells or block attacks, at least for a while. High occurence of Humility in current metagame forces me to use some sort response on meta level. Cryptic Command allows me to wait while I collect my combo, but in some situations its very risky to bounce it.
The need to react on some specific cards on table grows much more. Temporal adept or Heidar, Rimewind Master help in this task, but they attract too much attention, and does not help against humility. So Capsize seems to be good form of response.
Testing of Deranged assistant and Sage of Fables finished. Good cards, but when i had oportunity to search them, they offered no potential in some situations. No direct control or independent card draw or filtering.
Removed and lets test other pair of wizards Willbender and Voidmage apprentice.
The deck currently contains only two morph wizards. Voidmage prodigy, Aphetto alchemist. Usually I never used their Morph ability, maybe once or twice. At all at that time I was playing only Aphetto alchemist so to people in my playgroup were sure about that card. More morph cards will make the morph ability more usable. Morph as mechanic brought me also back to the old friend Vesuvan shapeshifter.
Effect of Patron wizard:
I was wondering if there is any Mana independent counterspelling. Besides Pact of Negation, Force of Will, Foil, Thwart and Daze, there is only Patron Wizard, Counterbalance or some other wizards able to do the trick. Such control allows me to play cards and spending mana while defence is not broken. At all this fact improves my own opinion about all named cards.
Last edited by Offler; 10-24-2011 at 04:37 AM.
Tezzeret the Seeker was after some time removed from deck and replaced by Transmute Artifact. They both have effect of putting artifact into play, however Transmute artifact can help me to get rid of Winter orb or similar cards i use. Also I realized that I never used Tezzeret for other reason as tutoring.
Deranged Assistant was replaced by Artificer's Intuition. Filtering by Garl is quite useful, however since it requires at least Sensei, and rest of deck contains quite a lot of artifacts, possibilty to tutor small powerful artifacts seems nice.
This adjustment should help stabilize mana curve in a way of discarding big artifact(s), playing smaller one(s) and later by transforming it(them) into something more useful for late game or combo.
Another round of testing done...
Artificer's Intuition helped a lot. Discarding 3 CMC artifact which was needed much later in the end phase of game (while no problem when it was discarded) helped to fix beginning by finding Senseis top. Also next artifact was leading me directly to Aether vial.
Both cards are very valued among players, but combination of this enchanment and Senseis Divining top was the engine which improved the overall chances to build up combo.
When playing against slivers the Root sliver completely destroyed my control based on Voidmage prodigy and quite large amount of wizards. Later Goblin bombardment offered simple possibility to destroy my combo even when Teferi was guarding it.
With Artificer's Intuition and useless artifact on hand the deck screamed for Pithing needle.
Also another interesting information is that deck would appreciate CMC1 or less artifact with ability to fuel up the combo. One of the possible solutions is Viridian Longbow which has almost same effect as prodigal sorcerer...
Coalition relic is referred as great card. Since this deck contain not too much lands, and common starting mana on hand is 2 lands CMC 3 mana source is something that cannot be used in any situation. Everflowing chalice will replace it soon. Fixes mana in bit different way, but CMC 0 allows it to be searched by Artificers intuition and its multikicker lets on player how much mana he can spend for further acceleration. 2 mana for untapped artifact which produces 1 colorless mana is fine and reflect needs at the beginning of the game (with average 2 lands on hand).
However slots for Viridian longbow and Pithing needle are questionable. With strong reanimator in local meta also Tormod's crypt has reasonable usage in deck.
The last thing in this update is Cephalid coliseum. In the light of "Brainstorm banning madness" in legacy I realized it cant be handled as a land, but as an effect very similar to Attunement. For some time I was thinking of a card which interacts Crucible of worlds in a manner which will work together with Panoramas. (Fetch, Draw and discard, Fetch again). Such "Russian roulette" effect based only on lands is bit unusual but might work well.
Rimewind taskmage was tested again lately for its quite bit low reliability.
It can help to other wizards by untapping, or in combat as the one who taps enemy creature before combat phase.
In combo it requires specifically:
Pemmin's Aura/Freed from the real
and
Lotus Vale/Gilded Lotus
There are also other less possible scenarios including High Tide and Extraplanar lens at the same moment.
To start this combo the deck requires him in play, at least 4 snow lands and 5 free mana when casting Gilded Lotus.
Variation with Lotus Vale however requires 6 lands at least, while four of them are snow. This situation might be very complicated.
After some measurements and calculations was certain that even Wind Zendikon can ignite more combos and much earlier as this wizard. However in his position in the core of combo he cannot be just removed, he needs at least equal replacement.
Balduvian Frostwaker requires any snow land, Pemmins aura or Freed from the real, and works fine with Extraplanar lens or high tide. If he is already in play to start the combo its required always 5 mana, while the prerequisites for the start of combo are usually not very obvious and much less specific. Therefore i will replace him as soon as possible.
Edit:
Genju of the falls can trigger exactly same amount of combos with exactly same cards, bit faster and if destroyed it returns back to hand... Even when its not wizard it has to be considered...
Last edited by Offler; 11-15-2011 at 03:47 AM.
After another round of intensive testing:
Balduvian Frostwaker was very good in HL mode of the deck when oponnents have no general and only 20 life. Beating oponnent only with him and flying lands was quite fast even for me.
VS Kaalia of the Vast deck.
I was playing against new player so we were playing with revelaed hands. He won the die roll and began with land and Sol ring. I started with Island, keeping a brainstorm on hand.
Next turn he dropped Commander tower land and Crystal Ball. I brainstormed and I put into play tapped Teferi's Isle. He had 4 mana, and I only 1...
then he put into play Kaalia, while my Teferi''s Isle phased out and I was still manascrewed. Cantriping and tutoring on my hand was promise of possibility of collecting combo in 3 turns, however I had not enough time. At the turn when I was overwhelmed by the attacking creatures Combo was ready and nothing was in its way to start it - with the exception that I was already dead.
Have to find a way how to play stronger control. If one turn means difference between winning or losing I have to do some acceleration and strenghten control a bit.
Also new cards arrived. Venser, Shaper Savant and Reveka, Wizard Savant. Reveka can found great interactions with the rest of the deck, especially Freed from the Real or Pemmin's aura. Instead of Tim she can be Teferi's another lieutenant (alternate general). Venser in such position can be used for storm cards, but I dont use any of them, so he will be most likely using only his own ability... But this is in conflict with Torpor Orb.
Last edited by Offler; 11-27-2011 at 09:28 AM.
finally have Braingeyser and Stroke of genius.
Most people here surely noticed that this deck is not centered around Teferi, but around Mind over matter. Each "draw a card" wizard in my deck form a two card combo with it... However there is another way how to start a combo with it.
When deck contains enough cards like Stroke of Genius, Braingeyser, Blue Sun's Zenith and has some permanents like Lotus Vale or Gilded lotus it can easily turn discarding into mana, and then single mana can be turned into single card...
You have MOM and Lotus vale in play, discard 3 cards, add 9 mana, tap all 6 lands, cast Blue suns zenith, draw 14 cards. When lucky you have drawn Stroke of genius. Discard 13 cards for mana via lotus vale, draw 35 cards... and repeat, boost with gush, reroll with Elixir of immortality...
Those X card drawings can be used either to spend infinite mana or to ignite combo.
Train of thought can be used for draining infinite mana, but it gives only single card for 2 mana. Out with it, and place Braingeyser instead.
Blue sun's zenith is already in deck and its reshuffling ability makes the chances of getting another "draw X" higher. Also Azami, Lady of Scrolls and Sphinx of Magosi have interaction of their own with MOM. Azure Mage and Diviner's Wand dont. Just have to find place for Stroke of genius.
Also the tutoring... Muddle the Mixture, Drift of Phantasms and Recall increase chances of casting those spells again, Echo mage and Sigil tracer also give oportunity to copy that spell...
Edit:
First tests seems great. I no longer need to discard Mind over Matter in mulligan. I can keep in on hand. Pingers were removed and Hinder with Spell Crumple have been added - as more adequate solution to troublesome generals. Also Scroll rack ... it provided additional possibility how to search for another "draw X" card which interacts with Mind Over Matter. Two cards on hand needed just to ignite the combo. Also landbase was adjusted, so now I have enough mana while still manaflood is not ocurring.
Last edited by Offler; 12-12-2011 at 04:44 AM.
Blue sun's zenith proven very useful in last games. Multiple ways of making more than 1 mana per tap allows Mind over matter to increase its efficiency with similar spells.
7 cards on beginning of the turn, Teferi's Isle phased in, untap phase, one card drawn. Counterbalance and Scroll rack in play. Mind Over Matter cast. 6 cards discarded = 12 mana, rest of lands tapped, 13 cards drawn, 1 blue mana still in pool.
Zenith reshuffled back in library.
two cards discarded to untap two lands, Lotus Vale was put into play. Gush cast via alternate cost. Sphinx of Magosi on hand, card discarded... Enough to win...
Only minor changes in deck.
Oboro, Palace in the Clouds back. Minamo removed. Interacts with Mind over matter. When Lotus Vale/gilded lotus in game can bounce itself for 1 colorless mana, then discarded via Mind Over Matter.
Petrified field can feed the combo in similar way if untapped and any land is in grave.
Urza's Factory has replaced Riptide Laboratory.
The deck start to work as a chain reaction. Once Mind over matter is in play many cards interact with each other producing combos which seems quite random.
As the lands in this deck have good tutoring they have great possibilities it was just a matter of time to add some cards able to finish up the game...
Temple bell was tested previously as a possibility of infinite draw, until it was stopped by Krosan grip upon its activation. Mikokoro, center of the sea does not have this disadvantage, just because its not an Artifact, but still can be activated immediatelly after entering the battlefield.
When compared to Archivist, Mikokoro is much easier to be found. Archivist works with universal tutoring, and from special tutoring only with Vedalken Aethermage. Any land works also with Tolaria West, Petrified Field and Expedition map.
Will replace Archivist quite soon.
Aether Vial still gives mixed results...
Conjurer's Bauble is one of the few cards which can help me to refill my library, but only for infinite mana and with Academy ruins. Else it can still return from grave to library a card, or let me draw 1 card for 1 colorless.
Torpor orb to be replaced with Grafdigger's Cage. Not as powerful, but great card also.
The recent presence of Wheel of fortune in metagame forced me to think about discarding. Generally tutoring cannot be done with this especially when it reocurrs too often. Most of combo pieces end up in grave.
Library of leng is kind of solution which might help. Not only to prevent being discarded, but interacts well with some cards such as Tolarian Winds, Attunement, Magus of the Bazaar, any standard blue Looting and of course Obsessive search with MOM. I think that position of Aether Vial has been finally shaken.
Balduvian Frostwaker proven good when it comes to decks which have no ability to destroy anything on table, but most people here love Wrath of god in any of its form. Since Snow-covered Islands are the backbone of my mana sources I cannot afford the risk.
Searching for a creature which will have similar ability ended quite early - Karn, Silver Golem. When he animates Gilded Lotus or Khalni Gem they can be then easily used for combo. Also 0/8 wall or 4/4 creature is still good choice no matter whether its legendary artifact he can be reanimated via Academy ruins. However most of my artifacts has CMC 0 and 1...
Also Grafdiggers cage is not available to me, but Tormod's Crypt is.
edit: Karn with proper help can destroy oppnents lands...
Last edited by Offler; 03-22-2012 at 03:59 AM.
Since i removed pingers and have replaced them with Sigil tracer and Echo mage the deck seem to have better resistance against burning decks.
However two types of decks are becoming more common enemy. Kaalia of the Vast and Karador.
First deck is able to put creatures into play without casting them for mana. Even now angels like Iona or red Akroma can mean fast end of the game. At that point my mana based control stopped to work. With new Avacyn angels even Nevinyrrals disk cannot be considered as a mass solution.
Even when I had enough flying creatures (such as Vendilion clique, Magosi sphinx, or Vexing sphinx) I could not compete the raw power of the dragons, angels or demons.
Tapping a creature can be a solution how to effectively block it regardless of power, and most of abilities. Fatestitcher can be used for this purpose. Upcoming Tamyio also can partially do such job. Vodalian illusionist has greatest potential among all since it completely remove the creature - and solves even those which have passive ability.
Now after graveborn most solutions are only temporary - no matter of tapping, phasing-out or destroying the creatures and buying extra time to complete the combo is harder. The difference is only in amount of mana or cards required to restore previous situation.
Also Sower of temptation looks very nice when it comes to cards such as Avacyn, however single destruction card can kill it instantly.
Edit: As most players, even I misunderstood Barrin, Master wizard. I just thought there are better bouncers, but Gilded drake Brought me to different solution. Drop drake, steal Avacyn. Drop Barrin. pay 2, sacrifice avacyn, bounce gilded drake. Also possible with Sower of temptation. And of course he can selfbounce - at a price...
edit2: Avacyn restored
Since my deck is Wizard tribal having Cavern of souls is almost automatical decision. combined with Teferi... whoa now the fun begins.
Last edited by Offler; 04-21-2012 at 07:08 AM.
So lets mention some new blue cards...
Captain of the Mists
Wizard with tapping/untapping, for its own tap while the ability costs 1U. Result: Needs Tolarian Academy, Doubling cube while being untapped by other enchantment/wizard/soulboud paired creature.
Galvanic Alchemist
Same potential as Vigean Graftmage without most of graft imperfections, but again. Needs Tolarian academy or Doubling cube to work.
Most cards I use balance between combo usage and usage as a single card without any other purpose. Those two cards are very close to this definition, but i am unsure whether they fulfill it.
Also Cavern of Souls. If the wizards intended to ruin EDH they did it... I just cant wait when it will be banned :D
Edit: Recent changes
Barrin, Sower and Gilded drake going in.
Survivor of Unseen, Grimoire Thief and Glen Elendra Archmage going out.
Survivor has been superceded by presence of instants and sorceries which draw X cards. Grimoire thief partially by Mikokoro, Blinkmoth nexus and same drawing spells. Glen Elendra can solve or threaten players when they want to play noncreature spells. Avacyn mechanics mostly say that she is obsolete.
Barrin, Sower and gilded drake will mostly create vicious circle of stealing, bouncing and sacrifiing.
Adding Instants and sorceries for card drawing helped me to start main MOM combo from a scratch. I just need to play Mind Over Matter, discard hand, cast one of these spells and work.
Humility, Damping Matrix and many similar enemy cards I met are now officialy considered as solved problem.
Next problem - Iona. It has been cast once against my deck. By chance I already had Aphetto alchemist in play, Rings of Brighthearth and Gilded Lotus on hand. Last part of solution was Senseis Divining top which allowed me to draw, until I found Diviners wand, equipped aphetto alchemist with it and attacked...
Sigil Tracer, Echo mage and Doubling Cube. all these three cards can multiply amount of cards i can draw with Stroke of genius for example. They just do it in different way. Previously i was playing doubling cube in combo, but its better to have artifact which produces multiple blue mana per tap - especially when igniting mind over matter combo. The question however is whether its better to have High tide/Extraplanar lens or Doubling cube...
High tide is almost untutorable for me. Extraplanar lens is limited to Snow-covered Island s only. None of those cards interacts with Karn, Silver golem and Aphetto Alchemist, but Doubling cube does and its not limited to ice age lands...
Declaration of naught
Evil isnt it. Pure existence of this card cannot be reason of printing such thing as Cavern of souls is. There have been lands with similar abilities previously. Boseiju, Who Shelters all.
Few days ago I had strange play
Teferi came to play at the end of oponnents turn. I enchanted him with Pemmin's Aura, pumped him to 6/1...
He was able to swing oponnent 3 times before he decided to flush the table. I never thought about such usage of general in this deck and result was quite a surprise for me.
However most other methods of giving shroud and evasion ability are too vulnerable. At all interesting game.
Edit:
Soratami Savant should be added to improve mana lock with orbs.
Since I pursue some kind of "wizard flavour" in this deck I was always willing to add into this deck as many wizard races as possible. Reason why I am still thinking about one single reason to add any "Bird wizard" (such as Aven Windreader), but most of them are quite obsolete. Mana cost like Sphinx and size like Faerie...
Same fate has met also the race of Moonfolks, althought every time I reviewed them I was always able to found new usage for them in this deck.
Meloku, the clouded mirror
He was shortly in deck. Few times with help of Winter orb able to cause almost decisive advantage over opponent. As a standalone wizard he can provide some boucing games with Halimar depths, as most moonfolks.
Floodbringer
With winter orb he can cause a serious oponnent lock.
Soratami Savant
Mana Leak for 3 if you have enough mana and/or lands. Usually gets burned too early, or oponnents are ready to mana clashes.
Soratami Seer and Uyo, Silent prophet
Uyo is quite big flying creature able to copy spells. Including enemy spells. He is in same class as Sigil tracer and Echo mage. As the combo based on Mind over matter is running, he can be dropped for discarding 2 or 3 cards, and copy upcoming Stroke of genius for another discard.
Math is simple. lose 4-5 cards from hand in exchange of more cards to be drawn. Stroke of Genius must be then able to draw 6 or more cards. Sigil tracer can do the same for almost same cost re-calculated to amount of discarded cards, while both require to have a draw spell on the stack.
Its incredible for me to found that Soratami Seer can do this for 1 less card, without draw spell on the stack... The bouncing of lands in situation of starting MOM combo will help to decrease the price...
At all it seems I have to rethink some slots in deck to add some of them into the deck. Mostly it seems that Echo mage will be replaced by bigger flying moonfolk, and there should be some place for Soratami Seer. Most probably in some non-combo cantrip position.
Standalone the soratami seer lets you discard/draw whole hand, and adds 2 new cards on your hand. Thats pretty good for 4 mana cost, while the bouncing is some strange form of cost... Especially in long games when you have 12+ lands. He does the same as when you activate Trade routes twice both abilities, for exactly same cost and discards/draw the hand at the same time.
New combo based on Pemmins aura/Freed from the real:
Caged Sun+Faerie conclave+Pemmins aura
Or any other manland able to produce at least single blue mana. However not viable for my deck simply because of its CMC.
Damping matrix became very dangerous weapon against most combo decks in our playgroup. When I realized that even Nevynirrals disk and Oblivion stone are not able to shut it down I was quite surprised at fact that most used colorless destruction is also useless.
Adding Stroke of genius, Braingeyser and Blue sun's zenith was due Damping matrix, Humility and other cards which disable abilities good choice, not mentioning fact that I can start MOM combo "from hand".
This leads me to Recall and Snapcaster mage. These are only two cards able to re-play cards from graveyard. Last play against Oona, Queen of the Fae convinced me that 3 drawing spells with X in cost, and two gravedigging cards are not enough, not even when I play Selfmilling in order to save them from removal.
Call to mind and Relearn are back to play, especially when Transmute artifact was not as good as expected. Both those cards do not affect amount of cards on hand - especially when comparing to Recall, which is removed after casting, and even Snapcaster which leaves hand and enters battlefield.
Any other card allows re-casting of instant or sorcery spell automatically improves combo and any other such spell. Tutoring, counterspelling and all such spells are then giving bit more consistent results.
Cantriping no matter of method seems to work fine at least. Senseis divining top and Scroll rack work great with current tutoring methods (due shuffling of library) and even Bant Panorama with Esper panorama are most useful at shuffling, while keeping amount of lands in library under control. Grixis panorama is most probably on the way back to the deck. Cephalid coliseum also saved my life many times - even when sacrificing life for using it as mana source, or saving recently tutored card from top of the library.
The deck finally allows to prepare two combos at same time, while one is dropped visibly under the nose of oponnents, and other is being prepared on hand and thats how it should work.
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