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Thread: [EDH] Diaochan, Artful Beauty

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  1. #1
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    [EDH] Diaochan, Artful Beauty

    Commander:
    Diaochan, Artful Beauty

    Creatures:
    Goblin Welder
    Dualcaster Mage
    Feldon of the Third Path
    Anger
    Flametongue Kavu
    Silent Arbiter
    Solemn Simulacrum
    Hoarding Dragon
    Karn, Silver Golem
    Urabrask the Hidden
    Combustible Gearhulk
    Godo, Bandit Warlord
    Inferno Titan
    Mana-charged Dragon
    Steel Hellkite
    Wurmcoil Engine
    Meteor Golem
    Spawn of Thraxes

    Instant:
    Pyroblast
    Comet Storm
    Commune with Lava
    Electrodominance
    Reverberate
    Chaos Warp
    Volcanic Offering

    Sorcery:
    Faithless Looting
    Gamble
    Rolling Earthquake
    Vandalblast
    Mizzium Mortars
    Wild Guess
    Fiery Confluence
    All is Dust
    Insurrection
    Blasphemous Act

    Artifact:
    Everflowing Chalice
    Tormod's Crypt
    Expedition Map
    Skullclamp
    Sol Ring
    Lightning Greaves
    Mind Stone
    Thaumatic Compass
    Mirage Mirror
    Smuggler's Copter
    Crucible of Worlds
    Darksteel Plate
    Mimic Vat
    Sword of Fire and Ice
    Sword of War and Peace
    Unstable Obelisk
    Whispersilk Cloak
    Trading Post
    Mind's Eye
    Spine of Ish Sah

    Enchantment:
    Goblin Bombardment
    Outpost Siege
    Stranglehold
    Vicious Shadows

    Planeswalker:
    Chandra, Torch of Defiance
    Koth of the Hammer
    Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

    Lands:
    Arcane Lighthouse
    Arch of Orazca
    Arid Mesa
    Bloodstained Mire
    Buried Ruin
    Flamekin Village
    Forgotten Cave
    Inventors' Fair
    Great Furnace
    Kher Keep
    Maze of Ith
    20 Mountain
    Myriad Landscape
    Scalding Tarn
    Strip Mine
    Thespian's Stage
    Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
    Wooded Foothills

    Pimp Progress:
    Foil: 60/100
    Otherwise Pimped: 28/100
    Unfoilable: 4/100
    Total: 92/100


    Diaochan certainly isn't winning any awards for her awesomeness. Her ability only works at portal speed, and she's packing a measly 1/1 for a body. What she lacks in power she more than makes up for in style. Her ability enables a fairly interactive game, and with the right set up can be structured so that it doesn't even affect your creatures at all.

    The game plan is to piece together a dominant yet innocuous looking board state and eventually take over the game. The first step along that path is to play politics using Diaochan's ability strategically. This is as simple as activating her to bump off the best creature currently on the board, and then choosing a player who is most likely to see eye-to-eye with you as to what the 2nd best creature is and kill that off too. Sometimes the best creature in play is one of yours, which is where shroud and protection from red come in to play. The deck is also perfectly capable of some fairly busted draws fueled by early colorless acceleration into a big dumb dragon, though it is generally better to play draw-go and pace your threats with the rest of the table's development.

    In terms of win conditions, the best by far is Vicious Shadows. Surprisingly, most players will ignore it until it's too late. I've even killed someone in response to their would-be lethal attack because of it. Since we're playing mono-red and have no way to get it back when it eventually dies, back-up win conditions include Mana-charged Dragon, Insurrection, and an equipped Godo, Bandit Warlord beating some serious face. An emblem courtesy of Koth of the Hammer will also likely get you the win, but that is a rarer occurrence.

    A few notable exclusions:

    Swiftfoot Boots: Unfortunately, hexproof doesn't actually do anything to protect your stuff from Diaochan since you still control her ability even though an opponent is picking the target. This seriously limits the amount of protective equipment that can be run, but fortunately there's still enough.

    Wheel of Fortune, Memory Jar, and Reforge the Soul: While these are often considered "staples" for mono-red EDH decks, this particular list is not set up to take full advantage of them. When you couple that with the fact that your "opponent" draws 21 cards to your 7, it's easy to fall behind in terms of card advantage. It's already easy enough to fall behind while playing mono-red control, so extra opportunities to do so are not in our best interest. In order to combat this, I've chosen to focus on the asymmetrical "draw" effects that red has been getting lately, which keep my hand full.

    Akroma's Memorial: While this would be useful as it gives all of our creatures protection from red, it's mostly a "win-more" card. All of the keyword buffs are really only useful in a situation where you have a few creatures and are attacking, which in this list is when we're already winning. Similarly, mass protection from red is only really good when we have more creatures than we can protect with equipment, which is also near the end of the game when we're already winning. In either situation, activating Diaochan isn't our first priority, so the protection bonus wouldn't really be used.
    Last edited by Davran; 02-15-2019 at 09:15 AM.

  2. #2
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    Re: [EDH] Diaochan, Artful Beauty

    Turns out this deck is at the perfect level of "competitiveness" for most of the tables I play at. It's also a ton of fun.

    Time for some updates:

    Out:
    Dead / Gone
    Myr Retriever

    In:
    Spine of Ish Sah
    Maze of Ith

    Dead / Gone was my 99th inclusion in the deck, and it's never been relevant. Given the high incidence of ETB effects in the format, the bounce isn't all that spectacular, and there are very few things you can blow out with a shock. Replacing it with Spine of Ish Sah is something that seems fairly obvious in hindsight, while simultaneously giving me another way to deal with enchantments and random protection from red/creatures things. Spine is also fairly decent with Daretti, Welder, and Trading Post, which pushes it over the top.

    Myr Retriever is a fine card that certainly has some utility in the deck. That said, the number of times it's successfully chump blocked for value is in the single digits, and as a random dork to assassinate with Diaochan it leaves a lot to be desired. On the other hand, Maze of Ith should help keep me alive once the rest of the table wises up to what's going on, and also make a friend here or there with some careful politics.

    In terms of Fate Reforged, I'm looking at Outpost Siege and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon for inclusion...but I'm not sure over what. Both modes of Siege are relevant to the deck, so it seems like the card will have a lot of play depending on the board state when it's cast. Similarly, Ugin looks like it will do a ton of work, particularly when it comes to problematic enchantments.

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    Re: [EDH] Diaochan, Artful Beauty

    Another couple changes to the list:

    Out:
    Starstorm
    Reforge the Soul

    In:
    Molten Disaster
    Vedalken Orrery

    The Starstorm to Molten Disaster swap is something I've been considering for a while now. The way I see it, I'm trading instant speed and the ability to cycle for split second and the ability to hit players. Not being able to damage flying creatures with Molten Disaster is somewhat of a wash since I can usually just bump off a problematic flyer with my general. I feel like split second is going to be a huge boon, particularly against cards like Marchesa, the Black Rose and/or zombie Mikaeus which I see fairly regularly.

    I'm not super confident about cutting Reforge the Soul. I tend to find that I don't actually want to cast wheel effects when I have them as the list often plays draw-go and I like to keep my hand full of answers. I also tend to find that giving my opponents a fresh 7 is rarely in my best interest. However, this is a mono-red deck, and ultimately there is no better draw power available to me than wheel effects. I'm going to try going down to just two (Wheel of Fortune and Memory Jar) and see if I actually miss Reforge the Soul.

    Adding Vedalken Orrery was something that occurred to me the last time I had a chance to play the deck. Most of the things I can do are at sorcery speed, which gave my opponents a chance to interact before I had a chance to actually do anything. I debated slotting in Anger instead as haste is fairly relevant and I can easily get it into the graveyard with Diaochan...but I think that Orrery might prove more relevant since the deck is mostly non-creature spells.

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    Re: [EDH] Diaochan, Artful Beauty

    One more quick change to the list...

    I was ordering some foils and picked up a copy of Outpost Siege. Seems like a fairly easy swap for Mindless Automaton.

    **EDIT: I also updated the OP with some additional discussion on playing the deck.

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    Re: [EDH] Diaochan, Artful Beauty

    The tweaking continues...

    - Mystifying Maze, + Thespian's Stage

    This is a change that's been in my mind for a while. I have never used Mystifying Maze for anything other than because I rarely want to keep 5 lands open and I often find that whatever I'm being attacked with has some sort of ETB trigger that I don't want to let my opponent free-roll. I wish this worked on my own attackers, but as written it's just too clunky to be useful. Thespian's State is sort of a pet card for me. This deck has plenty of useful utility lands to copy, but mostly I'm intending it as a 2nd Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. I've been considering saving up some milk money for Dark Depths as another win condition since Marit Lage is Diaochan-proof, so slotting in Stage gets me half way there too.

    I'm looking for room for Expedition Map, and also considering dropping a mountain or something for Vesuva. We'll see how the next couple games go.

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    Re: [EDH] Diaochan, Artful Beauty

    Updated list in the OP. A discussion on the changes:

    - Red Elemental Blast, + Jaya Ballard, Task Mage

    Red Elemental Blast has been nothing but a blowout in my experience with the card. I have yet to be at a table where there isn't at least one player on some sort of Ux deck, and they have yet to actually play around the card. That said, it's a one trick pony. There's no meaningful recursion for an instant in mono-red, and once you've sprung the surprise on your opponent it rarely works again. Enter Jaya Ballard, Task Mage. Jaya brings a couple of extra things to the party beyond REB while still giving me the opportunity to destroy target Prophet of Kruphix. Discarding cards to activate her abilities is somewhat of a wash as I have access to Crucible of Worlds, Squee, Goblin Welder, Daretti, and Scrap Mastery to make it less of a big deal. Jaya is also a much better draw as the game goes long. I'm hopeful that this will be a solid upgrade.

    - Nim Deathmantle, + Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

    Nim Deathmantle is a neat card...but it's also fairly mana intensive. I originally included it as a way to gain "advantage" out of activating Diaochan, but I've never once used it to reanimate one of my creatures. Sarkhan is something I've wanted to try out for a while. He's mostly included here as a 4/4 hasty flyer that can't be killed with Diaochan, but I can think of a few situations where his -3 ability would be useful too. His emblem is meh, but who knows...maybe someday that will be relevant too.

    - Past in Flames, + Hammer of Purphoros

    Past in Flames is a solid card, and re-buying something like a Blasphemous Act or some other random spell can be good in some situations, but more often than not I find it rotting in my hand. I've been finding that paying 4 for the first half and 5 for the second half leaves me little mana to actually flash spells back with even when I do want to cast it. I've been looking for another haste enabler, and I think the Hammer is it. It's an artifact, so it interacts with that half of the deck. It's also capable of making chump blockers and/or a small army of tokens in the late game, and potentially interacts well with Crucible, Seer's Sundial and Valakut in magical christmas land.

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    Re: [EDH] Diaochan, Artful Beauty

    Strionic Resonator + rings + any trigger or activation
    My GF tried it in her version of Zur - not posted yet, once i will have some time i will post it. It means 2 more walker activations for few more mana etc.
    To win is an option, to play is must.
    Deck can be competitive, but player have to use his common sense how to play it in different metas.
    I began as Timmy and ended up as Johnny

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    Re: [EDH] Diaochan, Artful Beauty

    Quote Originally Posted by Ryu092 View Post
    Strionic Resonator + rings + any trigger or activation
    My GF tried it in her version of Zur - not posted yet, once i will have some time i will post it. It means 2 more walker activations for few more mana etc.
    As it stands right now, there are only a few triggered abilities in the deck that are worth paying the to double up on...which makes Resonator not very good on its own. On the other hand, Rings at least interacts favorably with Diaochan if I've drawn nothing else to use it with. The "combo" you've discussed above seems fairly conditional, and a little win-more. If I'm in a situation where I've got 4 mana, Rings, Resonator, and some walker to activate 3 times things are probably going pretty well for me. Also, the walkers in the deck don't really benefit from multiple activations of their abilities in most situations.


    A few updates:

    - Tectonic Edge, + Wasteland

    A fairly self explanatory upgrade.

    - Vedalken Orrery, + Mana-Charged Dragon

    I've been looking for another finisher in many of the games I've played lately, and this guy rose to the top of the pile mostly because of his political nature. I also considered Scourge of Kher Ridges pretty heavily for this spot, which is much better for a more "competitive" version of the deck. That said, this is EDH, so the more fun card won out for me.

    - Shattering Spree, + Shattering Pulse

    I'm going to give this a try for a little while and see how it goes. Spree is great in a countermagic heavy meta, or against some sort of dedicated colorless deck, but I see neither of those things in my group. I'm hoping that Pulse will serve the same purpose in the deck while also giving me some virtual card advantage due to the buyback.

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    Re: [EDH] Diaochan, Artful Beauty

    A new set means it's time for some updates:

    - Wheel of Fortune, + Commune with Lava

    Let's talk Wheel of Fortune for a second, shall we? There is no denying that it is a powerful effect, and really the best "draw" you're ever going to see on a red card. The thing is, at a typical 4 player table I'm drawing 7 cards and my "opponent" is drawing 21. It doesn't take much thought to piece together why that probably isn't the best play in the world. If this deck was more combo oriented, Wheel would probably still be worth running...but as a means to refill my hand or dig into something relevant I think I can do better.

    Enter Commune with Lava, which in my opinion is one of the more interesting red cards that's been printed in quite some time. The closest analog is Act on Impulse, but the instant speed and additional turn to play the cards that you get out of Commune with Lava makes the choice a no-brainer. I'm looking forward to playing around with this, as it seems like it'll be relevant much more often than Wheel ever was.

    I'm also considering finding room for Sarkhan's Triumph. There are 3 dragons in the deck currently, and each is relevant depending on my current board position. I think the most likely sequence would be something like Sarkhan's Triumph finding Hoarding Dragon --> Diaochan --> Hoarding Dragon, kill it with Diaochan for whatever artifact I need...but I'm not sure if that's too clunky. It's also fairly useful to just tutor for Steel Hellkite to get rid of some problematic permanent(s), or to grab Mana-charged Dragon and start trying to win the game. Alternatively, I could replace Mana-charged Dragon with something like Bogardan Hellkite which has some additional utility with Feldon and Mimic Vat.

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    Re: [EDH] Diaochan, Artful Beauty

    Got lucky with my Draft winnings and picked up an Ugin...so:

    - Memory Jar + Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

    I've been trimming the Wheel effects lately and not looking back, so this seemed like an obvious switch.

    - Smoke + Mizzium Mortars

    Another change I've been considering for some time now. Smoke is cute, but ultimately not all that effective.

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    Re: [EDH] Diaochan, Artful Beauty

    It's been a while since I've posted an update here, so here goes nothing.

    First things first, for any other mono-red mages out there who aren't sure about running Commune With Lava, let me just say that the card has been fantastic for me. I generally fire it off with X=4 or 5, and I very rarely have to leave something other than a land in exile. It's 100% better than Wheel of Fortune ever was, and it looks fairly decent in foil too.

    In terms of decklist updates:

    - Blood Moon, + Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs

    Another sacred cow ended up on the cutting room floor. This is mostly a concession to my regular playgroup, as several of the decks have a fairly high basic land count due to card availability and budget constraints, so Blood Moon never actually did anything particularly relevant. That said, I would probably switch these two cards back for an unknown meta or a more "competitive" event than regular EDH night.

    I added Kazuul because I found that creature swarms are something that I have a hard time dealing with. Experience shows that he is a removal magnet most of the time, but he has sent a few fairly large attacks elsewhere.

    - Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, + Chain Reaction

    Sarkhan is a fine card, and as a 4/4 beater that can't be killed by my commander his value in this deck is higher than most. The problem is that he can't block, and a 4/4 isn't particularly well suited to getting in for damage in a format full of giant creatures. As I mentioned above, hordes of creatures can be a problem for me, so I'm hoping that picking up another wrath effect will help.

    - Grim Monolith, + Armillary Sphere

    Experience has shown that this deck is particularly mana hungry, which probably makes this swap seem insane. I'd been finding that Grim Monolith was essentially a Dark Ritual - a few quick mana the turn I played it and that's it. I never really wanted to take the time to untap it as I generally had better things to be doing. Sphere, on the other hand, gets me a couple of mountains which interact favorably with Valakut and Seer's Sundial. They also make discard fodder for Faithless Looting, Deal Broker or Daretti in the late game.

    I'm also currently looking for a replacement for Dualcaster Mage as I have yet to copy a single spell with it. I've played it more times as a chump blocker with flash than anything else.

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