1x Talrand, Sky Summoner
//Lands
1x Riptide Laboratory
1x Halimar Depths
26x Island
1x Lonely Sandbar
1x Maze of Ith
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Strip Mine
1x Terrain Generator
1x Tolaria West
//Instants
1x Anticipate
1x Arcane Denial
1x Boomerang
1x Brainstorm
1x Counterspell
1x Cunning Wish
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Daze
1x Dig Through Time
1x Dissolve
1x Force of Will
1x Force Spike
1x Frantic Search
1x Gush
1x High Tide
1x Impulse
1x Long-Term Plans
1x Memory Lapse
1x Mental Note
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Negate
1x Opt
1x Pact of Negation
1x Peek
1x Peer Through Depths
1x Perilous Research
1x Quicken
1x Reach Through Mists
1x Spell Pierce
1x Swan Song
1x Thought Scour
1x Thwart
1x Vapor Snag
1x Visions of Beyond
1x Whispers of the Muse
1x Wipe Away
//Sorceries
1x Bribery
1x Call to Mind
1x Careful Study
1x Day's Undoing
1x Fabricate
1x Gitaxian Probe
1x Ideas Unbound
1x Merchant Scroll
1x Personal Tutor
1x Ponder
1x Portent
1x Preordain
1x Serum Visions
1x Sleight of Hand
1x Strategic Planning
1x Temporal Mastery
1x Temporal Trespass
1x Time Reversal
1x Time Spiral
1x Time Warp
1x Treasure Cruise
//Artifacts
1x Gauntlet of Power
1x Sapphire Medallion
1x Isochron Scepter
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Proteus Staff
1x Sol Ring
//Enchantment
1x Jace's Sanctum
//Creature
1x Tidespout Tyrant
//Wishboard
1x Sunder
1x Capsize
1x Echoing Truth
1x Foil
1x Hurkyl's Recall
1x Mindbreak Trap
1x Misdirection
1x Repeal
1x Plagiarize
1x Trickbind
Updated the List.
This is my second EDH Deck after Daretti, Scrap Savant in a Stax shell.
Tidespout Tyrant is the only Creature next to Talrand himself, since you mostly want to chain cantrips to generate an insane army of Drakes, defended by Countermagic - which will generate even more Drakes.
The Deck plays a TON of cantrips - the Idea is, that most cards you play replace themselves, to keep fuel in the Hand at all Time.
The Deck can generally be played in two ways - aggressive, slamming down Talrand on turn 2-4, covered by Free Counterspells like Force of Will or Thwart or Protection in Form of Lightning Greaves, generating a ton of Drakes and ending the game quick by tutoring Time Walks in Form of Time Warp, Temporal Mastery and Temporal Trespass, knocking out one opponnent after another, finishing off your evil plans by slamming down Sunder, which will end the game most on the time on the spot.
Or, the Controllish Way - waiting a bit longer to resolve your General, since being too aggressive will turn all your enemies against you. Countering Cards that can be too annoying for you, while just having a few Drakes that mostly serve as blocker. You don't want to be too aggressive with attacking here, but keeping the board in a position that is good for you. Proteus Staff tutors your only Creature, Tidespout Tyrant. Staff and your other artifacts can be tutored by Fabricate, which can be found pretty fast while digging through your Deck by casting alot of cheap cantrips.
Cunning Wish is bonkers, since it allows you to have acess to your Sideboard, helping you out in slippery situations. I am not 100% sure about my Sideboard tho.
Personal Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Long-Term Plans and Merchant Scroll will find you the things you want to have, while your Timewalks in form of Time Warp, Temporal Mastery and Temporal Trespass grant you the time you need to set up the big swing. And casting Time Spiral in this Deck is just... yummy.
Last edited by kryllex; 09-23-2015 at 01:49 PM.
Is Opposition a thing here? Seems like your drakes could do quite a bit of work on that front, especially the ones that are summoning sick.
Didn't see Arcane Denial in there either.
Is Reality Shift worth running despite the fact that it doesn't cantrip? Seems better than Vapor Snag in the very least.
Opposition seems nice, i'll probably pick that one up.
For the rest of the Deck, I put it together quite fast with the things I had, so upgrades will probably gonna follow soon, since it's kinda far from perfect right now.
Control Magic, Treachery and things like Phantasmal Image/Metamorph are extremely good. I also think Ghostly Flicker, Repulse, and Crystal Shard are great functional for protecting or removing annoying things. I'd also throw in Lightning Greaves, don't recall seeing it there but I'd run both with Swiftboots.
I don't have experience running Talrand, but I'd almost think you're committing too much into cantrip draw, I understand it goes well with your general but like the other guy mentioned, I'd rather have Arcane Denial/Repulse over 2x more Ponders, for example. Rest looks pretty good... only thing I'd be worried about would be annoying enchantments, like if opponent drops a Humility or something like that, you wouldn't have a lot of ways of dealing besides counter or capsize I guess, not that that would come up that often.
May your suffering equal your weakness--Ihsan's Shade
I have a Talrand list, lots of similar choices. I originally also ran Tidespout Tyrant. I've since upgrades to Jin-Gitaxis, which is almsot unbeatable in this list. Add a Proteus Staff, Polymorph and Reweave and you can get it into play off drakes absurdly easilly.
I agree with the above poster re: cantrip draw. After a year I've found only a few to be worth it - you're usually better off running more incidental cantrips (stuff like Exclude and Cryptic Command), and then a few good draw engines (I particularly like Bident of Thassa).
Sapphire Medalion is really really good in this deck, as is extraplanar lens with snow lands.
I've been playing a "powered" version of Talrand for about eight months and it has an absurd winning record of over 90% against powerful, standard commanders like Ghave, Sen Triplets, Sharuum, Zur, and Teferi.
You're missing some powerful spells that could add some percentage points to your deck.
First, max out on your cheaper cantrips. This deck plays aggro-control really well and you want to constantly be cycling through the top of your deck to find answers. The one-mana Brainstorm variants are all pretty good. Predict is hilarious against top-of-library tutors. You have Bident of Thassa, Coastal Piracy does virtually the same thing and allows you to operate like an Edric deck late-game.
Long-Term Plans is a nice tutor and you should be able to dig into the card pretty quickly. Personal Tutor is a more restrictive Mystical Tutor but is still very good.
Pact of Negation is Force #2. Unified Will is good later in the game.
Mana Drain is extraordinarily good as you always have a use for the mana. It will often allow you to drop Gauntlet of Power or Caged Sun for "free" and get immediate use out of it. Mana Crypt is expensive (money-wise) but fits beautifully with the in Talrand's mana cost.
Proteus Staff is bonkers and you can reduce your creatures to Tidespout Tyrant and Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, both of which crush the board. You can also tuck problematic commanders to give you some breathing room.
Finally, time magic is Talrand's best friend and is relatively easy to find. Walk the Aeons and Temporal Mastery are easy to pick up. Time Warp is more expensive, but has been reprinted a few times. Temporal Manipulation and Capture of Jingzhou complete the set and give you a solid set of ways to drop another land, swing for more damage, and produce more drakes. They are also the primary win condition after ensuring the board is safe.
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