Blue black steal your girl/control hybrid that's basically trying to out-value opponents by straight up taking their stuff and using it against them. There's a minor flicker thing going on too, since flickering what you steal with Silumgar means you get to keep it, and flickering stuff like Hostage Taker or Gonti, Lord of Luxury is usually pretty good.
Commander:
Dragonlord Silumgar
Creatures:
Baleful Strix
Gilded Drake
Snapcaster Mage
Chasm Skulker
Plaguecrafter
Trophy Mage
Royal Assassin
Thief of Sanity
Phyrexian Metamorph
Ravenous Chupacabra
Solemn Simulacrum
Vizier of Many Faces
Hostage Taker
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Tradewind Rider
Mulldrifter
Havengul Lich
Mesmerizing Benthid
Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Massacre Wurm
Consecrated Sphinx
Deadeye Navigator
Nezahal, Primal Tide
Instants:
Vampiric Tutor
Swan Song
Cyclonic Rift
Go for the Throat
Soul Manipulation
Hero's Downfall
Ghostly Flicker
Stroke of Genius
Fact or Fiction
Memory Plunder
Insidious Will
Mystic Confluence
Wretched Confluence
Sorcery:
Reanimate
Ponder
Esxanguinate
Demonic Tutor
Toxic Deluge
Notion Rain
Damnation
Rite of Replication
Beacon of Unrest
Entreat the Dead
Artifacts:
Sol Ring
Expedition Map
Thought Vessel
Dimir Signet
Talisman of Dominance
Mimic Vat
Unstable Obelisk
Oblivion Stone
Crystal Ball
Proteus Staff
Tawnos's Coffin
Conjurer's Closet
Enchantments:
Search for Azcanta
Oversold Cemetery
Phyrexian Arena
Mind's Dilation
Lands:
Watery Grave
Sunken Hollow
Fetid Pools
Polluted Delta
Bad River
Drowned Catacomb
Sunken Ruins
Underground River
Darkslick Shores
Creeping Tar Pit
Dimir Aqueduct
Temple of Deceit
River of Tears
Command Tower
Reliquary Tower
Bojuka Bog
High Market
Arcane Lighthouse
Volrath's Stronghold
Strip Mine
Academy Ruins
8 Island
8 Swamp
Last edited by Davran; 02-15-2019 at 08:55 AM.
Is Mindslaver recursion even really all that bad? It gets shut down by graveyard hate, non-basic land hate, artifact hate, misc hate like Pithing Needle, and it costs 12 mana (plus using Ruins, so effectively 13 mana). It's a true late-game WinCon, I really don't get why people whine about it so much.
I agree with you completely. That said, how reasonable of a win con is slaver locking someone anyway? Seems to me like you just end up playing quasi-2 headed giant while you take on the other two players by playing two decks at once. I've been playing Mindslaver as a sort of "punishment" for people who I feel have been overly aggressive toward me during the game. Everyone who wasn't just slavered has a laugh or two as I blunder through messing up their board as much as possible and the game moves on. Doing it over and over again for "value" seems like kind of a dick move.
I've really been having a blast with this deck. A couple minor changes:
- Extract from Darkness, + Beacon of Unrest
Beacon seems like a pretty easy upgrade here. I like Extract as a card, but the mill is usually irrelevant. Plus, Beacon can grab an artifact and shuffles itself back in.
- Illusionist's Gambit, + Makeshift Mannequin
Neither of these cards is particularly stellar, but Mannequin seems like it will be more relevant more often than a 4 mana fog.
- Mindslaver, + Puppeteer Clique
Mindslaver brought me all kinds of hate and salt despite having no way to actually recur it, so it's out. I suppose it's for the best as the thing is clunky and fairly meh as a 1-of effect.
- Island, + Academy Ruins
No more Mindslaver means I can run this with 100% less guilt. Win-win.
Necroing the hell out of this thread because I keep coming back to this deck for whatever reason. It's together for a while, then it's apart for something else...but I keep putting it back together again so there must be something here. The list in the OP is basically all new because my old one wasn't very good.
I'm really keen on getting Ghostly Flicker in here, but I'm not sure what the cut is yet. I might also pick up a Mission Briefing at some point since it's basically a second Snapcaster Mage for me.
Finally, I'm not sold on my fatties at all. Consecrated Sphinx is certainly the best one, but maybe Deadeye Navigator should be in there somewhere since it's OK with some of my creatures. I just wish it did more with Silumgar.
It is and it isn't. The catch is the way Silumgar is worded, and also how soulbond works. If I soulbond with Silumgar and flicker, I lose whatever I had previously stolen. Smuggler is a little different in that I can blink the thing that I stole, which I then get to keep no matter what happens to Silumgar.
The other catch is that either Navigator or whatever you want to soulbond with has to enter the battlefield for it to work, which means you have to jump through some hoops to have Navigator blink whatever Silumgar stole (cast some other thing and bond, then flicker Navigator and bond with the stolen creature).
I'm sure there are a non-zero number of instances where the "drawbacks" aren't drawbacks at all, which is why Navigator is on my radar in the first place. The current list has 11 potential bonding targets other than Silumgar himself, so it's probably still worth it...but I'd love a couple more ETB triggers before fully committing.
To that end, I've been eyeing Posessed Skaab as a sort of Eternal Witness impersonator. I don't think the exile clause is a huge deal breaker, but maybe it is?
If it's paired with Silumgar, Can't you just:
Use the ability on Navigator only (thus unbinding) and when it reenters, bind it with the stolen creature, use the flicker on both stolen creature and navigator, bringing the creature back into play as a new entity and thus unaffected by silumgar leaving play, while re-binding the navigator on silumgar for repeats as needed and do some more stealing.
I get that it's a bit mana intensive, but that was kind of where my head was at. It would work that way, wouldn't it?
Yeah, you're right. I don't know why I didn't get there yesterday.
Made a quick change:
Out:
Vedalken Orrery
In:
Ghostly Flicker
Made a few changes:
Out:
Nephalia Smuggler
Shadowmage Infiltrator
Sower of Discord
Infernal Offering
Chaos Wand
In:
Mesmerizing Benthid
Deadeye Navigator
Entreat the Dead
Proteus Staff
Tawnos's Coffin
Sower is fun and all, but it's not really what this deck wants to be doing. Deadeye Navigator is, so it's a pretty easy swap.
Mesmerizing Benthid is probably not great, but it does make a couple of somewhat relevant chump blockers with every flicker, so I figured I'd give it a shot.
I like Infernal Offering as a political tool, but it's ultimately a pretty "fair" card. I'd rather do something a little less "fair", so I'm going to give Entreat the Dead a shot.
Chaos Wand is a neat card that I definitely want to find something to do with, but I don't think this particular deck is that thing. Proteus Staff is right on theme though.
Nephalia Smuggler is fine, but being a creature (and a 1/1 at that) is a big liability. Tawnos's Coffin is essentially the same thing in artifact form, plus it has that sweet old school flavor.
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