[EDH] Intet, Dream Crusher

[Davran]

The promise of new wedge goodies in Khans and a depressing sameness to all of my other decks has rekindled my interest in RUG. Rather than necroing my thread from 2+ years ago, I figured I'd start a new one, especially since my list now is quite different than it was then.

Commander:
Intet, the Dreamer

Creatures:
Coiling Oracle
Scavenging Ooze
Snapcaster Mage
Courser of Kruphix
Eternal Witness
Thassa, God of the Sea
Trygon Predator
Flametongue Kavu
Mystic Snake
Oracle of Mul Daya
Phyrexian Metamorph
Venser, Shaper Savant
Acidic Slime
Mulldrifter
Prophet of Kruphix
Consecrated Sphinx
Deadeye Navigator
Inferno Titan
Prime Speaker Zegana
Chancellor of the Spires
Woodfall Primus

Instants:
Mystical Tutor
Noxious Revival
Stifle
Swan Song
Cyclonic Rift
Deglamer
Muddle the Mixture
Beast Within
Chaos Warp
Spell Crumple
Voidslime
Cryptic Command
Fact or Fiction
Dig Through Time

Sorcery:
Rolling Earthquake
Hull Breach
Mizzium Mortars
Regrowth
Cultivate
Fabricate
Kodama's Reach
Explosive Vegetation
Rite of Replication
Time Warp
Blasphemous Act

Artifacts:
Sensei's Divining Top
Sol Ring
Lightning Greaves
Scroll Rack
Swiftfoot Boots
Chromatic Lantern
Crystal Shard
Oblivion Stone

Enchantments:
Sylvan Library
Rhystic Study
Temur Ascendancy
Nature's Will

Planeswalkers:
Garruk Wildspeaker
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

Lands:
Alchemist's Refuge
Breeding Pool
Cascade Bluffs
Command Tower
Exotic Orchard
Fire-lit Thicket
Flooded Grove
6 Forest
Frontier Bivouac
Hinterland Harbor
7 Island
Kessig Wolf Run
Mana Confluence
Misty Rainforest
3 Mountain
Rootbound Crag
Scalding Tarn
Shivan Reef
Steam Vents
Stomping Ground
Sulfur Falls
Wasteland
Wooded Foothills
Yavimaya Coast
Yavimaya Hollow


I've deliberately excluded Tooth and Nail and the various Kiki Jiki combo dorks for now. I've been winning a lot of games with 2-card combos lately, and I'm in the mood for a bit of a challenge.

I'm also hoping for some goodies beyond the new tri-land out of Khans...but I guess well see.

Maybeboard:
Reclamation Sage
Zealous Conscripts
Pestermite
Deceiver Exarch
Greater Good
Dack Fayden
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Ancestral Vision
Phantasmal Image
Phyrexian Metamorph
Chain Reaction
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Avenger of Zendikar

[Amon Amarth]

I was rarely happy with Soothsaying when playing this deck.

[Davran]

I was rarely happy with Soothsaying when playing this deck.

Yeah, I'm not too sure about it since it's essentially a worse Scroll Rack. I played it in my older version of the deck, but I haven't had that sleeved up for more than a year...so it's tough to remember what worked and what didn't. Something like Mirri's Guile is probably 100% better if I can find a copy. I guess there's Crystal Ball too?

Any suggestions for a replacement?

[Amon Amarth]

Yeah, I'm not too sure about it since it's essentially a worse Scroll Rack. I played it in my older version of the deck, but I haven't had that sleeved up for more than a year...so it's tough to remember what worked and what didn't. Something like Mirri's Guile is probably 100% better if I can find a copy. I guess there's Crystal Ball too?

Any suggestions for a replacement?

Trying to set up the topdeck felt too durdly outside of things like Jace, SDT, or Sylvan Library. I recommend Worldly Tutor. A good tutor that enables Intet as well.

In addition, I would also run Metamorph because he's awesome. And sweet. I really like utility and flexibility and Metamorph does that as well as being whatever the best creature on the board is too.

[Davran]

Trying to set up the topdeck felt too durdly outside of things like Jace, SDT, or Sylvan Library. I recommend Worldly Tutor. A good tutor that enables Intet as well.

In addition, I would also run Metamorph because he's awesome. And sweet. I really like utility and flexibility and Metamorph does that as well as being whatever the best creature on the board is too.

Worldly Tutor is fine I guess...though I don't really have any must have creatures since there's no combo. That's mostly the reason stuff like Chord of Calling didn't make it either. It's too bad Personal Tutor can't grab instants or it would be a shoe in.

I'm trying out Dack's Duplicate in the slot that would be Metamorph...although I guess there's no reason not to just run both. Maybe that's what goes in the Soothsaying slot...Metamorph is pretty great.

Anecdotally, I played a couple games tonight and the deck played well. Lost one to an Armageddon as you do, won the other off of Garruk and Rolling Earthquake. The power level of the deck seems about right for my group...though I did find myself wishing for more ways to give Intet haste. Also, I may need to find room for Evacuation or something similar as early big creatures seem problematic. We'll see how the next few games go I guess.

[Davran]

I've played a bunch of games with this list in the past week. In 3 of the 5 games I played, I had the opportunity to draw and/or cast Soothsaying, and I never took it. In one game, I bounced it around the top of my library with Sensei's Divining Top and wished it was anything else every time I saw it. Bottom line is I think it's safe to cut it in favor of something else.

The question now becomes what "something else" actually is. Some options:

Phyrexian Metamorph is a strong front runner simply due to its utility. I think it will work out better in the long run than Phantasmal Image despite the higher CMC.

Hammer of Purphoros is also something I've been kicking around. My meta is becoming more and more challenging to play in, so haste is becoming increasingly relevant. In every game I've played so far where I didn't have some sort of counterspell protection for Intet (and even some where I did) I've found myself wishing for a haste outlet.

Muddle the Mixture is interesting because it's both an action spell and a tutor for all kinds of bullets and useful spells. It's also cheap removal protection for a resolved Intet and cheap counter protection when Intet is on the stack.

Worldly Tutor is on the bottom of the heap, but it can't be ruled out completely due to the excellent synergy with Intet.

[Amon Amarth]

Muddle is one of those cards that I love. Does a good job countering important spells for the right price or tutoring for stuff if it's dead. You have a lot of good two drops so it's never dead. Obv Metamorph is the shit. Not a huge fan of the haste outlets mostly because to really get value out of an extra attack you'll want the mana to activate Intet so it felt a little awkward to have the extra haste but "only" be swinging for 6 or whatever. Still, it's not terrible because you have extra dudes and haste is good with Titan, Queen, Garruk, any 187 dork really.

[Davran]

Muddle is one of those cards that I love. Does a good job countering important spells for the right price or tutoring for stuff if it's dead. You have a lot of good two drops so it's never dead. Obv Metamorph is the shit. Not a huge fan of the haste outlets mostly because to really get value out of an extra attack you'll want the mana to activate Intet so it felt a little awkward to have the extra haste but "only" be swinging for 6 or whatever. Still, it's not terrible because you have extra dudes and haste is good with Titan, Queen, Garruk, any 187 dork really.

I sleeved up Muddle last night and it worked out well, so I guess I'll keep it in for now. It's a pet card of mine too, and the fact that it's never really dead is a big bonus.

Haste (or the lack of haste) was less relevant, so apparently I need to evaluate it further. I think the deck is best as a draw-go reactive type list. I had much better luck holding off on casting Intet until I had protection of some sort.

I do still want to find room for Metamorph for sure. I think the most likely cut is Guided Passage - the card is fun to cast, but it's usually getting me a basic land of whatever color I have the most of, the worst creature still in my deck, and a ramp spell or something...which is less than optimal.

I'm also thinking about making room for something like Mizzium Mortars. There's a glut of powerful and/or annoying toughness < 4 creatures in my meta, and I really only have Blasphemous Act and Rolling Earthquake to deal with them. Mortars is on the radar because it's cheap enough to cook one problematic creature, but it's also expandable for an entire board of them, and it never touches my creatures.

[Davran]

Made a couple of minor changes to the list:

- Dack's Duplicate, + Phyrexian Metamorph

I never found the haste or dethrone on the Duplicate to be relevant, so this is essentially an upgrade to my clone effect.

- Guided Passage, + Mizzium Mortars

Guided Passage is a fun card, but it generally reads "Draw the 3 worst cards still in your deck". Mortars is another sweeper that I can grab off of Muddle the Mixture and that doesn't mess with my stuff.

[Davran]

Time for some Khans updates:

- Trinket Mage, + Nature's Will

With only two targets in the deck, Trinket Mage is kind of mediocre. Arguably, casting it an spiking a Sol Ring or Sensei's Top is a powerful enough play to warrant its inclusion...but I thought I'd try something a little different. Nature's Will is something I've been wanting to try out for a long time, and I think it will be a good fit in here. I tend to find that using Intet's ability often taps me out of counter/removal mana, which is not something I really want to do with the list as it is. I'm hoping that the untap trigger will let me maximize Intet while also playing draw-go. The "tap opponents lands" part of the trigger probably won't ever do much, but it might keep someone off of a counter or something.

- Relic Crush, + Temur Ascendancy

Relic Crush has been OK for me, but often when I draw it there either aren't two targets or I have better things to do with 5 mana. Ascendancy, on the other hand, seems pretty sweet. It comes down early, grants haste (which is always welcome), and can draw me a couple extra cards over the course of the game. It's worth noting that it interacts favorably with both Kiki-Jiki and Deadeye Navigator too.

- Hornet Queen, + Woodfall Primus

I really like Hornet Queen as a card, but it's never done what I wanted it to in this deck. Woodfall Primus interacts more favorably with Kiki-Jiki and Deadeye Navigator, and it also nets two extra cards off of Temur Ascendancy.

- Karplusan Forest, + Frontier Bivouac

Nothing much to see here, just a slight mana base upgrade. I'm still kind of bummed that we didn't get Bant Panorama equivalents, but I'll settle for the tri-lands.

I'm also considering a few other cards from the new set:

Burn Away seems like a solid piece of spot removal in the format. I'm not sure it's right for this particular deck, but it's definitely an option.

I'll be finding a slot for Clever Impersonator as soon as I can get my hands on one.

I'm not sure what to think about Dig Through Time. I really like the card, but I'm not convinced this is the right deck for it. If I ever switch to the Kiki-Jiki combo version of the list it might make for a better inclusion.

I'm also looking to make room for Surrak Dragonclaw since trample interacts favorably with Intet and he's an efficiently costed beater I can play at my opponent's EOT.

Temur Charm is interesting, but I'm probably not going to include it. Most of my creatures are fairly small, so the fight mode isn't going to do much. Mana Leak is ok, but for 3 mana I could be casting Hinder or something similar, and the no chump blockers mode isn't super relevant in a format full of 4-8 power dorks.

[Davran]

Been a little while since I updated the list. The deck continues to perform very well, so I'm mostly at the tweaking stage.

A couple of changes to the list:

- Recurring Insight, + Dig Through Time

Dig Through Time does almost all of the things I want my draw spells to do, whereas the sorcery speed and high cost of Recurring Insight has stranded it in my hand or caused me to shuffle it away more times than I care to count. It's too bad you can't put some of the cards back on top...but I'll take what I can get.

- Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, + Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

Proper threat assessment out of my playgroup and no "combo" to speak of has made Kiki-Jiki awkward every time I've drawn it. I thought about sticking Frost Titan in this slot, but Tamiyo gives me more or less the same effect while providing a couple additional options.