[EDH] Daxos, he who attacksos

[Phoenix Ignition]

To start, I don't want to run many insta-wins. Right now I think my only one is Aetherflux Reservoir, which I really like the flavor of since this deck is going to be used almost exclusively in multi-player and that makes it a lot trickier. Because of that I'm trying to run a mild lifegain theme as well, so any decent cards that do that would be cool. The main point of the deck is to run some fun cards and try to stop opponents from insta-wins (thus the counterspells... I don't want to run them but there's too much 'oops I win' in EDH). So if you have any ideas on fun things to use, I'm fairly new to looking around at EDH decks and would be happy to hear them. My definition of fun that people lose/win after a long grindy game and not from full health to a 2 card combo or something.

Commander:

Daxos of Meletis

10 Creatures
Mulldrifter
Cloudblazer
Azor, the Lawbringer
Stoneforge Mystic
Dragonlord Ojutai
Snapcaster Mage
Aven Mimeomancer
Trinket Mage
Monastery Mentor
Kefnet the mindful

Path to Exile
Swords to Plowshares
Rapid Hybridization
Azorius Charm
Spin into Myth
Unexpectedly Absent
Cryptic Command
Ojutai's Command
Forbid
Counterspell
Lapse of Certainty
Memory Lapse
Arcane Denial
Force of Will
Dig through Time
Fact or Fiction
Sphinx's Revelation
Beacon of Immortality
Whir of Invention

Portent
Deep Analysis
Supreme Verdict
Wrath of God
Fumigate
Descend upon the Sinful
Day of Judgment
Terminus
Treasure Cruise

Sphere of Safety
Faith's Fetters
Cast Out
Imprisoned in the Moon
Steel of the Godhead
Honden of Seeing Winds
Retreat to Coralhelm
Future Sight
Search for Azcanta

Spear of Heliod

Fellwar Stone
Sol Ring
Everflowing Chalice
Mind Stone
Thran Dynamo
Pristine Talisman
Coldsteel Heart
Thaumatic Compass
Aetherflux Reservoir
Whispersilk Cloak
Batterskull
Dispeller's Capsule
Nevinyrral's Disk
Meekstone
Relic of Progenitus
Sensei's Divining Top

35 lands
Field of Ruin
Minamo, School at Water's Edge
Seat of the Synod
Inventors' Fair
Strip Mine
Boreal Shelf
Temple of Enlightenment
Rogue's Passage
Hallowed Fountain
Reliquary Tower
Academy Ruins
Tundra
Tolaria West
Scrying Sheets
Kor Haven
Thespian's Stage
Glacial Fortress
Irrigated Farmland
Flood Plain
Flooded Strand
8 Snow-covered Plains
8 Snow-covered Island


Any cool stuff I'm forgetting/never heard of before?

Cards I'd cut if I knew of better things
Honden of the Seeing winds - I had the white honden in for synergy and life gain but it sucked for 4 mana

[Davran]

A few random thoughts:

1. Why Portent instead of Ponder? Are you hoping to "get" the guy who just cast a Vampiric Tutor or something?

2. Expel from Orazca seems kind of weak. If bounce is what you want, I'd probably start with Capsize. It's 1 more mana, but the buyback ability can be honestly pretty nuts in the mid to late game.

3. How about Monastery Mentor in the Meloku slot? Your list is mostly non-creature spells, so making tokens is no issue...and pumping them up for some beats is also fairly easy for you.

4. Am I missing something with Aven Mimeomancer? Did you mean for it to be Aven Mindcensor instead?

5. Containment Priest might be worth running if your goal is to stop the "oops, I win" guys since it handles the reanimator side of things. Or I guess just take the nuclear option and run Rest in Peace.

6. Is Sword of Light and Shadow any good? It gives you some incidental life gain, which is on theme...and getting back a Mulldrifter or whatever that you chumped with seems strong. Fire and Ice and/or Feast and Famine might also be decent.

7. Personally, I'd swap Lapse of Certainty for Dissipate. Exiling the spell is 1000x better than putting it on top of their library.

[Phoenix Ignition]

A few random thoughts:

1. Why Portent instead of Ponder? Are you hoping to "get" the guy who just cast a Vampiric Tutor or something?

2. Expel from Orazca seems kind of weak. If bounce is what you want, I'd probably start with Capsize. It's 1 more mana, but the buyback ability can be honestly pretty nuts in the mid to late game.

3. How about Monastery Mentor in the Meloku slot? Your list is mostly non-creature spells, so making tokens is no issue...and pumping them up for some beats is also fairly easy for you.

4. Am I missing something with Aven Mimeomancer? Did you mean for it to be Aven Mindcensor instead?

5. Containment Priest might be worth running if your goal is to stop the "oops, I win" guys since it handles the reanimator side of things. Or I guess just take the nuclear option and run Rest in Peace.

6. Is Sword of Light and Shadow any good? It gives you some incidental life gain, which is on theme...and getting back a Mulldrifter or whatever that you chumped with seems strong. Fire and Ice and/or Feast and Famine might also be decent.

7. Personally, I'd swap Lapse of Certainty for Dissipate. Exiling the spell is 1000x better than putting it on top of their library.

1&2&7: They're in there to put things on top of the opponent's library so Daxos can steal them when I want. I have I think 6 total cards that will do that (1 portent, 3 bounce, 2 counters like Memory Lapse/Lapse of Certainty) so if I see something that is either recurring or I want it, I can set it up for him to exile. On that note it'd probably be good to get a Teferi, Hero of Dominaria in there to put stuff a little further down, but I don't own one right now.

3: Monastery Mentor is almost definitely better than Meloku, I'll do that swap.

4: Aven Mimeomancer seems like an entertaining way to make things not able to block Daxos (3 or greater power can't block him) while boosting him as well. It might be too slow/cute to be good in EDH but I figured since everyone plays fatties it'd be a good way to slow down things or give Daxos flying if necessary. It could definitely not work out as well as I'm hoping, though.

5: Containment Priest/ Aven Mindcensor could both work in here, I'm hesitant to go the hatebear route with all my Wrath effects and just general abundance of creature removal, but you're right that RiP is the nuclear option. I really wanted to try a RiP + Energy Field + Web of Inertia + Mist of Stagnation but I think that'd cross the line from being the Fun Police to the Fun hater.

6: Sword of Light and Shadow seems pretty perfect actually. It's the right mix of good + incidental life gain for the Aetherflux Reservoir play.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll think about some of them more. I'm trying for the right mix of stopping combos without completely Rest in Peaceing them from existence.

[Ace/Homebrew]

It's an unfortunately expensive card now... but Field of Dreams lets see what you'd get off each opponent when you attack in with Daxos.

[Phoenix Ignition]

That'd be cool in multiplayer so I know who to attack under the best circumstances, but usually I am forced to attack a specific person who isn't able to block and then it wouldn't really have much of an impact on my decision making. Probably wouldn't run it anyway.

[Davran]

It's an unfortunately expensive card now... but Field of Dreams lets see what you'd get off each opponent when you attack in with Daxos.

Lantern of Insight is probably better? Fetchable with Trinket Mage, and it clears the top of everyone's deck if you don't like what you see.

[Phoenix Ignition]

Not a bad idea but it seems kind of low impact. What card do you think it is better than in my list? The ability just doesn't seem to do enough compared to what I'd like my cards to do.

[Finn]

Hate frantic search except in combo

-1 frantic search
+1unexpectedly absent

[Phoenix Ignition]

Interesting, my take on it was that the couple times I've played the deck so far I always ran out of mana, so it was a free filter that fills up my graveyard for Dig Through Time, Treasure Cruise, Search for Azcanta, and Snapcaster Mage.

Unexpectedly Absent is a great addition, though, I'm surprised I missed it since it is just a better version of Expel from Orazca for my purposes. I'll probably swap those two, but if you had to put in more card advantage, what would you replace Frantic Search with?

[Ace/Homebrew]

Technically Search isn't card advantage. But semantics aside...

Bident of Thassa
Kefnet the Mindful
Arch of Orazca

Unexpectedly Absent was a great find!

[Davran]

Interesting, my take on it was that the couple times I've played the deck so far I always ran out of mana, so it was a free filter that fills up my graveyard for Dig Through Time, Treasure Cruise, Search for Azcanta, and Snapcaster Mage.

Unexpectedly Absent is a great addition, though, I'm surprised I missed it since it is just a better version of Expel from Orazca for my purposes. I'll probably swap those two, but if you had to put in more card advantage, what would you replace Frantic Search with?

Personally, I'd replace it with Fact or Fiction...but that's just my love for that card talking. It's sorcery speed, but Chart a Course could be solid in this deck since you're hoping to be attacking with Daxos on the regular. 2 mana for 2 cards is a pretty solid rate.

[Finn]

I really like Fact or Fiction in this deck and in Commander in general. The biggest reason I do not like Frantic Search is because it is card disadvantage. You draw two, you discard two. You have used a card to filter - unlike all the cantrips we are so familiar with which draw an extra card. I played four Frantic Search in combo winter and for a year or two after while it was legal in Extended. This was before fetchlands made Brainstorm absurd. If you used two Frantic Search trying to assemble your combo it really depleted your hand. It has been awhile, mind you. But I seem to recall that using them in control was terrible for that reason. Having four in a deck made its effect more noticeable.

[Phoenix Ignition]

Updated the OP with the new list. I'll have to play around with the new cards a bit to see what else I can try to cut. Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

[Phoenix Ignition]

Do I have too few lands?

I have a decent amount of artifact mana but of the games I've played I've never been upset with the amount of mana I had. Sometimes I get mana screwed. What's the usual amount of lands + mana rocks you'd want in a deck like this?

[Ace/Homebrew]

Do I have too few lands?

I have a decent amount of artifact mana but of the games I've played I've never been upset with the amount of mana I had. Sometimes I get mana screwed. What's the usual amount of lands + mana rocks you'd want in a deck like this?
Yeah... too few lands and too many mana rocks. I'd suggest cutting your worst two rocks for lands.

[Finn]

Do I have too few lands?

I have a decent amount of artifact mana but of the games I've played I've never been upset with the amount of mana I had. Sometimes I get mana screwed. What's the usual amount of lands + mana rocks you'd want in a deck like this?

I like Tithe and possibly Gift of Estates if you can manage Tundra or Hallowed Fountain.