[Deck] Collected Shenanigans

Basically, the idea here is to take advantage of Collected Conjuring/Bloodbraid Elf to just destroy people with CA/LD tempo, and Suspend spell shenanigans.

Theoretical decklist (I should be giving this a shot this weekend on MTGO)

4x Ancestral Vision
4x Crashing Footfalls
4x Collected Conjuring
4x Bloodbraid Elf

4x Stone Rain
4x Molten Rain
4x Pillage

4x Birds of Paradise
4x Goblin Dark-Dwellers (maybe should be Finale of Promise?)

4x Wooded Foothills
4x Prismatic Vista
2x Forest
2x Mountain
1x Island
3x Stomping Ground
1x Breeding Pool
1x Steam Vents
3x Fiery Islet
3x Waterlogged Grove

It's probably too slow early game right now with the LD not really kicking on until turn 3 unless you drop a Bird on t1, but your midgame value is insane with Conjuring drawing cards and dropping multiple LDs, early suspend cards going off, and BBE and Dark Dwellers firing off LD or re-using Visions and Footfalls from the GY.

This version isn't quite there yet, but it's really, really close. One thing I thought about was running snow basics and Coatl and maybe Skred or Bolt or something. As a 2-mana flash, flying 1/1 that draws a card, I think Coatl has a lot of value even when it doesn't have deathtouch, but when it does, value town kicks in big time. The ability to use the "canopy lands" to avoid flood lategame is also pretty huge, especially since this deck is going to end up drawing a lot of lands thanks to visions. Maybe some equipment and Arboreal Grazer to back up the Birds is the right call? Dunno.

All thoughts are welcomed.

I had something insightful typed up until I realized that Conjuring doesn't hit instants.

I had a deck similar to this when Jace initially got unbanned which sought to leverage BBE and Ancestral Vision. For consistency, I highly recommend Serum Visions to set up cascades and Conjurings.

Also, the jank in me wants to run Temur Ascendancy with Crashing Footfalls. Perhaps that is a tale for another deck.

Hi Morgan,

2 issues with your list, and this is based on both my experience playing collected company AND ponza. As it so happens, I have prepared a list and will be playing it post MH1.

1. There are not enough "live targets" for collected conjuring. In collected company, we play 26-33 creatures under 3 cmc, MINIMUM to have enough live targets for coco. At 26, you have approximately 80% chance of hitting 2 live sorceries and 1% chance of completely whiffing. Anything above 26 is a bonus, but as I'll explain further below, we don't have the space.

2. Your odds of a turn 1 ramp are very low. This is, make no mistake, a ponza deck. And a ponza deck MUST, I repeat MUST, have 3 mana on turn 2. You need upwards of 8 turn 1 plays that ramp you for turn 2. Ponza, for comparison, plays 10. This is their standard, SOP, default package: 4 arbor elf, 4 utopia sprawl, 2 birds. Ponza auto-mulligans hands without ramp. This is a big indicator for you on just how important that turn 1 ramp is.

So lets break down the deck slots available. We need to compromise on some things, but you definitely cannot cut the 26 targets and cocon.

60 - 26 targets - 4 cocon = 30 slots.

Next thing we need to consider is, are 4 cocon enough to enable these payoffs? We need to consider AV and footfalls that wind up in our hand. Electrodominance is the spell I settled on, since it can remove early threats or stuff like Dark Confidant or opposing mana dorks, stuff that you generally can't leave on the board without serious consequences down the road. Now the question is, how many can I play?

I was willing to cut 1 land and 1 dork off the default 10 dorks and 20 lands that fuel the ponza list. We have a lower top-end, which lets us be a little greedy.

The final list I ended up with looks like this:


Enablers (6)
4 Collected Conjuring
2 Electrodominance

Payoffs (26)
4 Stone Rain
4 Molten Rain
4 Pillage
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Crashing Footfalls
3 Anger of the Gods
3 Fight with Fire

Ramp (9)
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Arbor Elf
1 Birds of Paradise

Lands (19)
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Stomping Ground
2 Breeding Pool
1 Steam Vents
3 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain


BBE has been cut because cocon solves a problem that ponza had - BBE would fairly often hit a ramp spell, which sucks. Electrodominance by comparison also lets you shortcut any of the 8 suspend spells that will very likely wind up in our hands. The additional 6 spells are split between Anger of the Gods and Fight with Fire. These slots are somewhat flexible but you definitely want removal to catch any goyfs, hollow ones and weenies that sneak through your ponza plan.

Here's a list of the options that can be used as payoffs #21 thru #26:

Anger of the Gods - Good against Dredge, Spirits, Humans, Elves. Basically anti-go-wide.
Sweltering Suns - Forgoes the Dredge advantage in exchange for cycling. I wouldn't bother with this since our deck already excels at CA.
Pieces of the Puzzle - this is pretty strong in our deck, and I could see 1 or 2 copies in the main.
Fight with Fire - I've been using this spell in BBE Ponza, as a means to deal with Hollow Ones and Goyfs, which are traditionally near impossible to kill in the usual Ponza lists. If you somehow hit 10 mana, that kicker mode can be quite a fiery finisher.
Howl of the Horde - This has some potential to be ABSOLUTELY BONKERS. However, it's entirely possible that you'll hit this spell ONLY with cocon, which would be pretty lame. The top end for this spell ISN'T hitting it off cocon. It's getting to 7 mana, attacking with Rhinos, and with raid active, casting this and THEN cocon and getting 2 extra copies. Of course, simply hitting this and AV and drawing 9 for the lulz, or destroying 3 lands, or making SIX 4/4 trample tokens, is also pretty fun.

Wow, thanks Marc, that was a lot of well thought out, relevant, really helpful information. Great post.

Thinking about what you said, it comes to mind that Regrowth, See Beyond, Call of the Herd and Exquisite Firecraft are all also Sorcery cards that fit this criteria. Regrowth in particular looks interesting as a way to rebuy anything from a Conjuring to an LD spell to a sweeper.

I missed out a card that, while having a mediocre effect, interacts well with both enablers and the suspend payoffs: Kari Zev's Expertise

This Act of Treason can be picked up by Cocon, and will free-cast your AV and footfalls in hand. The floor looks pretty low while the ceiling is quite high, so this is a big maybe.