Is there any particular reason why you're running City of Traitors (along with all of your other lands that sacrifice - Scorched Ruins, Crystal Vein, Dust Bowl, Petrified Field, Strip Mine, Tectonic Edge, Quicksand, Buried Ruin, Haunted Fengraf) without Crucible of Worlds? I realize Crucible with strip effects is pretty mean if you're in a more relaxed meta, but things like recovering from Scorched Ruins, re-using Buried Ruin and Haunted Fengraf, keeping City of Traitors around, hitting land drops due to discard/mill, etc. are all great reasons for Crucible without being mean to your opponents at all. You noted in one of your posts that you removed Crucible, and I was curious why.
Also: is there any particular reason for using Forbidden Orchard? Is there a combo I'm missing that relies on the opponents having creatures, or is it just to ensure Nova Pentacle has a target? (Unless there's something using it, might I recommend Lotus Vale, along the same lines as Scorched Ruins?)
I had originally removed crucible of worlds because I simply didn't use it and always hated drawing it. Nowadays in my metagame LD is nearly unheard of. I reckon it's part of the unspoken gentleman's agreement. That, and it's 20 bucks I'd have to shell out again. I'd rather get a scroll rack.
*EDIT - I also run tutorial games for a lot of new players. This deck's capable of a lot of broken things - but the crucible feels unfair. We've got a ton of people who's threat assessment abilities need some help - and I always see them gunning for cards like this. I guess it's me wanting to stay under the radar (See Also : Stategy tip #1).
What this deck could use is a Scroll Rack. The only one I got's in my Mono-white, hanging out with the land tax. I'd probably cut Myr Welder for it. He's only helped me like...once.
Forbidden Orchard is a card with a much more sinister purpose than just comboing - it's there to promote friendship - diplomacy, if you will. I can make friends with someone who's behind by giving them blockers. I can slide a token to someone during another player's end step so they have that one extra point of damage we need to take that nasty player out.
Also, I'm pretty sure (I'll have to think about this) I can give infinite spirit tokens to all the other players in response to a card like Massacre Wurm or Last Laugh hitting play. In all, I find that it's usually more useful than a card like...blasted landscape.
Infinite Tokens:
Currently, looks like the only way to do it in here is to generate an arbitrarily large amount of mana and utilize the deserted temple + rings of brighthearth combo with the Orchard in play.
I'd like a way to combo karn + Mycosynth Lattice + Orchard without it dying as a state-based-effect. I thought I could do that and activate Nim Deathmantle, but it falls off again. Eldrazi Monument is likely the most reasonable solution for this
The german preview for the M13 Trading post just popped up. I can't see any way I won't be including this thing based on it's 3rd and 4th abilities alone. Recursion is always something this deck needs and Nim Deathmantle andMyr battlesphere (and turbine) make the sacrifices easier.
EDIT :
I finally removed Vessel of Endless Rest, 'Cause I got that Scroll Rack I'd been meaning to add for months now.
After initial testing, the Staff of Nin and Trading Post are performing quite admirably. I believe they've found a home.
It seems like there's two schools of thought with 1 on 1 -
1) a way to kill time and have fun while you're waiting on others to have a multiplayer edh game with.
2) A super-competitive format filled with incredibly good decks.
I really don't typically play 1v1 - buuuuuut if I did, I'd consider running the following :
Winter Orb
Porticullis
Crucible of Worlds
Trinisphere
Uba Mask
I'm sure there are more...i just never considered a dueling edh deck.
I think than usually, your best bet is just bashing face with all your gear and racing (perhaps ludicrously mulliganing) to find combo pieces.
In a deck like this, if someone insists on playing one on one, I'll mulligan once (we don't do brittany's in my neck of the woods.) and if the second hand is bad, I'll say "Good game. Go again ?" until I get a hand with enough gas to do nicely (Don't you dare judge me).
In my experience, the deck really needs at least 3 players to shine.
If you play a lot of 1on 1 and want to compete with lots of broken decks, consider just using arcum dagsson or sharuum as your commander - as they're probably faster and more resilient than Karn in 1v1.
I had an umbral mantle in the original design of my deck - it and salvaging station were originally weeded out because of something I discovered through testing : I wanted to minimize the inclusion of cards that had no active purpose on their own. Secondly, I wanted to look as harmless as possible - everything had to serve some kind of purpose. If I play a card that clearly has some complex interactions but does nothing on it's own, players are usually going to spot that and do away with it pretty quickly.
I know that those cards allow you to do some pretty broken stuff - but they sorta go in a direction that I had initially steered away from. Now - if one is going for ballsout-combo-off-asap (Perhaps for competitive 1v1 like above) then this is definitely a direction you want to explore. That's one thing I love about this deck - it's flexibility to your tastes. Lately, due to tastes in my local metagame, I'm trying to avoid winning via combo every game (But I'm not above doing it, mind you).
I had an umbral mantle in the original design of my deck - it and salvaging station were originally weeded out because of something I discovered through testing : I wanted to minimize the inclusion of cards that had no active purpose on their own. Secondly, I wanted to look as harmless as possible - everything had to serve some kind of purpose. If I play a card that clearly has some complex interactions but does nothing on it's own, players are usually going to spot that and do away with it pretty quickly.
I know that those cards allow you to do some pretty broken stuff - but they sorta go in a direction that I had initially steered away from. Now - if one is going for ballsout-combo-off-asap (Perhaps for competitive 1v1 like above) then this is definitely a direction you want to explore. That's one thing I love about this deck - it's flexibility to your tastes. Lately, due to tastes in my local metagame, I'm trying to avoid winning via combo every game (But I'm not above doing it, mind you).
lol well i have a karn deck and it is my favorite deck so far. i was excited to see a few of your combos since i actually want to build it with strictly combo. my playgroups hate on combo pretty hard however they also drag on games for 3+ hours each setting. so ill usually just attack with animated darksteel forges for awhile until fighting erupts and then finish someone off. usually with a magma mine for craps and giggles lol. i will be adding rings to my deck i truly cannot understand how i didnt have it already in my version. good to see another karn enthusiast.
Awesome ! I'm in sort of the same boat - people hate the long games but will jealously rag on you when you combo out.
Yeah, there's a bunch of cards in the list that don't look like solid performers until you see them in action.
If you're going strictly combo - make sure you have shimmer myr in there.
If you've got the mana and cards in hand/play, then it lets you win in response to someone else trying to win - barring any split second shenanigans, of course.
I love how it just lets me combo out the game out of nowhere.
yeah for sure. i play with vedalken orrery shimmer myr and winding canyons. why no null brooch in your list? and if you had to change your deck to straight combo what cards would you take out first?
Mistercakes : as a prerequisite, you need the infinite mana voltaic construct combo. I believe the combo can be simplified more than I had posted.
Using Karn + Voltaic Construct + any 3 mana producing artifact, you need infinite mana. Then, play a Duplicant (I believe I replaced it with Karn, Liberated when he came out.) and a tawnos' coffin. After that you simply throw the duplicant in the coffin, animate the coffin with Karn and untap the coffin with Voltaic Construct, returning the duplicant to play (and he imprints something else), repeating this process until everything is eaten.
and yeah, I left that in there as a memorial to winter orb. I had put the note in before it had recieved it's newest wording. I've always liked the card and I think it flat out sucks that they changed it.
Jafoniceld: If I found myself frequently dueling in solo games and focused on comboing, I would adapt the deck to either an Arcum Daggson or Sharuum build. If you wanted to keep it as a Karn deck though, I would drop cards like Arcbound Reclaimer, Nova Pentacle, Ice Cauldron and more and I'd consider including things like Chalice of the void, Crucible of worlds, and other efficient artifact mana to make the deck faster.
Burntgerbil, after trying an Arcum build, and scrapping it due to the massive hate he brought, I built Karn using your list, and couldn't be happier. I made a few changes for personal and availability reasons. (I'm trying out a Darksteel Reactor &/or Magistrate's Scepter + Coretapper + Clock of Omens + Contagion Engine win con)
I have a question, though. After finally understanding how the Ice Cauldron works... what do you use it for? Maybe I don't understand it still.
This deck is a lot of fun. The ramp is hilarious. I just wish there was a way to get shroud/hexproof on our stuff.
quixotegut : Awesome, glad to hear other fans of ol' Cap'n Silverbutt.
I applaud your bravado with the coretapper combo, sir - good show !
Ice cauldron is a pet card of mine. I loved it when it came out and I love the opportunity to use it now. The more you understand it, the more uses it has. In short - it works like a credit card. You can put a card down on the cauldron and pay part of it's cost during your opponent's end step ( If I recall correctly, it's ability is not sorcery-speed, right ? I can't check on my work computer), untap and pay the rest of the cost at any time. It's also got one of the biggest errated rules texts of any card and swings for 4 with Karn. Oftentimes people call my Karn deck "The museum" Because it showcases artifacts from nearly all sets of the game. (I still wish Ring of Ma'ruf would let me get an exiled card...oh well, one can dream. )
The cool part of the whole thing though is that you can pay 0 (and untap it) and put another card on the cauldron (as many times as you want/can) - and they're out of reach for anyone but you. I've used Memory Jar multiple times a turn when I'm in crazy combo mode - putting the cards I don't immediately play onto the cauldron to use later in the turn. I believe I had 20-something of them one there after a few Memory Jars the other day. I've also stuck them on there in response to a mind twist pointed at me or a mind slicer being sacked.
As everyone who plays it knows, the deck has quite a bit of space for cards you like. As it happens, I really like the cauldron despite it only serving a purpose sometimes.
Ah, word! I saw the "layaway" aspect, but the "extended hand" aspect was a little different.
My only worry would be people removing the darn thing after they see me load it up a few times.
-
I enjoy decks that aren't used all that often, (hence my love for Gaka's Norin that I use as my main deck), and Karn fits the bill. He seems to be more honest than Arcum so I don't feel so bad if I do get off a nice combo.
Unfortunately the Darksteel Reactor combo is very hard to pull off as all of the pieces are hard to assemble quickly and can take some time. It's got mad swagger though.
You can have however many cards you want in/on/exiled by the cauldron. Also note that a charge counter can be 0. So if you have a way to enable multiple taps (voltaic key, clocks) you may place multiple cards on there every turn.
Incedentially, Over a year ago I decided to try and get as many cards in this deck with the modern cardface and foil versions (If an alpha/beta version isn't available). I didn't go out on a limb to do so, but picked up new cheap foils when I saw them. I had purposely avoided monster foils like vesuva, gilded lotus and Akroma's memorial on principle. Now I'm glad I held off. I'm stoked to see so many modern-faced cards (Maze, Ancient Tomb, High Market) coming in to replace my old stuff.
EDIT: I picked up 2 foil reliquary towers tonight. I have no idea how there wasn't one in here. I'll have to correct that.
So, I've noticed that we have a weakness against flying.
I'm testing General's Regalia to help against this. If we can't block it, why not redirect it onto an indestructible creature?
Coupled with a certain Artifact Creature that is very good at redirecting damage... and we have ourselves a nice little defensive package.
What say you?
Also, I've upped my proliferation package to include the Contagion Engine and Clasp, and Energy Chamber... so many things use Charge Counters in this deck it isn't funny... my favorite is the Everflowing Chalice just getting bigger and bigger.
Also I've added the Candles of Leng for some extra draw power. Yeah, it's kind of expensive to activate, but it always hits, and you don't need to worry about counters like the Serum Tank
I recently picked up a Legends Knowledge Vault for almost free and a Foil Storm Cauldron. I'm going to test those for a few weeks. I know the Torpor Orb will be coming out for that testing period. I'm very excited to see the replacements from FTV:Realms go in the deck. There was a period where I ran Uborg: Tomb of Yawgmoth to let me tap ancient tomb, Eye of Ugin and Maze of Ith for mana if I needed to. I might revisit that idea. We'll just have to see !
Ah, I'm pumped for Realms to come out... Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + Kormus Bell + All is Dust (with the Forge out on our field) = a nice little comby I've been wanting to get out right.
I'm always wary of hand replacement effects that leave card on a card that can go to the graveyard and lose you the cards on top of it. That's why I was so surprised about the Cauldron.
Yeah - if you get burned by bottled cloister once, it's enough to make you want to throw it away. Skyship weatherlight is another one - I usually just go for one or two cards - and I only cast it when I can activate it immediately. I'd love a better replacement that wasn't as mana-intensive as Planar Portal.
doesn't this violate the 1 land per turn rule? i still don't see how it works even if it does not. just unclear how it works.
Pasture : Huh. I wrote that years ago. I know I couldn't be using the volty to untap him (since he'd be a 0/0). it was probably using rings brighthearth and voltaic key (and that got lost in one of the tons of edits I've done). I'm going to look into to this deeper after work and try to remember what I was trying to convey. Note that if that's the case, you could do this with a basalt monolith or Scorched ruins, a voltaic key, rings of brighhearth, the lattice and a springjack pasture. No Karn required !
Grinning Totem: The prerequisites to this (see as stated) are that you :
1) Have infinite mana (through volty combo)
2) Have enabled an infinite draws at-will.
Then, you'd:
1) use the totem (with lattice out you can cast the card you get from them).
2) Remove a counter from arcbound reclaimer to return totem to the top of your library
3) Use a draw (from infinite draws) to re-draw & replay totem.
4) When Arcbound dies, use scarecrone to re-play him.
5) Repeat, untap scarecrone with voltaic construct when necessary.
Clearly, this is only going to be done in the very late game. If you've enabled infinite mana and infinite card draw at-will, you've won the game. But you want to finish with style, right ? Is there any cooler way to do it than by playing ALL THE (nonland) CARDS IN ALL THE DECKS !? RAWWRRR !
Note that when you do this to relatively new players, it'll likely have the unintended consequence of getting you targeted all the time for quite a while.
With FTV:R out, I was able to remove & replace a few lands that just weren't doing it for me -
OUT
- Dust Bowl (Never once needed to activate it since it's inclusion)
- Mutavault (Never needed to activate it since it's inclusion - also, neigh un-foilable at it's highest rarity)
- Torpor Orb
IN
+ High Market
+ Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth (Lets maze, chasm, eye, ancient tomb, temple of the false god all tap for mana when needed most.)
+ Storm Cauldron ( the more artifact mana you run, the more bang for your buck you get.)
I"m really hoping for some really sharp new (non-guild-aligned) artifacts in RTR. We got Trading Post and Staff of Nin in M13 - so I've been happy there.
Found a neat little card for s's and g's... that's best when flashed into play...
Lich's Mirror... I let an Azami player, palinchron into a killing-draw Blue Sun's Zenith, Just to flash it in (Vedalken Orrery) to win the game... the Azami player likes to go out with everybody else.
Ah wow. That's a pretty amazing use for it ! After thinking about it, it only really helps when someone takes out all players (including themselves). A while back, I used to run platinum angel and won a couple of games where I Scarecrone'd her out of the graveyard.
I will say this though - people in my playgroups have wised up to these sorts of shenanigans and try to avoid taking themselves out in their own blaze of glory - making this harder to do around here. Anyone running an infinite damage win has adapted to follow my cue and run a glacial chasm to keep themselves from dying in that case.
Ah wow. That's a pretty amazing use for it ! After thinking about it, it only really helps when someone takes out all players (including themselves). A while back, I used to run platinum angel and won a couple of games where I Scarecrone'd her out of the graveyard.
I will say this though - people in my playgroups have wised up to these sorts of shenanigans and try to avoid taking themselves out in their own blaze of glory - making this harder to do around here. Anyone running an infinite damage win has adapted to follow my cue and run a glacial chasm to keep themselves from dying in that case.
I actually plaed it straight up one night and forgot about it, until I got one shotted by Rafiq... just to shuffle up and deal again. He was pissed.
Also: is there any particular reason for using Forbidden Orchard? Is there a combo I'm missing that relies on the opponents having creatures, or is it just to ensure Nova Pentacle has a target? (Unless there's something using it, might I recommend Lotus Vale, along the same lines as Scorched Ruins?)
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
*EDIT - I also run tutorial games for a lot of new players. This deck's capable of a lot of broken things - but the crucible feels unfair. We've got a ton of people who's threat assessment abilities need some help - and I always see them gunning for cards like this. I guess it's me wanting to stay under the radar (See Also : Stategy tip #1).
What this deck could use is a Scroll Rack. The only one I got's in my Mono-white, hanging out with the land tax. I'd probably cut Myr Welder for it. He's only helped me like...once.
Forbidden Orchard is a card with a much more sinister purpose than just comboing - it's there to promote friendship - diplomacy, if you will. I can make friends with someone who's behind by giving them blockers. I can slide a token to someone during another player's end step so they have that one extra point of damage we need to take that nasty player out.
Also, I'm pretty sure (I'll have to think about this) I can give infinite spirit tokens to all the other players in response to a card like Massacre Wurm or Last Laugh hitting play. In all, I find that it's usually more useful than a card like...blasted landscape.
Infinite Tokens:
I'd like a way to combo karn + Mycosynth Lattice + Orchard without it dying as a state-based-effect. I thought I could do that and activate Nim Deathmantle, but it falls off again. Eldrazi Monument is likely the most reasonable solution for this
Right now my thoughts are
Out :
Goblin Charbelcher
Myr Welder
In :
Staff of Nin
Trading Post
EDIT :
I finally removed Vessel of Endless Rest, 'Cause I got that Scroll Rack I'd been meaning to add for months now.
After initial testing, the Staff of Nin and Trading Post are performing quite admirably. I believe they've found a home.
1) a way to kill time and have fun while you're waiting on others to have a multiplayer edh game with.
2) A super-competitive format filled with incredibly good decks.
I really don't typically play 1v1 - buuuuuut if I did, I'd consider running the following :
Winter Orb
Porticullis
Crucible of Worlds
Trinisphere
Uba Mask
I'm sure there are more...i just never considered a dueling edh deck.
I think than usually, your best bet is just bashing face with all your gear and racing (perhaps ludicrously mulliganing) to find combo pieces.
In a deck like this, if someone insists on playing one on one, I'll mulligan once (we don't do brittany's in my neck of the woods.) and if the second hand is bad, I'll say "Good game. Go again ?" until I get a hand with enough gas to do nicely (Don't you dare judge me).
In my experience, the deck really needs at least 3 players to shine.
If you play a lot of 1on 1 and want to compete with lots of broken decks, consider just using arcum dagsson or sharuum as your commander - as they're probably faster and more resilient than Karn in 1v1.
umbra mantle+karn+add 3 mana, mana rocks or doubling cube.
heartstone+karn+basalt monolith
Cigarettes are a lot like hamsters, perfectly harmless until you stick one in your mouth and light it on fire.
Hey - thanks for the input !
I had an umbral mantle in the original design of my deck - it and salvaging station were originally weeded out because of something I discovered through testing : I wanted to minimize the inclusion of cards that had no active purpose on their own. Secondly, I wanted to look as harmless as possible - everything had to serve some kind of purpose. If I play a card that clearly has some complex interactions but does nothing on it's own, players are usually going to spot that and do away with it pretty quickly.
I know that those cards allow you to do some pretty broken stuff - but they sorta go in a direction that I had initially steered away from. Now - if one is going for ballsout-combo-off-asap (Perhaps for competitive 1v1 like above) then this is definitely a direction you want to explore. That's one thing I love about this deck - it's flexibility to your tastes. Lately, due to tastes in my local metagame, I'm trying to avoid winning via combo every game (But I'm not above doing it, mind you).
lol well i have a karn deck and it is my favorite deck so far. i was excited to see a few of your combos since i actually want to build it with strictly combo. my playgroups hate on combo pretty hard however they also drag on games for 3+ hours each setting. so ill usually just attack with animated darksteel forges for awhile until fighting erupts and then finish someone off. usually with a magma mine for craps and giggles lol. i will be adding rings to my deck i truly cannot understand how i didnt have it already in my version. good to see another karn enthusiast.
Cigarettes are a lot like hamsters, perfectly harmless until you stick one in your mouth and light it on fire.
Yeah, there's a bunch of cards in the list that don't look like solid performers until you see them in action.
If you're going strictly combo - make sure you have shimmer myr in there.
If you've got the mana and cards in hand/play, then it lets you win in response to someone else trying to win - barring any split second shenanigans, of course.
I love how it just lets me combo out the game out of nowhere.
Cigarettes are a lot like hamsters, perfectly harmless until you stick one in your mouth and light it on fire.
Using Karn + Voltaic Construct + any 3 mana producing artifact, you need infinite mana. Then, play a Duplicant (I believe I replaced it with Karn, Liberated when he came out.) and a tawnos' coffin. After that you simply throw the duplicant in the coffin, animate the coffin with Karn and untap the coffin with Voltaic Construct, returning the duplicant to play (and he imprints something else), repeating this process until everything is eaten.
and yeah, I left that in there as a memorial to winter orb. I had put the note in before it had recieved it's newest wording. I've always liked the card and I think it flat out sucks that they changed it.
Jafoniceld: If I found myself frequently dueling in solo games and focused on comboing, I would adapt the deck to either an Arcum Daggson or Sharuum build. If you wanted to keep it as a Karn deck though, I would drop cards like Arcbound Reclaimer, Nova Pentacle, Ice Cauldron and more and I'd consider including things like Chalice of the void, Crucible of worlds, and other efficient artifact mana to make the deck faster.
I have a question, though. After finally understanding how the Ice Cauldron works... what do you use it for? Maybe I don't understand it still.
This deck is a lot of fun. The ramp is hilarious. I just wish there was a way to get shroud/hexproof on our stuff.
I applaud your bravado with the coretapper combo, sir - good show !
Ice cauldron is a pet card of mine. I loved it when it came out and I love the opportunity to use it now. The more you understand it, the more uses it has. In short - it works like a credit card. You can put a card down on the cauldron and pay part of it's cost during your opponent's end step ( If I recall correctly, it's ability is not sorcery-speed, right ? I can't check on my work computer), untap and pay the rest of the cost at any time. It's also got one of the biggest errated rules texts of any card and swings for 4 with Karn. Oftentimes people call my Karn deck "The museum" Because it showcases artifacts from nearly all sets of the game. (I still wish Ring of Ma'ruf would let me get an exiled card...oh well, one can dream. )
The cool part of the whole thing though is that you can pay 0 (and untap it) and put another card on the cauldron (as many times as you want/can) - and they're out of reach for anyone but you. I've used Memory Jar multiple times a turn when I'm in crazy combo mode - putting the cards I don't immediately play onto the cauldron to use later in the turn. I believe I had 20-something of them one there after a few Memory Jars the other day. I've also stuck them on there in response to a mind twist pointed at me or a mind slicer being sacked.
As everyone who plays it knows, the deck has quite a bit of space for cards you like. As it happens, I really like the cauldron despite it only serving a purpose sometimes.
My only worry would be people removing the darn thing after they see me load it up a few times.
-
I enjoy decks that aren't used all that often, (hence my love for Gaka's Norin that I use as my main deck), and Karn fits the bill. He seems to be more honest than Arcum so I don't feel so bad if I do get off a nice combo.
Unfortunately the Darksteel Reactor combo is very hard to pull off as all of the pieces are hard to assemble quickly and can take some time. It's got mad swagger though.
Yeah - I know. Weird is right. No other card acts like the cauldron and thinking about it, I probably play it mostly to show it off.
Ahh, that changes a lot of things... I can definitely use this card.
Incedentially, Over a year ago I decided to try and get as many cards in this deck with the modern cardface and foil versions (If an alpha/beta version isn't available). I didn't go out on a limb to do so, but picked up new cheap foils when I saw them. I had purposely avoided monster foils like vesuva, gilded lotus and Akroma's memorial on principle. Now I'm glad I held off. I'm stoked to see so many modern-faced cards (Maze, Ancient Tomb, High Market) coming in to replace my old stuff.
EDIT: I picked up 2 foil reliquary towers tonight. I have no idea how there wasn't one in here. I'll have to correct that.
I'm testing General's Regalia to help against this. If we can't block it, why not redirect it onto an indestructible creature?
Coupled with a certain Artifact Creature that is very good at redirecting damage... and we have ourselves a nice little defensive package.
What say you?
Also, I've upped my proliferation package to include the Contagion Engine and Clasp, and Energy Chamber... so many things use Charge Counters in this deck it isn't funny... my favorite is the Everflowing Chalice just getting bigger and bigger.
Also I've added the Candles of Leng for some extra draw power. Yeah, it's kind of expensive to activate, but it always hits, and you don't need to worry about counters like the Serum Tank
I recently picked up a Legends Knowledge Vault for almost free and a Foil Storm Cauldron. I'm going to test those for a few weeks. I know the Torpor Orb will be coming out for that testing period. I'm very excited to see the replacements from FTV:Realms go in the deck. There was a period where I ran Uborg: Tomb of Yawgmoth to let me tap ancient tomb, Eye of Ugin and Maze of Ith for mana if I needed to. I might revisit that idea. We'll just have to see !
Keep up the good work !
I'm always wary of hand replacement effects that leave card on a card that can go to the graveyard and lose you the cards on top of it. That's why I was so surprised about the Cauldron.
Pasture : Huh. I wrote that years ago. I know I couldn't be using the volty to untap him (since he'd be a 0/0). it was probably using rings brighthearth and voltaic key (and that got lost in one of the tons of edits I've done). I'm going to look into to this deeper after work and try to remember what I was trying to convey. Note that if that's the case, you could do this with a basalt monolith or Scorched ruins, a voltaic key, rings of brighhearth, the lattice and a springjack pasture. No Karn required !
Grinning Totem: The prerequisites to this (see as stated) are that you :
1) Have infinite mana (through volty combo)
2) Have enabled an infinite draws at-will.
Then, you'd:
1) use the totem (with lattice out you can cast the card you get from them).
2) Remove a counter from arcbound reclaimer to return totem to the top of your library
3) Use a draw (from infinite draws) to re-draw & replay totem.
4) When Arcbound dies, use scarecrone to re-play him.
5) Repeat, untap scarecrone with voltaic construct when necessary.
Clearly, this is only going to be done in the very late game. If you've enabled infinite mana and infinite card draw at-will, you've won the game. But you want to finish with style, right ? Is there any cooler way to do it than by playing ALL THE (nonland) CARDS IN ALL THE DECKS !? RAWWRRR !
Note that when you do this to relatively new players, it'll likely have the unintended consequence of getting you targeted all the time for quite a while.
OUT
- Dust Bowl (Never once needed to activate it since it's inclusion)
- Mutavault (Never needed to activate it since it's inclusion - also, neigh un-foilable at it's highest rarity)
- Torpor Orb
IN
+ High Market
+ Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth (Lets maze, chasm, eye, ancient tomb, temple of the false god all tap for mana when needed most.)
+ Storm Cauldron ( the more artifact mana you run, the more bang for your buck you get.)
I"m really hoping for some really sharp new (non-guild-aligned) artifacts in RTR. We got Trading Post and Staff of Nin in M13 - so I've been happy there.
Lich's Mirror... I let an Azami player, palinchron into a killing-draw Blue Sun's Zenith, Just to flash it in (Vedalken Orrery) to win the game... the Azami player likes to go out with everybody else.
I will say this though - people in my playgroups have wised up to these sorts of shenanigans and try to avoid taking themselves out in their own blaze of glory - making this harder to do around here. Anyone running an infinite damage win has adapted to follow my cue and run a glacial chasm to keep themselves from dying in that case.
I actually plaed it straight up one night and forgot about it, until I got one shotted by Rafiq... just to shuffle up and deal again. He was pissed.
Also... General's Regalia is my new love.