Have you considered Cavern of Souls to help get Arcum out? You can save your counterspell for the instant speed response to you equipping the shroud artifact.
Have you considered Cavern of Souls to help get Arcum out? You can save your counterspell for the instant speed response to you equipping the shroud artifact.
Arcum getting tucked is almost game over for this deck, which is why you have to be very, very careful when you are ready to make your move and cast him. In my own personal list, I run at least 10 counterspell effects, as well as all of the artifact tutors I can to function as baby-Arcum's in the event that he gets tucked (Fabricate, Transmute Artifact, Reshape, Tezzeret, the Seeker). Also, I run Cavern of Souls in my Arcum list. It's just worth it.
One time I was playing 1v1 with Arcum against Krenko, and the Krenko guy Chaos Warped Arcum. I had no counters, and in response, I used Arcum and fetched Lion's Eye Diamond since I already had my Ensnaring Bridge out. I also had out a Rings of Brighthearth which was in my opening hand. I cracked the LED and ensured he couldn't attack me, and he just sat there with a zillion gobbo tokens for four or five turns, at which point I drew into a couple of land, a counterspell and a tutor, fetched Basalt Monolith, and proceeded to win with infinite mana from there. It was sweet. This was a fluke, though. Usually, if Arcum gets tucked, you're stuck with attacking with 1/1 Myr creatures, which sucks.
Hey TheTrueNub,
I've been building my own Arcum list for duels and I'm wondering what you think about Trading Post? It 'combos' well with Mindslaver and Spine of Ish Sah and seems like it would have excellent utility with, well, everything in the deck. Have you tried it out?
Mimeoplasm exiles creatures and takes their form "as" it enters the battlefield, not via a trigger "when" it enters the battlefield. If the latter was the case, it would enter the battlefield as a 0/0, its trigger would go on the stack and it would be put into the grave as a 0/0 via state based effects before its triggered ability resolved.
Norin exiles himself when a spell is cast, not when a creature enters the battlefield. Likewise, he exiles himself when a creature attacks, which is not a situation in which Torpor Orb prevents triggers from occurring.
It's worth noting that Grafdigger's Cage doesn't stop Tooth and Nail since the creatures are actually coming into play from the hand not the library. I only point it out because Tooth and Nail is a staple that needs to be accounted for in many metas.
So I took a break from Magic for several months, partly because I've had a bit of a chronic bout of the flu, but now I'm getting back in the swing, and I was just invited to play EDH the other day, so I'm dusting off Arcum and seeing what's happened in Magic while I've been gone.
The good (bad?) news for Arcum is that RtR block is pretty skimpy on artifacts. In the first set, there are exactly 12 artifacts, one of which is a reprint of Pithing Needle and the rest are mana ramp/fixing for multicolored decks. Gatecrash brings trashy equipment, more mana fixing, and Illusionist's Bracers, which looks neat but is probably way too slow to actually be of use.
Mimeoplasm exiles creatures and takes their form "as" it enters the battlefield, not via a trigger "when" it enters the battlefield.
Confirmed. Looked up the rules; a triggered ability only begins with "When," "whenever", or "at" (404.1). Mimeoplasm's ability is not triggered and therefore evades Torpor Orb.
Hopefully they'll print an artifact version of Ground Seal eventually, is all I can say.
In the meantime, I'm not sure there's anything Arcum can do to completely "hose" Mimeoplasm in one fell swoop. He's got more potential combos and trix than we can dismantle with Jester's Cap alone.
Norin exiles himself when a spell is cast, not when a creature enters the battlefield. Likewise, he exiles himself when a creature attacks, which is not a situation in which Torpor Orb prevents triggers from occurring.
As a poster above said, in Norin decks, the commander functions more as an engine to fuel other things that do neat tricks as Norin repeatedly enters the battlefield. Torpor Orb doesn't stop Norin himself; it just stops the things he enables, which is just as good for a hoser.
It's worth noting that Grafdigger's Cage doesn't stop Tooth and Nail since the creatures are actually coming into play from the hand not the library. I only point it out because Tooth and Nail is a staple that needs to be accounted for in many metas.
Noted and fixed. At this point it seems the primary fallback for Tooth and Nail decks is to Jester's Cap it along with two other important things.
The phrasing in my post is wrong. Animar himself is not stopped by Torpor Orb, as my primer suggests, because the counter is placed on him as the creature spell is put on the stack, not as it resolves and enters the battlefield. I will rectify this.
AnimarCombo.dec, however, makes heavy use of etbs for nearly all of its wincons, and is largely impeded by Torpor Orb.
Fair enough. I was speaking strictly on giving him counters, not the overall synergy of the deck itself.
To OP: Also, with all the snow lands, any reason why you're not running Scrying Sheets?
The original reason (and still today the main reason) I used and still use snow lands instead of regular lands is because there's an Azami, Lady of Scrolls player in my group who tries to use snow lands to circumvent giving her opponents the reciprocal benefits of Extraplanar Lens.
I've been playtesting Scrying Sheets lately, swapping out another island for it. Generally I never find myself using its draw effect because it's so slow and mana-intensive, only its "T: Add 1" effect, which means it'd just be better off as an island (it's critical that we have at least 2 blue mana available in the opening few turns).
I'll keep trying it out, but generally I can always find something better to do with 3 lands than tap them for the chance of drawing another land. Omnath and especially Azusa make outstanding use of the sheets, but Arcum doesn't.
The original reason (and still today the main reason) I used and still use snow lands instead of regular lands is because there's an Azami, Lady of Scrolls player in my group who tries to use snow lands to circumvent giving her opponents the reciprocal benefits of Extraplanar Lens.
I've been playtesting Scrying Sheets lately, swapping out another island for it. Generally I never find myself using its draw effect because it's so slow and mana-intensive, only its "T: Add 1" effect, which means it'd just be better off as an island (it's critical that we have at least 2 blue mana available in the opening few turns).
I'll keep trying it out, but generally I can always find something better to do with 3 lands than tap them for the chance of drawing another land. Omnath and especially Azusa make outstanding use of the sheets, but Arcum doesn't.
I used it for Dakkon and my conclusion about the card is this: Yes, it's insanely slow and more often than not it's not doing anything. But if your deck won't suffer from one additional colorless land and you typically go into your turn with three lands untapped anyway, there's no downside. You don't have to reveal it, so the only thing your opponents know is that you're not drawing a snow land that turn (unless you like to play high level poker and feel the need to bluff them).
TL;DR: If Scrying Sheets doesn't compete with either another colorless land slot or spending 3 mana right before your turn begins, even one less turn drawing a land makes it worth it in my experience.
Expanded card-by-card analysis and organized into spoiler'd groups
Removed header note debating whether or not I should apply for a primer, 'coz...I've already done that
My next to-do's are to finish the "Metagame Tuning for Dummies" section.
I'm also keeping my nose to the ground for upcoming Dragon's Mazespoilers, but at this point I'm really skeptical that I'll actually be debating the inclusion of any newly-released cards until at least the next block. RtR's great for multicolored, not so much for mono-colored, particularly not for mono-colored artifact-based.
Expanded the "Metagame Tuning for Dummies" intro and added a section for aggro decks! Wow!
As I wrote in the section itself, I strongly encourage any criticism (constructive or otherwise) of the metagame tuning for dummies section. Part of my endeavor is to allow someone just starting up Arcum (presumably with proxies) and beginning to play competitively to understand the competitive meta and how to adapt to it, and at the end of the day my knowledge of "the meta" will always be slightly biased towards my particular meta, which of course might not be sufficiently reflective of the broader meta. It's not as easy as simply looking up tournament results and finding out which decks were the top 10 like you can do for Legacy!
I really like this decklist but I do have one problem. This deck has to play clock of omens. With mycosynth lattice it untaps every permanent you have in play. With a lotus in play it turns all your artifacts into one and a half mana. Once you have infinite mana, with basalt monolith and grim monolith in play it allows you to untap them with your mana and tap them to untap something else and then pay to untap them granting you the chance to kill in one turn every time. It allows you to tutor up myr turbine then lattice then rings then basalt monolith then planar portal in one turn with enough permanents already in play.
I really like this decklist but I do have one problem. This deck has to play clock of omens.
Ah! Hello! I'm so glad you brought this up; I was actually just debating a short while ago whether or not I should expand my thoughts on Clock of Omens in the OP. I know so many other Arcum lists out there run it; it's become an "artifact staple" so to speak. Despite this, I feel it has been genuinely beaten out by its cousin Unwinding Clock. Your inquiry into this matter has convinced me that it will indeed be worth my time to address Clock of Omens a little more thoroughly. I will do so here!
All your points regarding Clock of Omen's utility are correct; however, the scenarios you mentioned actually don't come up in this deck very often, if ever!
With mycosynth lattice it untaps every permanent you have in play.
Almost always, we will NEVER drop Mycosynth Lattice on its own. It's a critical combo piece, it's vulnerable, and it's a hate magnet; no question, as soon as you pass your turn with Mycosynth Lattice out and nothing else to protect it, it will be destroyed. As such, the only time we ever play it is on our combo turn, our winning turn, when we've already assembled Top/Monolith/Rings, having drawn our entire deck and earned infinite mana...and at that point we don't actually need Clock of Omens to untap anything anyway.
Here's an example "combo turn" play order:
Tap Arcum targeting Myr Token
Copy Arcum's ability with Rings, targeting another Myr Token
Search library for Top and Monolith and put them onto the battlefield
Draw entire library
Cast Mycosynth Lattice, Darksteel Forge, and Nevinyrral's Disk, in that order
(Counter stuff as needed)
Play Voltaic Key, untap Nevinyrral's Disk, wrath and win.
In summary, the Clock of Omens/Lattice interaction doesn't happen in this list because the only time we play lattice is during our combo turn and in that case we don't actually need to untap more than Disk anyway (for which we conveniently have Voltaic Key).
With a lotus in play it turns all your artifacts into one and a half mana.
On average, this deck actually won't have more than 4 or 5 artifacts on the field at any given time prior to the combo turn. After all, we try to combo off in 6-7 turns or fewer; there's only so many opportunities we have in such a short time to actually put artifacts onto the field, either casting them or tinkering for them, and many of those artifacts we're casting are actually creatures who are then sacced to Arcum--so "all your artifacts" doesn't usually add up to much!
In addition, we actually don't really need the mana, either! It's the same reason I don't run any Moxen in my list--Arcum needs approximately 5 mana as fast as possible, but he actually doesn't need any more than that; it pays for all his countermagic, it pays for Rings of Brighthearth copying, it pays for Null Brooch...5 mana covers just about everything in the deck, so tutoring out a Clock of Omens just for more mana is usually a waste of a tutor!
Once you have infinite mana, with basalt monolith and grim monolith in play it allows you to untap them with your mana and tap them to untap something else and then pay to untap them granting you the chance to kill in one turn every time. It allows you to tutor up myr turbine then lattice then rings then basalt monolith then planar portal in one turn with enough permanents already in play
Instead of Infinite Mana + Clock of Omens + Grim Monolith + Basalt Monolith, we'd just use Infinite Mana + Filigree Sages to accomplish that.
And you'll notice I don't even run Filigree Sages in my list; at the end of the day, there's actually not all that much we ever need to untap besides Nev's Disk (for which we use Voltaic Key) and Arcum (who isn't an artifact).
I hope this clears everything up! Believe me, I've thought long and hard about Clock of Omens. It's a card that seems, at face value, really comboriffic, but I'm just not seeing what it would offer me that I actually need or that I can't achieve through simpler means.
No no you're missing all the interactions with clock. If you tutor for lattice first in your combo turn you can untap Arcum by tapping two permanents. Then you get turbine. Tap the myr you make and something else to untap the turbine and get rings. Then make a myr and tap the Rings to untap Arcum. Then tinker the myr for basalt monolith. Now you have infinite mana so search for grim monolith and use your infy mana to untap both monoliths and use them to activate clock and untap all your permanents. You now have infinite planar portal activations and draw your deck and infy myrs etc. Clock is way better than key and has so many useful interactions with cards like lotus, dynamo, thousand year elixir myr turbine and so on. I really think some gold fishing with the clock would change our opinion
No no you're missing all the interactions with clock. If you tutor for lattice first in your combo turn you can untap Arcum by tapping two permanents. Then you get turbine. Tap the myr you make and something else to untap the turbine and get rings. Then make a myr and tap the Rings to untap Arcum. Then tinker the myr for basalt monolith. Now you have infinite mana so search for grim monolith and use your infy mana to untap both monoliths and use them to activate clock and untap all your permanents. You now have infinite planar portal activations and draw your deck and infy myrs etc. Clock is way better than key and has so many useful interactions with cards like lotus, dynamo, thousand year elixir myr turbine and so on. I really think some gold fishing with the clock would change our opinion
OK, I think I follow what you're saying now. You're pointing out that, given Clock is on the battlefield, tutoring for Mycosynth Lattice (with 4 or 5 other permanents on the battlefield) is enough for infinite mana and infinite card draw (thanks to Planar Portal).
In the past I've refrained from using this combo because I was always afraid that I wouldn't have sufficient permanents on the battlefield on my combo turn to make it work. In my meta you have to assume that someone will attempt to Return to Dust Lattice as soon as I pass priority, which means that Clock of Omens + Lattice actually needs 4 to 6 untapped permanents just to get started, since I'll need to start it once to bait the hate and then start it a second time (or even a third time) in response to finish it all at instant speed before the hate resolves.
Tell you what; you've provided a convincing enough argument that my next few days of playtesting I'll focus exclusively on re-evaluating my thoughts on Clock of Omens. If I realize my fears against it were unfounded, then I'll add it to the deck and give a lengthy explanation in the OP and give you credit for persuading me.
Just wanted to say that this list made me want to build a deck around Arcum. There's a ton of useful information compacted very nicely into your thread, thank you very much!
I run clock of omens in my build and people usually scoop once all the clock shenanigans start. Although, I play a powered down version of the deck, so mine is a little different.
Just wanted to say that this list made me want to build a deck around Arcum. There's a ton of useful information compacted very nicely into your thread, thank you very much!
Thanks! I'm glad to see people aren't entirely scared off by how "mean" I've presented him here.
As a side-note, the primer committee has unanimously voted to make this thread a primer at last, so whenever Weebo gets around to it I assume it'll get the green [Primer] tag officially.
No no you're missing all the interactions with clock.
Alright, I'll bite. You got me. But I'm not using it in quite the way you're describing:
If you tutor for lattice first in your combo turn you can untap Arcum by tapping two permanents. Then you get turbine. Tap the myr you make and something else to untap the turbine and get rings. Then make a myr and tap the Rings to untap Arcum. Then tinker the myr for basalt monolith. Now you have infinite mana so search for grim monolith and use your infy mana to untap both monoliths and use them to activate clock and untap all your permanents.
Doing this takes about 10 or 11 untapped permanents, one of which is the Lattice you tutored for on your combo turn, and at least 1 or 2 artifact creatures. to get rolling. It also requires that Arcum has hexproof, not shroud. We won't always be able to meet all those conditions on T6.
It's much easier instead to tutor for Swiftoot Boots on one of the early turns, then tutor for turbine on maybe T5, then Clock on T6 (producing as many artifact tokens as possible, which usually adds up to around 3-5), then Lattice T7, then on T7 a combo victory that can't be stopped without split second Krosan Grip. This takes an extra turn and it assumes Clock won't be removed, but it's much easier to pull off.
Still, it's another way to go infinite that doubles as a general utility piece for simply untapping mana rocks/tapping down others' rocks, producing more fodder, etc, and on top of it it's another way to enable an aggro win via token mass if absolutely necessary, and I can't argue with any of that.
I really think some gold fishing with the clock would change our opinion
Well you were right!
The biggest challenge is deciding what to cut. This deck is so streamlined that it's hard to come up with things to move around. I think what I'll end up doing is either
moving Torpor Orb to the 'board, since it's ultimately just a silver bullet, even if it's a really effective, broad-spectrum one, and ETB combo decks aren't as prevalent in my meta as some other archetypes (except for Sharuum combo, but I tend to deal with that using other methods)
OR cutting Etherium Sculptor; she's been so lackluster in some of my recent games that I'm tempted to cut her and move her to the "good, but not for me" section, but I don't think I'm quite ready to make a call like that.
so for now I'll probably move Torpor Orb to the 'board, switch in Clock of Omens for it, and make a section about it in the contingency plans.
EDIT: Also debating switching Jester's Cap to the board in place of Torpor Orb. Might also depend on whether I'm playing 1v1 or multiplayer. Anyway much to think about on this.
Awesome I'm glad you've changed your mind and I hope it works out.
One more suggestion: I really like intruder alarm. The deck has enough mana dorks plus I play Arcanis and Arcum himself makes intruder alarm with myr turbine pretty absurd
Awesome I'm glad you've changed your mind and I hope it works out.
One more suggestion: I really like intruder alarm. The deck has enough mana dorks plus I play Arcanis and Arcum himself makes intruder alarm with myr turbine pretty absurd
For one, Intruder Alarm is an enchantment, so it's already not the greatest fit, and for another, it works on all creatures, and I get the feeling someone like Animar, Soul of Elements will be able to make much better use of it than I will. Plus I tend to drop Torpor Orb a lot because of how much stuff it shuts down, and Torpor Orb and Intruder Alarm don't mix.
But you will be pleased to know that I've added an entire section on Clock of Omens to the primer.
What do you do if Arcum gets hit with an Oblation or Chaos Warp?
One time I was playing 1v1 with Arcum against Krenko, and the Krenko guy Chaos Warped Arcum. I had no counters, and in response, I used Arcum and fetched Lion's Eye Diamond since I already had my Ensnaring Bridge out. I also had out a Rings of Brighthearth which was in my opening hand. I cracked the LED and ensured he couldn't attack me, and he just sat there with a zillion gobbo tokens for four or five turns, at which point I drew into a couple of land, a counterspell and a tutor, fetched Basalt Monolith, and proceeded to win with infinite mana from there. It was sweet. This was a fluke, though. Usually, if Arcum gets tucked, you're stuck with attacking with 1/1 Myr creatures, which sucks.
This "love" intrigues me. Teach me to fake it.
UR Nin, the Pain Artist
WUB Zur the Enchanter (Retired)
UB Oona, Queen of the Fae (Pseudo-Retired)
I've been building my own Arcum list for duels and I'm wondering what you think about Trading Post? It 'combos' well with Mindslaver and Spine of Ish Sah and seems like it would have excellent utility with, well, everything in the deck. Have you tried it out?
I don't think this stops Mimeoplasm or Norin.
Mimeoplasm exiles creatures and takes their form "as" it enters the battlefield, not via a trigger "when" it enters the battlefield. If the latter was the case, it would enter the battlefield as a 0/0, its trigger would go on the stack and it would be put into the grave as a 0/0 via state based effects before its triggered ability resolved.
Norin exiles himself when a spell is cast, not when a creature enters the battlefield. Likewise, he exiles himself when a creature attacks, which is not a situation in which Torpor Orb prevents triggers from occurring.
It's worth noting that Grafdigger's Cage doesn't stop Tooth and Nail since the creatures are actually coming into play from the hand not the library. I only point it out because Tooth and Nail is a staple that needs to be accounted for in many metas.
URNiv-Mizzet the Firemind
WUBRGSliver Queen leads the Planewalkers
The good (bad?) news for Arcum is that RtR block is pretty skimpy on artifacts. In the first set, there are exactly 12 artifacts, one of which is a reprint of Pithing Needle and the rest are mana ramp/fixing for multicolored decks. Gatecrash brings trashy equipment, more mana fixing, and Illusionist's Bracers, which looks neat but is probably way too slow to actually be of use.
Confirmed. Looked up the rules; a triggered ability only begins with "When," "whenever", or "at" (404.1). Mimeoplasm's ability is not triggered and therefore evades Torpor Orb.
Hopefully they'll print an artifact version of Ground Seal eventually, is all I can say.
In the meantime, I'm not sure there's anything Arcum can do to completely "hose" Mimeoplasm in one fell swoop. He's got more potential combos and trix than we can dismantle with Jester's Cap alone.
As a poster above said, in Norin decks, the commander functions more as an engine to fuel other things that do neat tricks as Norin repeatedly enters the battlefield. Torpor Orb doesn't stop Norin himself; it just stops the things he enables, which is just as good for a hoser.
Noted and fixed. At this point it seems the primary fallback for Tooth and Nail decks is to Jester's Cap it along with two other important things.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
Follow me on Twitter! @cryogen_mtg
Animar combo makes extensive use of etb effects.
You're both right.
The phrasing in my post is wrong. Animar himself is not stopped by Torpor Orb, as my primer suggests, because the counter is placed on him as the creature spell is put on the stack, not as it resolves and enters the battlefield. I will rectify this.
AnimarCombo.dec, however, makes heavy use of etbs for nearly all of its wincons, and is largely impeded by Torpor Orb.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
Fair enough. I was speaking strictly on giving him counters, not the overall synergy of the deck itself.
To OP: Also, with all the snow lands, any reason why you're not running Scrying Sheets?
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
Follow me on Twitter! @cryogen_mtg
The original reason (and still today the main reason) I used and still use snow lands instead of regular lands is because there's an Azami, Lady of Scrolls player in my group who tries to use snow lands to circumvent giving her opponents the reciprocal benefits of Extraplanar Lens.
I've been playtesting Scrying Sheets lately, swapping out another island for it. Generally I never find myself using its draw effect because it's so slow and mana-intensive, only its "T: Add 1" effect, which means it'd just be better off as an island (it's critical that we have at least 2 blue mana available in the opening few turns).
I'll keep trying it out, but generally I can always find something better to do with 3 lands than tap them for the chance of drawing another land. Omnath and especially Azusa make outstanding use of the sheets, but Arcum doesn't.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
I used it for Dakkon and my conclusion about the card is this: Yes, it's insanely slow and more often than not it's not doing anything. But if your deck won't suffer from one additional colorless land and you typically go into your turn with three lands untapped anyway, there's no downside. You don't have to reveal it, so the only thing your opponents know is that you're not drawing a snow land that turn (unless you like to play high level poker and feel the need to bluff them).
TL;DR: If Scrying Sheets doesn't compete with either another colorless land slot or spending 3 mana right before your turn begins, even one less turn drawing a land makes it worth it in my experience.
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
Follow me on Twitter! @cryogen_mtg
My next to-do's are to finish the "Metagame Tuning for Dummies" section.
I'm also keeping my nose to the ground for upcoming Dragon's Mazespoilers, but at this point I'm really skeptical that I'll actually be debating the inclusion of any newly-released cards until at least the next block. RtR's great for multicolored, not so much for mono-colored, particularly not for mono-colored artifact-based.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
As I wrote in the section itself, I strongly encourage any criticism (constructive or otherwise) of the metagame tuning for dummies section. Part of my endeavor is to allow someone just starting up Arcum (presumably with proxies) and beginning to play competitively to understand the competitive meta and how to adapt to it, and at the end of the day my knowledge of "the meta" will always be slightly biased towards my particular meta, which of course might not be sufficiently reflective of the broader meta. It's not as easy as simply looking up tournament results and finding out which decks were the top 10 like you can do for Legacy!
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
Ah! Hello! I'm so glad you brought this up; I was actually just debating a short while ago whether or not I should expand my thoughts on Clock of Omens in the OP. I know so many other Arcum lists out there run it; it's become an "artifact staple" so to speak. Despite this, I feel it has been genuinely beaten out by its cousin Unwinding Clock. Your inquiry into this matter has convinced me that it will indeed be worth my time to address Clock of Omens a little more thoroughly. I will do so here!
All your points regarding Clock of Omen's utility are correct; however, the scenarios you mentioned actually don't come up in this deck very often, if ever!
Almost always, we will NEVER drop Mycosynth Lattice on its own. It's a critical combo piece, it's vulnerable, and it's a hate magnet; no question, as soon as you pass your turn with Mycosynth Lattice out and nothing else to protect it, it will be destroyed. As such, the only time we ever play it is on our combo turn, our winning turn, when we've already assembled Top/Monolith/Rings, having drawn our entire deck and earned infinite mana...and at that point we don't actually need Clock of Omens to untap anything anyway.
Here's an example "combo turn" play order:
In summary, the Clock of Omens/Lattice interaction doesn't happen in this list because the only time we play lattice is during our combo turn and in that case we don't actually need to untap more than Disk anyway (for which we conveniently have Voltaic Key).
On average, this deck actually won't have more than 4 or 5 artifacts on the field at any given time prior to the combo turn. After all, we try to combo off in 6-7 turns or fewer; there's only so many opportunities we have in such a short time to actually put artifacts onto the field, either casting them or tinkering for them, and many of those artifacts we're casting are actually creatures who are then sacced to Arcum--so "all your artifacts" doesn't usually add up to much!
In addition, we actually don't really need the mana, either! It's the same reason I don't run any Moxen in my list--Arcum needs approximately 5 mana as fast as possible, but he actually doesn't need any more than that; it pays for all his countermagic, it pays for Rings of Brighthearth copying, it pays for Null Brooch...5 mana covers just about everything in the deck, so tutoring out a Clock of Omens just for more mana is usually a waste of a tutor!
Instead of Infinite Mana + Clock of Omens + Grim Monolith + Basalt Monolith, we'd just use Infinite Mana + Filigree Sages to accomplish that.
And you'll notice I don't even run Filigree Sages in my list; at the end of the day, there's actually not all that much we ever need to untap besides Nev's Disk (for which we use Voltaic Key) and Arcum (who isn't an artifact).
I hope this clears everything up! Believe me, I've thought long and hard about Clock of Omens. It's a card that seems, at face value, really comboriffic, but I'm just not seeing what it would offer me that I actually need or that I can't achieve through simpler means.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
OK, I think I follow what you're saying now. You're pointing out that, given Clock is on the battlefield, tutoring for Mycosynth Lattice (with 4 or 5 other permanents on the battlefield) is enough for infinite mana and infinite card draw (thanks to Planar Portal).
In the past I've refrained from using this combo because I was always afraid that I wouldn't have sufficient permanents on the battlefield on my combo turn to make it work. In my meta you have to assume that someone will attempt to Return to Dust Lattice as soon as I pass priority, which means that Clock of Omens + Lattice actually needs 4 to 6 untapped permanents just to get started, since I'll need to start it once to bait the hate and then start it a second time (or even a third time) in response to finish it all at instant speed before the hate resolves.
Tell you what; you've provided a convincing enough argument that my next few days of playtesting I'll focus exclusively on re-evaluating my thoughts on Clock of Omens. If I realize my fears against it were unfounded, then I'll add it to the deck and give a lengthy explanation in the OP and give you credit for persuading me.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
[Primer] - Jor Kadeen, Boros Legionnaire
WUBRGSliver Legion, Slynergistic Slivertastic BeatdownWUBRG
Here are some of the EDH decks I have to deal with...
[Primer] WUBDromar, the Banisher Esper StaxWUB
Thanks! I'm glad to see people aren't entirely scared off by how "mean" I've presented him here.
As a side-note, the primer committee has unanimously voted to make this thread a primer at last, so whenever Weebo gets around to it I assume it'll get the green [Primer] tag officially.
Alright, I'll bite. You got me. But I'm not using it in quite the way you're describing:
Doing this takes about 10 or 11 untapped permanents, one of which is the Lattice you tutored for on your combo turn, and at least 1 or 2 artifact creatures. to get rolling. It also requires that Arcum has hexproof, not shroud. We won't always be able to meet all those conditions on T6.
It's much easier instead to tutor for Swiftoot Boots on one of the early turns, then tutor for turbine on maybe T5, then Clock on T6 (producing as many artifact tokens as possible, which usually adds up to around 3-5), then Lattice T7, then on T7 a combo victory that can't be stopped without split second Krosan Grip. This takes an extra turn and it assumes Clock won't be removed, but it's much easier to pull off.
Still, it's another way to go infinite that doubles as a general utility piece for simply untapping mana rocks/tapping down others' rocks, producing more fodder, etc, and on top of it it's another way to enable an aggro win via token mass if absolutely necessary, and I can't argue with any of that.
Well you were right!
The biggest challenge is deciding what to cut. This deck is so streamlined that it's hard to come up with things to move around. I think what I'll end up doing is either
EDIT: Also debating switching Jester's Cap to the board in place of Torpor Orb. Might also depend on whether I'm playing 1v1 or multiplayer. Anyway much to think about on this.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
One more suggestion: I really like intruder alarm. The deck has enough mana dorks plus I play Arcanis and Arcum himself makes intruder alarm with myr turbine pretty absurd
For one, Intruder Alarm is an enchantment, so it's already not the greatest fit, and for another, it works on all creatures, and I get the feeling someone like Animar, Soul of Elements will be able to make much better use of it than I will. Plus I tend to drop Torpor Orb a lot because of how much stuff it shuts down, and Torpor Orb and Intruder Alarm don't mix.
But you will be pleased to know that I've added an entire section on Clock of Omens to the primer.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths