Just because it's "free". With all the things that trigger on cast or on cast of instant or sorcery in particular, there are games where a spell that say "0: do nothing" is legitimately game winning. Being able to trigger Knowledge Pool, Eye of the Storm, or Mindmoil without tapping my mana on a turn I'm trying to win the game I think is worth more to me than the upsides of an Ajani's Presence, Sheltering Light, or Boros Charm. Though admittedly, I haven't done a lot of experimentation there.
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Ah, right. Keep forgetting that creatures can also help paying for the colored mana. Another question then - I don't see the combo with Arcbond, Charm and this Shield, could you explain?
If you're asking specifically about doing that with Feather, you make 1 indestructible arcbonded creature during your turn, then Feather brings the instants back at the end step, and you cast them a second time on end step and deal the damage with Nin or Warstorm Surge with flash creatures or Firestorm or like an Inferno Titan returning from Venser exile.
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I have been waiting for an izzet planeswalker so I could play 1 of each color pair of those, but I want one that can take possibility storm off the table. I like knowing that if I play a planeswalker into PS, I can play the cards in my hand after. Unfortunately, 2 more izzet walkers printed without granting my wish. But I decided to do some math, and it turns out that adding a 3rd planeswalker that can't remove possibility storm increases the chances of drawing a planeswalker in perfect statistical balance with how much it decreases the chances of hitting a correct planeswalker. So I'm gonna test drive some rals and saheelis while I'm trying new things out, because apparently it has no statistic as l impact on my chances of planeswalkering away possibility storm.
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
Fair assessment. Saheeli, Sublime Artificer could do disgusting things here just with it's static ability alone. Imagine the swarm of servos when you do more or less anything.
Fair assessment. Saheeli, Sublime Artificer could do disgusting things here just with it's static ability alone. Imagine the swarm of servos when you do more or less anything.
I'm thinking through Saheeli Rai -7 scenarios to see if there's anything there worth more to me than making a pile of servos. OG Saheeli and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer are very similar to me, that if getting her ultimate doesn't make genuine nonsense happen, I'd rather have the triggered ability and two turns of copying something than the scry 1. Relevantly, both of those can do infinite Mirror of Fate/Temporal Mastery with Venser, the Sojourner, getting him into a combo is neat. Also, they both make a creature an artifact, meaning I could do something like target an Inferno Titan clone with Echo Storm.
Ral, Caller of Storms and Ral, Izzet Viceroy and Dack Fayden all kind of bore me to tears. I'd just be drawing some cards and hoping people let me ultimate, and all their ultimates are like "here's a pile of value, hopefully you can make that interesting because this ultimate wasn't much of a spectacle otherwise." Ral Zarek, on the other hand, is a card I've enjoyed. His minus is just a Lightning Bolt, which is fine, but his plus is another Unbender Tine that occasionally does something goofy like tap Howling Mine, and his ultimate literally flips coins. New Ral's trigger is just annoying to people, the scry 1 is still meh, and the copy ability is less fun than my new toys that copy every spell.
So without having tested anything, my favorite options are Ral Zarek and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer, and I intend to give both a thorough opportunity to prove themselves.
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For what it's worth, I've run Ral Zarek in a few places and he's useful. I've never hit the ultimate though, and to be honest, I tend to avoid assessing walkers by means of their ultimates, simply because it's so rare for it to actually happen.
That being said, Saheeli, Sublime Artificer for all its token generation and a cool minus won't stick around long without a proliferate of some kind.
That being said, Saheeli, Sublime Artificer for all its token generation and a cool minus won't stick around long without a proliferate of some kind.
She does put up quite a wall for herself in theory. And I get great joy when people feel like they need to attack my planeswalkers, and I'm just like Leave // Chance/Venser, Shaper Savant/Chaos Warp "Well, it's like a fog."
There's probably not a definite best direction to go. FWIW, Ral's ult is one of the cooler ones ever. Coins for turns is awesome.
I've definitely ulted a Ral Zarek, but it involved The Chain Veil and a lot of mana, and then people scooped if I won more than 1 flip. But at least I got to flip the coins.
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This deck is exactly what I thought when I saw this spoil. Goes nicely with Mirror of Fate too.
I don't know, it's rather awkward that to make it put the graveyard in and untap the lands, you have to draw at least 10 cards. You've got to get a lot of cards in graveyard and exile before this plays well with Mirror of Fate.
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So, I have been pondering cuts here, because there's just no way to fit the new toys I want without backing out of a combo or two. I think I've decided to cut Cowardice.
If I was planning this deck for 1 on 1 primarily, I'd want to keep it, but in multiplayer I've had problematic experiences. It draws an unreasonable amount of removal. It's like "don't Naturalize that, it's stopping her Skullclamp." "But I want to kill you creatures permanently, and that Skullclamp hasn't done anything" "because it's turned off by the cowardice you're killing!" I usually don't mind paying 5 mana to eat removal with 1 opponent, but it feels like 5 mana to counter so.eones disruption that could be aimed at a 3rd player, and then that player moves along uninhibited just because everyone hates Cowardice.
And then with that combo corner case removed, I can swap saheeli 1 or 3 in as my hasty clone in place of Dack's Duplicate. They can't copy other people's creatures, but they cost 1 less, have other abilities, and add the corner case of making a creature into an artifact to aim Echo Storm at, which is the sort of incredibly narrow nonsense nonsense I love.
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So, I have been pondering cuts here, because there's just no way to fit the new toys I want without backing out of a combo or two. I think I've decided to cut Cowardice.
If I was planning this deck for 1 on 1 primarily, I'd want to keep it, but in multiplayer I've had problematic experiences. It draws an unreasonable amount of removal. It's like "don't Naturalize that, it's stopping her Skullclamp." "But I want to kill you creatures permanently, and that Skullclamp hasn't done anything" "because it's turned off by the cowardice you're killing!" I usually don't mind paying 5 mana to eat removal with 1 opponent, but it feels like 5 mana to counter so.eones disruption that could be aimed at a 3rd player, and then that player moves along uninhibited just because everyone hates Cowardice.
That seems annoying. They just didn't understand the causality there? Do you play random players at an LGS, by the way?
Also, did the player with Skullclamp not start using it to bounce and replay ETB creatures? I can imagine some situations where it would be grand to be given a bounce effect.
That seems annoying. They just didn't understand the causality there? Do you play random players at an LGS, by the way?
Also, did the player with Skullclamp not start using it to bounce and replay ETB creatures? I can imagine some situations where it would be grand to be given a bounce effect.
The was a specific (obviously based on real events) example that only really happened in that exact way once. The skullclamp player was a Edgar Markov deck. It's just the general problem with hate cards: everyone perceives it as hate against them first. And everyone has targeted removal and creatures they'd like not bounced, so everyone feels hated by Cowardice, making it a (admittedly frequently deserved) removal lightning rod. And in 1-on-1, I'd love for my opponent to aim at Cowardice instead of something I care more about, but in multiplayer it's problematic.
I do play random players at a few LGSs. Unfortunately, the friends I'd like to play with require some scheduling and occasionally travel to get together with, so I sneak some games in before limited events or drive to the closest store with an (unofficial) edh night. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll ever get back into the college situation of living with multiple magic players. Those were neat times.
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Is the decklist in the OP updated? Really like the deck, even if I've been anti-infinite combos for a while I feel like this one could still be fun to pilot.
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EDH BUG Sidisi, Brood Tyrant Sultai Good Stuff GWU Derevi, Kind Tactician (no stax) UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Spellslinger URG Animorph Sneakster BR Mogis Hates Everyone BG Hapatra and the Sneks R Zada, Jankstorm
Is the decklist in the OP updated? Really like the deck, even if I've been anti-infinite combos for a while I feel like this one could still be fun to pilot.
Compared to what I have sleeved, there's only minor changes.
That being said, in the near future I'm going to change some things. I'm interested from WAR in Role Reversal, Saheeli, Sublime Artificer, and Feather, the Redeemed. Then I've given Smothering Tithe and Archangel of Thune tryouts recently that I had some worthwhile results with them. If I play Feather, I'm interested in bringing back Chaos Warp and adding a targeted cantrip of some sort (Twitch is a pet card of mine that has synergy with Feather, Precursor Golem, the spell copying effects, and Azor's Gateway). And I have no idea if it's worthwhile, haven't even tried this yet, but I've thought about swapping out Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice for Nin, the Pain Artist just to see what happens, and if I like him, I'd be looking for something neat to combo with him. And I also don't really want to lose Temple Bell. So there will be an update sometime after I've tested cards from War of the Spark in Zedruu, but as of right now, that decklist is off of my current deck by those 5 very subtle changes.
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Ok, so I've been playing with Archangel of Thune, and while I would describe its performance so far as "reasonable" rather than anything outrageous, I sort of really want to keep it because it's a rather unique piece for a 4 card combo. Archangel is actually the nexus that brings together a combo with Precursor Golem, Mirrorweave, and Arcbond. Target a golem with Arcbond so that you have multiple Arcbonded creatures, then Mirrorweave the angel so that all creatures are Archangel of Thune, then non-lethally damage an angel and kill everyone. And that's pretty sweet.
But here:s what's driving me mad: there has to be a way to make Archangel of Thune combo into 4 card infinite with Crystalline Crawler using only reasonable cards. I'd need 2 cards that would let me turn 1 mana into gain a life. Or with a clone, I could do 2 mana to gain a life. Claws of Gix (a card I have considered because of Barren Glory in the past) almost does it if a 4th card would feed me permanents, but those all require mana. The card Life Chisel gains the life for free, and then something like Pentavus would make the creatures to sacrifice (only during my upkeep), but man those cards would be terrible inclusions. Peace of Mind with Drogskol Reaver would do it, but the result would be a bunch of counters and I loot through my deck, and that's asking for a 7 mana creature and a do-nothing enchantment to make the cut into the deck. My goal ideally is to find a card that's both a reasonable addition and a 4th piece using only the card I'm already playing. Drogskol Cavaliers almost does it, but it needs 4 mana to do, so I'd have to do something like Mirrorweave the Crawler before Archangel or Cavaliers so that I can make 4 mana for every instance of life gain, so that makes a 4 card combo if I have 4 creatures in play and 16 mana in a single turn. Oof. There are cards that tap for life and cards that untap for mana, but anything that untaps a permanent for mana is destined to go 3-card infinite and do nothing else in the deck. Royal Herbalist fits the 2-mana mold, but has the finite limitation of cards in my library while also being utterly pointless outside of a combo. So there are a couple ways to make it a 4 card combo, but they really aren't good.
Much more reasonable than all of those unreasonable options are etb lifegain. A Soul Warden effect and either Pentavus or Triskelavus would let me go "1 and a counter: make a creature, when it enters gain a life, when you gain a life put a +1/+1 counter on everything, remove a counter: make a mana... repeat". Put I don't really want to play Triskelavus, as most of the time it's a huge amount of mana for a flyer that maybe pings something and synergizes with almost nothing else I play. It would just play with Archangel and Swans of Bryn Argoll that I can think of. I guess Mirrorweaving a pentavite would be kinda funny. But then I really don't want to play any variation of Soul Warden. They're all just minor life gain that die immediately because people hate watching you tick your life up whenever they play a thing. I don't want to add any card where the only synergy to list is Archangel of Thune. Any addition needs to work with the rest of the deck as well. Also, Soul Warden would make the Sakashima Sphere combo into "gain infinite life" and I don't want to even be capable of an infinite combo that doesn't actually kill people.
I already can give my creatures lifelink with Jeskai Charm, so I was thinking if I had a creature that I could pay 1 mana to deal a damage, then gain 1 life then put a counter on everything to make a mana again, that would be the way to do it. And a creature that pings that way would be cool with Swans and Arcbond combos etc too. But the creature 1:ping doesn't exist at any rarity from any era of magic. The combo would also gain infinite life and put infinite counters on everything, but "1, remove a counter: ping" on a creature or "1, pay a life: ping" don't exist either. That's not quite true, because "1, remove a counter: ping" exist on both Ulasht, the Hate Seed and Marath, Will of the Wild, but those are both green so they don't count. The previously mentioned Triskelavus comes super close, but the tokens it makes are what deal the damage, so making it combo would require a static lifelink granting ability rather than Jeskai Charm, and I've gotten tons of mileage out of the other two modes of Jeskai Charm.
There are some "almosts", ways to do the combo with 5 or more cards. Something like Kumano, Master Yamabushi can do it for 2 mana instead of 1, so 2 angels or 2 crawlers would make a 5 card combo, even Spitting Hydra which has the counter removal aspect costs 2 mana. There are Tims like Prodigal Sorceror that adding something like Freed from the Real (not that it's a safe inclusion here anyway) would make a 5 card combo. There are things that require a sacrifice like Magmaw than don't get there. Ancient Hydra removes fade counters instead of +1/+1. There are creatures like Ancient Hellkite or Godo's Irregulars that would require me to make an opponent's creature indestructible, which is a 5th card to combo. Arc-Slogger would run out of cards in the deck, and not even Mirror of Fate could put them back again. There's not even something like Firedrinker Satyr that you ping yourself for 1 mana.
And then there are a few damage dealing options that are too efficient. Walking Ballista is a messed up card that has no mana cost, so you could 3 card infinite with just Archangel and Jeskai Charm, no Crawler needed. Similarly, a card like Boros Reckoner given lifelink could be damaged for 1 and then repeatedly target itself forever to gain infinite life and make creatures infinitely large with no Crawler necessary. And then when I thought I had dug up an obscure enough card, Dizzying Gaze, is actually too easy as well. Slap it on Archangel which already has lifelink, and you can pay 1 mana to target itself to gain a life and pump your creatures infinite times. What a world where Dizzying Gaze is too powerful to play.
So if I'm going to consider adding a card just for the sake of comboing with Archangel of Thune and Crystalline Crawler, the 4-card options I've found are lame enough I'd rather need a five card combo. Unless there's some perfect final piece that I just haven't found, there are 2 options from my digging into damage dealers that stuck out to me. A) I could change my Izzet legend to Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius (which should be safe now that I lack Mind Over Matter), as a 2-crawler, Angel, Jeskai Charm, dragon combo that kills everyone and/or draws my library (the draw ability is a trigger that resolves after the damage is dealt, so you can kill people from infinite life without decking first). B) The much cuter option is Golden Guardian. It's ability costs 2 mana, but two of my creatures (all of which have lifelink) would deal damage, putting two counters on everything which is enough to pay to fight again. The downside of this is that it repeatedly slams a creature for increasingly violent amounts of damage, so I would need Ephemeral Shields to give Crystalline Crawler indestructible so that they can fight forever without dying.
Unlike adding something like Royal Herbalist or Triskelavus/Soul Warden, those two options would do neat things outside of angel time. Niv kills opponent's creatures, kills opponent's planeswalkers, draws card (especially with Swans), and is a mana spout if I find myself flooding. Golden Guardian is another defender to Mirrorweave and blank a combat step, it also draws cards with Swans , it lets me trigger a pretty big Arcbond (which would inherently let this die and flip), it's sort of ramp if you squint, and both it and the tokens it makes fit the golem tribal. But I also don't know what I cut for this one.
I don't really know what I'm doing. Side note: if Archangel is in fact here to stay, that's probably a good reason to back track my mana base updates a bit and play some refuges. I miss gaining 1 and telling people I'm winning.
Edit: I had a thought, but I'm not actually a judge, nor am I certain a judge would know the answer to this off the top of their head, but if I have March of the Machines, Golden Guardian, and Azor's Gateway in play, and I Mirrorweave Golden Guardian, and then activate the Guardian ability on Azor's Gateway Golden Guardian (that's one card title, we're playing Yu-Gi-Oh now!), does Azor's Gateway return as Sanctum of the Sun? I think it does. I know from previous research into double-faced shananigans that you try to put a regular card into play transformed, it jst stays in whatever zone it was in before-hand, but if the card actually has a backside, I think it should work. And that sounds neat and bizarre.
Second edit: Definitely trying out Golden Guardian. Realized it's neat with Catch // Release as well as a sort of steal your thing and sacrifice it. And if I like it, that might be the deciding factor between Saheeli 1 and Saheeli 3. I like getting the ETB from making token copies of things with Saheeli Rai, but Saheeli, Sublime Artificer lets me do the Azor's Gateway cheese flip with only 3 cards, which means it's totally gonna happen at some point. Also, that's all standard legal if anyone feels particularly insane.
Had a fun game today, where something silly redeemed an otherwise lame game. As unlikely as it is, this deck does occasionally just draw a hyperlinear combo win. In this instance, it was turn 0 Leyline of Anticipation, flash in signet before 3rd turn, flash in Crystalline Crawler before 4th turn, flash in Eye of the Storm before 5th turn, and then untap for 5th turn, 5th land, Turnabout, Strionic Resonator, Catch // Release, infinite mana (activate Resonator on Eye trigger, untap resonator/signet/crawler with Turnabout). And typically people are pretty meh about dying on turn 5, but my infinite mana didn't do anything. I could Catch and Release all their permanents, but that still wasn't deadly. The combo was only game ending because one of my lands happened to be Forbidden Orchard. So I kept untapping Resonator with Catch and untapping lands with Turnabout to give away infinite 1/1 spirits, and then swapped to untapping resonator with Turnabout and using Catch to take control of the infinite spirits I made. I thought that was neato.
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Been a while since I've posted here but I've been following along the way. Looking forward to your next update! Compared to your most recent list, I've reverted a bit back to the previous version. I was missing Nahiri's Wrath as an enabler for Barren Glory since I could never seem to have enough targets for Firestorm with how many cards I'm drawing. What are your thoughts on Spark Double as another Sakashima?
Edit: Meant to ask, are you looking to put this primer elsewhere since it looks like MTGS is closing down?
Been a while since I've posted here but I've been following along the way. Looking forward to your next update! Compared to your most recent list, I've reverted a bit back to the previous version. I was missing Nahiri's Wrath as an enabler for Barren Glory since I could never seem to have enough targets for Firestorm with how many cards I'm drawing. What are your thoughts on Spark Double as another Sakashima?
Edit: Meant to ask, are you looking to put this primer elsewhere since it looks like MTGS is closing down?
I do intend to move Zedruu. I intend to follow the moderators from here to the new home they've promised.
But First! I intend to do one more update of this thread to a condition that I'm happy with, have it nice and pretty for however long they leave Salvation up in read-only mode.
But First! I've got some splice spells to test drive. When I saw Splice's Skill, my interest was piqued. What I genuinely wanted was a non-arcane version of Psychic Puppetry, cause that would be super busted. Any bounce land or Gilded Lotus could have generated more mana as I cast spells, or drawn cards with Temple Bell, or (what I really wanted) I could splice onto Time Spiral targeting Precursor Golem to make 3 Time Spirals. But alas, it was not meant to be.
The splice we did get is just kind of meh in theory. Draw a card or make a 3/3 are uninspiring, and the splice costs are mana intensive enough that if I can afford them, I should just win the game. But I'm compelled to try them anyway, just for the goofy interactions with storm and Precursor Golem. Maybe someday they'll let me radiate a draw 7.
Also on my radar: Aminatou's Augury is a card I paid no attention to because the big ugly baby head made me uncomfortable, but it very strong. It's very nearly a second Mind's Desire, with the added bonus of putting extra lands into play. Also, Ignition Team is something I feel obligated to test. My gut feeling is against what's largely a big dumb vanilla 7-drop, but it keeps coming up in my very specific card searches: it has 0 printed toughness, so can boardwipe with Mirrorweave, it has a ton of power so it packs a punch with Warstorm Surge or Venser -1, it can draw me a huge pile of cards with Vanish Into Memory and then discard less because my lands are untapped the second time it enters, and it turns lands into creatures that can be cloned or untapped with Jeskai Ascendancy. Again, my gut says I'll be disappointed, but it intersects a lot of things I want to do.
As far as Spark Double, Imma go with maybe. Upon further playing, I feel like I'd rather take out Infinite Reflection for Saheeli, Sublime Artificer than a clone, which means maybe Spark Double, Phyrexian Metamorph or Dack's Duplicate could edge back into the deck, and Double is as good with Crystalline Crawler as Duplicate is, Saheeli and Echo Storm have artifact cloning covered, and copying planeswalkers is at least a little neat. I have to weigh that against not copying other people's things.
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+ Minamo, School at Water's Edge
+ Forsaken City
+ Thousand-Year Storm
+ Role Reversal
+ Golden Guardian
+ Azor's Gateway
+ Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
+ Echo Storm
+ Aminatou's Augury
Getting my thoughts together for the final mtgsalvation revision of Zedruu. Obviously, there's a whole Core Set to come out before this website is locked away, but I update so glacially I need the head start. Up above is what I currently have sleeved.
Phyrexian Metamorph swapped out for Echo Storm. Dack's Duplicate swapped out for Saheeli, Sublime Artificer. Though funny enough, Saheeli often plays like Metamorph as a 3 mana clone if I already have an artifact collecting dust. Saheeli also has some synergy with Echo Storm, as the clone she makes is an artifact no matter what, so you can do things like Echo Storm and Inferno Titan. Saheeli also has a triggered ability that can be a win condition with one of the cast doublers in play. And Echo Storm has the triggered ability trick that Stolen Identity used to where you can Strionic Resonator a trigger to make another Strionic Resonator, except this time it can go infinite with Gilded Lotus + 2x casts of Zedruu.
Bonus Round swapped for Thousand-Year Storm. TYS is a nutty card. I was worried upon reveal that it would be harder to do things with than Bonus Round because it take multiple spells to start snowballing where Bonus Round could go off with just it and like Time Spiral. In retrospect, I should have realize right away that it would play out like Eye of the Storm does. And it tosses in possible infinites with Strionic Resonator or Venser bouncing instants and sorceries back to hand.
Role Reversal knocked out Shifting Borders, solidifying my Political Trickery trio into the 3 drop spot. Role Reversal is like Donate + Confiscate, it's pretty neat.
Cowardice, Cathars' Crusade, and Infinite Reflection came out for space. The combination of relatively big mana costs and occasional feel bad moments pushed these off the cut cliff. there are other things I'd rather play. Azor's Gateway is one of the most fun cards I've added in a long time. Getting it to flip is a neat little sub-game all on its own, and then when it does flip you do crazy things, especially with 5 ways to untap it and a pile of ways to reuse those untappers. Golden Guardian, if you;ve followed previous posts here, got a try out for reasons that didn't make the deck, but I've been fairly impressed. It draws cards with Swans (2 mana, draw 4, and flip). It draws extra cards with Swans and Razia (4 mana, draw 11, and flip). It sets up clean Arcbonds and then flips. I can give my creatures lifelink with Jeskai Charm, I can kill oppenet's stuff with Catch, I can bounce it off of Inferno Titan, and both the double command tower and golem factory on the back are strong (golems for Precursor). And then the cheesiest part is Gtway + Guardian + Saheeli, where you can turn Azor's Gateway into a Golden Guardian, make them fight, and return Sanctum of the Sun to play. (I've actually done it a few times in standard on arena now).
Aminatou's Augury is basically Mind's Desire #2, and can deliver some very clean doomsday combos, or at least as clean as double activating Mirror of Fate and then drawing and casting an 8 drop can be.
And then the lands. I cut the last 2 basics I ever intend to cut, leaving a clean 3 of each. In their place, I added Minamo which has 5 relevant legendary tapping permanents plus the potential of Sakashima becoming a relevant target. The check lands have been just fine and can stay, but I would gladly substitute them out for a cycle of tapped dual lands with more interesting upside. Unfortunately, there are only so many complete cycles of 10 lands. Then my new secret weapon is Forsaken City. The downside of the card is obvious, you have to exile cards from hand to untap it. But a card a turn isn't the end of the world here, and it has 3 big upsides: it's untapped mana of any color, it can be traded away for a normal land, and it can tap twice during your upkeep if you start the turn with it untapped. That last part is relevant with Leyline of Anticipation, you can play this turn 1 after Leyline, and then tap in response to its trigger and exile a card to untap for a 2nd mana during upkeep to flash in Howling Mine. And in really strange situations with Mirror of Fate and Time Spiral doing things together, you can help manage the size of your hand choosing whether to exile to this or not.
Lastly, some things that I wish I had in this deck, but mostly just don't exist the way I want them to.
1) An instant or sorcery that turns a permanent into a creature until end of turn (a golem ideally).
2) A variant of Stuffy Doll/Boros Reckoner that can target creatures but not itself (to avoid 3 card infinite).
3) I was hoping for a splice spell that would target a creature to make Time Spiral target a golem, but no dice.
4) An interesting fog effect at 1 or 2 mana. There are interesting 4 mana fogs, but then you're paying full price for the extra turn you bought.
5) Another permanent to etb trigger from the Sakashima Sphere loop, but not one that gains infinite life.
6) Maybe another discard effect for Barren Glory, though I use that as my test card slot so often, it's almost not worth dedicating support to.
7) And if I'm being totally greedy, I'd love something like Mistveil Plains but from exile.
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Just because it's "free". With all the things that trigger on cast or on cast of instant or sorcery in particular, there are games where a spell that say "0: do nothing" is legitimately game winning. Being able to trigger Knowledge Pool, Eye of the Storm, or Mindmoil without tapping my mana on a turn I'm trying to win the game I think is worth more to me than the upsides of an Ajani's Presence, Sheltering Light, or Boros Charm. Though admittedly, I haven't done a lot of experimentation there.
If you're asking specifically about doing that with Feather, you make 1 indestructible arcbonded creature during your turn, then Feather brings the instants back at the end step, and you cast them a second time on end step and deal the damage with Nin or Warstorm Surge with flash creatures or Firestorm or like an Inferno Titan returning from Venser exile.
I'm thinking through Saheeli Rai -7 scenarios to see if there's anything there worth more to me than making a pile of servos. OG Saheeli and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer are very similar to me, that if getting her ultimate doesn't make genuine nonsense happen, I'd rather have the triggered ability and two turns of copying something than the scry 1. Relevantly, both of those can do infinite Mirror of Fate/Temporal Mastery with Venser, the Sojourner, getting him into a combo is neat. Also, they both make a creature an artifact, meaning I could do something like target an Inferno Titan clone with Echo Storm.
Ral, Caller of Storms and Ral, Izzet Viceroy and Dack Fayden all kind of bore me to tears. I'd just be drawing some cards and hoping people let me ultimate, and all their ultimates are like "here's a pile of value, hopefully you can make that interesting because this ultimate wasn't much of a spectacle otherwise." Ral Zarek, on the other hand, is a card I've enjoyed. His minus is just a Lightning Bolt, which is fine, but his plus is another Unbender Tine that occasionally does something goofy like tap Howling Mine, and his ultimate literally flips coins. New Ral's trigger is just annoying to people, the scry 1 is still meh, and the copy ability is less fun than my new toys that copy every spell.
So without having tested anything, my favorite options are Ral Zarek and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer, and I intend to give both a thorough opportunity to prove themselves.
That being said, Saheeli, Sublime Artificer for all its token generation and a cool minus won't stick around long without a proliferate of some kind.
As far as Saheeli Rai goes, I can't see anything really broken she can do with just herself and the artifacts you run. She sets you up with Howling Mine, Font of Mythosand Alhamarret's Archive for gross draw? Or a ton of golems with Precursor Golem and Phyrexian Metamorph I dunno, I tend to think unless she's ending the game for you next turn there's every chance she's setting up for a big Vandalblast.
There's probably not a definite best direction to go. FWIW, Ral's ult is one of the cooler ones ever. Coins for turns is awesome.
She does put up quite a wall for herself in theory. And I get great joy when people feel like they need to attack my planeswalkers, and I'm just like Leave // Chance/Venser, Shaper Savant/Chaos Warp "Well, it's like a fog."
I've definitely ulted a Ral Zarek, but it involved The Chain Veil and a lot of mana, and then people scooped if I won more than 1 flip. But at least I got to flip the coins.
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R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
This deck is exactly what I thought when I saw this spoil. Goes nicely with Mirror of Fate too.
I don't know, it's rather awkward that to make it put the graveyard in and untap the lands, you have to draw at least 10 cards. You've got to get a lot of cards in graveyard and exile before this plays well with Mirror of Fate.
If I was planning this deck for 1 on 1 primarily, I'd want to keep it, but in multiplayer I've had problematic experiences. It draws an unreasonable amount of removal. It's like "don't Naturalize that, it's stopping her Skullclamp." "But I want to kill you creatures permanently, and that Skullclamp hasn't done anything" "because it's turned off by the cowardice you're killing!" I usually don't mind paying 5 mana to eat removal with 1 opponent, but it feels like 5 mana to counter so.eones disruption that could be aimed at a 3rd player, and then that player moves along uninhibited just because everyone hates Cowardice.
And then with that combo corner case removed, I can swap saheeli 1 or 3 in as my hasty clone in place of Dack's Duplicate. They can't copy other people's creatures, but they cost 1 less, have other abilities, and add the corner case of making a creature into an artifact to aim Echo Storm at, which is the sort of incredibly narrow nonsense nonsense I love.
Also, did the player with Skullclamp not start using it to bounce and replay ETB creatures? I can imagine some situations where it would be grand to be given a bounce effect.
old thread
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R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
The was a specific (obviously based on real events) example that only really happened in that exact way once. The skullclamp player was a Edgar Markov deck. It's just the general problem with hate cards: everyone perceives it as hate against them first. And everyone has targeted removal and creatures they'd like not bounced, so everyone feels hated by Cowardice, making it a (admittedly frequently deserved) removal lightning rod. And in 1-on-1, I'd love for my opponent to aim at Cowardice instead of something I care more about, but in multiplayer it's problematic.
I do play random players at a few LGSs. Unfortunately, the friends I'd like to play with require some scheduling and occasionally travel to get together with, so I sneak some games in before limited events or drive to the closest store with an (unofficial) edh night. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll ever get back into the college situation of living with multiple magic players. Those were neat times.
BUG Sidisi, Brood Tyrant Sultai Good Stuff
GWU Derevi, Kind Tactician (no stax)
UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Spellslinger
URG Animorph Sneakster
BR Mogis Hates Everyone
BG Hapatra and the Sneks
R Zada, Jankstorm
Compared to what I have sleeved, there's only minor changes.
I got a Minamo, School at Water's Edge and took out an island.
I've had Azor's Gateway instead of Temple Bell for a bit.
I have Echo Storm in place of Phyrexian Metamorph.
And I swapped back out Teferi, Hero of Dominaria for Nahiri, the Harbinger. Teferi is likely just better, but it's a personal preference.
And I've been flipping back and forth between Bonus Round and Thousand-Year Storm.
That being said, in the near future I'm going to change some things. I'm interested from WAR in Role Reversal, Saheeli, Sublime Artificer, and Feather, the Redeemed. Then I've given Smothering Tithe and Archangel of Thune tryouts recently that I had some worthwhile results with them. If I play Feather, I'm interested in bringing back Chaos Warp and adding a targeted cantrip of some sort (Twitch is a pet card of mine that has synergy with Feather, Precursor Golem, the spell copying effects, and Azor's Gateway). And I have no idea if it's worthwhile, haven't even tried this yet, but I've thought about swapping out Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice for Nin, the Pain Artist just to see what happens, and if I like him, I'd be looking for something neat to combo with him. And I also don't really want to lose Temple Bell. So there will be an update sometime after I've tested cards from War of the Spark in Zedruu, but as of right now, that decklist is off of my current deck by those 5 very subtle changes.
But here:s what's driving me mad: there has to be a way to make Archangel of Thune combo into 4 card infinite with Crystalline Crawler using only reasonable cards. I'd need 2 cards that would let me turn 1 mana into gain a life. Or with a clone, I could do 2 mana to gain a life. Claws of Gix (a card I have considered because of Barren Glory in the past) almost does it if a 4th card would feed me permanents, but those all require mana. The card Life Chisel gains the life for free, and then something like Pentavus would make the creatures to sacrifice (only during my upkeep), but man those cards would be terrible inclusions. Peace of Mind with Drogskol Reaver would do it, but the result would be a bunch of counters and I loot through my deck, and that's asking for a 7 mana creature and a do-nothing enchantment to make the cut into the deck. My goal ideally is to find a card that's both a reasonable addition and a 4th piece using only the card I'm already playing. Drogskol Cavaliers almost does it, but it needs 4 mana to do, so I'd have to do something like Mirrorweave the Crawler before Archangel or Cavaliers so that I can make 4 mana for every instance of life gain, so that makes a 4 card combo if I have 4 creatures in play and 16 mana in a single turn. Oof. There are cards that tap for life and cards that untap for mana, but anything that untaps a permanent for mana is destined to go 3-card infinite and do nothing else in the deck. Royal Herbalist fits the 2-mana mold, but has the finite limitation of cards in my library while also being utterly pointless outside of a combo. So there are a couple ways to make it a 4 card combo, but they really aren't good.
Much more reasonable than all of those unreasonable options are etb lifegain. A Soul Warden effect and either Pentavus or Triskelavus would let me go "1 and a counter: make a creature, when it enters gain a life, when you gain a life put a +1/+1 counter on everything, remove a counter: make a mana... repeat". Put I don't really want to play Triskelavus, as most of the time it's a huge amount of mana for a flyer that maybe pings something and synergizes with almost nothing else I play. It would just play with Archangel and Swans of Bryn Argoll that I can think of. I guess Mirrorweaving a pentavite would be kinda funny. But then I really don't want to play any variation of Soul Warden. They're all just minor life gain that die immediately because people hate watching you tick your life up whenever they play a thing. I don't want to add any card where the only synergy to list is Archangel of Thune. Any addition needs to work with the rest of the deck as well. Also, Soul Warden would make the Sakashima Sphere combo into "gain infinite life" and I don't want to even be capable of an infinite combo that doesn't actually kill people.
I already can give my creatures lifelink with Jeskai Charm, so I was thinking if I had a creature that I could pay 1 mana to deal a damage, then gain 1 life then put a counter on everything to make a mana again, that would be the way to do it. And a creature that pings that way would be cool with Swans and Arcbond combos etc too. But the creature 1:ping doesn't exist at any rarity from any era of magic. The combo would also gain infinite life and put infinite counters on everything, but "1, remove a counter: ping" on a creature or "1, pay a life: ping" don't exist either. That's not quite true, because "1, remove a counter: ping" exist on both Ulasht, the Hate Seed and Marath, Will of the Wild, but those are both green so they don't count. The previously mentioned Triskelavus comes super close, but the tokens it makes are what deal the damage, so making it combo would require a static lifelink granting ability rather than Jeskai Charm, and I've gotten tons of mileage out of the other two modes of Jeskai Charm.
There are some "almosts", ways to do the combo with 5 or more cards. Something like Kumano, Master Yamabushi can do it for 2 mana instead of 1, so 2 angels or 2 crawlers would make a 5 card combo, even Spitting Hydra which has the counter removal aspect costs 2 mana. There are Tims like Prodigal Sorceror that adding something like Freed from the Real (not that it's a safe inclusion here anyway) would make a 5 card combo. There are things that require a sacrifice like Magmaw than don't get there. Ancient Hydra removes fade counters instead of +1/+1. There are creatures like Ancient Hellkite or Godo's Irregulars that would require me to make an opponent's creature indestructible, which is a 5th card to combo. Arc-Slogger would run out of cards in the deck, and not even Mirror of Fate could put them back again. There's not even something like Firedrinker Satyr that you ping yourself for 1 mana.
And then there are a few damage dealing options that are too efficient. Walking Ballista is a messed up card that has no mana cost, so you could 3 card infinite with just Archangel and Jeskai Charm, no Crawler needed. Similarly, a card like Boros Reckoner given lifelink could be damaged for 1 and then repeatedly target itself forever to gain infinite life and make creatures infinitely large with no Crawler necessary. And then when I thought I had dug up an obscure enough card, Dizzying Gaze, is actually too easy as well. Slap it on Archangel which already has lifelink, and you can pay 1 mana to target itself to gain a life and pump your creatures infinite times. What a world where Dizzying Gaze is too powerful to play.
So if I'm going to consider adding a card just for the sake of comboing with Archangel of Thune and Crystalline Crawler, the 4-card options I've found are lame enough I'd rather need a five card combo. Unless there's some perfect final piece that I just haven't found, there are 2 options from my digging into damage dealers that stuck out to me. A) I could change my Izzet legend to Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius (which should be safe now that I lack Mind Over Matter), as a 2-crawler, Angel, Jeskai Charm, dragon combo that kills everyone and/or draws my library (the draw ability is a trigger that resolves after the damage is dealt, so you can kill people from infinite life without decking first). B) The much cuter option is Golden Guardian. It's ability costs 2 mana, but two of my creatures (all of which have lifelink) would deal damage, putting two counters on everything which is enough to pay to fight again. The downside of this is that it repeatedly slams a creature for increasingly violent amounts of damage, so I would need Ephemeral Shields to give Crystalline Crawler indestructible so that they can fight forever without dying.
Unlike adding something like Royal Herbalist or Triskelavus/Soul Warden, those two options would do neat things outside of angel time. Niv kills opponent's creatures, kills opponent's planeswalkers, draws card (especially with Swans), and is a mana spout if I find myself flooding. Golden Guardian is another defender to Mirrorweave and blank a combat step, it also draws cards with Swans , it lets me trigger a pretty big Arcbond (which would inherently let this die and flip), it's sort of ramp if you squint, and both it and the tokens it makes fit the golem tribal. But I also don't know what I cut for this one.
I don't really know what I'm doing. Side note: if Archangel is in fact here to stay, that's probably a good reason to back track my mana base updates a bit and play some refuges. I miss gaining 1 and telling people I'm winning.
Edit: I had a thought, but I'm not actually a judge, nor am I certain a judge would know the answer to this off the top of their head, but if I have March of the Machines, Golden Guardian, and Azor's Gateway in play, and I Mirrorweave Golden Guardian, and then activate the Guardian ability on Azor's Gateway Golden Guardian (that's one card title, we're playing Yu-Gi-Oh now!), does Azor's Gateway return as Sanctum of the Sun? I think it does. I know from previous research into double-faced shananigans that you try to put a regular card into play transformed, it jst stays in whatever zone it was in before-hand, but if the card actually has a backside, I think it should work. And that sounds neat and bizarre.
Second edit: Definitely trying out Golden Guardian. Realized it's neat with Catch // Release as well as a sort of steal your thing and sacrifice it. And if I like it, that might be the deciding factor between Saheeli 1 and Saheeli 3. I like getting the ETB from making token copies of things with Saheeli Rai, but Saheeli, Sublime Artificer lets me do the Azor's Gateway cheese flip with only 3 cards, which means it's totally gonna happen at some point. Also, that's all standard legal if anyone feels particularly insane.
Had a fun game today, where something silly redeemed an otherwise lame game. As unlikely as it is, this deck does occasionally just draw a hyperlinear combo win. In this instance, it was turn 0 Leyline of Anticipation, flash in signet before 3rd turn, flash in Crystalline Crawler before 4th turn, flash in Eye of the Storm before 5th turn, and then untap for 5th turn, 5th land, Turnabout, Strionic Resonator, Catch // Release, infinite mana (activate Resonator on Eye trigger, untap resonator/signet/crawler with Turnabout). And typically people are pretty meh about dying on turn 5, but my infinite mana didn't do anything. I could Catch and Release all their permanents, but that still wasn't deadly. The combo was only game ending because one of my lands happened to be Forbidden Orchard. So I kept untapping Resonator with Catch and untapping lands with Turnabout to give away infinite 1/1 spirits, and then swapped to untapping resonator with Turnabout and using Catch to take control of the infinite spirits I made. I thought that was neato.
Edit: Meant to ask, are you looking to put this primer elsewhere since it looks like MTGS is closing down?
I do intend to move Zedruu. I intend to follow the moderators from here to the new home they've promised.
But First! I intend to do one more update of this thread to a condition that I'm happy with, have it nice and pretty for however long they leave Salvation up in read-only mode.
But First! I've got some splice spells to test drive. When I saw Splice's Skill, my interest was piqued. What I genuinely wanted was a non-arcane version of Psychic Puppetry, cause that would be super busted. Any bounce land or Gilded Lotus could have generated more mana as I cast spells, or drawn cards with Temple Bell, or (what I really wanted) I could splice onto Time Spiral targeting Precursor Golem to make 3 Time Spirals. But alas, it was not meant to be.
The splice we did get is just kind of meh in theory. Draw a card or make a 3/3 are uninspiring, and the splice costs are mana intensive enough that if I can afford them, I should just win the game. But I'm compelled to try them anyway, just for the goofy interactions with storm and Precursor Golem. Maybe someday they'll let me radiate a draw 7.
Also on my radar: Aminatou's Augury is a card I paid no attention to because the big ugly baby head made me uncomfortable, but it very strong. It's very nearly a second Mind's Desire, with the added bonus of putting extra lands into play. Also, Ignition Team is something I feel obligated to test. My gut feeling is against what's largely a big dumb vanilla 7-drop, but it keeps coming up in my very specific card searches: it has 0 printed toughness, so can boardwipe with Mirrorweave, it has a ton of power so it packs a punch with Warstorm Surge or Venser -1, it can draw me a huge pile of cards with Vanish Into Memory and then discard less because my lands are untapped the second time it enters, and it turns lands into creatures that can be cloned or untapped with Jeskai Ascendancy. Again, my gut says I'll be disappointed, but it intersects a lot of things I want to do.
As far as Spark Double, Imma go with maybe. Upon further playing, I feel like I'd rather take out Infinite Reflection for Saheeli, Sublime Artificer than a clone, which means maybe Spark Double, Phyrexian Metamorph or Dack's Duplicate could edge back into the deck, and Double is as good with Crystalline Crawler as Duplicate is, Saheeli and Echo Storm have artifact cloning covered, and copying planeswalkers is at least a little neat. I have to weigh that against not copying other people's things.
Good luck, I hope you enjoy. I intend to follow the moderators here to their new place.
1x Azorius Chancery
1x Izzet Boilerworks
1x Boros Garrison
1x Cascade Bluffs
1x Mystic Gate
1x Rugged Prairie
1x Temple of Enlightenment
1x Temple of Epiphany
1x Temple of Triumph
1x Clifftop Retreat
1x Glacial Fortress
1x Sulfur Falls
1x Celestial Colonnade
1x Needle Spires
1x Wandering Fumarole
1x Mystic Monastery
1x Command Tower
1x Exotic Orchard
1x Forbidden Orchard
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Gemstone Caverns
1x Forsaken City
1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1x Reliquary Tower
3x Island
3x Mountain
3x Plains
Creatures (14)
1x Memnite
1x Kami of the Crescent Moon
1x Nin, the Pain Artist
1x Vedalken Plotter
1x Walking Archive
1x Crystalline Crawler
1x Golden Guardian
1x Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage
1x Sakashima the Impostor
1x Swans of Bryn Argoll
1x Venser, Shaper Savant
1x Precursor Golem
1x Inferno Titan
1x Razia, Boros Archangel
1x Chrome Mox
1x Azorius Signet
1x Azor's Gateway
1x Boros Signet
1x Howling Mine
1x Izzet Signet
1x Pentad Prism
1x Strionic Resonator
1x Thought Vessel
1x Temple Bell
1x Font of Mythos
1x Unbender Tine
1x Vedalken Orrery
1x Alhammarret's Archive
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Mirror of Fate
1x Knowledge Pool
Enchantments (14)
1x Rest in Peace
1x Detention Sphere
1x Dictate of Kruphix
1x Jeskai Ascendancy
1x Dissipation Field
1x Leyline of Anticipation
1x March of the Machines
1x Opalescence
1x Mindmoil
1x Possibility Storm
1x Barren Glory
1x Thousand-Year Storm
1x Warstorm Surge
1x Eye of the Storm
1x Firestorm
1x Ephemeral Shields
1x Leave // Chance
1x Arcbond
1x Jeskai Charm
1x Mirrorweave
1x Turnabout
1x Vanish Into Memory
Sorceries (9)
1x Catch // Release
1x Political Trickery
1x Role Reversal
1x Echo Storm
1x Mind's Desire
1x Time Spiral
1x Temporal Cascade
1x Temporal Mastery
1x Aminatou's Augury
Planeswalkers (3)
1x Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
1x Nahiri, the Harbinger
1x Venser, the Sojourner
- Dack's Duplicate
- Phyrexian Metamorph
- Cowardice
- Cathars' Crusade
- Infinite Reflection
- Shifting Borders
- Bonus Round
- Mountain
- Island
+ Minamo, School at Water's Edge
+ Forsaken City
+ Thousand-Year Storm
+ Role Reversal
+ Golden Guardian
+ Azor's Gateway
+ Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
+ Echo Storm
+ Aminatou's Augury
Getting my thoughts together for the final mtgsalvation revision of Zedruu. Obviously, there's a whole Core Set to come out before this website is locked away, but I update so glacially I need the head start. Up above is what I currently have sleeved.
Phyrexian Metamorph swapped out for Echo Storm. Dack's Duplicate swapped out for Saheeli, Sublime Artificer. Though funny enough, Saheeli often plays like Metamorph as a 3 mana clone if I already have an artifact collecting dust. Saheeli also has some synergy with Echo Storm, as the clone she makes is an artifact no matter what, so you can do things like Echo Storm and Inferno Titan. Saheeli also has a triggered ability that can be a win condition with one of the cast doublers in play. And Echo Storm has the triggered ability trick that Stolen Identity used to where you can Strionic Resonator a trigger to make another Strionic Resonator, except this time it can go infinite with Gilded Lotus + 2x casts of Zedruu.
Bonus Round swapped for Thousand-Year Storm. TYS is a nutty card. I was worried upon reveal that it would be harder to do things with than Bonus Round because it take multiple spells to start snowballing where Bonus Round could go off with just it and like Time Spiral. In retrospect, I should have realize right away that it would play out like Eye of the Storm does. And it tosses in possible infinites with Strionic Resonator or Venser bouncing instants and sorceries back to hand.
Role Reversal knocked out Shifting Borders, solidifying my Political Trickery trio into the 3 drop spot. Role Reversal is like Donate + Confiscate, it's pretty neat.
Cowardice, Cathars' Crusade, and Infinite Reflection came out for space. The combination of relatively big mana costs and occasional feel bad moments pushed these off the cut cliff. there are other things I'd rather play. Azor's Gateway is one of the most fun cards I've added in a long time. Getting it to flip is a neat little sub-game all on its own, and then when it does flip you do crazy things, especially with 5 ways to untap it and a pile of ways to reuse those untappers. Golden Guardian, if you;ve followed previous posts here, got a try out for reasons that didn't make the deck, but I've been fairly impressed. It draws cards with Swans (2 mana, draw 4, and flip). It draws extra cards with Swans and Razia (4 mana, draw 11, and flip). It sets up clean Arcbonds and then flips. I can give my creatures lifelink with Jeskai Charm, I can kill oppenet's stuff with Catch, I can bounce it off of Inferno Titan, and both the double command tower and golem factory on the back are strong (golems for Precursor). And then the cheesiest part is Gtway + Guardian + Saheeli, where you can turn Azor's Gateway into a Golden Guardian, make them fight, and return Sanctum of the Sun to play. (I've actually done it a few times in standard on arena now).
Aminatou's Augury is basically Mind's Desire #2, and can deliver some very clean doomsday combos, or at least as clean as double activating Mirror of Fate and then drawing and casting an 8 drop can be.
And then the lands. I cut the last 2 basics I ever intend to cut, leaving a clean 3 of each. In their place, I added Minamo which has 5 relevant legendary tapping permanents plus the potential of Sakashima becoming a relevant target. The check lands have been just fine and can stay, but I would gladly substitute them out for a cycle of tapped dual lands with more interesting upside. Unfortunately, there are only so many complete cycles of 10 lands. Then my new secret weapon is Forsaken City. The downside of the card is obvious, you have to exile cards from hand to untap it. But a card a turn isn't the end of the world here, and it has 3 big upsides: it's untapped mana of any color, it can be traded away for a normal land, and it can tap twice during your upkeep if you start the turn with it untapped. That last part is relevant with Leyline of Anticipation, you can play this turn 1 after Leyline, and then tap in response to its trigger and exile a card to untap for a 2nd mana during upkeep to flash in Howling Mine. And in really strange situations with Mirror of Fate and Time Spiral doing things together, you can help manage the size of your hand choosing whether to exile to this or not.
Lastly, some things that I wish I had in this deck, but mostly just don't exist the way I want them to.
1) An instant or sorcery that turns a permanent into a creature until end of turn (a golem ideally).
2) A variant of Stuffy Doll/Boros Reckoner that can target creatures but not itself (to avoid 3 card infinite).
3) I was hoping for a splice spell that would target a creature to make Time Spiral target a golem, but no dice.
4) An interesting fog effect at 1 or 2 mana. There are interesting 4 mana fogs, but then you're paying full price for the extra turn you bought.
5) Another permanent to etb trigger from the Sakashima Sphere loop, but not one that gains infinite life.
6) Maybe another discard effect for Barren Glory, though I use that as my test card slot so often, it's almost not worth dedicating support to.
7) And if I'm being totally greedy, I'd love something like Mistveil Plains but from exile.