Thank you for the feedback! I was thinking I would probably end up cutting Training Grounds It's cute, and pretty good if Staffis a creature, but just too narrow.
I think I'm going to avoid Lattice just because of the MLD implications. People really aren't a fan of that card I've found.
The Turbine is in there mostly just to put artifact creatures on the field for things like Clock of Omens.
If Staff is a creature and we have intruder alarm out we can probably just draw through our whole deck as well.
I think with Staff and March on the field our best hit is probably something like Dross Scorpion or Voltaic Construct. I think the core gameplan of the deck is have as many value engines/combos that involve tapping and untapping artifacts as we can. And then use staff to generate large amounts of value. Like, the first sevenish times you activate staff you're getting one of seven hits, all of which help protect/further the gameplan. Then every activation after draws you any two cards and lets you stack your deck however you want. So the focus is on activating staff as many times as possible.
Edit: Just had a peek through your list as well. I dig it! Seems like a much more focused approach to the combo. I think if your deck ever gets an activation off you should just win.
Curio is some neat tech, especially with all the effects that put cards from your hand on top of your library.
As Darrenhabib mentioned earlier in the thread, if you've got the money LED might be worth consideration.
Another thing, you want some things you can hit off Staff in case Fblthp gets shuffled and you need to dig him out. I see Vedalken Shackles in your list which will help with this. I would also recommend the man-lands, Mutavault, Faerie Conclave, Blinkmoth Nexus, and Inkmoth Nexus as other ways you can do this.
I like new Jace in there as well, allows for Maniac win with out the creature gumming up the process.
Another big theme of this deck is turning artifacts into creatures with cards such as Karn, silver golem, Karn's touch, and March of the Machines. This allows us a couple things. First it allows for many more Staff targets, considering the low creature count. It also allows us to have several beefy blockers/attackers such as Darksteel forge or Blinkmoth Urn. It also allows us to use "untap creature" effects such as Voltaic construct or Intruder Alarm. There are some other cute interactions as well such as Mimic Vat shenanigans, and allowing us to protect our artifacts from removal with Erratic portal and Crystal Shard.
Right now I think I need to jam the deck with a bunch of cantrips and counterspells, any suggestions in that department? Any suggestions in general? Am I going too deep? lmao
Honestly what I'm thinking at this point is a value Staff build. We have a limited number of creatures, so that we can somewhat control what effects we hit off of staff. A big chunk of these will be artifact creatures to lean into the artifact theme such as Filigree Sages and Dross Scorpion. Artifacts also have a larger amount of tutors allowing us to thin our deck and potentially allow deck stacking in the late game. And then focus on untapping artifacts/copying abilities, with cards like Rings of Brighthearth, and Clock of Omens.
Edit: We also have New Karn to get proteus staff out of exile should it come to that. Idk if I can name my Deck "Fblthp had always hated crowds." anymore tho. Do small crowds count?
All excellent ideas! probably won't be dropping that much money on LED or Crypt tho. Right now I'm trying to come up with a ridiculous combo to pull off once the deck is staked, I'm leaning towards storm just because I tend to enjoy storm decks. Plus then I could run Crow Storm (not strictly legal I know) which is always fun. I'm also not a huge fan of Omniscience/Enter the infinite just because they feel somewhat uninspired.
Those options you mentioned for placing him on the top of the deck are in my version so far. They're decent options for getting him "in the library". Maybe it will have to play more like Miracles.
That's kinda what I'm thinking at this point. I mean once you activate Staff you should just win the game. The question is how do set that up, and how do we survive until we can set that up. I think miracles is a good option here. The cards above were all cards I was planning on running anyway, so adding stuff like counterbalance and temporal mastery shouldn't be too difficult. Any other good miracle cards for edh?
No worries; he'll be tough to build as a commander, but that's why I want to try it out. Sultai colors seem pretty good for finding him.
Astro_Man brings up a good point, don't forget to wrap your deck with the [DECK] tags, as that'll make it easier for folks to read the cards (not everyone remembers the text to every card).
My current issue with building the deck is finding enough spells to trigger his shuffle ability. Isochron Scepter seems like a good choice (although susceptible to a lot of hate). I don't want to run Buyback cards (like Capsize as I don't want the Buyback to fizzle upon resolution. Any cards that others have found that work a little better for triggering Fblthp's shuffle effect?
Are you going creaturless like me? I was looking into that briefly as well, but I think in the end I realized I don't really want to activate his shuffle ability too much. I think I mostly just want to be bouncing him to hand instead of shuffling him into my library. The thing is mono-blue doesn't have many ways to put a creature on top of your library, and also requiring something like Future sight in order to cast him from your library, makes that plan too fragile/slow imo.
Yea, I'm leaning more towards artifacts being the main focus maybe with a storm combo kill.
Focusing on artifacts gives you a couple good engines
Erratic Portal/Crystal Shard as both threatening to bounce opponent's creatures as well as being essentially three mana to draw a card. They also offer protection for Fblthb should someone target it and we don't want it in the library
Once activate Proteus Staff we can stack our deck with a storm combo kill. This probably involves putting high tide and turnabout on top of your deck to draw them with Fblthb's etb from library ability. At that point we will have enough mana to do pretty much whatever we want. Cards like voltaic key and clock of omens will allow us to get multiple activations out of the staff each turn, which has effectively become "3 mana tutor any two cards out of your deck."
Another kill option I'm looking at is Goblin Charbelcher. We can stack all our lands to the bottom with staff then draw belcher off Fblthb. Belcher becomes 7 mana blow a player up which seems fun haha.
I think I'm going to avoid Lattice just because of the MLD implications. People really aren't a fan of that card I've found.
The Turbine is in there mostly just to put artifact creatures on the field for things like Clock of Omens.
If Staff is a creature and we have intruder alarm out we can probably just draw through our whole deck as well.
I think with Staff and March on the field our best hit is probably something like Dross Scorpion or Voltaic Construct. I think the core gameplan of the deck is have as many value engines/combos that involve tapping and untapping artifacts as we can. And then use staff to generate large amounts of value. Like, the first sevenish times you activate staff you're getting one of seven hits, all of which help protect/further the gameplan. Then every activation after draws you any two cards and lets you stack your deck however you want. So the focus is on activating staff as many times as possible.
Edit: Just had a peek through your list as well. I dig it! Seems like a much more focused approach to the combo. I think if your deck ever gets an activation off you should just win.
Curio is some neat tech, especially with all the effects that put cards from your hand on top of your library.
As Darrenhabib mentioned earlier in the thread, if you've got the money LED might be worth consideration.
Another thing, you want some things you can hit off Staff in case Fblthp gets shuffled and you need to dig him out. I see Vedalken Shackles in your list which will help with this. I would also recommend the man-lands, Mutavault, Faerie Conclave, Blinkmoth Nexus, and Inkmoth Nexus as other ways you can do this.
I like new Jace in there as well, allows for Maniac win with out the creature gumming up the process.
Here's a first run through/prototype of the deck I'm hoping to build:
1 Sensei's divining top
1 Voltaic Key
2 Genesis Chamber
2 Grinding Station
2 Isochron Scepter
3 Ashnod's Altar
3 Blasting Station
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Crystal Shard
3 Inspiring Statuary
3 Vedalken Shackles
3 Thousand-Year Elixir
3 Proteus Staff
3 Rings of Brighthearth
3 mimic vat
4 Trading Post
4 Vedalken Orrery
4 Erratic Portal
4 Clock of Omens
4 Krark-Clan Ironworks
5 Blinkmoth Urn
5 Myr Turbine
6 Salvaging Station
9 Darksteel Forge
1 Abjure
1 Swan Song
1 Twiddle
2 Dramatic Reversal
2 Karn's Touch
2 Muddle the Mixture
3 Capsize
3 Stoic Rebuttal
3x Whir of Invention
4 Turnabout
Creature (7)
2 Myr Retriever
3 Junk Diver
3 Scrap Trawler
4 Dross Scorpion
4 Filigree Sages
4 Voltaic Construct
5 Karn, Silver Golem
Sorcery (5)
1 Preordain
1 Serum Visions
2x Reshape
3 Fabricate
3 Tinker
1 Training Grounds
3 Intruder Alarm
4 Leyline of Anticipation
4 March of the Machines
Land (38)
1x Academy Ruins
1x Blinkmoth Nexus
1x Buried Ruin
1x Darksteel Citadel
1x Faerie Conclave
1x Inventors' Fair
29x Island
1x Mutavault
1x Seat of the Synod
1x Tolaria West
Right now I think I need to jam the deck with a bunch of cantrips and counterspells, any suggestions in that department? Any suggestions in general? Am I going too deep? lmao
Edit: We also have New Karn to get proteus staff out of exile should it come to that. Idk if I can name my Deck "Fblthp had always hated crowds." anymore tho. Do small crowds count?
That's kinda what I'm thinking at this point. I mean once you activate Staff you should just win the game. The question is how do set that up, and how do we survive until we can set that up. I think miracles is a good option here. The cards above were all cards I was planning on running anyway, so adding stuff like counterbalance and temporal mastery shouldn't be too difficult. Any other good miracle cards for edh?
Focusing on artifacts gives you a couple good engines
Another kill option I'm looking at is Goblin Charbelcher. We can stack all our lands to the bottom with staff then draw belcher off Fblthb. Belcher becomes 7 mana blow a player up which seems fun haha.
Edit: Yea Paradox Engine will be very good in this deck. I hate that card and will not be running it.
yeet. I'm honestly so excited for this dumb deck hahaha