Yeah cuts wise very tough to make a call. My gut feeling is that you want to keep at least 15 artifacts to make the Inventors' Fair reliable tutor.
Maybe Laboratory Maniac? Although an alternative win-con, maybe not needed. If you're drawing your deck, then you really should be able to close it out via Aetherflux Reservoir.
but the problem is: it dies to removal. She has no inherent protection of herself and she is only 2/2. Every other round, someone wraths or somethign equivalent.
The thing is that we can't speak for others people play group experiences, but I do play Magic Online and exclusively Commander. I wrote this post because of the positive experience through hundreds of games with playing her in that domain. Will you get to use her every time? No. Do the number of times you do get to use her be more than you don't? Yes. Thats my experience, and because of the way in which I use her, she becomes a very powerful card.
I understand your and lots of peoples reasoning. But to simply say that there is a wrath every round, why you just wouldn't play creature decks at all, and this is not the case. For me its like a Consecrated sphinx, when its unanswered it simply takes over the game. What I'm suggesting is that her power level is far higher than she is given credit for.
If you want to tutor to your heart's delight, get a Ring of Three Wishes and search for a Contagion Clasp with your first search.
Its a matter of costs, Ring of Three Wishes will cost 10 mana, where doing the equivalent with Kaho might be more like 5 mana. The trade off being that artifacts are more resilient in general than creatures.
Oh I missed the Land Tax. Agreed, too good to take out, but this really does make whole smoothing out your mana to more of a blue and black base, very awkward. Obviously you want to play Land Tax first turn in games that you have it, so this kind of throws everything off.
Fetch-lands can really help with this, but obviously what you can afford. They are just excellent with Sensei's Divining Top or Future Sight.
I have to ask if you can splash out on getting Grim Monolith, Mana Crypt and Transmute Artifact? If so then they will definitely make the deck more consistent.
Have you thought about Windfall? Excellent to start or keep the storm going.
Kaho, Minamo Historian, the best all purpose tutor not in black. Why not give a bold, argument inducing title to stir up conversation?
However, I do really want to bring the focus back to a long, not quite forgotten, but certainly underused and underrated magic card that is primed for anyone who wants access to the rest of their deck.
This is NOT a post about Kaho, Minamo Historian being your commander, but mostly about her being a really great card to have in your 99, especially if you play a multicolor commander.
I’ve played against her a few times as a commander, and also played her as my commander, but rarely, very rarely have I seen other people included her as part of their 99. I looked at all the primers that contain blue, and none of the lists have her included as far as I can see.
I however in recent times add her to almost any deck that can abuse her power. My argument to all commander players is that she is a very powerful card to have your deck. Very overlooked, probably because mostly misunderstood. *queue the violin*
I searched the forums for “Kaho” in the title and got two pages of worth. She is not a secret by any means. Most of those posts are about her being the commander. Probably the most common thing about the commander lists is just how different they are. With so many blue instants to choose from, people come up with completely different ideas. The other common thing about the previous posts is a general lack of mass interest and often negativity about her use.
Here is where I am going to try and change the consensus as much as I can. One thing that I think that has happened, is that because most of the discussions/posts are about her being the General, that being mono-blue, is that the focus when discussing her are on blue instants, obviously.
Again if you do a look up on EDHREC you get an exclusive list of blue spells associated with her. It always assumes it as your commander general.
However she can fetch ANY instants and this is where she shines in multicolored decks.
I searched for “instant” on Gatherer and got back 1997 results that are useful to her particular way of casting (as of Kaladesh), so I don’t think I really need to argue how much of a potential toolbox she is. Instants do a set of many things, but disruption, combat tricks and card draw are some of the more popular uses. However I’m going to focus on a smaller set of instants, and that is those of the “search your library” cards, the tutors.
--== The power of tutoring ==--
Nobody can argue that tutoring in decks that are made up of one offs in 99 are extremely powerful. Many argue that tutoring is not in the spirit of commander, that’s it was meant to be designed for more randomly distributed sets of plays.
I for one am very guilty of having an overuse of tutoring in commander. I am also guilty of building focused decks to get a particular set of cards for a win.
So I think I’m going to be appealing to a particular set of people; those that like to play 75%-competitive and are large on combos, or having the cards you specifically put in the deck for synergies, to play parts more frequently. This is not just for on the spot game winning combos, but also those that really get value from particular combinations of cards.
Black is the premium color to include when you want to tutor for ANY card. But what happens when your colors are not in black? Suddenly you have to get a bit/lot more creative with how you can find these cards.
They do exist, and they get used a lot. Blue is famous for getting instants, sorceries and artifacts. White for enchantments, artifacts and lands. Green for creatures and lands. Red not really known for tutoring other than more specific subtypes.
But wait Kaho can only get instants? How can she be the best “search your library for a card” not in black?
Here is where I think most of the community has really failed to utilize her. By proxying through instants that search through your library for card types, you can get the specific cards you want.
Let’s break down the most relevant instant tutors by color:
White:Enlightened Tutor, Tithe, Argivian Find *I’ve included some of the graveyard return cards as these can be pseudo tutors deeper into the game as well.
So for example a common sequence for me in a Bant (UWG) deck is to get; Enlightened Tutor, Eladamri's Call and probably a countering spell or spot removal as my three instants. Often using her in my upkeep if I’m wanting to use the Enlightened Tutor to get me my artifact/enchantment combo/value piece the following turn I cast her.
Need an artifact in a Simic deck? Mystical Tutor for Fabricate. You can always use Long Term Plans and say Brainstorm to get any card in your deck. This is a two turn strategy, but obviously gets you anything you want.
With green having so many creature tutors, she is incredible to include in your 99, if you run blue/green, as she can fetch up any specific card by filtering through her. Your Worldly Tutor can be turned into a tutor for almost any card depending what card types your instant tutors allow you to search for. In particular decks, she is often my first target for a Survival of the Fittest/Fauna Shaman/Worldly Tutor. She provides protection and extra tutoring in one package.
I do post every so often to show combinations that I use to give examples of how much of a utility creature she can be. I'll keep adding to this list for quick reference:
There are other cards outside of black that allow you to search for any card, like Planar Portal, Ring of Five Wishes, Wild Research, even sequencing some cards in a particular way can fetch you cards you want. I certainly have abused Planar Portal in the past, it’s great in some decks. But when it comes to mana efficiency Kaho is the winner. Four to cast, with a likely 1-3 mana to get your fetch.
High Risk, High Reward
So the magical question, why is she not an instant (pun not intended) insert into decks? The common answer that people have said is that “she is weak to removal”. People imagine the most frequent case will be that you tutor for three of your best/relevant blue instants and that she is removed before you get to use her, and that you will never get to draw those cards.
Well why play any creature if it can be removed right?
“Fortune sides with him who dares.”― Virgil
The argument almost becomes that because she is such a powerful card that she must be answered before you get to use her. This is a hallmark for any great card. She certainly joins those ranks.
But only three uses and she’s done! Trust me if you get to use her three times then you’re very satisfied and as Charlie Sheen would say “Winning!” A 4-for-1 where you get to choose the exact three by proxy is exactly the value and power level you like in a deck.
Haste is the number one thing that makes her more viable in your deck.
With haste you CAN provide protection for her (and everything) with a countering spell.
So she is better in decks that already have a penchant for giving haste to creatures.
Maybe you already play a combination of these cards? If so then you'll find that she is an amazing fit into your potential strategy.
She just get more powerful as time goes by as new sets come out. She is more relevant now, than at any time, and this will always be the case.
For a while now I’ve felt that I’ve been at an advantage over others players, and almost reluctant to share my experience with her in my decks, the inner child not wanting to share.
The reason that she came to my attention is because I did make a deck with her as my general. I made a straight up combo deck. I won’t delve into the mechanics of the deck, I’ll do that in another post, but suffice to say that she is a basically self-contained win condition on her own if you decided to go down that track. Simply put if you’re not disrupted, you win the game. But because it was so linear I didn’t actually play it much. It wasn’t until I started adding her to multicolor decks outside of black that I really found her as a powerful strategy get me my combos.
Obviously I would not have written this article about her, if she did not prove to be a perennial all-star in my decks.
I’m happy for people to argue that she is not good. Too be honest any discussion that brings her to a bigger audience, good or bad, means that at least she has some focus for the future.
Looking forward to people posting some instants they love in their decks and would be interested in having double up access to?
Also important to the relevance of the thread, is what creatures, what artifacts, what sorceries, what enchantments and what lands you have always wanted more tutors for? Especially if you’re not in black, those colors that struggle to search for cards that you want more consistently.
~She is the ultimate Shapeshifter, being almost anything you want her to be.
I was testing last night and went from 17 life to well above 60 on my combo turn.
Perfect, I mean Sydri still provides a win condition worst case scenario on the following turn right, if you run out of mana to activate Sydri lifelink ability in the combo turn. What other Commanders are doing this for you? Plus just seems like a nifty strategy to use just the life gain of Aetherflux for fueling Necropotence and Ad Nauseam in some games, no Death-Ray needed.
I've noticed that you play 10 Black cards and 5 White, and whether you could make a more mono-blue version, making way for more Islands to help High Tide be more effective and just an easier mana base in general? Maybe remove White altogether, except maybe Grand Arbiter Augustin IV? Grand Abolisher and Supreme Verdict both require double White. Grand Abolisher being the only card that can't be replaced in Black or Blue, but Swords to Plowshares can be replaced with Black spot removal and Damnation can be a pseudo Supreme Verdict. This way your mana base can be a lot more effective to what you're are trying to achieve earlier. Unlike a lot of Commander decks where you want your tri-colors as soon as possible to cast your Commander, in this deck he is not central to getting out until you're far more setup, so fixing earlier shouldn't need to be a priority.
I'd add Exploration Map, as Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth seems like a key card to making the Bubbling Muck broken in your combo turn and the perfect fixer for your Black mana base. Also adding Tolaria West for the same reason. Alternative targets would probably be Inventors' Fair for tutoring your Aetherflux Reservoir if you're ready to go.
What is the Rings of Brighthearth actually used for? Is it just for the Basalt Monolith infinite colorless? I mean you could copy the Aetherflux Reservoir, but might be a bit of a dead card in most games?
My super secret tech card that I run in decks where I want to tutor for things is Kaho, Minamo Historian. Unbelievable underplayed in Commander in my opinion. I've made a combo deck around him as my Commander, with targets being High Tide, Fabricate, Counterspell, Mystical Tutor, etc. So strong if not answered, and gets you right into High Tide or the tutor for Aetherflux Reservoir in your deck.
If you care about energy, Glimmer of Genius seems good enough to play. Also, given how badly you want to have Aetherworks Marvel, how about a few more tutors to find it, like Transmute Artifact and Reshape, or some more cards to help dig for it like Dig Through Time and the aforementioned Glimmer of Genius?
I had Transmute Artifact in my first builds, but I only have 11 artifacts, and of those only really a couple of them you'd be willing to sacrifice as they provide great value in this deck. But what I found that quite often I'd have a tutor for Aetherworks Marvel in the early game, but because I had not set up the Energy producing engine, it wasn't worth spending the turn tutoring and then playing it. So I think I've found the nice balance between the 5 tutors, plus the Aetherworks itself, is enough to be satisfied that you're probably going to get it when you're ready with Energy. I have had some games where I've been waiting for it, but as you can use it twice in a turn with Brago (blink it out), you soon use up the Energy and don't feel so bad for having to wait.
Glimmer of Genius, although a good card on its own, in a Brago deck, you really are wanting repetitive sources of draw and Energy, and I did put it into my first build, but it got cut for that reason.
The things I have included to make it a little bit more specialized is that there are actually quite a few enchantments, so I've included Argothian Enchantress and Eidolon of Blossoms as extra draw engines. The main reason is that I like the idea that if the Genjus bounce back to hand, you can get value in recasting them again with either of the draw creatures in play. Added Sylvan Library, great for draw and manipulating top of library for use with those I've already mentioned.
Also going very deep is the inclusion of Jeskai Ascendancy. You can get a reasonable amount of comboing off with activating your man lands, and tapping them for mana, casting non-creatures spells, which there are 45 (quite high) and able to not only generate extra mana, filter through cards, but also getting your man lands big for the turn. Probably the plan is to draw and discard a land each time, as aiming for Splendid Reclamation or Creeping Renaissance to get them back. I didn't include Humilty as suggested in original post, as it turns off the lands ability to tap for mana (if activated), which you don't want.
Replenish as an amazing bounce back card, especially in this deck as Child of Alara will likely be a cause of the enchantments going to graveyard.
This is just my take on the deck. Looks like it could be a lot of fun.
I'm wondering if Children of Korlis would be a good addition as a little backup plan to Sydri, Galvanic Genius lifelink? Sydri does require UBW to turn on the combo, on top of all the storm stuff you are wanting to do in a single turn. Works nice with Ad Nauseam and Necropotence as well.
My suggestion is that the "Genju of the.." enchant land cards are going to be very awkward in a deck with only one target each or needing Prismatic Omen. The number of times they'll be sitting in your hand never played will likely be more than you actually get to play them out. So either I would remove them or have a few more basic land fixers, like Burnished Hart, Solemn Simulacrum, Farseek.
The thing with your strategy is that you are really trying to beat them down with the lands. I feel like you'll find it much harder than you think trying to do damage with activating lands costing between 1-4 mana, then you actually having to tap the creature land itself. Realistically you'll only have enough mana to attack with 2-3 land creatures, each only doing 1-4 damage. You do have Earth Surge to speed up the clock, but I have some more suggestions:
Sylvan Advocate is awesome in your deck, the type of card you don't play until you're setup. Collective Blessing is a bomb that can really help you speed up the clock. Gavony Township is expensive at essentially 5 mana to activate, but if you do the math over turns, you'll find its better to activate one less man land to give the others +1/+1 counters.
If you can add Phyrexian Tower and/or High Market to the deck as lands that can sacrifice Child of Alara this is important to be able to control the timing of blowing up the board. On this note you can probably afford to take out some of the sweepers like Day of Judgment as your Commander is the source of sweeping. Put in Volrath's Stronghold to get repetitive value from your commander when needed. Tolaria west would be a good addition as it can get you any land you need.
The Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and Prismatic Omen combo is a lot worse in your deck without Scapeshift. I feel like Scapeshift is so powerful in this type of deck that you'll want to splash out the cash to get it. You can turn all your lands into your man lands, utility, etc. Then you can even get them all back with Splendid Reclamation. Double your mana, sounds pretty broken to me.
On this same note, I feel that Creeping Renaissance is a must with Praetor's Counsel being a possibility. The reason Creeping Renaissance is so good is that with flashback, if goes to your graveyard via a Life from the Loam dredge or opponents mill strategy or even countered the first time, its still available. Extra good in your deck as the "Genju of the.." still have the lands going to the graveyard, so you'll be able to fetch them back later with this card.
Nissa, Vital Force seems awesome in this deck. Also Nissa, Worldwaker seems good and in theme. Obviously playing multiple Nissa planeswalkers can be awkward with only allowed one in play, but you'll probably find that this isn't much of an issue. You probably get a few turns of value before opponents deal with them, before you draw the other ones.
Another card if you want to go deep is actually Humility. With your man lands not exactly being overwhelming in power and toughness or abilities, this can make a really even/uneven the playing field, when you get your Earth Surge and/or Collective Blessing. Turns off some of your utility creatures, but such a beating to many other players Commander strategies.
I like the Nature's Will in this deck, and I'm thinking the Sword of Feast and Famine would also be good to double up and being able to sink all your mana into making the attacks, then being able to cast some spells second main. Seems important to progressing your game.
Cards that you can take out are Æther Snap, more like a sideboard card, and anti to Gavony Township. Ghostway is going to be hard to use, as activating man lands is so mana intensive that then leaving up a further 3 mana for this card is hard. On top of this doesn't help with your "Genjus".
Remove some combination of the mass creature removals, as I say this is what your Commander is for. Maybe keep in the best two, Wrath of God and Martial Coup, although I'd be tempted to just take all of them out and go hard with your Commander. Manabond might not be that good in a 43 land deck. If you look at a more classic land decks in Commander they run like 57 lands. You might just find that you never want to use it? Also Summer Bloom probably underwhelming with number of lands? Kozilek, Butcher of Truth can come out, having a graveyard is a good thing.
I have been playing Magic since 1993 and I have 63 Commander decks that I have all played extensively on Magic Online, and consider myself one of the most prolific players currently within the Commander Magic Online domain.
So I thought I'd start posting some of my more unusual brews. Not quite casual, but also not quite Tier 1, 75% for sure.
Kaladesh been out for a little while and after the Kaladesh Pro Tour weekend with Aetherworks Marvel decks kicking about, I couldn't resist trying to make an E=Energy deck for Commander. I'm one of the few players online that makes Commander decks around single cards (not the Commander themselves). I can honestly say that I never came across anybody else playing a pure Jeskai Ascendancy deck in Commander Online. Foolish? Maybe..but also fun to see how you can pull it off.
After looking at this set I really only found that the Aetherworks Marvel is truly the only card that you want to sink your energy into in a Multiplayer Commander environment. Anything else isn't really getting you anywhere.
I looked at Bant as the colour choice, and Derevi as the best Commander in this strategy. However it became obvious that its the ability to produce Energy that is really central to a good Energy deck, and Brago stood out as the best source of getting repetitive Energy producers, with almost all the cards having the words "When enters the battlefield, you get E". Any Brago player will know that these are the magical words for cards you want in his archetype.
Brago as a deck, is Tier 1 in my opinion. So lets be honest, taking out any cards to build into a Energy strategy at this stage, with only the one Kaladesh set out, is probably not making the classic Brago deck stronger. So lets just say this is for trying something brave and new. If you're a Brago player, don't post saying "I can't believe you're not playing this card with Brago!", as cards have to come out, good ones, really good ones.
At first I went with as many Energy producers to blink as possible. Almost all of them if they are in U, W and C. However its hard to take out all of classic Brago synergy cards, and in the end I found a good balance between making energy and also just using good old fashioned "enters the battlefield" value cards. All or nothing on Energy ended up being more "nothing". So the balance that was struck is that I have ended up with a ten card Energy package. Ten cards doesn't sound like much, but actually you get the balance of producing just enough energy to fuel the Aetherwork's Marvel, without going overboard and just doing nothing else until you get the engine working.
To be sure, the cards by themselves are fairly underwhelming, but if you go into it knowing that you just want to build up energy until you can spend it it on Aetherworks Marvel later in the game, it actually feels pretty good storing it up.
Here is my Deck that I've had good success with online:
So you might be asking, your deck doesn't do anything with Energy unless you have the Aetherworks Marvel. This is absolutely true. So as an experienced player with basing decks around single cards tutors are a must. There are 5 tutors used in the deck to fetch it before you might just naturally draw it: Enlightened Tutor, Tezzeret the Seeker, Inventors' Fair, Kaho, Minamo Historian, Fabricate. Actually you're really wanting to be setting up producing Energy first, so I've found that waiting for a tutor is not the biggest deal as casting it too early might be pointless. There is also Academy Ruins and general counter magic to protect it. Often I find that once Brago is going people are overwhelmed with other cards on the battlefield, so protecting it is not like a must.
The main reason for the post is not to say this deck is great (it is good and performs better than I expected), but really as the primer for Energy and future synergies with the Kaladesh block. At the moment there is really only one card this is based around Aetherworks Marvel. You might as well say its an Aetherworks Marvel deck. The only other card that does come up with from time to time, is Consulate Surveillance. Can be used in a pinch to soak damage.
However with another set coming out in the Kaladesh block, Aether Revolt, we are bound to find many more powerful things to sink Energy into, and at this stage I believe Brago will be the hallmark for Energy based strategies.
Cheers really happy to hear you have had some success with the deck! Nether Void with mass bounce is DIIIIIRTY! haha, sounds like you have a really strong synergy set up in your build
Well after a full weekend of playing various builds I actually settled on a more traditional build, but still with big differences.
I also have a The Reaper King, 5 color artifact deck, so have lots of experience with using/abusing Unwinding Clock. So why not abuse it with Mishra right!?
The basic idea is to mana rock ramp fairly quickly and best case scenario is get into Unwinding Clock and you can flash in cards with Leyline of Anticipation, Vedalken Orrery and Shimmer Myr, for pseudo extra turns, one of the most powerful multiplayer strategies.
I'm using Ice Cave to full potential to try and knock out what opponents are doing and of course go under the radar with Mishra ability and minor Stax to make things fairly uncounterable for myself.
I use Static Orb and Winters Orb to lock down opponents being able to do too much each turn and if with Neither Void simply GG. With Unwinding Clock of course you don't have the same type of lock down. Plus I play Clock of Omens which allows to tap Static Orb or Winter Orb to nullify lock down for myself. If you've never played Static Orb, its unbelievable in a Stax strategy. Think of it as a Crawl Space, Winter Orb and Ensnaring Bridge rolled into one. OK, maybe not completely Ensnaring Bridge, but your opponents really have to think if they want to cast spells or attack with a couple creatures. If they are just attacking with creatures, you're going to out pace them to answers fairly quickly.
I've noticed that you don't play with Mana Vault and Grim Monolith. It might be a budget thing, but I've played over 10,000 Commander games online and so competitive play demands fast mana. If play is more casual then you tend to play more lands and less fast mana. I've noticed with 38 land in your build probably you're leaning towards games that last a bit longer than pure competitive turn 4 its over, which I'm trying to "compete" with, at least in some games.
With this in mind I'm geared towards faster starts and have basically taken out all the grind and graveyard value cards. No Myr Retriever, Junk Diver or Scrap Mastery type cards. It makes Daretti, Scrap Savant slightly worse, but still good enough. You're left open to board wipes being worse for yourself, but this is the trade in for having a more linear strategy.
My only other subtleties to point out is that there is real value and certainty in playing with only two of particular card types or cards that are similar, so that there is less chaos for you when deciding what to do under Possibility Storm.
So two instants Cyclonic Rift and Vamperic Tutor. It means that you know exactly what you're casting. Same for Planeswalkers; Daretti and Tezzeret, and only 4 sorceries, Demonic Tutor, Grim Tutor, Praetor's Grasp and Vandalblast. I don't play All is Dust, Chain Reaction or Scrap Mastery for the reason that although powerful spells, they are only good situationally. Its nice to know that if you cast Vandalblast that you are going to get a tutor effect.
I don't play Blood Funnel, its just not good enough in my build. My build would seem to be light on "Bomb" artifacts, but I come from an old school that if you have control, you only need the one win condition. Either the classic Darksteel Forge+Nevinyrral's Disk or actually Memnarch+Unwinding Clock, basically stealing all the big threats and closing the game that way. Planar Portal is incredible in an Unwinding Clock build with flash. You can actually build up the ability to flash in your cards, by spending the first tutor for a Shimmering Myr. As I say this is one of the most broken/fun things you can do in multiple player Commander. I have many decks built around this strategy; Yisan, Reaper King, Patron of the Orochi, Slivers, Captain Sisay, Horde of Notions, with sub themes also in Gaddock Teeg, Ezuri and Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro. Basically what I'm saying is that its tried and true and I know how to play it probably better than any Magic Online Commander player. Sounds arrogant, but know the community well.
Anyway a pleasure to finally get Mishra under the belt and happy artifact hunting to all those wanting to try him out!
Thanks for this article, it has been very helpful. As a prolific magic online commander player, I have over 40 decks and I am always looking for new and interesting takes on mechanics. I've always been curious about Mishra, but never delved into how/what behind him. So took the brave step and blasted out a couple of builds. I never normally read articles, but this time I took great care into reading everything you had to say.
Too be honest I've had marginal success with it, but as you point out I'm more interested in doing what other people are not doing.
I like to brew so after playing a few times with basically your build, I decided to go with a more storm type build, but not the one you have listed in the OP, because I always play multi-player, so Tendrils of Agony, etc is not good enough. The times that I did have success is when I had Neither Void with mass bounce. So ran with this and gone with cheap mana artifacts, lots of mass draw like Wheel of Fortune, Windfall, Time Twister, etc and play mass bounce in the form of Devastation Tide, Crush of Tentacles, Kederekt Leviathan and Cyclonic Rift. The idea is that later in the game, you can mass bounce and basically play out everything again. You still get incredible value with Possibility Storm, Blood Funnel and if you drop Neither Void it usually locks the game after a big bounce.
Anyway I'll post my list after I've tweaked and played it a bit more, but again thanks heaps for explaining all the mechanics and useful cards for getting value
Maybe Laboratory Maniac? Although an alternative win-con, maybe not needed. If you're drawing your deck, then you really should be able to close it out via Aetherflux Reservoir.
The thing is that we can't speak for others people play group experiences, but I do play Magic Online and exclusively Commander. I wrote this post because of the positive experience through hundreds of games with playing her in that domain. Will you get to use her every time? No. Do the number of times you do get to use her be more than you don't? Yes. Thats my experience, and because of the way in which I use her, she becomes a very powerful card.
I understand your and lots of peoples reasoning. But to simply say that there is a wrath every round, why you just wouldn't play creature decks at all, and this is not the case. For me its like a Consecrated sphinx, when its unanswered it simply takes over the game. What I'm suggesting is that her power level is far higher than she is given credit for.
Its a matter of costs, Ring of Three Wishes will cost 10 mana, where doing the equivalent with Kaho might be more like 5 mana. The trade off being that artifacts are more resilient in general than creatures.
Fetch-lands can really help with this, but obviously what you can afford. They are just excellent with Sensei's Divining Top or Future Sight.
I have to ask if you can splash out on getting Grim Monolith, Mana Crypt and Transmute Artifact? If so then they will definitely make the deck more consistent.
Have you thought about Windfall? Excellent to start or keep the storm going.
Kaho, Minamo Historian, the best all purpose tutor not in black. Why not give a bold, argument inducing title to stir up conversation?
However, I do really want to bring the focus back to a long, not quite forgotten, but certainly underused and underrated magic card that is primed for anyone who wants access to the rest of their deck.
This is NOT a post about Kaho, Minamo Historian being your commander, but mostly about her being a really great card to have in your 99, especially if you play a multicolor commander.
I however in recent times add her to almost any deck that can abuse her power. My argument to all commander players is that she is a very powerful card to have your deck. Very overlooked, probably because mostly misunderstood. *queue the violin*
I searched the forums for “Kaho” in the title and got two pages of worth. She is not a secret by any means. Most of those posts are about her being the commander. Probably the most common thing about the commander lists is just how different they are. With so many blue instants to choose from, people come up with completely different ideas. The other common thing about the previous posts is a general lack of mass interest and often negativity about her use.
Here is where I am going to try and change the consensus as much as I can. One thing that I think that has happened, is that because most of the discussions/posts are about her being the General, that being mono-blue, is that the focus when discussing her are on blue instants, obviously.
Again if you do a look up on EDHREC you get an exclusive list of blue spells associated with her. It always assumes it as your commander general.
However she can fetch ANY instants and this is where she shines in multicolored decks.
I searched for “instant” on Gatherer and got back 1997 results that are useful to her particular way of casting (as of Kaladesh), so I don’t think I really need to argue how much of a potential toolbox she is. Instants do a set of many things, but disruption, combat tricks and card draw are some of the more popular uses. However I’m going to focus on a smaller set of instants, and that is those of the “search your library” cards, the tutors.
--== The power of tutoring ==--
Nobody can argue that tutoring in decks that are made up of one offs in 99 are extremely powerful. Many argue that tutoring is not in the spirit of commander, that’s it was meant to be designed for more randomly distributed sets of plays.
I for one am very guilty of having an overuse of tutoring in commander. I am also guilty of building focused decks to get a particular set of cards for a win.
So I think I’m going to be appealing to a particular set of people; those that like to play 75%-competitive and are large on combos, or having the cards you specifically put in the deck for synergies, to play parts more frequently. This is not just for on the spot game winning combos, but also those that really get value from particular combinations of cards.
Black is the premium color to include when you want to tutor for ANY card. But what happens when your colors are not in black? Suddenly you have to get a bit/lot more creative with how you can find these cards.
They do exist, and they get used a lot. Blue is famous for getting instants, sorceries and artifacts. White for enchantments, artifacts and lands. Green for creatures and lands. Red not really known for tutoring other than more specific subtypes.
But wait Kaho can only get instants? How can she be the best “search your library for a card” not in black?
Here is where I think most of the community has really failed to utilize her. By proxying through instants that search through your library for card types, you can get the specific cards you want.
Let’s break down the most relevant instant tutors by color:
Blue: Mystical Tutor, Long-Term Plans, Intuition, Trapmaker's Snare
White: Enlightened Tutor, Tithe, Argivian Find
*I’ve included some of the graveyard return cards as these can be pseudo tutors deeper into the game as well.
Green/White: Eladamri's Call, Congregation at Dawn
Green: Worldy Tutor, Summoner's Pact, Crop Rotation, Realms Uncharted, Reclaim, Noxious Revival
*I’ve included some of the graveyard return cards as these can be pseudo tutors deeper into the game as well.
Green/Red: Signal the Clans
Red/Blue: Firemind's Foresight
Black: Vampiric Tutor, Entomb, Insidious Dreams
Blue/Black: Mystical Teachings
Need an artifact in a Simic deck? Mystical Tutor for Fabricate. You can always use Long Term Plans and say Brainstorm to get any card in your deck. This is a two turn strategy, but obviously gets you anything you want.
With green having so many creature tutors, she is incredible to include in your 99, if you run blue/green, as she can fetch up any specific card by filtering through her. Your Worldly Tutor can be turned into a tutor for almost any card depending what card types your instant tutors allow you to search for. In particular decks, she is often my first target for a Survival of the Fittest/Fauna Shaman/Worldly Tutor. She provides protection and extra tutoring in one package.
I do post every so often to show combinations that I use to give examples of how much of a utility creature she can be. I'll keep adding to this list for quick reference:
Setting up a Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and Seedborn Muse for a pseudo Prophet of Kruphix board presence
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/760752-kaho-minamo-historian-the-best-all-purpose-tutor#c14
Tutoring for Birthing Pod
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/760752-kaho-minamo-historian-the-best-all-purpose-tutor?page=2#c37
High Risk, High Reward
Well why play any creature if it can be removed right?
“Fortune sides with him who dares.”― Virgil
The argument almost becomes that because she is such a powerful card that she must be answered before you get to use her. This is a hallmark for any great card. She certainly joins those ranks.
But only three uses and she’s done! Trust me if you get to use her three times then you’re very satisfied and as Charlie Sheen would say “Winning!” A 4-for-1 where you get to choose the exact three by proxy is exactly the value and power level you like in a deck.
With haste you CAN provide protection for her (and everything) with a countering spell.
So she is better in decks that already have a penchant for giving haste to creatures.
Cards that give creatures haste:
Artifacts
Lightning Greeves, Swiftfoot boots, Akroma's Memorial, Thousand-Year Exlir
White
Stoneforge Mystic, Stonehewer Gaint (*helps to double up on getting the haste equipment).
Red
Anger, Fervor, Hammer of Purphoros, Cyclops of Eternal Fury, Mass Hysteria, Urabrask the Hidden, Emblem of the Warmind
Red/Black
Dragonlord Kolaghan
Green/Red
Fires of Yavimaya, Xenagos, God of War
Green
Concordant Crossroads, Surrak, the Hunt Caller
Temur (Green/Red/Blue)
Temur Ascendancy, Maelstrom Wanderer
Lands
Hall of the Bandit Lord, Flamekin Village
Maybe you already play a combination of these cards? If so then you'll find that she is an amazing fit into your potential strategy.
For a while now I’ve felt that I’ve been at an advantage over others players, and almost reluctant to share my experience with her in my decks, the inner child not wanting to share.
The reason that she came to my attention is because I did make a deck with her as my general. I made a straight up combo deck. I won’t delve into the mechanics of the deck, I’ll do that in another post, but suffice to say that she is a basically self-contained win condition on her own if you decided to go down that track. Simply put if you’re not disrupted, you win the game. But because it was so linear I didn’t actually play it much. It wasn’t until I started adding her to multicolor decks outside of black that I really found her as a powerful strategy get me my combos.
Obviously I would not have written this article about her, if she did not prove to be a perennial all-star in my decks.
Looking forward to people posting some instants they love in their decks and would be interested in having double up access to?
Also important to the relevance of the thread, is what creatures, what artifacts, what sorceries, what enchantments and what lands you have always wanted more tutors for? Especially if you’re not in black, those colors that struggle to search for cards that you want more consistently.
~She is the ultimate Shapeshifter, being almost anything you want her to be.
I've noticed that you play 10 Black cards and 5 White, and whether you could make a more mono-blue version, making way for more Islands to help High Tide be more effective and just an easier mana base in general? Maybe remove White altogether, except maybe Grand Arbiter Augustin IV? Grand Abolisher and Supreme Verdict both require double White. Grand Abolisher being the only card that can't be replaced in Black or Blue, but Swords to Plowshares can be replaced with Black spot removal and Damnation can be a pseudo Supreme Verdict. This way your mana base can be a lot more effective to what you're are trying to achieve earlier. Unlike a lot of Commander decks where you want your tri-colors as soon as possible to cast your Commander, in this deck he is not central to getting out until you're far more setup, so fixing earlier shouldn't need to be a priority.
I'd add Exploration Map, as Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth seems like a key card to making the Bubbling Muck broken in your combo turn and the perfect fixer for your Black mana base. Also adding Tolaria West for the same reason. Alternative targets would probably be Inventors' Fair for tutoring your Aetherflux Reservoir if you're ready to go.
To replace the Grand Abolisher you remove, put in a Pact of Negation to ensure a better combo turn, and nice with Tolaria West if you add that card.
What is the Rings of Brighthearth actually used for? Is it just for the Basalt Monolith infinite colorless? I mean you could copy the Aetherflux Reservoir, but might be a bit of a dead card in most games?
My super secret tech card that I run in decks where I want to tutor for things is Kaho, Minamo Historian. Unbelievable underplayed in Commander in my opinion. I've made a combo deck around him as my Commander, with targets being High Tide, Fabricate, Counterspell, Mystical Tutor, etc. So strong if not answered, and gets you right into High Tide or the tutor for Aetherflux Reservoir in your deck.
Glimmer of Genius, although a good card on its own, in a Brago deck, you really are wanting repetitive sources of draw and Energy, and I did put it into my first build, but it got cut for that reason.
1x Child of Alara
Land (43)
1x Blinkmoth Nexus
1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1x Celestial Colonnade
1x Command Tower
1x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Crosis's Catacombs
1x Darigaaz's Caldera
1x Dark Depths
1x Dromar's Cavern
1x Faerie Conclave
1x Forbidding Watchtower
1x Gavony Township
1x Gemstone Mine
1x Ghitu Encampment
1x High Market
1x Hissing Quagmire
1x Inkmoth Nexus
1x Lavaclaw Reaches
1x Lumbering Falls
1x Mishra's Factory
1x Mutavault
1x Nantuko Monastery
1x Needle Spires
1x Phyrexian Tower
1x Raging Ravine
1x Riftstone Portal
1x Rith's Grove
1x Shambling Vent
2x Snow-Covered Forest
1x Snow-Covered Island
1x Snow-Covered Mountain
1x Snow-Covered Plains
1x Snow-Covered Swamp
1x Stirring Wildwood
1x Thespian's Stage
1x Tolaria West
1x Treetop Village
1x Treva's Ruins
1x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1x Vesuva
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Wandering Fumarole
1x Burgeoning
1x Collective Blessing
1x Corrupted Zendikon
1x Earth Surge
1x Exploration
1x Genju of the Cedars
1x Genju of the Falls
1x Genju of the Fens
1x Genju of the Fields
1x Genju of the Realm
1x Genju of the Spires
1x Into the Wilds
1x Jeskai Ascendancy
1x Mirari's Wake
1x Nature's Will
1x Prismatic Omen
1x Sacred Ground
1x Terra Eternal
1x Sylvan Library
Sorcery (10)
1x Animist's Awakening
1x Creeping Renaissance
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Into the North
1x Life from the Loam
1x Reap and Sow
1x Scapeshift
1x Splendid Reclamation
1x Tempt with Discovery
1x Replenish
Instant (5)
1x Ad Nauseam
1x Arcane Denial
1x Crop Rotation
1x Intuition
1x Realms Uncharted
1x Argothian Enchantress
1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1x Burnished Hart
1x Eidolon of Blossoms
1x Eternal Witness
1x Mina and Denn, Wildborn
1x Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper
1x Oracle of Mul Daya
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Sylvan Advocate
1x The Gitrog Monster
Artifact (8)
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Druidic Satchel
1x Expedition Map
1x Horn of Greed
1x Sol Ring
1x Storage Matrix
1x Wayfarer's Bauble
1x Sensei's Divining Top
Planeswalker (3)
1x Garruk Wildspeaker
1x Nissa, Vital Force
1x Nissa, Worldwaker
The things I have included to make it a little bit more specialized is that there are actually quite a few enchantments, so I've included Argothian Enchantress and Eidolon of Blossoms as extra draw engines. The main reason is that I like the idea that if the Genjus bounce back to hand, you can get value in recasting them again with either of the draw creatures in play. Added Sylvan Library, great for draw and manipulating top of library for use with those I've already mentioned.
Also going very deep is the inclusion of Jeskai Ascendancy. You can get a reasonable amount of comboing off with activating your man lands, and tapping them for mana, casting non-creatures spells, which there are 45 (quite high) and able to not only generate extra mana, filter through cards, but also getting your man lands big for the turn. Probably the plan is to draw and discard a land each time, as aiming for Splendid Reclamation or Creeping Renaissance to get them back. I didn't include Humilty as suggested in original post, as it turns off the lands ability to tap for mana (if activated), which you don't want.
Replenish as an amazing bounce back card, especially in this deck as Child of Alara will likely be a cause of the enchantments going to graveyard.
This is just my take on the deck. Looks like it could be a lot of fun.
My suggestion is that the "Genju of the.." enchant land cards are going to be very awkward in a deck with only one target each or needing Prismatic Omen. The number of times they'll be sitting in your hand never played will likely be more than you actually get to play them out. So either I would remove them or have a few more basic land fixers, like Burnished Hart, Solemn Simulacrum, Farseek.
The thing with your strategy is that you are really trying to beat them down with the lands. I feel like you'll find it much harder than you think trying to do damage with activating lands costing between 1-4 mana, then you actually having to tap the creature land itself. Realistically you'll only have enough mana to attack with 2-3 land creatures, each only doing 1-4 damage. You do have Earth Surge to speed up the clock, but I have some more suggestions:
Sylvan Advocate is awesome in your deck, the type of card you don't play until you're setup.
Collective Blessing is a bomb that can really help you speed up the clock.
Gavony Township is expensive at essentially 5 mana to activate, but if you do the math over turns, you'll find its better to activate one less man land to give the others +1/+1 counters.
If you can add Phyrexian Tower and/or High Market to the deck as lands that can sacrifice Child of Alara this is important to be able to control the timing of blowing up the board. On this note you can probably afford to take out some of the sweepers like Day of Judgment as your Commander is the source of sweeping. Put in Volrath's Stronghold to get repetitive value from your commander when needed.
Tolaria west would be a good addition as it can get you any land you need.
With a several of on top of library cards in Druidic Satchel, Oracle of Mul Daya and Nissa, Sage Animist you could put in Sensei Divining Top, always an all star. My only reason to suggest this is that Into The Wilds is another land accelerator seen in land decks.
The Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and Prismatic Omen combo is a lot worse in your deck without Scapeshift. I feel like Scapeshift is so powerful in this type of deck that you'll want to splash out the cash to get it. You can turn all your lands into your man lands, utility, etc. Then you can even get them all back with Splendid Reclamation. Double your mana, sounds pretty broken to me.
On this same note, I feel that Creeping Renaissance is a must with Praetor's Counsel being a possibility. The reason Creeping Renaissance is so good is that with flashback, if goes to your graveyard via a Life from the Loam dredge or opponents mill strategy or even countered the first time, its still available. Extra good in your deck as the "Genju of the.." still have the lands going to the graveyard, so you'll be able to fetch them back later with this card.
Nissa, Vital Force seems awesome in this deck. Also Nissa, Worldwaker seems good and in theme. Obviously playing multiple Nissa planeswalkers can be awkward with only allowed one in play, but you'll probably find that this isn't much of an issue. You probably get a few turns of value before opponents deal with them, before you draw the other ones.
Less in theme with your deck and more just trying to keep it competitive I'd take out Teferi's Response for a straight up Counterspell. Arcane Denial or Swan Song or Pact of Negation. Get a Demonic Tutor, affordable, and so good to get what you need in a pinch.
Another card if you want to go deep is actually Humility. With your man lands not exactly being overwhelming in power and toughness or abilities, this can make a really even/uneven the playing field, when you get your Earth Surge and/or Collective Blessing. Turns off some of your utility creatures, but such a beating to many other players Commander strategies.
With Nissa, Vastwood Seer and the fact that you're Green heavy I'd play one more Snow-Covered Forest.
If you wanted to go really deep then Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper is more of a fun card you could add.
Make sure you put Burgeoning back in. In conjunction with Life from the Loam or Creeping Renaissance you get great value.
Sacred Ground seems like a must.
I like the Nature's Will in this deck, and I'm thinking the Sword of Feast and Famine would also be good to double up and being able to sink all your mana into making the attacks, then being able to cast some spells second main. Seems important to progressing your game.
Cards that you can take out are Æther Snap, more like a sideboard card, and anti to Gavony Township.
Ghostway is going to be hard to use, as activating man lands is so mana intensive that then leaving up a further 3 mana for this card is hard. On top of this doesn't help with your "Genjus".
Remove some combination of the mass creature removals, as I say this is what your Commander is for. Maybe keep in the best two, Wrath of God and Martial Coup, although I'd be tempted to just take all of them out and go hard with your Commander.
Manabond might not be that good in a 43 land deck. If you look at a more classic land decks in Commander they run like 57 lands. You might just find that you never want to use it? Also Summer Bloom probably underwhelming with number of lands?
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth can come out, having a graveyard is a good thing.
I have been playing Magic since 1993 and I have 63 Commander decks that I have all played extensively on Magic Online, and consider myself one of the most prolific players currently within the Commander Magic Online domain.
So I thought I'd start posting some of my more unusual brews. Not quite casual, but also not quite Tier 1, 75% for sure.
Kaladesh been out for a little while and after the Kaladesh Pro Tour weekend with Aetherworks Marvel decks kicking about, I couldn't resist trying to make an E=Energy deck for Commander. I'm one of the few players online that makes Commander decks around single cards (not the Commander themselves). I can honestly say that I never came across anybody else playing a pure Jeskai Ascendancy deck in Commander Online. Foolish? Maybe..but also fun to see how you can pull it off.
After looking at this set I really only found that the Aetherworks Marvel is truly the only card that you want to sink your energy into in a Multiplayer Commander environment. Anything else isn't really getting you anywhere.
I looked at Bant as the colour choice, and Derevi as the best Commander in this strategy. However it became obvious that its the ability to produce Energy that is really central to a good Energy deck, and Brago stood out as the best source of getting repetitive Energy producers, with almost all the cards having the words "When enters the battlefield, you get E". Any Brago player will know that these are the magical words for cards you want in his archetype.
Brago as a deck, is Tier 1 in my opinion. So lets be honest, taking out any cards to build into a Energy strategy at this stage, with only the one Kaladesh set out, is probably not making the classic Brago deck stronger. So lets just say this is for trying something brave and new. If you're a Brago player, don't post saying "I can't believe you're not playing this card with Brago!", as cards have to come out, good ones, really good ones.
At first I went with as many Energy producers to blink as possible. Almost all of them if they are in U, W and C. However its hard to take out all of classic Brago synergy cards, and in the end I found a good balance between making energy and also just using good old fashioned "enters the battlefield" value cards. All or nothing on Energy ended up being more "nothing". So the balance that was struck is that I have ended up with a ten card Energy package. Ten cards doesn't sound like much, but actually you get the balance of producing just enough energy to fuel the Aetherwork's Marvel, without going overboard and just doing nothing else until you get the engine working.
The ten cards are: Eddytrail Hawk, Aether Theorist, Aetherstorm Roc, Minister of Inquiries, Thriving Turtle, Glassblower's Puzzleknot, Janjeet Sentry, Consulate Surveillance, Aetherworks Marvel, Electrostatic Pummeler.
To be sure, the cards by themselves are fairly underwhelming, but if you go into it knowing that you just want to build up energy until you can spend it it on Aetherworks Marvel later in the game, it actually feels pretty good storing it up.
Here is my Deck that I've had good success with online:
1 Brago, King Eternal
Energy based
1 Aetherworks Marvel
1 Eddytrail Hawk
1 Aether Theorist
1 Aetherstorm Roc
1 Minister of Inquiries
1 Thriving Turtle
1 Glassblower's Puzzleknot
1 Janjeet Sentry
1 Consulate Surveillance
1 Electrostatic Pummeler
Creatures
1 Reflector Mage
1 Luminate Primordial
1 Sun Titan
1 Diluvian Primordial
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
1 Karmic Guide
1 Reveillark
1 Sphinx of Uthuun
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Trinket Mage
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Kaho, Minamo Historian
1 Archaeomancer
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Mulldrifter
1 Wall of Omens
1 Mother of Runes
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Cloudblazer
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Lavinia of the Tenth
1 Panharmonicon
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Scroll Rack
1 Strionic Resonator
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Grim Monolith
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Basalt Monolith
Enchantments
1 Omniscience
1 Rhystic Study
1 Reality Acid
1 Land Tax
1 Unquestioned Authority
1 Grasp of Fate
1 Treachery
Instants
1 Swan Song
1 Force of Will
1 Arcane Denial
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Negate
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Mana Drain
1 Pact of Negation
Sorceries
1 Fabricate
Planeswalkers
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Teferi, Temporal Archmage
1 Command Tower
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
1 Flooded Strand
1 Arid Mesa
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Cavern of Souls
4 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Command Beacon
1 Mystic Gate
1 Prairie Stream
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Academy Ruins
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Tundra
1 Windswept Heath
10 Snow-Covered Island
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Aether Hub
1 Marsh Flats
Cards that I tried out but ended up not making my final cut for whatever reason: Era of Innovation, Dynavolt Tower, Deadlock Trap, Hightide Hermit, Aethersquall Ancient and Decoction Module. Although they all seem like they could be good, they end up just being a little awkward.
So you might be asking, your deck doesn't do anything with Energy unless you have the Aetherworks Marvel. This is absolutely true. So as an experienced player with basing decks around single cards tutors are a must. There are 5 tutors used in the deck to fetch it before you might just naturally draw it: Enlightened Tutor, Tezzeret the Seeker, Inventors' Fair, Kaho, Minamo Historian, Fabricate. Actually you're really wanting to be setting up producing Energy first, so I've found that waiting for a tutor is not the biggest deal as casting it too early might be pointless. There is also Academy Ruins and general counter magic to protect it. Often I find that once Brago is going people are overwhelmed with other cards on the battlefield, so protecting it is not like a must.
The main reason for the post is not to say this deck is great (it is good and performs better than I expected), but really as the primer for Energy and future synergies with the Kaladesh block. At the moment there is really only one card this is based around Aetherworks Marvel. You might as well say its an Aetherworks Marvel deck. The only other card that does come up with from time to time, is Consulate Surveillance. Can be used in a pinch to soak damage.
However with another set coming out in the Kaladesh block, Aether Revolt, we are bound to find many more powerful things to sink Energy into, and at this stage I believe Brago will be the hallmark for Energy based strategies.
I also have a The Reaper King, 5 color artifact deck, so have lots of experience with using/abusing Unwinding Clock. So why not abuse it with Mishra right!?
Here is the build I've enjoyed most: Mishra, Arificer Grand Master
The basic idea is to mana rock ramp fairly quickly and best case scenario is get into Unwinding Clock and you can flash in cards with Leyline of Anticipation, Vedalken Orrery and Shimmer Myr, for pseudo extra turns, one of the most powerful multiplayer strategies.
I'm using Ice Cave to full potential to try and knock out what opponents are doing and of course go under the radar with Mishra ability and minor Stax to make things fairly uncounterable for myself.
I use Static Orb and Winters Orb to lock down opponents being able to do too much each turn and if with Neither Void simply GG. With Unwinding Clock of course you don't have the same type of lock down. Plus I play Clock of Omens which allows to tap Static Orb or Winter Orb to nullify lock down for myself. If you've never played Static Orb, its unbelievable in a Stax strategy. Think of it as a Crawl Space, Winter Orb and Ensnaring Bridge rolled into one. OK, maybe not completely Ensnaring Bridge, but your opponents really have to think if they want to cast spells or attack with a couple creatures. If they are just attacking with creatures, you're going to out pace them to answers fairly quickly.
I've noticed that you don't play with Mana Vault and Grim Monolith. It might be a budget thing, but I've played over 10,000 Commander games online and so competitive play demands fast mana. If play is more casual then you tend to play more lands and less fast mana. I've noticed with 38 land in your build probably you're leaning towards games that last a bit longer than pure competitive turn 4 its over, which I'm trying to "compete" with, at least in some games.
With this in mind I'm geared towards faster starts and have basically taken out all the grind and graveyard value cards. No Myr Retriever, Junk Diver or Scrap Mastery type cards. It makes Daretti, Scrap Savant slightly worse, but still good enough. You're left open to board wipes being worse for yourself, but this is the trade in for having a more linear strategy.
My only other subtleties to point out is that there is real value and certainty in playing with only two of particular card types or cards that are similar, so that there is less chaos for you when deciding what to do under Possibility Storm.
So two instants Cyclonic Rift and Vamperic Tutor. It means that you know exactly what you're casting. Same for Planeswalkers; Daretti and Tezzeret, and only 4 sorceries, Demonic Tutor, Grim Tutor, Praetor's Grasp and Vandalblast. I don't play All is Dust, Chain Reaction or Scrap Mastery for the reason that although powerful spells, they are only good situationally. Its nice to know that if you cast Vandalblast that you are going to get a tutor effect.
I don't play Blood Funnel, its just not good enough in my build. My build would seem to be light on "Bomb" artifacts, but I come from an old school that if you have control, you only need the one win condition. Either the classic Darksteel Forge+Nevinyrral's Disk or actually Memnarch+Unwinding Clock, basically stealing all the big threats and closing the game that way. Planar Portal is incredible in an Unwinding Clock build with flash. You can actually build up the ability to flash in your cards, by spending the first tutor for a Shimmering Myr. As I say this is one of the most broken/fun things you can do in multiple player Commander. I have many decks built around this strategy; Yisan, Reaper King, Patron of the Orochi, Slivers, Captain Sisay, Horde of Notions, with sub themes also in Gaddock Teeg, Ezuri and Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro. Basically what I'm saying is that its tried and true and I know how to play it probably better than any Magic Online Commander player. Sounds arrogant, but know the community well.
Anyway a pleasure to finally get Mishra under the belt and happy artifact hunting to all those wanting to try him out!
Too be honest I've had marginal success with it, but as you point out I'm more interested in doing what other people are not doing.
I like to brew so after playing a few times with basically your build, I decided to go with a more storm type build, but not the one you have listed in the OP, because I always play multi-player, so Tendrils of Agony, etc is not good enough. The times that I did have success is when I had Neither Void with mass bounce. So ran with this and gone with cheap mana artifacts, lots of mass draw like Wheel of Fortune, Windfall, Time Twister, etc and play mass bounce in the form of Devastation Tide, Crush of Tentacles, Kederekt Leviathan and Cyclonic Rift. The idea is that later in the game, you can mass bounce and basically play out everything again. You still get incredible value with Possibility Storm, Blood Funnel and if you drop Neither Void it usually locks the game after a big bounce.
Anyway I'll post my list after I've tweaked and played it a bit more, but again thanks heaps for explaining all the mechanics and useful cards for getting value