I usually don't ship to Canada, but what would be the rough estimated cost to ship by USPS to Canada with some form of tracking? What do I have to ship with (i.e. Priority, First Class Parcel etc) in order to receive the cheapest yet reliable form of tracking?
I know weight is a factor but since we're dealing with <10 cards, it shouldn't be a huge factor
I have a casual foiled out Zombie deck I made years ago. This is pretty hilarious, although in all honesty I think the Zombie deck can cut it in Modern with vials (I play 4 Dark Ritual and 4 Vials).
Sharuum turn 3-4 dumping your hand and casting her off the accelerated mana and bringing back the most expensive spell. The thing is, in an optimized Sharuum deck, you can dump your hand naturally with the accelerants, so LED isn't really a drawback but a pure acceleration and actually benefits you by discarding a card you can't cast quite yet and reanimated by Sharuum.
LED breaks the generals that don't depend on a hand to win e.g. Arcum Dagsson. It is very possible now for Arcum to go either:
1) Blinkmoth/Inkmoth/Factory, LED, Arcum turn 1
2) Sol Ring/Mana crypt/Vault/Ancient Tomb/City of Traitors into mana myr, LED, Arcum turn 1.
These generals do not care about a hand, and LED functions very closely to black lotus (these decks also dump their hands fast anyway). Is it worth dumping your hand to cast your general? Yes, if your general abuses the fact that your hand is not the relevant resource.
Anyway, Sharuum players rejoice. Still makes zero sense why LED is unbanned before Coalition Victory, Metalworker, Biorhythm, Emrakul etc but to each his own opinion.
Snapcaster is incredible, also easily an EDH staple, I would expect him to be around $15.00 easy. Meanwhile, you guys should watch Riptide Laboratory for those EDH/Legacy players.
Hey guys, thanks for the feedback. I haven't had time to update the post and the 2nd post on combo tutoring and playouts will be a good section to answer a lot of the questions.
@BaconoftheArk:
Regarding the blue count for FoW/Misdirection. If you refer to the spreadsheet that I update my decklist, I do have 28.1% blue count out of 100 cards (I guess 27% since Arcum isn't in the maindeck).
The thing is, you are usually not pitching FoW/Misdirection turn 1 in EDH (most ciritical spells happen on turn 3-5 in competitive unless you're playing against Erayo or combo.deck)
@the42up:
I play this list in my FFA competitive group more than I play it 1v1. I posted it in the 1v1 section mainly because I feel the MD is geared for 1v1, but it does fine in FFA (in general in FFA, you have to tinker up lockpieces like Possessed Portal instead of combo pieces since you have x3-5 times the hate trying to answer Arcum than in 1v1). If you primarily play FFA multiplayer, consider putting Mind's Eye or Mystic Remora in the maindeck, but otherwise those cards are not worth it in 1v1, and they are decent in multiplayer, and not spetacular (since you are grabbing Possessed Portal primarily in multiplayer games so that turns off Mind's Eye and Remora).
I used to not play Petal and Diamond but that was a huge mistake. My friends play very dangerous and fast decks and something as bad as Petal and Diamond is well worth the card slot given that every accelerant you get is an accelerant you play above your opponents. Powering out Arcum as early as possible is critical not because you need the speed against your opponents, but mainly because competitive EDH is really about capitalizing on cards when your opponents do not have a chance to respond. Every landdrop they make is one more resource to answer you (obviously we all can't do anything if they FoW/Drain/Misdirect but you want to increase the chances of you accelerating Arcum out faster than they have an answer).
Opal is argubly weak, but if you view Opal strictly as a mana source (with the occassional benefit on powering out Arcum early), it's a huge boon. I would squeeze in Lotus Bloom if I could but I have no space in the MD currently. People may disagree with me, but EDH is really focused on acceleration/card-advantage. I chose to focus on the accceleration more than anything else since it has great synergy with the general.
I played Voltaic Construct in my initial list. I found the combos with Construct to only work when Karn/Lattice is out as you pointed out. When Karn/Lattice is out, Arcum can usually tutor up the 2nd card to win the game. If you would like to know what other possible artifact creatures that are awesome that I've cut, they're: Arcbound Reclaimer: Academy Ruins effect are too slow in this deck Skill Borrower: This card is really busted but I cut it since it was a little situational, but I might want to try her again to act like a mini 3rd 'future sight' effect Voltiac Construct: I replaced him with Solemn Simulacrum, another card that I constantly can't make up my mind and sometimes play Scarecrone instead. I'm not sure which creature is the best in this case but I figured that Solemn provides more benefit unconditionally. I might revert to construct though.
@Merchant Scroll: I don't run enough instants outside of permission to make Scroll worthwhile, otherwise I would most definitely play it. I would however play Beacon of Tomorrows or Fact or Fiction/Jace 2 before Merchant Scroll.
@Thousand Year Elixir: I hope you don't catch me sounding as if I know how to play Arcum optimally but I have cut this card even in the older list I ran 2-3 years back. The reason why Elixir isn't good is because it's a win-more card that takes a non-land slot. Minamo, School at Water's Edge is a great card because it takes a land slot. The reason why Elixir is win-more is because: To untap Arcum and use Elixir, you need to have 2 artifact creatures in play, and this situation doesn't come up too naturally (at least in my list where I feel my artifact creature count is low). If it's the haste effect of Elixir that makes it worthwhile, I would suggest to think again, because this would require setting up Elixir on turn 2-3, while also being able to setup an artifact creature from turn 1-3 to be able to use Elixir. Elixir's untap is win-more and it's haste-activated-ability is in fact very situational. Hope this explains it for you
I played Blasting/Summoning Station in my very initial list and it was fun. I played a lot more compact combos and had about 3-5 combos in my old list. However, the more I play the deck, and started streamlining the deck, there're only 3 combos that you would ever need to win games in 2-3 turns:
1) If opponents have no removal (i.e. if you don't suspect removal etc). Grab Rings of brighthearth, and this naturally sets up Basalt Monolith + Top immediately next turn if you have a 2nd dude to sac, drawing your whole deck immediately.
2) If your opponents are pressuring you by playing out a game-winning general or drawing cards off Necropotence e.g. Zur, grab a Possessed Portal and lock them out by tutoring Crucible or Myr Turbine afterwards. This isn't a combo, but it is a deadly lock that is one-sided, and your Myr Turbine will tutor out your combo easily after
3) If you are opting for fast mana and your hand is powerful and does not rely on Arcum to win games, grab a Mycosynthe Lattice because this card allows you to dump your hands easily (since you can now play blue spells without worrying about blue mana), and you can also setup into Lattice combos with Karn/Disk/Clock of Omens etc.
Does Magosi, Water's Veil (time vault) land really go infinite with Rings? If it does, yes play it, but I remembered that you need to have another card that allows you to play 2 lands a turn in order to pull this combo off.
As for counters, I used to run Hinder+Glen-Elendra Archmage (nuts) and Forbid, but I've cut them for more accelerants and better cards. Arcum is not a control deck for most parts. He's a combo-stax deck and I would advice playing the deck in such a manner because it is a mismatch of role to play the control role.
@Bearsum:
1) Grab Rings, this allows Arcum to sac a dude next turn, copy his effect from Rings for :2: and tutor up Basalt Monolith AND Top. Basalt Monolith taps for 3, and costs 3 to untap, with Rings, you can copy the untap by paying 2 mana. This creates a cycle where untapping Basalt twice costs 5, while tapping Basalt twice generates 6, netting +1 mana per cycle. The tutored top will then Tap draw a card put top on top of the library, but with Rings you copy this ability every time you top, with infinite mana you draw a card and the top you put on top of your library, allowing you to draw your whole deck, use the infinite mana to play out Mycosynthe Lattice and everything in your hand
2) No you cannot play cards as you are drawing cards from Time Spiral. The effect of Time Spiral has to resolve i.e. you draw 7 cards, then you can choose to play spells off Future Sight. You have to reveal the top card every time you draw a card from Time Spiral though, but you cannot play them until Time Spiral has finished resolving
3) Sculptor/Cloud Key + Top requires Future Sight/Magus of Future to be in play. With Sculptor/Cloud Key, Top costs 0 to play. So you tap draw a card, then play Top from the top of your library for 0 because of future sight, tap draw another card, repeat, and draw your whole deck
4) Possessed Portal is usually followed up with Myr Turbine (if you don't have anymore artifact creatures in hand), otherwise you follow it up with Crucible of Worlds or Spine of Ish Sha if you have another artifact creature in hand to play out.
you are probably right. I'll take the advice. I'll change the thread title to [EDH] instead of [PRIMER]. It will be hard to maintain a primer anyway if I'm going to be running into conflicting issues with people when the bulk of responses is more sensitive towards the nomenclature and use of words/grammar than discussions about the list.
I'll polish up the post a little bit but I'll take the advice and reduce this to just a deck discussion instead of an attempt to make a primer.
There is no use for Trinisphere in this deck. The key card that you are tutoring to stop your opponents is neither Smokestack nor Trinisphere. I've played with Smokestack + Tangle Wire + Winter Orb in the past and gearing towards competitive play, Stacks and Winter Orb are just too slow to do anything (WOrb is weak because competitive decks will primarily win with artifact mana before turn 5 rather than mana from land drops).
In the Eye of Chaos could be a strong addition, but what do you suggest cutting in the list to play it?
Arcum's main protection against other blue workshop deck (not sure what else is really a competitive blue workshop deck aside from Sharuum and Memnarch) is its ability to power out a fast general with fast artifact mana (Memnarch is slow in this respect). Arcum is monoU, and in my list, I play a full list of 'striplands', allowing that to be a factor of protection/disruption. Arcum IMO is superior to other Stax EDH decks e.g. Karn because you are playing a Stax EDH list with fast mana acceleration with the benefit of playing U-spells and having a general that has an incredibly powerful ability. AGainst combo decks, the key is ensuring that they do not get their artifact mana online fast enough. Combo EDH is pretty powerful and there have been cases where a turn 4 Possessed Portal still did not beat Ad Nauseam. If Necropotence sticks, it's also pretty much game over unless you grab a Pithing Needle/Spine fast.
Obviously, Arcum would not be able to compete against Zur/Clique since these generals by nature tend to dominate 1v1s with an overabundance of countermagic, but against anything else.
Try not to make sweeping statements like this...most competitive EDH decks do NOT run many of those cards...you make a number of other broad generalizations throughout this primer that arent really very accurate in similar fashion.
Not to nitpick, but I mentioned 'should' instead of will/must/do/are (despite the phrase'without a doubt'). I'm fairly certain that the core of competitive accelerants in EDH is fixed in most decks. Competitive EDH at its heart is really a combo or control format (in 1v1). There's only that many limited efficient mana-accelerants in the format currently, and every bit of accelerant is an edge over an opponent.
The primer is still not fully complete but I'll be polishing it up a little. Would you mind pointing out the other broad statements? That way I can go through and correct them if possible.
So Arcum was my second EDH general (first general was Rhys the Redeemed). A few years ago, I worked on a pretty competitive and cutthroat list that did well for me. Ever since Tolarian Academy and Staff of Domination were banned, I took the deck apart and stopped playing EDH for a good number of years. Recently, my Legacy playgroup has expressed EDH interest, and I decided to sleeve back Dagsson. With a few years of experience playing Legacy and Eternal format, I would say that the list was much more streamlined than before.
This list is well capable for multiplayer games as well, but I would not advise bringing it to a casual group.
MYRS
The 2cmc Myrs are mandatory in Arcum. They accelerate him out a turn faster and feed him for tutoring. The 3cmc Myrs are less impressive but could create the mana required for situations where you do not draw your 4th landdrop otherwise i.e. it's to decrease variance of not being able to cast Arcum. Alloy Myr is the weakest slot but can't be replaced unless they are printing more artifact creature accelerants.
CLOCK OF OMENS
This card is really busted, despite looking like a bad Voltaic Key initially. I would prefer an 'untap all artifacts' effect but it doesn't seem that such alternatives exist that allow you to untap artifacts at instant speed. With a Mycosynthe Lattice in play, this card because hilarious (you can tap your lands to untap Arcum and other things etc).
PERMISSION
Permission package includes the mandatory: Pact of Negation, Mana Drain, FoW, Misdirection. Hinder was initially in the list but was much inferior to Muddle the Mixture since you are really not interested in a 3cmc counterspell v.s. a 2cmc version that could tutor for combo pieces such as Grim Monolith, Power Artifact or Mana Drain
TUTORS
The other cards need no explanation. MTutor, Intuition, Fabricate are powerful tutors, Tezzeret allows you to win games without ever having to activate Arcum (go grab Rings of Brighthearth first, and setup for Rings+Basalt+SDT win). Mind Over Matter is completely stupid in the format. Time Spiral, Future Sight/Magus of the Future gives huge card advantage.
FUTURE SIGHT
I play 2x Future Sight effects because resolving one already guarantees huge card advantage above your opponents, and supports the Etherium Sculptor/Cloud Key + SDT combo. (Remember that you want to play combo shells that don't have worthless combo components. This is the reason why I don't play Mind Over Matter + [card]Temple Bell[card] + Eldrazi combo because the Temple Bell/Eldrazi is really terrible on their own).
I used to run Mind's Eye but has since taken it out because I am never tinkering for Mind's Eye with Arcum and if I needed cards from Arcum, Memory Jar is the prime target with Arcum. Therefore drawing Mind's Eye because much inferior to drawing Magus of the Future (Magus replaced Mind's Eye).
POSSESSED PORTAL
I used to play Winter Orb, in fact, I was the first person on MTGS that suggested that the crucial piece for a successful Arcum list was really revolving around Winter Orb. Things have changed since then because the old strategy of going Winter Orb+Tangle Wire into Candelabra of Tawnos and Tolarian Academy was just way too slow. Winter Orb also did not get around competitive decks that played out its artifact mana fast. In replacement, Static Orb proved to be much devastating, but is still the weakest slot that could be cut from the list.
The true prison replacement in this list that allowed me to cut down on 2 card slots in my older lists (Tangle Wire, Smokestack) was Possessed Portal. Getting a turn 3 Possessed Portal is backbreaking. Portal ensures that the game state never advances and only retards for both players. However, since you have a tutoring general in play that usually comes out faster than opposing generals (due to the monoU and heavy artifact/accelerant-theme to Arcum), you can lock people out much faster without the need to go through multiple turns under a Winter Orb to find your combo pieces while maintaining the lock.
Possessed Portal is perhaps one of the three targets that you always tinker first. If it sticks, Tinkering up a Spine of Ish Sha when you have 7 mana available allows you to sac Spine, play spine and put them back to ground zero. Otherwise tutoring Crucible of Worlds or Myr Turbine also creates the lock.
MYCOSYNTHE LATTICE
Mycosynthe Lattice is another busted card that you tutor up as a finishing combo. I seldom find myself going the Mycosynthe Lattice + Darksteel Forge + Nevinrryal's Disk combo these days. It is great to have a backup assymetrical boardwipe/wincon and it is the only reason why the combo is still there (Disk/Forge themselves are not bad cards in this deck). Lattice is really used to power out combo win conditions such as:
- Lattice + Clock of Omens + Arcum etc
- Lattice + infinite colorless mana allows you to cast everything in your deck (even Mind Over Matter. The mana-fixing of Lattice is huge to powering out the heavy-U combos).
#NAME?
Arcum is really nothing without Lattice in the list. Lattice fulfills all the combo/accelerant/prison that the deck ever needs.
EXPEDITION MAP
Primarily fetches Mishra's Workshop or Strip Mine (with Crucible lock). With M12, fetching Buried Ruins makes the Map incredibly powerful. Buried Ruins is ages better than Academy Ruins in this deck.
MYR RETRIEVER/JUNK DIVER
I used to run crap like Copper Gnomes but these little dudes are incredibly powerful in the deck. They can sustain a few critters for Arcum to sac, or recur Jars and more powerful artifacts
MEMORY JAR
Why is this unbanned in EDH? Used primarily when you have tons of artifact mana out to play out your hands (not too hard for this deck), or used in conjunction with Mind Over Matter to untap lots of Gilded Lotus
PLANAR PORTAL
Tutored out in the late-game to assemble combos involving cards that are otherwise untutorable such as Mind Over Matter and Future Sight. With Infinite colorless mana out and an untapper e.g. Clock of Omens, you can win games from there.
MYR TURBINE
This card is one of the top 5 most frequently tutored pieces. It allows you to tinker every turn. It replaced the old Nuisance Engine since it does not need mana investment to make a token. Also, it allows my deck to be even more Myr-themed so my Myr tokens and Myr Life counters look more awesome.
RINGS OF BRIGHTHEARTH
The most busted card in the format. In any deck, this card should always be played. It's both fun, and tremendously broken with ANYTHING (Planeswalkers/Stripmines/Planar Portal/Arcum/Clock of Omens etc)
Maybe a little. I don't know enough to know how vault/key decks work, but there should be a difference between having 4 keys/1 vault and having 12 fortune/chance/oaths and 4 sundials. Also, you can play it with four blood moons/magi out, which is already a pretty strong lock.
Edit:
Trying to debate whether or not to buy fortunes/chances/oaths now.. ha ha..
Very huge difference. Key/Vault is a 2-card combo for infinite turns (1 card combo if you get Tezz in play). Sundial/Final Fortune is a 2 card combo for 1 turn, a 3 card combo for infinite turn is involving Scepter. Final Fortune is also RR in manacost where Vault/Key is colorless, takes 2 slots in a 60 card deck so the rest of the deck is playing UB goodstuff while the Final Fortune/Sundial deck is packing more than 3 cards (possibly 15 cards) to play a 3-card combo (infinitely superior to 2 card combo btw).
Hey guys! I'm back, and those of you who followed me years back, I was the author of the extensive primer for Arcum Dagsson. It's been two years since I've been back to some EDH action. I played EDH on and off occasionally and enjoyed Karn as a casual/competitive deck.
Recently my Legacy playgroup showed an interest in EDH so I decided to rebuild the cutthroat deck that I once ran, now full with new tools from the newer sets. Tolarian Academy, Staff of Domination will be truly missed, but in a cutthroat environment where artifact mana means much more than lands, I realized that the old playstyle of grabbing Winter Orb and setting up Candelabra of Tawnos for lots of mana with Gauntlet of Power/High Tide/Tolarian Academy was too slow. Winter Orb, despite its history of being dominantly powerful in this deck, has finally worn its course, and is sometimes underwhelming against opposing decks that play the maximum amount of artifact mana acceleration.
The new Arcum loses Tolarian Academy and some powerful spells, but there have been additions of great cards that improved the deck. Here's a list of cards that have greatly improved the consistency of the deck:
These cards, in every way have improved the deck. The following list that I'm providing below is what I feel to be a highly-tuned list, with possibly 3-4 cards that could be cut for further fine-tuning (e.g. Master Transmuter, Mindslaver, Hinder etc)
BASICS
The more non-basic lands that print that benefit the deck greatly, the more Islands you cut. Since this build is no longer relying on High Tide effects to generate mana, there is less desires to keep to a high Island count. Island
UTILITY
These lands are useful lands that have powerful utility. Minamo, School at Water's Edge: Untaps Arcum Tolaria West: Tutors Workshop/Strip Mine/Mana Crypt/Academy Ruins/Buried Ruin Buried Ruins: Insanely powerful card from M12. Putting artifact in your HAND is key here. Academy Ruins: Great card in a deck playing tons of artifacts, recurs Memory Jar GG. Seat of the Synod: Counts as another artifact. Vesuva: Copies Strips/Workshop primarily Petrified Field: Recurs Workshop primarily Maze of Ith: Against random Blightsteels and other beaters that happen to slip past your prison.
SOL-LANDS
These lands enable Arcum a turn faster, or just has great ability to power out faster accelerants/artifacts since the deck is primarily colorless. I used to run Lotus Vale and Scorched Ruins but ever since moving away from Ward of Bones and focusing more on Possessed Portal, I decided the tempo loss from risk of opposing striplands is too great in a multiplayer setting. Crystal Vein Ancient Tomb City of Traitors Mishra's Workshop
NON-ARTIFACTS:
PERMISSION Pact of Negation: Free counter/misdirection is important in cutthroat metagames Muddle the Mixture: a Negate that tutors primarily for [card]Power Artifact[/cards] and many other cards Mana Drain: Best 2cmc counterspell Hinder: The weakest counterspell in deck, is relevant against problematic generals like Zur, otherwise it's a terrible counterspell that will be cut in the future if the deck gets even more cards to play with Force of Will: Free counter is important in cutthroat metagames Misdirection: Free counter/misdirection is important in cutthroat metagames Capsize: Mystical Tutorable removal that has good potential in the late game for infinite recursion
TUTORS Mystical Tutor: Best tutor in blue, usually grabbing PoN/FoW/Misdirection/Mana Drain/Time Spiral Fabricate: Demonic Tutor in this artifact-heavy deck Intuition: Broken tutor Tezzeret the Seeker: Tezz is the mini Arcum in this deck. If you get Tezz out, you can essentially play the deck without ever playing Arcum. I usually grab Rings of Brighthearth out first or untap multiple artifact mana.
BOMBS Mind over Matter: combos with Top, great synergy with Memory Jar and other draw effects, insanely powerful with artifact mana and untapping Arcum Time Spiral: A Mystical Tutorable Jar-draw7 effect with untap. Future Sight: Combos with Top and being too good as a card-advantage engine Power Artifact: Combos with Basalt Monolith/Grim Monolith/Filigree Sages and much more
This section outlines the common artifacts you tinker with Dagsson, and the corresponding winning-strategy that decision:
RINGS OF BRIGHTHEARTH + BASALT MONOLITH
This is the most powerful combo path because Rings by itself is a card that breaks every card in the deck. Rings of Brighthearth is single-handedly the most busted artifact in the format. Rings + Basalt Monolith generates infinite colorless mana, which allows you to fuel into Planar Portal tutoring up Sensei's Divining Top (Rings + Top + Infinite mana = draw your entire deck).
Rings by itself without Basalt monolith is incredible with Arcum Dagsson, giving him 2 activations, and Rings also work with a ton of other incredible artifacts to gain a lot for the deck e.g. Tezzeret/Planar Portal.
This is the combo path that wins the game immediately when assembled instead of dragging games out.
POSSESSED PORTAL + CRUCIBLE OF WORLDS/MYR TURBINE Possessed Portal was the abomination spawned by playing Karn. This card has been insane in every game when you get it out fast in Karn. I used to play a combination of Smokestack/Winter Orb in my older Arcum Dagsson build when I forget that Possessed Portal completely stops opponents cold when it's out. Since you have an active Arcum, tutoring up a Crucible of Worlds/Myr Turbine after Possessed Portal will eventually push opponents out of the game while you continue to build asymmetrically under Possessed Portal.
N.B. Possessed Portal makes players skip ANY draw, and the sac/discard ability happens on EVERY end of turn. This creates a prison effect far stronger and faster than Winter Orb/Smokestack can ever achieve.
This is the easiest combo path to setup since it stops your opponents from doing anything once you get a fast (turn 3-4 Possessed Portal).
DARKSTEEL FORGE + NEVINRYAL'S DISK + MYCOSYNTHE LATTICE
This combo is probably infamous by now. The 3-card combo assembled with ease by Arcum causes every permanent an opponent owns to be wiped by a re-usable Disk (Disk taps itself) while your permanents are all indestructible. I usually go Forge->Disk>Lattice in this order because grabbing Forge first gives your artifacts indestructibility, making the tutored Disk have a better chance at surviving an untap. Once you have the Forge/Disk combo, this is good by itself without the Lattice unless you are intending to be a sadist and blow up lands as well.
This is the slowest and most difficult to setup combo path.
I usually have an idea on what I'm doing, but would like some advice.
2 weeks ago I traded:
My:
2 Flooded Strand
1 Inkmoth Nexus
His:
1 Foil Grim Monolith NM-
I feel that the trade was even despite various sources showing that a foil grim monolith is worth about $10-$15 than my pile. Regardless, I was sure that I wouldn't do the trade if a foil Grim Monolith was worth $10-$15 more than my pile, but I would like some feedback as to why Foil Monoliths are this high. It's not like it sees play in Vintage, and neither does it see much play in Legacy outside of Meandeck MUD. Is EDH the prime cost-driving factor here?
Beyond the good comments above, it has, as others have said elsewhere, several characteristics that make a PW good, including:
1. 4cc: 4cc walkers usually see play, with the exception of Sarkhan Vol, who fails the next point.
2. Tezz can protect himself by making 5/5s
3. Tezz can close games, either by bashing face with 5/5s, draining them in legacy affinity, or janking out victories with things like inkmoth nexus.
Seems like a lot of upside, especially taking into account other posters' points; I just purchased a playset for about 35 each. Time will tell if I'm a fool...
If he doesn't work out for you, just play him in Legacy Affinity and witness the sheer power of casting him and winning the next turn with Tendrils for 20
I usually don't ship to Canada, but what would be the rough estimated cost to ship by USPS to Canada with some form of tracking? What do I have to ship with (i.e. Priority, First Class Parcel etc) in order to receive the cheapest yet reliable form of tracking?
I know weight is a factor but since we're dealing with <10 cards, it shouldn't be a huge factor
Thanks!
Sharuum turn 3-4 dumping your hand and casting her off the accelerated mana and bringing back the most expensive spell. The thing is, in an optimized Sharuum deck, you can dump your hand naturally with the accelerants, so LED isn't really a drawback but a pure acceleration and actually benefits you by discarding a card you can't cast quite yet and reanimated by Sharuum.
LED breaks the generals that don't depend on a hand to win e.g. Arcum Dagsson. It is very possible now for Arcum to go either:
1) Blinkmoth/Inkmoth/Factory, LED, Arcum turn 1
2) Sol Ring/Mana crypt/Vault/Ancient Tomb/City of Traitors into mana myr, LED, Arcum turn 1.
These generals do not care about a hand, and LED functions very closely to black lotus (these decks also dump their hands fast anyway). Is it worth dumping your hand to cast your general? Yes, if your general abuses the fact that your hand is not the relevant resource.
Anyway, Sharuum players rejoice. Still makes zero sense why LED is unbanned before Coalition Victory, Metalworker, Biorhythm, Emrakul etc but to each his own opinion.
@BaconoftheArk:
Regarding the blue count for FoW/Misdirection. If you refer to the spreadsheet that I update my decklist, I do have 28.1% blue count out of 100 cards (I guess 27% since Arcum isn't in the maindeck).
The thing is, you are usually not pitching FoW/Misdirection turn 1 in EDH (most ciritical spells happen on turn 3-5 in competitive unless you're playing against Erayo or combo.deck)
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AllC2sQZZEPodElQQlZabzcyYk1ISGRwUUw1Tml3ZGc&hl=en_US#gid=6
@the42up:
I play this list in my FFA competitive group more than I play it 1v1. I posted it in the 1v1 section mainly because I feel the MD is geared for 1v1, but it does fine in FFA (in general in FFA, you have to tinker up lockpieces like Possessed Portal instead of combo pieces since you have x3-5 times the hate trying to answer Arcum than in 1v1). If you primarily play FFA multiplayer, consider putting Mind's Eye or Mystic Remora in the maindeck, but otherwise those cards are not worth it in 1v1, and they are decent in multiplayer, and not spetacular (since you are grabbing Possessed Portal primarily in multiplayer games so that turns off Mind's Eye and Remora).
I used to not play Petal and Diamond but that was a huge mistake. My friends play very dangerous and fast decks and something as bad as Petal and Diamond is well worth the card slot given that every accelerant you get is an accelerant you play above your opponents. Powering out Arcum as early as possible is critical not because you need the speed against your opponents, but mainly because competitive EDH is really about capitalizing on cards when your opponents do not have a chance to respond. Every landdrop they make is one more resource to answer you (obviously we all can't do anything if they FoW/Drain/Misdirect but you want to increase the chances of you accelerating Arcum out faster than they have an answer).
Opal is argubly weak, but if you view Opal strictly as a mana source (with the occassional benefit on powering out Arcum early), it's a huge boon. I would squeeze in Lotus Bloom if I could but I have no space in the MD currently. People may disagree with me, but EDH is really focused on acceleration/card-advantage. I chose to focus on the accceleration more than anything else since it has great synergy with the general.
I played Voltaic Construct in my initial list. I found the combos with Construct to only work when Karn/Lattice is out as you pointed out. When Karn/Lattice is out, Arcum can usually tutor up the 2nd card to win the game. If you would like to know what other possible artifact creatures that are awesome that I've cut, they're:
Arcbound Reclaimer: Academy Ruins effect are too slow in this deck
Skill Borrower: This card is really busted but I cut it since it was a little situational, but I might want to try her again to act like a mini 3rd 'future sight' effect
Voltiac Construct: I replaced him with Solemn Simulacrum, another card that I constantly can't make up my mind and sometimes play Scarecrone instead. I'm not sure which creature is the best in this case but I figured that Solemn provides more benefit unconditionally. I might revert to construct though.
@Merchant Scroll: I don't run enough instants outside of permission to make Scroll worthwhile, otherwise I would most definitely play it. I would however play Beacon of Tomorrows or Fact or Fiction/Jace 2 before Merchant Scroll.
@Thousand Year Elixir: I hope you don't catch me sounding as if I know how to play Arcum optimally but I have cut this card even in the older list I ran 2-3 years back. The reason why Elixir isn't good is because it's a win-more card that takes a non-land slot. Minamo, School at Water's Edge is a great card because it takes a land slot. The reason why Elixir is win-more is because: To untap Arcum and use Elixir, you need to have 2 artifact creatures in play, and this situation doesn't come up too naturally (at least in my list where I feel my artifact creature count is low). If it's the haste effect of Elixir that makes it worthwhile, I would suggest to think again, because this would require setting up Elixir on turn 2-3, while also being able to setup an artifact creature from turn 1-3 to be able to use Elixir. Elixir's untap is win-more and it's haste-activated-ability is in fact very situational. Hope this explains it for you
I played Blasting/Summoning Station in my very initial list and it was fun. I played a lot more compact combos and had about 3-5 combos in my old list. However, the more I play the deck, and started streamlining the deck, there're only 3 combos that you would ever need to win games in 2-3 turns:
1) If opponents have no removal (i.e. if you don't suspect removal etc). Grab Rings of brighthearth, and this naturally sets up Basalt Monolith + Top immediately next turn if you have a 2nd dude to sac, drawing your whole deck immediately.
2) If your opponents are pressuring you by playing out a game-winning general or drawing cards off Necropotence e.g. Zur, grab a Possessed Portal and lock them out by tutoring Crucible or Myr Turbine afterwards. This isn't a combo, but it is a deadly lock that is one-sided, and your Myr Turbine will tutor out your combo easily after
3) If you are opting for fast mana and your hand is powerful and does not rely on Arcum to win games, grab a Mycosynthe Lattice because this card allows you to dump your hands easily (since you can now play blue spells without worrying about blue mana), and you can also setup into Lattice combos with Karn/Disk/Clock of Omens etc.
Does Magosi, Water's Veil (time vault) land really go infinite with Rings? If it does, yes play it, but I remembered that you need to have another card that allows you to play 2 lands a turn in order to pull this combo off.
As for counters, I used to run Hinder+Glen-Elendra Archmage (nuts) and Forbid, but I've cut them for more accelerants and better cards. Arcum is not a control deck for most parts. He's a combo-stax deck and I would advice playing the deck in such a manner because it is a mismatch of role to play the control role.
@Bearsum:
1) Grab Rings, this allows Arcum to sac a dude next turn, copy his effect from Rings for :2: and tutor up Basalt Monolith AND Top. Basalt Monolith taps for 3, and costs 3 to untap, with Rings, you can copy the untap by paying 2 mana. This creates a cycle where untapping Basalt twice costs 5, while tapping Basalt twice generates 6, netting +1 mana per cycle. The tutored top will then Tap draw a card put top on top of the library, but with Rings you copy this ability every time you top, with infinite mana you draw a card and the top you put on top of your library, allowing you to draw your whole deck, use the infinite mana to play out Mycosynthe Lattice and everything in your hand
2) No you cannot play cards as you are drawing cards from Time Spiral. The effect of Time Spiral has to resolve i.e. you draw 7 cards, then you can choose to play spells off Future Sight. You have to reveal the top card every time you draw a card from Time Spiral though, but you cannot play them until Time Spiral has finished resolving
3) Sculptor/Cloud Key + Top requires Future Sight/Magus of Future to be in play. With Sculptor/Cloud Key, Top costs 0 to play. So you tap draw a card, then play Top from the top of your library for 0 because of future sight, tap draw another card, repeat, and draw your whole deck
4) Possessed Portal is usually followed up with Myr Turbine (if you don't have anymore artifact creatures in hand), otherwise you follow it up with Crucible of Worlds or Spine of Ish Sha if you have another artifact creature in hand to play out.
I'll polish up the post a little bit but I'll take the advice and reduce this to just a deck discussion instead of an attempt to make a primer.
There is no use for Trinisphere in this deck. The key card that you are tutoring to stop your opponents is neither Smokestack nor Trinisphere. I've played with Smokestack + Tangle Wire + Winter Orb in the past and gearing towards competitive play, Stacks and Winter Orb are just too slow to do anything (WOrb is weak because competitive decks will primarily win with artifact mana before turn 5 rather than mana from land drops).
In the Eye of Chaos could be a strong addition, but what do you suggest cutting in the list to play it?
Arcum's main protection against other blue workshop deck (not sure what else is really a competitive blue workshop deck aside from Sharuum and Memnarch) is its ability to power out a fast general with fast artifact mana (Memnarch is slow in this respect). Arcum is monoU, and in my list, I play a full list of 'striplands', allowing that to be a factor of protection/disruption. Arcum IMO is superior to other Stax EDH decks e.g. Karn because you are playing a Stax EDH list with fast mana acceleration with the benefit of playing U-spells and having a general that has an incredibly powerful ability. AGainst combo decks, the key is ensuring that they do not get their artifact mana online fast enough. Combo EDH is pretty powerful and there have been cases where a turn 4 Possessed Portal still did not beat Ad Nauseam. If Necropotence sticks, it's also pretty much game over unless you grab a Pithing Needle/Spine fast.
Obviously, Arcum would not be able to compete against Zur/Clique since these generals by nature tend to dominate 1v1s with an overabundance of countermagic, but against anything else.
Not to nitpick, but I mentioned 'should' instead of will/must/do/are (despite the phrase'without a doubt'). I'm fairly certain that the core of competitive accelerants in EDH is fixed in most decks. Competitive EDH at its heart is really a combo or control format (in 1v1). There's only that many limited efficient mana-accelerants in the format currently, and every bit of accelerant is an edge over an opponent.
The primer is still not fully complete but I'll be polishing it up a little. Would you mind pointing out the other broad statements? That way I can go through and correct them if possible.
So Arcum was my second EDH general (first general was Rhys the Redeemed). A few years ago, I worked on a pretty competitive and cutthroat list that did well for me. Ever since Tolarian Academy and Staff of Domination were banned, I took the deck apart and stopped playing EDH for a good number of years. Recently, my Legacy playgroup has expressed EDH interest, and I decided to sleeve back Dagsson. With a few years of experience playing Legacy and Eternal format, I would say that the list was much more streamlined than before.
This list is well capable for multiplayer games as well, but I would not advise bringing it to a casual group.
1 Arcum Dagsson
36 LAND
12 Island
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Academy Ruins
1 Buried Ruins
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Vesuva
1 Petrified Fields
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Rishadan Port
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Dustbowl
1 Crystal Vein
1 Ancient Tomb
1 City of Traitors
1 Mishra's Workshop
1 Tolaria West
14 NON-ARTIFACT
1 Pact of Negation
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Mana Drain
1 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Fabricate
1 Intuition
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Mind over Matter
1 Time Spiral
1 Future Sight
1 Magus of the Future
1 Power Artifact
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Opal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Etherium Sculptor
1 Guardian Idol
1 Manakin
1 Millikin
1 Plague Myr
1 Silver Myr
1 Grim Monolith
1 Mind Stone
1 Alloy Myr
1 Palladium Myr
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Thran Dyanmo
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Voltaic Key
1 Filigree Sages
1 Clock of Omens
1 Cloud Key
8 PRISON/OTHERS
1 Static Orb
1 Mindslaver
1 Possessed Portal
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Mycosynth Lattice
1 Darksteel Forge
1 Expedition Map
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Myr Retriever
1 Junk Diver
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Memory Jar
1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Planar Portal
1 Master Transmuter
1 Myr Turbine
1 Rings of Brighthearth
6 REMOVAL
1 Pithing Needle
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Nevinryal's Disk
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Duplicant
1 Spine of Ish Sah
Here's my decklist/deck-analysis on googlespreadsheets:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AllC2sQZZEPodElQQlZabzcyYk1ISGRwUUw1Tml3ZGc&hl=en_US#gid=6
The way that I play Arcum is:
ACCELERANTS
Without a doubt, every competitive cutthroat EDH deck should play:
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Opal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Grim Monolith
1 Mind Stone
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Thran Dyanmo
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Voltaic Key
I don't support Chrome Mox due to my tremendously low blue count. The other Arcum-related accelerants are:
1 Etherium Sculptor
1 Guardian Idol
1 Manakin
1 Millikin
1 Plague Myr
1 Silver Myr
1 Alloy Myr
1 Palladium Myr
1 Filigree Sages
1 Clock of Omens
1 Cloud Key
MYRS
The 2cmc Myrs are mandatory in Arcum. They accelerate him out a turn faster and feed him for tutoring. The 3cmc Myrs are less impressive but could create the mana required for situations where you do not draw your 4th landdrop otherwise i.e. it's to decrease variance of not being able to cast Arcum. Alloy Myr is the weakest slot but can't be replaced unless they are printing more artifact creature accelerants.
FILIGREE SAGES
Filigree Sages is there because it is completely busted with a Power Artifact (untapping Gilded Lotus) or when you have infinite mana out with Mycosynth Lattice, you can start untapping Planar Portal or Arcum and play out your whole deck).
CLOCK OF OMENS
This card is really busted, despite looking like a bad Voltaic Key initially. I would prefer an 'untap all artifacts' effect but it doesn't seem that such alternatives exist that allow you to untap artifacts at instant speed. With a Mycosynthe Lattice in play, this card because hilarious (you can tap your lands to untap Arcum and other things etc).
NON-ARTIFACT
1 Pact of Negation
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Mana Drain
1 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Fabricate
1 Intuition
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Mind over Matter
1 Time Spiral
1 Future Sight
1 Magus of the Future
1 Power Artifact
PERMISSION
Permission package includes the mandatory: Pact of Negation, Mana Drain, FoW, Misdirection. Hinder was initially in the list but was much inferior to Muddle the Mixture since you are really not interested in a 3cmc counterspell v.s. a 2cmc version that could tutor for combo pieces such as Grim Monolith, Power Artifact or Mana Drain
TUTORS
The other cards need no explanation. MTutor, Intuition, Fabricate are powerful tutors, Tezzeret allows you to win games without ever having to activate Arcum (go grab Rings of Brighthearth first, and setup for Rings+Basalt+SDT win). Mind Over Matter is completely stupid in the format. Time Spiral, Future Sight/Magus of the Future gives huge card advantage.
FUTURE SIGHT
I play 2x Future Sight effects because resolving one already guarantees huge card advantage above your opponents, and supports the Etherium Sculptor/Cloud Key + SDT combo. (Remember that you want to play combo shells that don't have worthless combo components. This is the reason why I don't play Mind Over Matter + [card]Temple Bell[card] + Eldrazi combo because the Temple Bell/Eldrazi is really terrible on their own).
I used to run Mind's Eye but has since taken it out because I am never tinkering for Mind's Eye with Arcum and if I needed cards from Arcum, Memory Jar is the prime target with Arcum. Therefore drawing Mind's Eye because much inferior to drawing Magus of the Future (Magus replaced Mind's Eye).
PRISON
1 Static Orb
1 Mindslaver
1 Possessed Portal
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Mycosynth Lattice
1 Darksteel Forge
POSSESSED PORTAL
I used to play Winter Orb, in fact, I was the first person on MTGS that suggested that the crucial piece for a successful Arcum list was really revolving around Winter Orb. Things have changed since then because the old strategy of going Winter Orb+Tangle Wire into Candelabra of Tawnos and Tolarian Academy was just way too slow. Winter Orb also did not get around competitive decks that played out its artifact mana fast. In replacement, Static Orb proved to be much devastating, but is still the weakest slot that could be cut from the list.
The true prison replacement in this list that allowed me to cut down on 2 card slots in my older lists (Tangle Wire, Smokestack) was Possessed Portal. Getting a turn 3 Possessed Portal is backbreaking. Portal ensures that the game state never advances and only retards for both players. However, since you have a tutoring general in play that usually comes out faster than opposing generals (due to the monoU and heavy artifact/accelerant-theme to Arcum), you can lock people out much faster without the need to go through multiple turns under a Winter Orb to find your combo pieces while maintaining the lock.
Possessed Portal is perhaps one of the three targets that you always tinker first. If it sticks, Tinkering up a Spine of Ish Sha when you have 7 mana available allows you to sac Spine, play spine and put them back to ground zero. Otherwise tutoring Crucible of Worlds or Myr Turbine also creates the lock.
MYCOSYNTHE LATTICE
Mycosynthe Lattice is another busted card that you tutor up as a finishing combo. I seldom find myself going the Mycosynthe Lattice + Darksteel Forge + Nevinrryal's Disk combo these days. It is great to have a backup assymetrical boardwipe/wincon and it is the only reason why the combo is still there (Disk/Forge themselves are not bad cards in this deck). Lattice is really used to power out combo win conditions such as:
- Lattice + Clock of Omens + Arcum etc
- Lattice + infinite colorless mana allows you to cast everything in your deck (even Mind Over Matter. The mana-fixing of Lattice is huge to powering out the heavy-U combos).
#NAME?
Arcum is really nothing without Lattice in the list. Lattice fulfills all the combo/accelerant/prison that the deck ever needs.
CARD ADVANTAGE
1 Expedition Map
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Myr Retriever
1 Junk Diver
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Memory Jar
1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Planar Portal
1 Master Transmuter
1 Myr Turbine
1 Rings of Brighthearth
EXPEDITION MAP
Primarily fetches Mishra's Workshop or Strip Mine (with Crucible lock). With M12, fetching Buried Ruins makes the Map incredibly powerful. Buried Ruins is ages better than Academy Ruins in this deck.
TOP
Great by itself, but a combo piece for Future Sight/Magus of the Future + Top or Rings of Brighthearth+Basalt Monolith+Top (this combo is tutorable by Arcum/Tezzeret). Sometimes I wonder why Top isn't banned in this format.
MYR RETRIEVER/JUNK DIVER
I used to run crap like Copper Gnomes but these little dudes are incredibly powerful in the deck. They can sustain a few critters for Arcum to sac, or recur Jars and more powerful artifacts
MEMORY JAR
Why is this unbanned in EDH? Used primarily when you have tons of artifact mana out to play out your hands (not too hard for this deck), or used in conjunction with Mind Over Matter to untap lots of Gilded Lotus
PLANAR PORTAL
Tutored out in the late-game to assemble combos involving cards that are otherwise untutorable such as Mind Over Matter and Future Sight. With Infinite colorless mana out and an untapper e.g. Clock of Omens, you can win games from there.
MYR TURBINE
This card is one of the top 5 most frequently tutored pieces. It allows you to tinker every turn. It replaced the old Nuisance Engine since it does not need mana investment to make a token. Also, it allows my deck to be even more Myr-themed so my Myr tokens and Myr Life counters look more awesome.
RINGS OF BRIGHTHEARTH
The most busted card in the format. In any deck, this card should always be played. It's both fun, and tremendously broken with ANYTHING (Planeswalkers/Stripmines/Planar Portal/Arcum/Clock of Omens etc)
Very huge difference. Key/Vault is a 2-card combo for infinite turns (1 card combo if you get Tezz in play). Sundial/Final Fortune is a 2 card combo for 1 turn, a 3 card combo for infinite turn is involving Scepter. Final Fortune is also RR in manacost where Vault/Key is colorless, takes 2 slots in a 60 card deck so the rest of the deck is playing UB goodstuff while the Final Fortune/Sundial deck is packing more than 3 cards (possibly 15 cards) to play a 3-card combo (infinitely superior to 2 card combo btw).
Hope that answers your question.
=====================
INTRO
=====================
Hey guys! I'm back, and those of you who followed me years back, I was the author of the extensive primer for Arcum Dagsson. It's been two years since I've been back to some EDH action. I played EDH on and off occasionally and enjoyed Karn as a casual/competitive deck.
Recently my Legacy playgroup showed an interest in EDH so I decided to rebuild the cutthroat deck that I once ran, now full with new tools from the newer sets. Tolarian Academy, Staff of Domination will be truly missed, but in a cutthroat environment where artifact mana means much more than lands, I realized that the old playstyle of grabbing Winter Orb and setting up Candelabra of Tawnos for lots of mana with Gauntlet of Power/High Tide/Tolarian Academy was too slow. Winter Orb, despite its history of being dominantly powerful in this deck, has finally worn its course, and is sometimes underwhelming against opposing decks that play the maximum amount of artifact mana acceleration.
The new Arcum loses Tolarian Academy and some powerful spells, but there have been additions of great cards that improved the deck. Here's a list of cards that have greatly improved the consistency of the deck:
Myr Turbine
Buried Ruins (M12)
Inkmoth Nexus
Mox Opal
Plague Myr
Alloy Myr
Palladium Myr
Phyrexian Metamorph
Spine of Ish Sah
Kuldotha Forgemaster
These cards, in every way have improved the deck. The following list that I'm providing below is what I feel to be a highly-tuned list, with possibly 3-4 cards that could be cut for further fine-tuning (e.g. Master Transmuter, Mindslaver, Hinder etc)
=====================
DECKLIST
=====================
1 Arcum Dagsson
LANDS: 36
Basic (15)
15 Island
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Tolaria West
1 Buried Ruins
1 Academy Ruins
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Vesuva
1 Petrified Field
1 Maze of Ith
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Stripmine
1 Wasteland
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Rishadan Port
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Dustbowl
1 Crystal Vein
1 Ancient Tomb
1 City of Traitors
1 Mishra's Workshop
NON-ARTIFACTS: 15
Permission (7)
1 Pact of Negation
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Mana Drain
1 Hinder
1 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
1 Capsize
1 Fabricate
1 Intuition
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Mind over Matter
1 Time Spiral
1 Future Sight
1 Power Artifact
ARTIFACTS - ACCELERANTS: 23
True Accelerants (19)
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Opal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Etherium Sculptor
1 Guardian Idol
1 Manakin
1 Millikin
1 Plague Myr
1 Silver Myr
1 Grim Monolith
1 Mind Stone
1 Alloy Myr
1 Palladium Myr
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Voltaic Key
1 Filigree Sages
1 Clock of Omens
1 Rings of Brighthearth
Removal/Lock (9)
1 Pithing Needle
1 Static Orb
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Nevinryal's Disk
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Duplicant
1 Mindslaver
1 Spine of Ish Sah
1 Possessed Portal
1 Expedition Map
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Myr Retriever
1 Junk Diver
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Arcbound Reclaimer
1 Memory Jar
1 Mind's Eye
1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Planar Portal
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Master Transmuter
1 Myr Turbine
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Darksteel Forge
1 Mycosynthe Lattice
=====================
CARD CHOICES:
=====================
MANABASE: 36
BASICS
The more non-basic lands that print that benefit the deck greatly, the more Islands you cut. Since this build is no longer relying on High Tide effects to generate mana, there is less desires to keep to a high Island count.
Island
UTILITY
These lands are useful lands that have powerful utility.
Minamo, School at Water's Edge: Untaps Arcum
Tolaria West: Tutors Workshop/Strip Mine/Mana Crypt/Academy Ruins/Buried Ruin
Buried Ruins: Insanely powerful card from M12. Putting artifact in your HAND is key here.
Academy Ruins: Great card in a deck playing tons of artifacts, recurs Memory Jar GG.
Seat of the Synod: Counts as another artifact.
Vesuva: Copies Strips/Workshop primarily
Petrified Field: Recurs Workshop primarily
Maze of Ith: Against random Blightsteels and other beaters that happen to slip past your prison.
MANLANDS
These lands are much needed in Arcum Dagsson if you're seeking to maximize non-land slots.
Inkmoth Nexus
Blinkmoth Nexus
Mishra's Factory
STRIPLANDS
These lands are powerful in a deck with fast mana and a general that tutors, allowing you to set your opponents back as much as you can
Stripmine
Wasteland
Ghost Quarter
Rishadan Port
Tectonic Edge
Dustbowl
SOL-LANDS
These lands enable Arcum a turn faster, or just has great ability to power out faster accelerants/artifacts since the deck is primarily colorless. I used to run Lotus Vale and Scorched Ruins but ever since moving away from Ward of Bones and focusing more on Possessed Portal, I decided the tempo loss from risk of opposing striplands is too great in a multiplayer setting.
Crystal Vein
Ancient Tomb
City of Traitors
Mishra's Workshop
NON-ARTIFACTS:
PERMISSION
Pact of Negation: Free counter/misdirection is important in cutthroat metagames
Muddle the Mixture: a Negate that tutors primarily for [card]Power Artifact[/cards] and many other cards
Mana Drain: Best 2cmc counterspell
Hinder: The weakest counterspell in deck, is relevant against problematic generals like Zur, otherwise it's a terrible counterspell that will be cut in the future if the deck gets even more cards to play with
Force of Will: Free counter is important in cutthroat metagames
Misdirection: Free counter/misdirection is important in cutthroat metagames
Capsize: Mystical Tutorable removal that has good potential in the late game for infinite recursion
TUTORS
Mystical Tutor: Best tutor in blue, usually grabbing PoN/FoW/Misdirection/Mana Drain/Time Spiral
Fabricate: Demonic Tutor in this artifact-heavy deck
Intuition: Broken tutor
Tezzeret the Seeker: Tezz is the mini Arcum in this deck. If you get Tezz out, you can essentially play the deck without ever playing Arcum. I usually grab Rings of Brighthearth out first or untap multiple artifact mana.
BOMBS
Mind over Matter: combos with Top, great synergy with Memory Jar and other draw effects, insanely powerful with artifact mana and untapping Arcum
Time Spiral: A Mystical Tutorable Jar-draw7 effect with untap.
Future Sight: Combos with Top and being too good as a card-advantage engine
Power Artifact: Combos with Basalt Monolith/Grim Monolith/Filigree Sages and much more
=====================
CORE STRATEGY
=====================
This section outlines the common artifacts you tinker with Dagsson, and the corresponding winning-strategy that decision:
RINGS OF BRIGHTHEARTH + BASALT MONOLITH
This is the most powerful combo path because Rings by itself is a card that breaks every card in the deck. Rings of Brighthearth is single-handedly the most busted artifact in the format. Rings + Basalt Monolith generates infinite colorless mana, which allows you to fuel into Planar Portal tutoring up Sensei's Divining Top (Rings + Top + Infinite mana = draw your entire deck).
Rings by itself without Basalt monolith is incredible with Arcum Dagsson, giving him 2 activations, and Rings also work with a ton of other incredible artifacts to gain a lot for the deck e.g. Tezzeret/Planar Portal.
This is the combo path that wins the game immediately when assembled instead of dragging games out.
POSSESSED PORTAL + CRUCIBLE OF WORLDS/MYR TURBINE
Possessed Portal was the abomination spawned by playing Karn. This card has been insane in every game when you get it out fast in Karn. I used to play a combination of Smokestack/Winter Orb in my older Arcum Dagsson build when I forget that Possessed Portal completely stops opponents cold when it's out. Since you have an active Arcum, tutoring up a Crucible of Worlds/Myr Turbine after Possessed Portal will eventually push opponents out of the game while you continue to build asymmetrically under Possessed Portal.
N.B. Possessed Portal makes players skip ANY draw, and the sac/discard ability happens on EVERY end of turn. This creates a prison effect far stronger and faster than Winter Orb/Smokestack can ever achieve.
This is the easiest combo path to setup since it stops your opponents from doing anything once you get a fast (turn 3-4 Possessed Portal).
DARKSTEEL FORGE + NEVINRYAL'S DISK + MYCOSYNTHE LATTICE
This combo is probably infamous by now. The 3-card combo assembled with ease by Arcum causes every permanent an opponent owns to be wiped by a re-usable Disk (Disk taps itself) while your permanents are all indestructible. I usually go Forge->Disk>Lattice in this order because grabbing Forge first gives your artifacts indestructibility, making the tutored Disk have a better chance at surviving an untap. Once you have the Forge/Disk combo, this is good by itself without the Lattice unless you are intending to be a sadist and blow up lands as well.
This is the slowest and most difficult to setup combo path.
More content tomorrow. No time for tonight.
I usually have an idea on what I'm doing, but would like some advice.
2 weeks ago I traded:
My:
2 Flooded Strand
1 Inkmoth Nexus
His:
1 Foil Grim Monolith NM-
I feel that the trade was even despite various sources showing that a foil grim monolith is worth about $10-$15 than my pile. Regardless, I was sure that I wouldn't do the trade if a foil Grim Monolith was worth $10-$15 more than my pile, but I would like some feedback as to why Foil Monoliths are this high. It's not like it sees play in Vintage, and neither does it see much play in Legacy outside of Meandeck MUD. Is EDH the prime cost-driving factor here?
If he doesn't work out for you, just play him in Legacy Affinity and witness the sheer power of casting him and winning the next turn with Tendrils for 20