Hm...Archive might be good in Daretti. Red doesn't draw cards all that well, but having a draw spell in the Command Zone might be enough to merit some testing. Archive costing five means it comes down right after Daretti as well, which is alright.
Hooray! The first two cards I want from this set have been spoiled lol. Elemental Bond is good and green and stompy and will see plenty of play in multiple decks. Pia and Kiran Nalaar are excellent sac fodder for Shattergang Brothers for both his creature and his artifact eating ability. Beetleback Chief does work in that deck and this card trades the tribal synergy of syncing up with Krenko for more versatility in syncing up with my Commander. Love it.
Very cool decklist. I've always loved Enchantress decks in EDH, especially when people go outside the traditional Azorius, Selesnya, or Bant colors.
My two cents:
Steel of the Godhead is one of the best auras around, it buffs Narset, keeps you alive, and keeps her alive.
Iroas, God of Victory makes Narset harder to block and immune to combat damage when she does get blocked. Plus, his devotion won't be hard for you and once you get it, you've got another good beatstick/blocker. Then again, it might just be that I've got a soft spot for this fella.
Retether is also a nice trick, especially with Flash.
Detention Sphere requires a greater color commitment than O-Ring, but I like it better for it's ability to nuke tokens and cards that tend to get run or copied by multiple people.
Prison Term is one of my favorite Pacifism effects. It shuts down a creature completely and then, if a new, scarier creature comes into play, you can switch it over to them.
I'm building a Derevi, Empyrial Tactician creature toolbox deck and I'm currently looking for space to get the deck down to 99 cards. It didn't take me long to figure out that I was including some really powerful Wizards and that I could throw some cards in there to take advantage of that creature type.
I'm running Azami, Lady of Scrolls and Riptide Laboratory because of this wizard package and if I decide to trim that aspect of the deck I'd open up some much needed space.
1. I'm running twelve Wizards (including Derevi), is that enough to get proper value out of cards like Azami and Riptide Lab?
2. And, probably more importantly, is trying to run Azami worth altering my deck construction? I know she's amazing as the General of a mono-blue deck, but I dunno anyone who's tried running her outside of that capacity.
I don't like playing against them, personally. When I sit down at the table with a chaos deck, I usually gun for them first, not because I hate them but because they make it harder for my deck to function.
I don't hate them, but I wouldn't wanna play against them too consistently.
Being competitive is a really relative thing. Being competitive in a group that just loves to smash creatures together from turn one to turn seven hundred is a lot different from being competitive in a group that tries to combo off turn five.
What's your group like? What decks are floating around? What do they like/not like? And if all else fails, running a U/B/x copy and steal everything deck can be competitive in most groups without being unpleasant since it's only as good the cards your opponents are playing. I've had some fun with a Wrexial, the Risen Deep deck built around that philosophy.
I like Grave Titan a lot because he's good on his own, good to pod away, and he's also a potential combo piece if you use Nim Deathmantle to combo off. Wurmcoil Engine fills a similar role.
Inferno Titan's also solid. He gives you some value before you Pod him away and if he sticks around it'll be really hard for opponents to keep any utility dorks around.
Kokusho, the Evening Star is also pretty good with Pod, especially if you've got some recursion to bring him back and Pod him away again.
I've built a Prossh, Skyraider of Kher deck that's looking to do some of the same things this deck is trying to do and I've had a lot of success with Heartless Summoning. The -1/-1 hasn't hurt me all that much and has even been a benefit a couple times when I've played a creature that normally has two toughness and then got to Clamp that creature. And two less mana for my creatures has been a huge boon. One mana Fleshbag Marauder? Two mana Graveborn Muse? Three mana Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker? It's done work.
Of late it's definitely been Birthing Pod. I've always loved grindy attrition decks and this card slots perfectly into most of my green attrition decks. It lets me get what I need at a small cost and often lends itself to the reuse of my resources since most attrition decks run plenty of recursion as well.
If you're not running Keldon Firebombers then you're not doing the worst possible things to people lol. You've got Loam and Crucible to get your lands back and even if you don't draw into LD you still run fetches to make those cards worthwhile.
Is there any up/down on the Temples? I feel like they fit well in a control setup, but I haven't seen any discussion of them at all. My current list (which has yet to see the heat of battle as there are still a number of cards in proxy form) looks like this.
Personally I haven't given a moment's thought to running the Temples in Cruel Control. I already run four man lands and the fact that those come into play tapped has caused me trouble. Plus there's the fast lands that come into play tapped later in the game. And then you can't always afford to pay the two life for Shocks. I cannot imagine adding another set of lands that come into play tapped all the time and I wouldn't replace any of the above lands for a little Scrying. Potentially coming into play untapped or just killing people later in the game seems way better to me.
My two cents:
Steel of the Godhead is one of the best auras around, it buffs Narset, keeps you alive, and keeps her alive.
Iroas, God of Victory makes Narset harder to block and immune to combat damage when she does get blocked. Plus, his devotion won't be hard for you and once you get it, you've got another good beatstick/blocker. Then again, it might just be that I've got a soft spot for this fella.
Thassa, God of the Sea performs a similar role and smooths out your draws.
Retether is also a nice trick, especially with Flash.
Detention Sphere requires a greater color commitment than O-Ring, but I like it better for it's ability to nuke tokens and cards that tend to get run or copied by multiple people.
Prison Term is one of my favorite Pacifism effects. It shuts down a creature completely and then, if a new, scarier creature comes into play, you can switch it over to them.
I've got a little blink, but not a ton.
Deadeye Navigator
Restoration Angel
Venser, the Sojourner
Although, creatures that blink AND are wizards sound pretty solid.
Vedalken AEthermage is tempting too. Too bad he's not properly flickerable lol.
I'm running Azami, Lady of Scrolls and Riptide Laboratory because of this wizard package and if I decide to trim that aspect of the deck I'd open up some much needed space.
Here are the wizards I'm running:
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
Arcanis the Omnipotent
Azami, Lady of Scrolls
Ertai, Wizard Adept
Glen Elendra Archmage
Mangara of Corondor
Prime Speaker Zegana
Prophet of Kruphix
Snapcaster Mage
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Vendilion Clique
Venser, Shaper Savant
So, I have a couple questions for you guys:
1. I'm running twelve Wizards (including Derevi), is that enough to get proper value out of cards like Azami and Riptide Lab?
2. And, probably more importantly, is trying to run Azami worth altering my deck construction? I know she's amazing as the General of a mono-blue deck, but I dunno anyone who's tried running her outside of that capacity.
Mill isn't what U/B does best, just what it's done of late. U/B is still a controlling color combination.
I don't hate them, but I wouldn't wanna play against them too consistently.
What's your group like? What decks are floating around? What do they like/not like? And if all else fails, running a U/B/x copy and steal everything deck can be competitive in most groups without being unpleasant since it's only as good the cards your opponents are playing. I've had some fun with a Wrexial, the Risen Deep deck built around that philosophy.
Inferno Titan's also solid. He gives you some value before you Pod him away and if he sticks around it'll be really hard for opponents to keep any utility dorks around.
Kokusho, the Evening Star is also pretty good with Pod, especially if you've got some recursion to bring him back and Pod him away again.
Duplicant is also a good option for most decks.
Personally I haven't given a moment's thought to running the Temples in Cruel Control. I already run four man lands and the fact that those come into play tapped has caused me trouble. Plus there's the fast lands that come into play tapped later in the game. And then you can't always afford to pay the two life for Shocks. I cannot imagine adding another set of lands that come into play tapped all the time and I wouldn't replace any of the above lands for a little Scrying. Potentially coming into play untapped or just killing people later in the game seems way better to me.