Dies to Removal

Val's on a roll.

Strictly better than Worst Fears.

Have we submitted this one yet?

Bribery

Wurmcoil Engine


Pros:
- Serious threat.

Cons:
- 6 cmc sucks, I guess.

#deweydecimalsystem

Your face is quality community building.

Val posted it first. He should get credit for the submission.

Evidently I proposed Enlightened Tutor after Val had already done it. Between the two posts it has two votes.

Also, if we're voting in cards that grab things like Magister Sphinx and Trading Post, we should probably also vote in Magister Sphinx and Trading Post.

Should be able to cheat this asshole out pretty early...

Magister Sphinx


Pros:
- Basically a kill shot.
- Can bring someone with an out of control life gain engine back to heel.

Cons:
- Can be used against you with things like Bribery.

Nothing wrong with running both. Lets just be realistic about the actual pros and cons of things. It's a tutor that only hunts for Artifacts. This deck just happens to be able to entirely play around that drawback.

I can see considering that a card has no drawback within this context of this deck too, though. Different perspectives of looking at things.

Okay, so there's one strictly better tutor than that.

Enlightened Tutor


Cons:
- Tutors to top deck, but does it for 1 mana.
- Only nabs Enchantments and Artifacts.


[x] Tallied.

Imperial Seal


If we're only building the deck in theory, then in theory we can include this card.

Cons:
- Tutors to top deck, but does it for 1 mana.
- At $700, it's in the running for one of the most expensive Commander legal cards.

Vampiric Tutor


Cons: Only tutors to top deck, but tutors at instant speed which is unique.

Cons: There are better tutors than that.

Demonic Tutor


I'd call these no-brainers, barring an argument against having any tutors at all. Like having a ton of draw making them irrelevant.

Sword of Feast and Famine


Pros:
- Untaps all your lands, letting you tap out to cast creatures and spells while still having plenty of mana open for counters.
- Pro green and pro black are very relevant.

Cons:
- Equipped creature has to connect.
- Draws a lot of hate.

As long as we're on the subject of beaters...

Cranial Plating


Pros:
- B-b-b-broken
- Equip for at instant speed.

Cons:
- Could be called win-more.
- Potentially underwhelming in EDH.

Ethersworn Canonist


Pros:
- 2cmc set of brake pads for your opponents.

Cons:
- Potentially dead vs. certain other decks.

Master of Etherium


Pros:
- Potentially a great, big ass.
- Buffs other artifact creatures.

Cons:
- Value is only worth your current board state.

[x] Tallied.

Academy Ruins



Pros:
- Artifact recursion source.

Cons:
- Recurs to top deck, which is less preferable than to hand or directly into play.
- Only taps for colorless mana.

Should the staple color-fixing lands be auto-includes? I mean, you need a good reason not to include them.

Command Tower
Reflecting Pool
[cards]Godless Shrine[/cards]
Hallowed Fountain
Watery Grave
Drowned Catacomb
Glacial Fortress
Isolated Chapel
[cards]Fetid Heath[/cards]
Sunken Ruins
Mystic Gate

And if we're not considering budget...
Underground Sea
Tundra
Scrubland

Specifically on the the ones that don't CIPT with no way around it, and don't do anything but generate mana. ([card]Forbidden
Orchard[/card] is an example of one that doesn't fit that description.)

Ah, that's a good plan too.

Exsanguine was my next suggestion. I went with Oona over BSZ because Zenith is target player mills out, while Oona can mill the whole table in one turn. I'm a huge fan of things that hit the whole table, especially if I win out of nowhere with them.

Exsanguinate



Pros:
- Table kill with infinite mana. Even if someone survives it somehow, you'll be so far ahead it won't make a difference.
- It's from Scars of Mirrodin, and has a cool looking vampire on it.

Cons:
- You get one shot and that's it. Gotta make it count.


Debt to the Deathless amounts to the same thing, I guess.

Since a few infinite mana combos are on the table, I'll suggest a few ways to actually use that mana to win.

Oona, Queen of the Fae


Pros:
- 5/5 evasive body for 6 mana.
- Ability mills the table with infinite mana, and can do it the turn she drops.

Cons:
- She's as fragile as any other creature.
- Everybody knows what you're about to do as soon as they see her.

I like Terminus over Wrath because tucking someone's general is a big deal. A lot of decks will just fold to that. It's definitely not as playable as Wrath, though. With Terminus we have to be careful to to screw ourselves too much, so we almost have to be behind on the board before it becomes useful.

Card images for Jack's posts, if anyone needs them...

Terefi's just good defense. Someone explained to me once that Terefi + Knowledge Pool work to totally prevent opponents from being able to cast spells at all. Does it actually work like that?

I guess a good question at this point is what do we want to do with the deck? In general. Combo, aggro, control...? How are we going to win with it?

Top should be as gimme as Sol Ring.

4th card, then I'm saving my slots for after other people jump in:

Power Artifact


Pros:
- Infinite mana combo enabler when stuck to a Grim Monolith/Basalt Monolith.

Cons:
- Only enchants one artifact.

[x] Tallied.

Is Basalt Monolith a common rock?

Necropotence



Pros:
- Good draw engine. If we take advantage of Sydri's ability to give artifact creatures Lifelink and we get a steady flow of life gain to keep up with the cost, Necropotence upgrades from "pretty good" to "fucking broken".
- Skipping your draw phase puts you out of range of [card]Teferi's Puzzle Box[/card], if you see it commonly, and nullifies decks like Nekusar that turn card draw against you because you don't "draw" the cards you get from Necropotence.

Cons:
- Triple black.
- Discarded cards get exiled, which kinda sucks if you're also running recursion.
- If you're low on life, out of ways to get more, and have no way of popping your own Necropotence, you are either on a clock of
your own doing or not drawing cards at all.
- With access to blue as well, it is perhaps not the most consistent draw engine available to us. It's only really broken with a reliable source of life gain, like from Sydri giving things lifelink. Without that, things like Rhystic Study and Consecrated Sphinx overshadow it.

I saw some Sydri decks that were basically EDH eggs, but I wanted to avoid that, too.

I think Sculpting Steel is good no matter the focus of the deck. Clones are really good.

I agree. that was meant more as a note to self and a comment on Bitter Ordeal, and other things that can combo with Sharuum.

I almost put up Sculpting Steel.



Pros:
- Combos with Sharuum and Sculpting Steel/Phyrexian Metamorph to exile target player's library.
- Deals with threats before they can even be drawn.

Cons:
- Very limited in power if not cast as a part of the combo.
- Future Shifted card borders are fucking weird.


EDIT: Hmm... if the point is to build a Sydri deck, let's be careful not to build a deck that would be better off as a Sharuum deck...

Phyrexian Metamorph



Pros:
- A 3 cmc copy of Wurmcoil Engine, Blightsteel Colossus, or something worse? Yes, please.
- Can target an opponent's junk and not just your own.

Cons:
- Value is entirely dependent on what cards are already in play.

[x] Tallied.