I've been thinking about what I like doing in magic, and what I've come up with is this: I love toolbox cards. A good toolbox is like an iceberg: it doesn't look so bad from above the table, but there's a hell of a lot of pain lurking below the surface.
To be a good toolbox, you've got to be able to repond to situations immediately, and you've got to have a good selection of effects to choose from. Arcum fits both of those bills. Unfortunately, he's been used almost entirely to pilot out douchebag lockdown stax. So here's my attempt to remedy that injustice, by restoring him to the awesome toolbox that he ought to be.
It's worth pointing out that the past few sets have been very, very kind to Arcum. First of all, myr turbine is just too perfect for words (and i've drafted 2, for whatever that's worth). mirrorworks allows for insane tricks, especially with good-ol scuplting steel. And spine of ish sah (which i also drafted, meh) is very strange but also very awesome for him, since it turns arcum into vindicate on a stick. Plus there's been smaller gifts like myr sire, memnite, and plague myr.
Between o-stone, spine, brooch, forge, sunstone, and greaves you can handle pretty much any combo or threat to you as long as arcum is on the field. the other artifacts are mostly utility, to help you power out more answers, more copies, faster and faster until you're generating thousands of myr a turn from your hundreds of myr turbines. Then you can just overrun the enemy with your vast army.
counters tend to be the cheap kind: once arcum is in play, you shouldn't need them again barring something unexpected, so they're really just to keep him alive for those first few turns, hence weird cards like lilting refrain. You want to get him out ASAP, but if he gets tucked, you're pretty much dead, so early-game protection is a must.
removal is sort of in the same boat, it's mostly to be used as threats to stop people from killing/countering arcum.
defense is also mostly early-game, but they can be nice blockers for aggressive generals until you get things going.
artifact creatures are all 0-3 mana, since you want them out ASAP for sacrificing. Expensive choices like duplicant are a waste when you can just drop something cheap, then sac it for spine.
So that's the basic strategy behind the deck. If you've got any improvements on the cards in those categories, I'd be glad to hear them.
Monkey cage! I am sure it would be an incredibly rewarding feeling to respond to akroma, angel of wrath by sliding in a Cage, and having it explode with eight 2/2 apes!
Also, I don't see expedition map. That's a toolbox in and of its self.
Don't see any graveyard hate either. scrabbling claws or tormod's crypt can fix that. (oh, you have the lantern. Any particular reason why you chose that card?)
Monkey cage! I am sure it would be an incredibly rewarding feeling to respond to akroma, angel of wrath by sliding in a Cage, and having it explode with eight 2/2 apes!
Also, I don't see expedition map. That's a toolbox in and of its self.
Don't see any graveyard hate either. scrabbling claws or tormod's crypt can fix that. (oh, you have the lantern. Any particular reason why you chose that card?)
I assume Reito's Lantern is there so that he can both use it as hate and as a way to recycle his own artifacts.
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Monkey cage! I am sure it would be an incredibly rewarding feeling to respond to akroma, angel of wrath by sliding in a Cage, and having it explode with eight 2/2 apes!
Also, I don't see expedition map. That's a toolbox in and of its self.
Don't see any graveyard hate either. scrabbling claws or tormod's crypt can fix that. (oh, you have the lantern. Any particular reason why you chose that card?)
monkey cage would definitely be a clever bit of tech, and what I like about toolbox decks is that changing just a few cards can have a huge impact on the deck, since you can get them in every game. That said, since the monkeys aren't artifact creatures they don't really fit that well into the synergy of the rest of the toolbox I've set up.
Expedition map I thought about, but most of the effects I can get from my lands I can get better from my artifacts. Not many lands are going to look good compared to dreamstone hedron for the same price.
the reito lantern is the gy hate (also heap doll, but that's harder to use), and as wildfire pointed out, it's for recursion too. It's actually really important when things start getting insane...you can sac your sculpting steel to KCI, plow it into the deck, then pop it out as a myr turbine and make some copies with mirrorworks. Plus, if I lose an important combo piece, it helps me get it back into the deck for fetching. Tormod's crypt is nice and all, but it only has a single function, and its efficient price is sort of meaningless when everything gets pulled out of the deck for free.
EDIT: I did totally forget to include the obvious mana rocks: sol ring, mana crypt, and mana vault. Those are all in there now.
This deck seems pretty underpowered compared to some of the other lists on this site. There are quite a few cards in here that are completely unplayable in this format. I understand how Arcum needs artifact bodies to function, but that's no excuse to run bad cards. You should probably take a look at some of the other Arcum lists.
Furthermore, you touched on the fact that you are completely dead if Arcum gets tucked. That's just unacceptable. Other people are going to see Arcum coming and try to kill/tuck him immediately. If you can't do anything without him, play another deck.
There are far too many unplayable cards to list here, but you might want to start by reading Blackjack's Guide to EDH deck-building. It should give you some ideas on what you should/should not play.
This deck seems pretty underpowered compared to some of the other lists on this site. There are quite a few cards in here that are completely unplayable in this format. I understand how Arcum needs artifact bodies to function, but that's no excuse to run bad cards. You should probably take a look at some of the other Arcum lists.
Furthermore, you touched on the fact that you are completely dead if Arcum gets tucked. That's just unacceptable. Other people are going to see Arcum coming and try to kill/tuck him immediately. If you can't do anything without him, play another deck.
There are far too many unplayable cards to list here, but you might want to start by reading Blackjack's Guide to EDH deck-building. It should give you some ideas on what you should/should not play.
Haha, ouch, suggesting I read a primer? There's no reason to get that nasty about it. You're lucky I'm in a good mood. I'll admit this deck is a little experimental (as most of my favorite decks are) but I've put a pretty good amount of time into building it, so the choices I made have a fair amount of thought behind them.
As far as being underpowered, I'd agree that, from a strict power standpoint, the orb/stax varieties of arcum are probably more powerful. However, the problem with those decks is that everyone hates them, which becomes a pretty big liability in multiplayer. This deck doesn't have any stax or prison type cards to piss people off, which I think makes it a better deck for multiplayer in the long run.
As far as being dead if arcum is tucked...There aren't a lot of ways around that. I could run distant memories, long-term plans, intuition etc. in the hopes of getting him back, which might be a good idea, but I prefer just preventing the effect in the first place, hence all the cheap counterspells. Plus, since it's not an especially brutal variety of Arcum, I think he's less likely to eat tuck early-on (later-on, null brooch makes tuck virtually impossible). I could change the whole deck to be more viable without arcum, but that's not what I want. Toolboxes are fun because they change the way your deck works from depending on the luck of your topdeck to depending on your skill in abusing your toolbox. If I filled the deck with a bunch of generic goodstuff and just used arcum to fetch a few combo pieces or lockdown effects, then the deck wouldn't be something I want to play.
I wouldn't mind a short list (or maybe some general categories) of cards you don't think are up to snuff. The artifact creatures? The counterspells? The toolbox itself? I think I can probably defend most of my choices, but I'd be interested to hear how you'd change it.
OK, that was probably a little too harsh. I think I just saw the Memnite and everything went blank after that. I certainly would not advocate playing orb/stax combos or anything else that prevents people from playing the game.
However, I would highly recommend making two general improvements:
- Cut all the counters that only work unless someone pays X. That never works in this format because everybody ramps. Go with the hard stuff.
- Cut the really crappy artifact creatures that don't do anything on their own (like Memnite). One way to decrease the dependance on your general is to run fewer cards that only work when your general is on the board. For example, you might try a Thopter Assembly or a Myr Battlesphere or a Karn, Silver Golem. Heck, even a Myr Propagator would be better than a Memnite.
OK, that was probably a little too harsh. I think I just saw the Memnite and everything went blank after that. I certainly would not advocate playing orb/stax combos or anything else that prevents people from playing the game.
However, I would highly recommend making two general improvements:
- Cut all the counters that only work unless someone pays X. That never works in this format because everybody ramps. Go with the hard stuff.
- Cut the really crappy artifact creatures that don't do anything on their own (like Memnite). One way to decrease the dependance on your general is to run fewer cards that only work when your general is on the board. For example, you might try a Thopter Assembly or a Myr Battlesphere or a Karn, Silver Golem. Heck, even a Myr Propagator would be better than a Memnite.
Well, I did draft a foil memnite
There are a LOT of cards in the deck that will be dead draws later on - lilting refrain? Yeah, that's going to be complete garbage by turn 5. Memnite? same thing. But the way the deck is set up, 84 cards are basically just dedicated to getting arcum in play and activating ASA(safely)P. Once he's in play, I don't really care what I draw. His toolbox should be able to get anything I need, when I need it. So yeah, cards like memnite are pretty worthless later on, but if it lets me drop a hall of the bandit lord/island/mana crypt turn 2 arcum activation once every thousand games, then it's worth it. Big fatties like battlesphere are way better to topdeck on turn 7, but on turn 1 I want something that can hurry up and get sacked, so by the time turn 7 rolls around I'll have a half-dozen myr turnbines cranking out dudes instead of waiting around for that 7 mana so I can finally drop my battlesphere.
I went through all the <= 3 cmc artifact creatures, and although there were some 3-cmc ones with ok abilities (some of the better ones included) the higher price tag is pretty hard to swallow if it sets me back an entire turn. Propogator is pretty cool, admittedly, but he's also pretty mana intensive and I'd rather just speed out that memnite so I can turn it into myr turbine faster. Although if there's any critters in particular, especially in the 1-2 cmc range, that you think i've overlooked, let me know.
Sorta the same thing with the counters...they're just to protect him for that first vulnerable turn. After that, it's null brooch all the way. Counters like cryptic command might be awesome for most blue decks, but I don't really want to have to wait until I've got 8 mana open to safely play arcum. I'd rather have a lilting refrain out with 2 counters that I played turn 2, so I can play Arcum turn 4 with reasonable safety and get the show on the road.
I know you just explained why Myr Battlesphere isn't better than a Memnite here, but it seems like it might still be worth playing in your deck. My reasoning is that one fatty out of 99 cards isn't going to slow you down unduly, and this particular one is tutorable by the Myr Turbine that you'll be fetching with Arcum. It gives you a good backup plan to Myr-token swarm attacks, since you can just tutor the Battlesphere and use it to Fireball someone directly once you've got enough tokens from the Turbine.
The main reason I was suggesting expedition map is so you could reliably get academy ruins and re-use various artifacts. Heck, since most of what you're doing is with Acrum, you probably have enough mana open to keep re-playing the Map and fetch out utility lands every turn, effectively giving you two toolboxes running in tandem.
If you do decide to use myr battlesphere (and why not, it IS a real beast), might I also suggest Akroma's Memorial? You can pull it out in response to black or red removal against your general, and it's just silly with the Battlesphere. It also makes monkey cage that much better (which I really do think you should run anyway, because there aren't many tutorable cards that can so dratically impact the board as filling it with a silly number of monkeys).
I guess the real issue that we're seeing here is, you have a really pretty toolbox going on, but your win conditions are painfully slow. Sure you could eventually swarm your opponents with 20 1/1 myrs from the turbine, but they will have 20 turns to find an answer and work around your counterspells. Playing a battlesphere and following up with Memorial, that's at least 16 damage a turn. Monkey Cage, activate the turbine, Memorial? 30 damage, out of nowhere.
The main reason I was suggesting expedition map is so you could reliably get academy ruins and re-use various artifacts. Heck, since most of what you're doing is with Acrum, you probably have enough mana open to keep re-playing the Map and fetch out utility lands every turn, effectively giving you two toolboxes running in tandem.
If you do decide to use myr battlesphere (and why not, it IS a real beast), might I also suggest Akroma's Memorial? You can pull it out in response to black or red removal against your general, and it's just silly with the Battlesphere. It also makes monkey cage that much better (which I really do think you should run anyway, because there aren't many tutorable cards that can so dratically impact the board as filling it with a silly number of monkeys).
I guess the real issue that we're seeing here is, you have a really pretty toolbox going on, but your win conditions are painfully slow. Sure you could eventually swarm your opponents with 20 1/1 myrs from the turbine, but they will have 20 turns to find an answer and work around your counterspells. Playing a battlesphere and following up with Memorial, that's at least 16 damage a turn. Monkey Cage, activate the turbine, Memorial? 30 damage, out of nowhere.
I've been thinking about combos with this deck a lot, and I eventually figured out a way to go infinite on turn FIVE with a "decent" hand - arcum ready to go on turn 4 (meaning mana accleration or haste) and 2 artifact creatures.
Here's my original combo for turn 6, if you're bored:
actually that's not exactly true. The deck can go infinite on turn 6 with a decent hand: meaning 2 cheap artifact creatures and arcum ready to sac by turn 4 (meaning greaves or thousand-year-elixir or any of the mana creatures or mana artifacts or T:2 lands). It could certainly be faster, or also slower if it has a bad hand or it's trying to be defensive, but this seems pretty average. Turn 7 is like, the absolutely slowest.
turn 4 (4 mana starting): sac a creature, tutor rings of brighthearth (you can also play your second creature if you haven't).
turn 5 (5 mana starting): sac a creature, copy with rings(3), tutor myr turbine and thousand-year elixir, untap with elixir(2), token with turbine, sac token and copy with rings(0), tutor mirrorworks and dreamstone hedron, tap the hedron for the mana to copy it with mirrorworks(4).
turn 6 (11 mana starting): token with turbine, copy with rings(9), sac token with arcum, copy with rings(7), tutor for KCI and thornbite staff, equip thornbite staff (3), untap arcum with elixir (2), sac elixir (4), sac the other token (arcum untaps from staff), rings the tutor (2), search for reito lantern and sculpting steel (as myr turbine), copy the scuplted turbine with mirrorworks (0), tap both turbines for tokens.
The infinite loop
Enter: 2 tokens, 0 mana, arcum untapped, scuplting steel in play
Sac both turbines to KCI (2 tokens, 4 mana). Tuck sculpting steel with lantern (2 tokens, 1 mana). Sac a token to KCI (1 token, 3 mana), sacrfice the other token to arcum and tutor for sculpting steel and have it copy myr turbine and duplicate with mirrorworks(0 tokens, 1 mana). Arcum untaps from thornbite staff. Tap both new turbines (2 tokens, 1 mana).
Finish: 2 token, 1 mana, arcum untapped, scuplting steel in play.
repeat for infinite mana.
repeat without sacking the extra token for infinite tokens.
tutor avarice totem to trade all nonland permanents with tokens.
tutor infinite spines (sac to kci, tuck in response to trigger) to destroy all lands and tokens (the only enemy things left).
tutor infinite lightning greaves (tutor greaves, copy with mirrorworks, sac original to KCI, tuck it with lantern, and repeat).
equip infinite greaves to tokens.
draw your deck with hedron copies.
if any problematic permanents are still alive (say platinum angel with diplomatic immunity), tutor darksteel forge and destroy them with o-stone (along with arcum )
attack for infinity against an empty field.
Yeah, a reliable turn 6 infinite victory. That's REALLY slow. I can see how a half-dozen monkeys for a wincon is way better than that
(actually, all this aside, if the deck turns out to be too powerful for other people to let it live, I might tone down the wincons by using more reactive artifacts. So the monkeys are still a possibility. But in terms of pure power, it's a waste of time when I can be setting up this combo insanity).
The new combo works like so:
turn 4: sac creature for rings of brighthearth
turn 5: sac creature and copy for thousand-year elixir and myr turbine. Untap with elixir, make a token, sac the token and copy for KCI and Clock of Omens. tap KCI and clock to untap turbine. tap turbine to make a token. Tap rings and the token to untap turbine. Sac the token to KCI.
Loop 1:
you have 2 mana, no creatures, everything is tapped except myr turbine.
tap myr turbine, copy with rings (2 untapped myr, 0 mana)
tap both myr to untap turbine (2 tapped myr, 0 mana)
sac a myr for mana (1 tapped myr, 2 mana, everything is tapped except myr turbine)
repeat for infinite tapped creatures. sac 1/2 for infinite mana. Then make 2 new untapped ones, and untap elixir. Use elixir to untap arcum. sac a token to arcum for lantern and mirrorworks. tap both of those to untap turbine.
Loop 2:
Make a token, copy the ability, and copy both of the tokens with mirrorworks. Then tap all four tokens for 2 untaps of turbine, and use the first untap to make a new myr. Then sac all 4 tapped myr for mana., leaving your untapped myr. You can make unlimited untapped myr this way.
Use unlimited untapped myr + infinite mana = infinite untaps of elixir = unlimited activations of arcum. Use KCI + lantern for infinite spines, brooches, infinite stealing with avarice totem, infinite drawing with hedron, infinite lightning greaves copies for your myr (also unlimited silver myrs for infinite blue mana, if it matters for some reason, although you have to cast them so you can't do it at instant speed)
All of this can be done on turn FIVE with a decent hand, turn 6 with a bad hand. With a good hand, we're talking turn four, and with an amazing hand (mana crypt + hall of the bandit lord/(lightning greaves + land) + island + 2 cheap artifact creatures) it could be turn three. With an absolutely perfect hand (mana crypt + mana vault + sol ring + island + lightning greaves + 2 artifact creatures, one of which must be free) turn TWO. Ok, not very likely on the turn 2, but turn five RELIABLY? At instant speed? That's pure evil.
Of course, alternately you can just go T4 rings T5 basalt monolith + SDT and go infinite mana + infinite draw and play your deck, but that's not at instant speed. It's really hard to decide just how comboriffic I want this deck to be...I sorta wanted it to be more of a toolbox deck than a combo deck, but on the other hand it combos so bloody efficiently.
academy ruins is nice for a little protection and it's worth including in the deck, but i don't really want artifacts in my hand, I want them in my deck. Lantern is much better recursion than academy ruins because you can use it multiple times a turn, so why would i tutor for expedition map when I can tutor for reito lantern instead? I just don't ever see myself tutoring for it, and I'd rather draw a land so I'm not tying up mana early in the game when I want to get arcum out ASAP.
I know you just explained why Myr Battlesphere isn't better than a Memnite here, but it seems like it might still be worth playing in your deck. My reasoning is that one fatty out of 99 cards isn't going to slow you down unduly, and this particular one is tutorable by the Myr Turbine that you'll be fetching with Arcum. It gives you a good backup plan to Myr-token swarm attacks, since you can just tutor the Battlesphere and use it to Fireball someone directly once you've got enough tokens from the Turbine.
Well, once the infinite combo is rocking, there aren't really many problems for my million-myr-march...i can destroy/control all permanents, draw infinite cards, etc. A backup wincon is nice to have, but I can't think of any situation where I'd need one for this deck that doesn't involve me losing arcum, and battlesphere needs him too. Effficient alt wincons that don't need arcum might not be a bad idea, but none come to mind that are really viable.
To be a good toolbox, you've got to be able to repond to situations immediately, and you've got to have a good selection of effects to choose from. Arcum fits both of those bills. Unfortunately, he's been used almost entirely to pilot out douchebag lockdown stax. So here's my attempt to remedy that injustice, by restoring him to the awesome toolbox that he ought to be.
1 Arcum Dagsson
Toolbox Artifacts (12):
1 Mirrorworks
1 Myr Turbine
1 Spine of Ish Sah
1 Null Brooch
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Sunstone
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Thousand-Year Elixir
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Dreamstone Hedron
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Mimic vat
counters/protection (21):
1 daring apprentice
1 spiketail drakeling
1 misdirection
1 pact of negation
1 lilting refrain
1 lightning greaves
1 intervene
1 counterbalance
1 arcane denial
1 robe of mirrors
1 alexi's cloak
1 neurok stealthsuit
1 vanishing
1 counterspell
1 trickbind
1 stifle
1 daze
1 foil
1 hinder
1 forbid
1 spell pierce
1 spin into myth
1 pongify
1 brittle effigy
1 wipe away
defense (3):
1 maze of ith
1 fog bank
1 guard gomazoa
artifact creatures (19):
1 ornithopter
1 shield sphere
1 phyrexian walker
1 memnite
1 myr retriever
1 silver myr
1 brass man
1 epochrasite
1 manakin
1 millikin
1 heap doll
1 scarecrone
1 steel wall
1 walking atlas
1 myr sire
1 plague myr
1 myr moonvessel
1 clockwork beetle
1 junk diver
Mana acceleration (6):
1 Jeweled Amulet
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Springleaf Drum
Utility (17)
1 Academy Ruins
1 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Dread Statuary
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Halimar Depths
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
1 High Market
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Quicksand
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Scrying Sheets
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolaria West
1 Urza's Factory
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Crystal Vein
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Saprazzan Skerry
9 Snow-Covered Island
1 Svyelunite Temple
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper
added
1 Spell Pierce
1 Lotus Petal
1 Springleaf Drum
1 jeweled amulet
1 mimic vat
1 Reito Lantern
1 Clock of Omens
1 Thornbite staff
1 Darksteel Forge
It's worth pointing out that the past few sets have been very, very kind to Arcum. First of all, myr turbine is just too perfect for words (and i've drafted 2, for whatever that's worth). mirrorworks allows for insane tricks, especially with good-ol scuplting steel. And spine of ish sah (which i also drafted, meh) is very strange but also very awesome for him, since it turns arcum into vindicate on a stick. Plus there's been smaller gifts like myr sire, memnite, and plague myr.
Between o-stone, spine, brooch, forge, sunstone, and greaves you can handle pretty much any combo or threat to you as long as arcum is on the field. the other artifacts are mostly utility, to help you power out more answers, more copies, faster and faster until you're generating thousands of myr a turn from your hundreds of myr turbines. Then you can just overrun the enemy with your vast army.
counters tend to be the cheap kind: once arcum is in play, you shouldn't need them again barring something unexpected, so they're really just to keep him alive for those first few turns, hence weird cards like lilting refrain. You want to get him out ASAP, but if he gets tucked, you're pretty much dead, so early-game protection is a must.
removal is sort of in the same boat, it's mostly to be used as threats to stop people from killing/countering arcum.
defense is also mostly early-game, but they can be nice blockers for aggressive generals until you get things going.
artifact creatures are all 0-3 mana, since you want them out ASAP for sacrificing. Expensive choices like duplicant are a waste when you can just drop something cheap, then sac it for spine.
So that's the basic strategy behind the deck. If you've got any improvements on the cards in those categories, I'd be glad to hear them.
WUB Merieke Ri Berit BUW
GWU Phelddagrif 1 2 3 4 UWG
BR Kaervek the Merciless RB
B Chainer, Dementia Master B
WUB Sen Triplets BUW
BG Sisters of Stone Death GB
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon GRBUW
GWU Angus Mackenzie UWG
R Kumano, Master Yamabushi R
WB Teysa BW
U Higure U
B Geth B
WUBRG Child of Alara 1 2GRBUW
R Zirilan R
U Arcum U
UR Nin RU
BRG Sek'Kuar GRB
U Teferi U
G Melira G
GU Edric UG
BG Glissa GB
Casual
GUB Knacksaw Clique BUG
RWU Sunforger UWR
Also, I don't see expedition map. That's a toolbox in and of its self.
Don't see any graveyard hate either. scrabbling claws or tormod's crypt can fix that. (oh, you have the lantern. Any particular reason why you chose that card?)
I assume Reito's Lantern is there so that he can both use it as hate and as a way to recycle his own artifacts.
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monkey cage would definitely be a clever bit of tech, and what I like about toolbox decks is that changing just a few cards can have a huge impact on the deck, since you can get them in every game. That said, since the monkeys aren't artifact creatures they don't really fit that well into the synergy of the rest of the toolbox I've set up.
Expedition map I thought about, but most of the effects I can get from my lands I can get better from my artifacts. Not many lands are going to look good compared to dreamstone hedron for the same price.
the reito lantern is the gy hate (also heap doll, but that's harder to use), and as wildfire pointed out, it's for recursion too. It's actually really important when things start getting insane...you can sac your sculpting steel to KCI, plow it into the deck, then pop it out as a myr turbine and make some copies with mirrorworks. Plus, if I lose an important combo piece, it helps me get it back into the deck for fetching. Tormod's crypt is nice and all, but it only has a single function, and its efficient price is sort of meaningless when everything gets pulled out of the deck for free.
EDIT: I did totally forget to include the obvious mana rocks: sol ring, mana crypt, and mana vault. Those are all in there now.
WUB Merieke Ri Berit BUW
GWU Phelddagrif 1 2 3 4 UWG
BR Kaervek the Merciless RB
B Chainer, Dementia Master B
WUB Sen Triplets BUW
BG Sisters of Stone Death GB
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon GRBUW
GWU Angus Mackenzie UWG
R Kumano, Master Yamabushi R
WB Teysa BW
U Higure U
B Geth B
WUBRG Child of Alara 1 2GRBUW
R Zirilan R
U Arcum U
UR Nin RU
BRG Sek'Kuar GRB
U Teferi U
G Melira G
GU Edric UG
BG Glissa GB
Casual
GUB Knacksaw Clique BUG
RWU Sunforger UWR
Furthermore, you touched on the fact that you are completely dead if Arcum gets tucked. That's just unacceptable. Other people are going to see Arcum coming and try to kill/tuck him immediately. If you can't do anything without him, play another deck.
There are far too many unplayable cards to list here, but you might want to start by reading Blackjack's Guide to EDH deck-building. It should give you some ideas on what you should/should not play.
Yeva (88/92 foils)
Raff
Scarab
Rakdos
Wort ($50 budget, 94/97 foils)
Trostani
Haha, ouch, suggesting I read a primer? There's no reason to get that nasty about it. You're lucky I'm in a good mood. I'll admit this deck is a little experimental (as most of my favorite decks are) but I've put a pretty good amount of time into building it, so the choices I made have a fair amount of thought behind them.
As far as being underpowered, I'd agree that, from a strict power standpoint, the orb/stax varieties of arcum are probably more powerful. However, the problem with those decks is that everyone hates them, which becomes a pretty big liability in multiplayer. This deck doesn't have any stax or prison type cards to piss people off, which I think makes it a better deck for multiplayer in the long run.
As far as being dead if arcum is tucked...There aren't a lot of ways around that. I could run distant memories, long-term plans, intuition etc. in the hopes of getting him back, which might be a good idea, but I prefer just preventing the effect in the first place, hence all the cheap counterspells. Plus, since it's not an especially brutal variety of Arcum, I think he's less likely to eat tuck early-on (later-on, null brooch makes tuck virtually impossible). I could change the whole deck to be more viable without arcum, but that's not what I want. Toolboxes are fun because they change the way your deck works from depending on the luck of your topdeck to depending on your skill in abusing your toolbox. If I filled the deck with a bunch of generic goodstuff and just used arcum to fetch a few combo pieces or lockdown effects, then the deck wouldn't be something I want to play.
I wouldn't mind a short list (or maybe some general categories) of cards you don't think are up to snuff. The artifact creatures? The counterspells? The toolbox itself? I think I can probably defend most of my choices, but I'd be interested to hear how you'd change it.
WUB Merieke Ri Berit BUW
GWU Phelddagrif 1 2 3 4 UWG
BR Kaervek the Merciless RB
B Chainer, Dementia Master B
WUB Sen Triplets BUW
BG Sisters of Stone Death GB
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon GRBUW
GWU Angus Mackenzie UWG
R Kumano, Master Yamabushi R
WB Teysa BW
U Higure U
B Geth B
WUBRG Child of Alara 1 2GRBUW
R Zirilan R
U Arcum U
UR Nin RU
BRG Sek'Kuar GRB
U Teferi U
G Melira G
GU Edric UG
BG Glissa GB
Casual
GUB Knacksaw Clique BUG
RWU Sunforger UWR
However, I would highly recommend making two general improvements:
- Cut all the counters that only work unless someone pays X. That never works in this format because everybody ramps. Go with the hard stuff.
- Cut the really crappy artifact creatures that don't do anything on their own (like Memnite). One way to decrease the dependance on your general is to run fewer cards that only work when your general is on the board. For example, you might try a Thopter Assembly or a Myr Battlesphere or a Karn, Silver Golem. Heck, even a Myr Propagator would be better than a Memnite.
Yeva (88/92 foils)
Raff
Scarab
Rakdos
Wort ($50 budget, 94/97 foils)
Trostani
Well, I did draft a foil memnite
There are a LOT of cards in the deck that will be dead draws later on - lilting refrain? Yeah, that's going to be complete garbage by turn 5. Memnite? same thing. But the way the deck is set up, 84 cards are basically just dedicated to getting arcum in play and activating ASA(safely)P. Once he's in play, I don't really care what I draw. His toolbox should be able to get anything I need, when I need it. So yeah, cards like memnite are pretty worthless later on, but if it lets me drop a hall of the bandit lord/island/mana crypt turn 2 arcum activation once every thousand games, then it's worth it. Big fatties like battlesphere are way better to topdeck on turn 7, but on turn 1 I want something that can hurry up and get sacked, so by the time turn 7 rolls around I'll have a half-dozen myr turnbines cranking out dudes instead of waiting around for that 7 mana so I can finally drop my battlesphere.
I went through all the <= 3 cmc artifact creatures, and although there were some 3-cmc ones with ok abilities (some of the better ones included) the higher price tag is pretty hard to swallow if it sets me back an entire turn. Propogator is pretty cool, admittedly, but he's also pretty mana intensive and I'd rather just speed out that memnite so I can turn it into myr turbine faster. Although if there's any critters in particular, especially in the 1-2 cmc range, that you think i've overlooked, let me know.
Sorta the same thing with the counters...they're just to protect him for that first vulnerable turn. After that, it's null brooch all the way. Counters like cryptic command might be awesome for most blue decks, but I don't really want to have to wait until I've got 8 mana open to safely play arcum. I'd rather have a lilting refrain out with 2 counters that I played turn 2, so I can play Arcum turn 4 with reasonable safety and get the show on the road.
WUB Merieke Ri Berit BUW
GWU Phelddagrif 1 2 3 4 UWG
BR Kaervek the Merciless RB
B Chainer, Dementia Master B
WUB Sen Triplets BUW
BG Sisters of Stone Death GB
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon GRBUW
GWU Angus Mackenzie UWG
R Kumano, Master Yamabushi R
WB Teysa BW
U Higure U
B Geth B
WUBRG Child of Alara 1 2GRBUW
R Zirilan R
U Arcum U
UR Nin RU
BRG Sek'Kuar GRB
U Teferi U
G Melira G
GU Edric UG
BG Glissa GB
Casual
GUB Knacksaw Clique BUG
RWU Sunforger UWR
If you do decide to use myr battlesphere (and why not, it IS a real beast), might I also suggest Akroma's Memorial? You can pull it out in response to black or red removal against your general, and it's just silly with the Battlesphere. It also makes monkey cage that much better (which I really do think you should run anyway, because there aren't many tutorable cards that can so dratically impact the board as filling it with a silly number of monkeys).
I guess the real issue that we're seeing here is, you have a really pretty toolbox going on, but your win conditions are painfully slow. Sure you could eventually swarm your opponents with 20 1/1 myrs from the turbine, but they will have 20 turns to find an answer and work around your counterspells. Playing a battlesphere and following up with Memorial, that's at least 16 damage a turn. Monkey Cage, activate the turbine, Memorial? 30 damage, out of nowhere.
I've been thinking about combos with this deck a lot, and I eventually figured out a way to go infinite on turn FIVE with a "decent" hand - arcum ready to go on turn 4 (meaning mana accleration or haste) and 2 artifact creatures.
Here's my original combo for turn 6, if you're bored:
turn 4 (4 mana starting): sac a creature, tutor rings of brighthearth (you can also play your second creature if you haven't).
turn 5 (5 mana starting): sac a creature, copy with rings(3), tutor myr turbine and thousand-year elixir, untap with elixir(2), token with turbine, sac token and copy with rings(0), tutor mirrorworks and dreamstone hedron, tap the hedron for the mana to copy it with mirrorworks(4).
turn 6 (11 mana starting): token with turbine, copy with rings(9), sac token with arcum, copy with rings(7), tutor for KCI and thornbite staff, equip thornbite staff (3), untap arcum with elixir (2), sac elixir (4), sac the other token (arcum untaps from staff), rings the tutor (2), search for reito lantern and sculpting steel (as myr turbine), copy the scuplted turbine with mirrorworks (0), tap both turbines for tokens.
The infinite loop
Enter: 2 tokens, 0 mana, arcum untapped, scuplting steel in play
Sac both turbines to KCI (2 tokens, 4 mana). Tuck sculpting steel with lantern (2 tokens, 1 mana). Sac a token to KCI (1 token, 3 mana), sacrfice the other token to arcum and tutor for sculpting steel and have it copy myr turbine and duplicate with mirrorworks(0 tokens, 1 mana). Arcum untaps from thornbite staff. Tap both new turbines (2 tokens, 1 mana).
Finish: 2 token, 1 mana, arcum untapped, scuplting steel in play.
repeat for infinite mana.
repeat without sacking the extra token for infinite tokens.
tutor avarice totem to trade all nonland permanents with tokens.
tutor infinite spines (sac to kci, tuck in response to trigger) to destroy all lands and tokens (the only enemy things left).
tutor infinite lightning greaves (tutor greaves, copy with mirrorworks, sac original to KCI, tuck it with lantern, and repeat).
equip infinite greaves to tokens.
draw your deck with hedron copies.
if any problematic permanents are still alive (say platinum angel with diplomatic immunity), tutor darksteel forge and destroy them with o-stone (along with arcum )
attack for infinity against an empty field.
Yeah, a reliable turn 6 infinite victory. That's REALLY slow. I can see how a half-dozen monkeys for a wincon is way better than that
(actually, all this aside, if the deck turns out to be too powerful for other people to let it live, I might tone down the wincons by using more reactive artifacts. So the monkeys are still a possibility. But in terms of pure power, it's a waste of time when I can be setting up this combo insanity).
The new combo works like so:
turn 4: sac creature for rings of brighthearth
turn 5: sac creature and copy for thousand-year elixir and myr turbine. Untap with elixir, make a token, sac the token and copy for KCI and Clock of Omens. tap KCI and clock to untap turbine. tap turbine to make a token. Tap rings and the token to untap turbine. Sac the token to KCI.
Loop 1:
you have 2 mana, no creatures, everything is tapped except myr turbine.
tap myr turbine, copy with rings (2 untapped myr, 0 mana)
tap both myr to untap turbine (2 tapped myr, 0 mana)
sac a myr for mana (1 tapped myr, 2 mana, everything is tapped except myr turbine)
repeat for infinite tapped creatures. sac 1/2 for infinite mana. Then make 2 new untapped ones, and untap elixir. Use elixir to untap arcum. sac a token to arcum for lantern and mirrorworks. tap both of those to untap turbine.
Loop 2:
Make a token, copy the ability, and copy both of the tokens with mirrorworks. Then tap all four tokens for 2 untaps of turbine, and use the first untap to make a new myr. Then sac all 4 tapped myr for mana., leaving your untapped myr. You can make unlimited untapped myr this way.
Use unlimited untapped myr + infinite mana = infinite untaps of elixir = unlimited activations of arcum. Use KCI + lantern for infinite spines, brooches, infinite stealing with avarice totem, infinite drawing with hedron, infinite lightning greaves copies for your myr (also unlimited silver myrs for infinite blue mana, if it matters for some reason, although you have to cast them so you can't do it at instant speed)
All of this can be done on turn FIVE with a decent hand, turn 6 with a bad hand. With a good hand, we're talking turn four, and with an amazing hand (mana crypt + hall of the bandit lord/(lightning greaves + land) + island + 2 cheap artifact creatures) it could be turn three. With an absolutely perfect hand (mana crypt + mana vault + sol ring + island + lightning greaves + 2 artifact creatures, one of which must be free) turn TWO. Ok, not very likely on the turn 2, but turn five RELIABLY? At instant speed? That's pure evil.
Of course, alternately you can just go T4 rings T5 basalt monolith + SDT and go infinite mana + infinite draw and play your deck, but that's not at instant speed. It's really hard to decide just how comboriffic I want this deck to be...I sorta wanted it to be more of a toolbox deck than a combo deck, but on the other hand it combos so bloody efficiently.
academy ruins is nice for a little protection and it's worth including in the deck, but i don't really want artifacts in my hand, I want them in my deck. Lantern is much better recursion than academy ruins because you can use it multiple times a turn, so why would i tutor for expedition map when I can tutor for reito lantern instead? I just don't ever see myself tutoring for it, and I'd rather draw a land so I'm not tying up mana early in the game when I want to get arcum out ASAP.
Well, once the infinite combo is rocking, there aren't really many problems for my million-myr-march...i can destroy/control all permanents, draw infinite cards, etc. A backup wincon is nice to have, but I can't think of any situation where I'd need one for this deck that doesn't involve me losing arcum, and battlesphere needs him too. Effficient alt wincons that don't need arcum might not be a bad idea, but none come to mind that are really viable.
WUB Merieke Ri Berit BUW
GWU Phelddagrif 1 2 3 4 UWG
BR Kaervek the Merciless RB
B Chainer, Dementia Master B
WUB Sen Triplets BUW
BG Sisters of Stone Death GB
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon GRBUW
GWU Angus Mackenzie UWG
R Kumano, Master Yamabushi R
WB Teysa BW
U Higure U
B Geth B
WUBRG Child of Alara 1 2GRBUW
R Zirilan R
U Arcum U
UR Nin RU
BRG Sek'Kuar GRB
U Teferi U
G Melira G
GU Edric UG
BG Glissa GB
Casual
GUB Knacksaw Clique BUG
RWU Sunforger UWR