This round's the first to feature a restriction - namely that all decks have to be legal for Commander/EDH. The official rules for deck construction can be found here. If you have any questions ask in the thread or PM me.
Format's been dropped. As to why, please read the below objections.
Note that you don't have to choose him as your commander.
You have until the 1st of May 11pm GMT+1 to submit decks.
Good luck to all !!
1) Main rules - Any member of the MTGSalvation forums can submit a deck for the contest, including judges. - A submitted deck has to contain the card of the current round and has to be built around the card in some way. While no negative points are given for an uncommented deck, giving judges insight on your ideas and tricks improves their understanding of your deck. - Contestants can only submit one deck per round. But as long as judging has not started yet, you can edit your deck, change it alltogether or withdraw it. - This is "Casual". -> Only the cards banned in Vintage, silver bordered & celebration cards are banned. There is no Restricted list. If you want to add four Black Lotus, go for it - it should be noted though, that some of the judges might not be too keen on seeing too many broken cards in decks.
- The cards to build around in the ten rounds have already been selected.
2) Time - Contestants have seven days to build and post their decks for each round.
- Judges consult to select the top 8 decks that will be judged for that round during the next day. - The next six days, judges will test and rate the top 8 decks. - A ranking of the contestants’ scores will be posted and the winner will be announced.
3) Judging
- There are four judges. The three volunteer judges are: Bustin, ChestStiX & ExpiredRascals. And me.
- From the time the entry period ends in a given round, the other three judges have 24 hours to PM me their top 9 (most likely the top 8 plus their own =P) submitted decklists of the round. I will then announce the top 8 decklists elected for rating (accroding to the matrix below). - A judge cannot rate his or her own entry. -> If a judge's deck made a round's top 8, he or she will refrain from rating that particular deck and only rate the other decks. - Judges are encouraged to add some comments as to why they gave a certain score to a certain deck. - A deck's four (/three) scores will be arithmeticaly averaged.
- Judges are out-of-contest for the final-ranking.
Each judge awards up to 25 points to each top 8 deck he or she is allowed to rate, based on the following system:
Creativity/Originality: 0 to 5 points How creative and original is your deck. Effectiveness/Card adherence: 0 to 5 points How well does it use the selected card? Synergy/Tuning: 0 to 5 points How well do the cards combine in the deck; elegance and card selection. Power/Capacity to win: 0 to 5 points Can the deck deliver the goods? Interaction/Protection: 0 to 5 points How well does the deck interact and deal with other decks.
Format/Thematic: up to 2 points bonus (can't go over 25) 1 point for any format adherence other than Vintage/Legacy; 1 point for incorporation of theme/flavour.
Interpretation of this is up to the judges, individually.
4) Championship rules - As with the first season, ten rounds will be played. - To be included in the final ranking, a player has to make the top 8 in atleast four of the ten rounds. (If no player meets this criteria, it will be lowered accordingly.) - At the end of the season, the player within the final ranking having the highest arithmetical average of top 8 scores becomes the Champion. Example: Xanth participates in all ten round, makes it to the top 8 five times and gets f.e. 24 points each round. Mindslavor participates in three rounds, makes it to the top 8 in all of these three rounds and gets trice 25 points. All other players have an average < 24. -> Despite having a lower average than Mindslavor, Xanth wins, because Mindslavor hasn't met the criteria of having atleast four top eight scores.
tl;dr: For each round, a card is scheduled. Anyone can enter the contest and submit a deck using that card. Contestants can post their decks during an entry period of seven days. In the following seven days the judges (Bustin, Captain Salty, ExpiredRascals and me) will elect the eight best decks submitted, to test and rate these decks. After (planned) ten rounds the contest will have a winner.
I built the deck to be Ravnica Block Constructed legal (RGD). However, I had trouble finding players with RGD decks, so I tested this (not as much as I wanted either) against all sorts of decks. Even so, the deck was quite fun to play, even without the support from other blocks (Ravnica was such a great block!). So, if the judges can't find RGD decks either, it's OK to playtest against other decks, but keep in mind that my card choices were still limited to Ravnica block, for the format I chose.
Circu, Dimir Lobotomist - His set of abilities scream mill, but he does it with a nice touch: exiling stuff. Sorry Gaea's Blessing. Emrakul, who? When building around him, I thought the deck should do just that: Mill into exile, rather than the graveyard. Luckily, RAV gives us some tools to achieve this more easily. He also protects against the spells he exiles, on top of it.
Last Gasp - The best (in-colors) creature removal in RAV, keeps early threats away.
Remand - The only 2-CMC "hard counter" in the set. The return to hand drawback can be used in your favor, though. Cast Glimpse, Circu mills 2, Remand it, Circu mills another and you draw a card, re-cast Glimpse, Circu mills 2 more, plus 10 from Glimpse; total: 15 cards milled, you drew a card. This actually won a game for me, right on time to avoid being attacked by over 20 creature tokens.
Induce Paranoia - Counter threats. The bigger the threat, the closest you get to the win.
Glimpse the Unthinkable - One of the best mill cards ever!, and it triggers both of Circu's (couldn't help picturing him as a clown :rofl:) abilities. Easily your finisher.
Psychic Drain - Very nice card that's also both colors and gains some life back to buy time, while getting that library closer to zero.
Dimir Machinations - You won't be transmuting this a lot (though you could), but a very versatile card that not only works the exile-mill on its own, but can also help you fix that next draw.
Consult the Necrosages - Always nice to have a choice, adds disruption and card draw, while triggering 2 cards with Circu.
Leyline of the Void - If you're facing graveyard-happy decks, or anti-mill tech, this card is very important. I don't mind mulliganing at least one "OK" hand in order to find this. As mentioned above, it turns regular mill into Circu-style mill.
True EDH is MP - but 1v1 would be preferable for testing. It's a shame.
I got my folks convinced to play atleast one ffa with this round's Top 8 *yay*, I guess that's about all multiplayer testing I can get. Can't speak for the other judges.
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Each reality is but the dream of another, and each sleeper a god unknowing.
We define the boundaries of reality; they don't define us.
Primary and only casual rule: "any rule that is fine for the most part of the playgroup, is a fine rule". So any further thread with: "if somebody uses/does .... in a casual game, is it ethical/ok?", read the answer above.
- Being a "Johnny/Spike" means you like self-torture. You win often in casual, so everybody hates you; you loose often in competitive, so you hate yourself.
I say this with the utmost respect to you Blutsau, but I think this is really not a great card/format choice for the contest. The issue of testing which has already brought up is quite difficult for EDH decks. EDH is inherently a lot more random. I think there just isn't a good way to get a good feel for a deck, and give accurate scores, because of the format. We already have the issue of EDH being a multiplayer format, but having it be difficult to test in a multiplayer environment. Even regardless of single vs multi, it will be hard to test the decks at all, except online. And even online, EDH games take fooreeeever. At least an hour for a game. So we're talking a minimum of 8 hours, just to test each deck once. Not only that, but dealing with 100 cards there is a lot to look at and consider. Ya maybe that's my laziness speaking, but still... the strategy that circu calls for seems quite narrow, and I think the differences between decks might be pretty small. It's hard to say for sure of course, but it's just something I think we'll see with the decks.
The other issue besides the format itself, is the card choice. Circu is really one of the least effective generals in EDH. Yes it's nice that the card is exiled not milled, and that it hits all your opponents... but it's just really not impressive. Not just that milling is a lot more difficult in a multiplayer, 100 card format, but that Circus mill is so minimal compared to other mill cards. Maybe that's the point of contest, to try to get creative with Circu? I don't know. Even trying to do some other creative stuff like returning cards to the top of library, then exiling... ya, I just don't know. I feel like there's so many obstacles for having a successful round with this card, for both the participants and the judges.
Though I haven't been around the casual forum for really any amount of time yet, I still think I'll throw in my couple of pennies on this and agree with Bustin. EDH seems like it's much too inconsistent to provide an accurate view of the deck's intent vs delivery, and also limits the build-around aspect by limiting combo cards to 1 ofs. Which then in turn leads to half the deck being tutors, moreso because circu is black leaving all the good tutors available.
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Standard: UWG Control (changes from week to week) RU Pingerator
Too bad that _____ is not allowed, that would be fun.
This round is going to be pretty hard, I have only ever made one EDH deck... I looked at the rules, are all of the suggested banned cards not allowed in our decks?
Deck Concept:
Here's a joke for you: What does a Lobotomist do when he's bored? He plays Head Games of course! Flavor-Wise, it seems like they're made for each other, and the synergy between them is just awesome. So the core of the deck is Circu, Dimir Lobotomist + Head Games, backed up with Panoptic Mirror. When you play Head Games, Circu will exile a card, and when you resolve Head Games, search your opponent's library for every copy of the Exiled card(s) that your opponent can't cast anymore thanks to Circu! To extend this to every turn for free, use Panoptic Mirror - and eventually you will have Exiled every card in your opponent's library while giving your opponent a terrible hand every turn. Quite evil, no? The deck plays rather haphazardly for a control deck, almost like a circus troop. Hence, the deck title, Circu's Games. See what I did there?
Individual Card Explanations:
Circu, Dimir Lobotomist - Circu is quite difficult to build around...it's extremely vulnerable to removal, and its effect is random. Another drawback is that you are almost forced to go with Multicolor Blue/Black Spells to get full mileage out of Circu, limiting your options quite a bit. My deck gets rid of that particular drawback, as the Circu + Head Games combo only requires 1 Exiled card to work, (though it gets better with more). With Panoptic Mirror, this is a 3-card combo that wins the game by Exiling every card in your opponent's library.
Vendilion Clique - This card is crucial support for Circu - it provides targeted discard at instant speed (play on opponent's draw step!) to get rid of the all-important turn-3 play. If you're playing this before Circu hits, then you should get try to get rid of any problematic removal. Also works as a surprise blocker. Please remember that this is a "may" ability, you don't have to use the card replacement ability after looking at your opponent's hand if it looks like it will benefit your opponent. You can also use it on yourself as a pseudo-cantrip. Reusability with Karakas comes in very handy for a pseudo-soft lock.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor - This may be a controversial inclusion? I guess people dislike it because it's such a popular card in Standard right now, but this deck really, really needs it. Jace is Circu's best friend - you could almost consider it Circu copies 4~6. It protects Circu from creatures with Bounce, it draws attention away from you and Circu, the +2 ability is abuseable with Circu's exile ability to check whether or not you want to exile a card, and it's quite good with Head Games (more on that below). Jace's Brainstorm ability is ridiculous - use it often to search for answers. It's a very solid win-condition if you don't want to go all the way with Circu.
Head Games - Circu into Head Games will buy you some time to stabilize further. In that time, you can potentially set up Panoptic Mirror to this every turn. Jace, the Mind Sculptor also works beautifully with Head Games - use the +2 ability accordingly and screw with your opponent's draw step. This buys you tons and tons of time to set up the combo. When you play Head Games with Circu, you'll be searching for copies of the Exiled card which they can't cast anymore, and lands as filler. If you're playing Head Games with Jace or just by itself as a disruption spell, search for cards that are useless against our deck (like Propaganda for example) and you'll also most likely search for lands.
Panoptic Mirror - When you play this, remember to use it's imprint ability on your Upkeep so you don't get 2-for-1'd. Yes, you can play it's imprint ability on your upkeep and then immediately get the Panoptic Mirror trigger. The usual targets to imprint on this card would be Head Games, Consuming Vapors, and Cryptic Command, although any of the tutors, wishes and even the Sideboard Instants are abusable with the Mirror. Also remember that you can imprint multiple cards on this! And yes I'm well aware of the infinite-turn combo with anything like Time Warp - but that's not winning by Circu, Dimir Lobotomist, so I will choose not to include it here.
Mana Drain - Another potentially controversial inclusion. I personally think it's way overpowered, but it was used in a previous CDCC without any complaints about its brokeness, so I assume it will be okay this round as well. And this deck really, really needs it. I'm not kidding, the deck loses so much power otherwise. The mana addition effect really helps out the deck, and pumps out early Panoptic Mirrors, Head Games, and Jace, the Mind Sculptors. Use it wisely.
Agony Warp - It seems innocent enough, but it opens up 2-for-1's and stalls. It allows Vendilion Clique and Mishra's Factory to block safely and survive while destroying potentially 2 creatures. That might seem gimmicky, but it works, and it works well. If played without creatures, it acts as Removal + Fog, and protects our beloved Jace, the Mind Sculptor too.
Cryptic Command - Another all-star. The bounce abilities are really important for the deck, since Head Games actually requires your opponent to have cards. Protect against aggro, combo, whatever you want. A good option to put on Panoptic Mirror.
Consuming Vapors - It was originally Barrin's Spite, but playtesting showed that it was a terrible target for Panoptic Mirror since your opponent can get around it by playing only 1 creature. This is a similar 2-for-1 without the drawback, and the lifegain ability is crucial to surviving any aggro based deck. Notice how even though it is not multicolor, it will still trigger Circu twice. A lot of the deck is actually based around this subtle concept - that even though I'm not running many multicolor cards, the cards enable plays that allow multiple Circu triggers (i.e. Cunning Wish into Free Spells).
Lim-Dul's Vault - To smooth out draws and search for the all-important combo pieces. Combine with Jace to get the cards immediately and shuffle away unwanted cards. If you draw this early with fetchlands, please make sure to crack the fetchland before you play this card. Otherwise it screws up your draws.
Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor - Again, grab combo pieces and cards that you need in a pinch. Vampiric into Jace's Brainstorm works well.
Karakas - Well, it was originally Volrath's Stronghold, but I feel like Karakas is better for the deck. Yes, it provides white mana, but just think of it was a colorless mana producer. I also considered Riptide Laboratory since all of my creatures are wizards, but it's too mana intensive for the early game. Karakas shenanigans with Vendilion Clique are quite good for protection, and it can also bounce your opponent's legendary creatures, which is always nice.
The sideboard is interesting in that it is a reactive sideboard - you'll usually play Cunning Wish in response to an opponent's play. A lot of the cards are free to cast, and come in handy in a pinch. Imprinting these on Panoptic Mirror can be a good strategy if the board situation calls for it.
Force of Will and Pact of Negation - Strictly anti-combo, and I wouldn't advise you use it elsewhere unless it's against a game-breaking card that you can't deal with otherwise.
Fact or Fiction - the maindeck has very little card advantage, and this is a card to fetch when you're in a standstill and you need more cards.
Capsize - Bounce is actually a key component to the late game, when you want to be stabilizing with Head Games. But playtesting showed that the opponent was often in topdeck mode in the late-game. This is a way to increase hand size so Head Games can actually be of use. Don't fetch it until you have enough to play its buyback cost - reusability is absolutely golden with Circu in play.
Memory Plunder - Utility card to steal a gamebreaking instant/sorcery spell.
Misdirection - again, anti-combo, it's additional protection for Circu that can potentially lead to advantage.
Seize the Soul - A conditional 2-for-1 that provides additional defense. When Consume the Meek can't sweep everything, this is your answer. End of 3rd turn Wish into Seize the Soul against non-white/non-black based aggro is golden.
Submerge, Snuff Out, Slaughter Pact - Hurray for free removal. Use against cards that Agony Warp can't deal with. The Submerge trick is to End-of-3rd turn Wish, 4th turn Jace into +2 Fateseal ability, if need be.
Ravenous Trap - For going against graveyard based strategies. Imprint this on Panoptic Mirror if you require long-term use, though a well-placed 1-shot effect should be good enough.
The deck is difficult to pilot and the plays are tricky, but the combo works. I think you'll find it confusing to play the first time you playtest, so I'd like to ask for the judges' patience with the deck. Once the deck gets going and stabilizes, it will frustrate your opponent to no end. I feel that it is appropriate, considering it is based around Circu. Oftentimes, you'll find yourself in a position that seems weird to set up a combo. That's fine - this deck is Control 1st, Combo 2nd. I wouldn't try to actively set up the combo until after you stabilize, unless you have a god hand. The very first step is to stabilize via Panoptic Mirror, then eventually imprint Head Games on it. Save Circu, Dimir Lobotomist for last - the final act of Circu's Games. Lastly, you may feel that Jace sort of steals the spotlight from Circu quite a bit. This is true, but only in the early game. Think of Jace as an opening act, and consider the end-game plan with Head Games + Panoptic Mirror. With Jace, this plan requires fetching land to fill the opponent's hand since those will usually be the dead cards. This means there's a chance your opponent will draw into removal since you filled his hand with land. However, with Circu, by exiling cards from his library and giving them completely uncastable cards via Head Games, there's a lesser chance your opponent will draw into removal. Another advantage with Circu is that your opponent's hand size will consistently increase since he can't cast any cards, thus improving Head Games's reach quite a bit. This is not possible with Jace, the Mind Sculptor since the opponent will be able to play a land every turn. Still, it is very possible to stabilize with Jace and just win off his Ultimate eventually. I hope it was informative, and I hope you have fun playtesting!
This has been another tough round. Circu is so fragile and slow. My deck is built around a bounce theme: keep their hands full and unplayable while you kill them with Black Vise.
The deck essentially plays permission. However, most of what your opponent does is permissible, since you're going to bounce it anyway. The path to winning is to stall your opponent by bouncing all of his or her threats back to their hand, and keeping them from casting them with Circu.
Painter's Servant is there to name black, so all of your blue spells trigger both of Circu's abilities. It's also helpful with Wash Out if your opponent is playing blue or black and you want to bounce his stuff, just name any of the other three colours and bounce away.
The bounce is split between Whiplash Trap, Rebuild, Echoing Truth, Capsize and Wash Out. Whiplash can target your own creatures to save them, as well as pull devastating stall on your opponent - great against aggro. Rebuild is for artifact decks, but can be cycled away if you're not playing against one. Echoing Truth is for non-creature permanents. Wash Out is basically your Wrath of God, but for every permanent. Capsize is there for the buyback, a more expensive Constable.
This deck is pretty much untouchable since your opponent can't really get to you effectively. Just be prepared for long games - Circu isn't exactly a win-con haha. This deck is for sure meant to grind out wins.
I need to echo bustin here, testing this will be difficult. On top of that, people hate you out so fast online in multiplayer EDH when you run a general that looks scary (IE in the two top combo colours). It doesn't help that 90% of the card's utility is lost in a singleton format.
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
Never played a game of EDH in my life. I have almost zero understanding of the format.
From what I understand, you start with 40 life, take your General out of your deck and put it to the side (leaving you with a 99 card deck).
Everytime your General dies, it gets RFG agian with a counter on it and for each counter it cost 1 more to play.
Also, you can only use cards that match the colors of your General. Do the cards you play have to have the same mana in their abilities? Example, I couldnt play Living Airship in this rounds deck, could I?
Never played a game of EDH in my life. I have almost zero understanding of the format.
From what I understand, you start with 40 life, take your General out of your deck and put it to the side (leaving you with a 99 card deck).
Everytime your General dies, it gets RFG agian with a counter on it and for each counter it cost 1 more to play.
Also, you can only use cards that match the colors of your General. Do the cards you play have to have the same mana in their abilities? Example, I couldnt play Living Airship in this rounds deck, could I?
in EDH there is a unique game zone called the "command zone". your general starts out there and may be cast from there as if it were in your hand. Each time it is cast from the command zone makes it cost 2 extra for the next time it is played from there. There is an optional replacement effect to move your general to the command zone if it would be removed from game or put into a graveyard.
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
I understand Circu in EDH isn't optimal - far from it, but hoped you would take the challenge.
Shall I roll the dice again for a different card (limited to the legends), or abandon the format? Given the objections of Bustin and Rascal concerning testing, I'd rather drop the format.
Derp. Format's gone. So much for 'summer of commander' or how they call it...
I think you just saved yourself a ton of headaches there. I've played my Glissa deck 10-15 times, and I still find new interactions between cards that were added when I first built it, not to mention the cards I've added since then. In general, people say that Commander decks aren't finalized until they've been played several games without any tinkering.
I hear you, I would add that even each new set brings about some tinkering... Almost (but not quite) like cube.
I wouldn't mind a Commander Deck Construction Contest, we'd just need longer building, selection, and testing/rating periods.
Me too, I would like to make an EDH for the contest but there are far better generals for a contest; Circu means trying to max out UB spells, and since it's a 100-card singleton format, all the decks will pretty much go for the same strategy.
For a future EDH round, it would be wise to avoid generals which force a single precise strategy because of their abilities (Uril, the Miststalker comes to mind).
In EDH, decks can be divided in 2 categories; some with a build-around-me general and others in which the general is there as a colour enabler. The latter would be a safer choice but more boring for the contest. I think finding a build-around-me general whose ability can point to various strategies would be key.
Primary and only casual rule: "any rule that is fine for the most part of the playgroup, is a fine rule". So any further thread with: "if somebody uses/does .... in a casual game, is it ethical/ok?", read the answer above.
- Being a "Johnny/Spike" means you like self-torture. You win often in casual, so everybody hates you; you loose often in competitive, so you hate yourself.
I think this was a good choice to abandon the EDH idea. Not that I wouldn't have been down to try it out, but it does present some problems and I think there has to be realistic expectations for how much we can do. Judging EDH decks would really have to be judging on paper only, rather than judging by playtesting experience. In the future if we did want to do it I definitely think more time is needed both for deck creation and judging. (maybe a month long EDH finale for the last round? 2 weeks to build 2 weeks to test? just an idea)
Aww man...I actually had a decent build going for EDH. Oddly enough, I seem to be having a harder time building a normal Circu deck over an EDH Circu...my original EDH deck concepts don't translate so well into 60 cards. I'm brainstorming around 4 different deck concepts right now (besides Mill) but they all seem a little janky. Ah well...guess I can't be too creative this time around.
I'll post my new deck here, after revision of the format for this round...
Ok, so Circu is not the most flexible card to build around but there are some possible wild permutations, I've isolated 2 I'd like to try, for now I'll post this really off-the-wall idea, if nobody picks the other strategy I might decide to go back to it though (also if I find this one is too weak for the contest)...
The goal is of course to have Circu in play and with the help of Servitors and Retrievers, cast and use Time Sieve every turn, thereby removing (at a rate of 2 cards per turn) all the opponent's library from the game; or enough of it that they quit in disgust :p.
Of course this is more a Magic exercise than anything else and it's still missing a few cards.
Primary and only casual rule: "any rule that is fine for the most part of the playgroup, is a fine rule". So any further thread with: "if somebody uses/does .... in a casual game, is it ethical/ok?", read the answer above.
- Being a "Johnny/Spike" means you like self-torture. You win often in casual, so everybody hates you; you loose often in competitive, so you hate yourself.
Finally caught this while the contest was actually running, I kept managing to check during the judging parts of the rounds.
This was a tricky one, but ultimately I decided to do an infinite combo with aluren and circu, with a backup plan of an infinite storm kill with brain freeze. Basically aluren lets you cast the creatures other than circu for free, and then the creatures I run bounce themselves. Since they are blue, they mill a card with Circu, and since they are cast, they count for storm. Lather rinse, repeat. Incidentally the mana base was a pain to run with this sort of deck, I went a lot pricier than I would normally do when constructing one of these to make it work. Then I realized I'm an idiot and only needed 3 colors. I probably shouldn't build decks at 2 in the morning. Also I haven't really looked at other people's decks yet, I'll probably delete this if somebody else came up with the idea. Edit: Hooray! As of this posting nobody else had thought of this!
This is a very simple deck, hopefully you will like it.
Purpose:
Get out Circu, Dimir Lobotomist and take advantage of his ability using re-playable creatures and spells that untap your lands.
Card choices: Cavern Harpys and Shrieking Drakes are in here because of the replayability, you want to be able to hit as many cards as possible with your Lobotomist. Cloud of Faeries, Frantic Search, and Snap are in here because they are essentially "free" spells. Not only that, with High Tide (Chosen over Bubbling Muck because of all of the blue cards in this deck) these actually make you mana, which helps. Cloud of Faeries also works with Cavern Harpy and High Tide to give you the ability: Pay 1 life, remove the top card in your opponents deck from the game. Boggart Birth Rate is plain awesome. You need 2, and you will play one to return the other to your hand. Using Intuition to get this going you will be able to: B, remove the top card of an opponents library from the game. Demonic Tutor is in there for anything you need, it helps you get some of the "combos" listed above that require multiple cards.
Because this deck does not have a "good" way of dealing with creatures that are already in play, there are a few Counterspells and a few kill target creature spells.
In case sideboards matter, this one is to deal with specific threats. If your opponent is playing something with AEther Vial then you have Pithing Needle, if your opponent is playing some sort of combostrom, you can Force of will their Dark Ritual or something. Sapphire Medallion is something that I think would help this deck out a lot, but could not fit it into the main deck.
I'm fond of the combo approach, but I don't like how it tends to dilute the actual deck itself. That's why I went for a low-cost approach with more permanent removal than combo-rific creatures, so I have more time to do what I want. They way I see it, once I have Circu on the field, I'm pretty much set- there's no need to spend time recurring a creature or two endlessly when I can do the same effect with actual cards. Also, I avoided most of the life loss effects for the same reason: life total isn't my win-con; I'd rather just avoid it altogether. The lack of tutors and Forces is due to my attemps to keep this a budget deck; the only rare cards are, with the necessary exception of Isochron Scepter (more on that later) up to around 4 bucks at most.
As for how the deck works, it's optimized for 1v1. Circu himself is a very 1v1-ish type of guy, so while the deck does work for other players, it only does so in limited forms. The biggest focus is on getting Isochron Scepter: if I'm Boomeranging my opponent's lands on turn three, that is an ideal hand. Lim-Dul's Vault is the best way to get it out on turn four (cast it turn two, Scepter turn three, lock turn four), although Scepter with Vault is pretty good in its own right. Deny Reality's a very potent card, especially considering the mana cost: not only does it cascade into Circu himself, the majority of the cards it cascades into are directly disruptive. I very specifically took out Brainstorm, Ponder, etc. for that very specific purpose.
The card of the week was really hard to build around. I didnt want to go combo, so I went with control instead (which I dont really enjoy ether).
I liked Architects of Will because I could change the order of the opponents top cards. Which would allow me to exile the best option with my next spell. Memory Lapse was similar in that idea, put it ontop of their library, then exile it. I wish there were more Fateseal cards printed like Spin into Myth (which I did run for a time, but seemed to cost to much).
Ivory Tower is there so you can play as the control player. Horde your cards and gain life, then counter the big spells till you get what you need.
Lobotomy is black and blue so it meant to triggers. But it also is kinda flavorful with Lobotomist. Plus its not to bad of a card anyways.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor is a great car, but that isnt why I picked it. The reason I choose it was because it is the only good card with a Fateseal like ability I could find.
This round's the first to feature a restriction - namely that all decks have to be legal for Commander/EDH. The official rules for deck construction can be found here. If you have any questions ask in the thread or PM me.Format's been dropped. As to why, please read the below objections.
Note that you don't have to choose him as your commander.- Any member of the MTGSalvation forums can submit a deck for the contest, including judges.
- A submitted deck has to contain the card of the current round and has to be built around the card in some way. While no negative points are given for an uncommented deck, giving judges insight on your ideas and tricks improves their understanding of your deck.
- Contestants can only submit one deck per round. But as long as judging has not started yet, you can edit your deck, change it alltogether or withdraw it.
- This is "Casual". -> Only the cards banned in Vintage, silver bordered & celebration cards are banned. There is no Restricted list. If you want to add four Black Lotus, go for it - it should be noted though, that some of the judges might not be too keen on seeing too many broken cards in decks.
- The cards to build around in the ten rounds have already been selected.
- Contestants have seven days to build and post their decks for each round.
- Judges consult to select the top 8 decks that will be judged for that round during the next day.
- The next six days, judges will test and rate the top 8 decks.
- A ranking of the contestants’ scores will be posted and the winner will be announced.
- There are four judges. The three volunteer judges are: Bustin, ChestStiX & ExpiredRascals. And me.
- From the time the entry period ends in a given round, the other three judges have 24 hours to PM me their top 9 (most likely the top 8 plus their own =P) submitted decklists of the round. I will then announce the top 8 decklists elected for rating (accroding to the matrix below).
- A judge cannot rate his or her own entry. -> If a judge's deck made a round's top 8, he or she will refrain from rating that particular deck and only rate the other decks.
- Judges are encouraged to add some comments as to why they gave a certain score to a certain deck.
- A deck's four (/three) scores will be arithmeticaly averaged.
- Judges are out-of-contest for the final-ranking.
How creative and original is your deck.
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 0 to 5 points
How well does it use the selected card?
Synergy/Tuning: 0 to 5 points
How well do the cards combine in the deck; elegance and card selection.
Power/Capacity to win: 0 to 5 points
Can the deck deliver the goods?
Interaction/Protection: 0 to 5 points
How well does the deck interact and deal with other decks.
1 point for any format adherence other than Vintage/Legacy; 1 point for incorporation of theme/flavour.
- As with the first season, ten rounds will be played.
- To be included in the final ranking, a player has to make the top 8 in atleast four of the ten rounds. (If no player meets this criteria, it will be lowered accordingly.)
- At the end of the season, the player within the final ranking having the highest arithmetical average of top 8 scores becomes the Champion. Example: Xanth participates in all ten round, makes it to the top 8 five times and gets f.e. 24 points each round. Mindslavor participates in three rounds, makes it to the top 8 in all of these three rounds and gets trice 25 points. All other players have an average < 24. -> Despite having a lower average than Mindslavor, Xanth wins, because Mindslavor hasn't met the criteria of having atleast four top eight scores.
For each round, a card is scheduled. Anyone can enter the contest and submit a deck using that card.
Contestants can post their decks during an entry period of seven days. In the following seven days the judges (Bustin, Captain Salty, ExpiredRascals and me) will elect the eight best decks submitted, to test and rate these decks. After (planned) ten rounds the contest will have a winner.
Did I mention the price for the Champ?
- The current season's rounds 0, 1, 2, 3...
3 Circu, Dimir Lobotomist
Instants
4 Last Gasp
4 Remand
4 Induce Paranoia
3 Clutch of the Undercity
4 Glimpse the Unthinkable
4 Psychic Drain
4 Dimir Machinations
3 Consult the Necrosages
Other
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Dimir Signet
6 Island
6 Swamp
4 Watery Grave
4 Dimir Aqueduct
I built the deck to be Ravnica Block Constructed legal (RGD). However, I had trouble finding players with RGD decks, so I tested this (not as much as I wanted either) against all sorts of decks. Even so, the deck was quite fun to play, even without the support from other blocks (Ravnica was such a great block!). So, if the judges can't find RGD decks either, it's OK to playtest against other decks, but keep in mind that my card choices were still limited to Ravnica block, for the format I chose.
Circu, Dimir Lobotomist - His set of abilities scream mill, but he does it with a nice touch: exiling stuff. Sorry Gaea's Blessing. Emrakul, who? When building around him, I thought the deck should do just that: Mill into exile, rather than the graveyard. Luckily, RAV gives us some tools to achieve this more easily. He also protects against the spells he exiles, on top of it.
Last Gasp - The best (in-colors) creature removal in RAV, keeps early threats away.
Remand - The only 2-CMC "hard counter" in the set. The return to hand drawback can be used in your favor, though. Cast Glimpse, Circu mills 2, Remand it, Circu mills another and you draw a card, re-cast Glimpse, Circu mills 2 more, plus 10 from Glimpse; total: 15 cards milled, you drew a card. This actually won a game for me, right on time to avoid being attacked by over 20 creature tokens.
Clutch of the Undercity - Find Circu, or Leyline of the Void, mainly. It's also nice when you bounce something that's already exiled by Circu.
Induce Paranoia - Counter threats. The bigger the threat, the closest you get to the win.
Glimpse the Unthinkable - One of the best mill cards ever!, and it triggers both of Circu's (couldn't help picturing him as a clown :rofl:) abilities. Easily your finisher.
Psychic Drain - Very nice card that's also both colors and gains some life back to buy time, while getting that library closer to zero.
Dimir Machinations - You won't be transmuting this a lot (though you could), but a very versatile card that not only works the exile-mill on its own, but can also help you fix that next draw.
Consult the Necrosages - Always nice to have a choice, adds disruption and card draw, while triggering 2 cards with Circu.
Leyline of the Void - If you're facing graveyard-happy decks, or anti-mill tech, this card is very important. I don't mind mulliganing at least one "OK" hand in order to find this. As mentioned above, it turns regular mill into Circu-style mill.
Dimir Signet - Color-fixes.
Island, Swamp - U and B are almost evenly distributed through the deck.
Watery Grave - Didn't run it in my playtests, since I ran out of budget to get the playset. I needed one once over a Swamp.
Dimir Aqueduct - Karoos are nice, even with their drawback. In this deck, they're super-useful.
My YouTube Channel
I got my folks convinced to play atleast one ffa with this round's Top 8 *yay*, I guess that's about all multiplayer testing I can get. Can't speak for the other judges.
Also difficult to build the deck for another general and still have it "feel" like built-around Circu...
- Puts thinking cap on -
Also... placeholder for my deck.
The other issue besides the format itself, is the card choice. Circu is really one of the least effective generals in EDH. Yes it's nice that the card is exiled not milled, and that it hits all your opponents... but it's just really not impressive. Not just that milling is a lot more difficult in a multiplayer, 100 card format, but that Circus mill is so minimal compared to other mill cards. Maybe that's the point of contest, to try to get creative with Circu? I don't know. Even trying to do some other creative stuff like returning cards to the top of library, then exiling... ya, I just don't know. I feel like there's so many obstacles for having a successful round with this card, for both the participants and the judges.
Just my opinion.
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The Mimeoplasm
Maga, Traitor to Mortals
Rhys the Redeemed
Merieke Ri Berit
Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Cromat Wurm Tribal
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Looking for Green friendly EDH players/groups in the Toronto area. PM me if this is you.
Thanks to mchief111 for the signature
Standard:
UWG Control (changes from week to week)
RU Pingerator
EDH:
WBTeysa, Orzhov Scion
GRWKresh The Bloodbraided
RWRazia, Boros Archangel
This round is going to be pretty hard, I have only ever made one EDH deck... I looked at the rules, are all of the suggested banned cards not allowed in our decks?
Cards for sale: Check them out!
Final Edit: 4/29 -1 Volrath's Stronghold, +1 Karakas, Sideboard: -1 Cryptic Command, +1 Soul Manipulation
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
4 Watery Grave
4 Sunken Ruins
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Karakas
1 Academy Ruins
1 Halimar Depths
4 Mishra's Factory
Creatures 6
3 Circu, Dimir Lobotomist
3 Vendilion Clique
3 Panoptic Mirror
2 Dimir Signet
Disruption Spells 15
3 Head Games
4 Agony Warp
4 Mana Drain
2 Consuming Vapors
2 Cryptic Command
Support Spells 7
2 Cunning Wish
3 Lim-Dul's Vault
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Consume the Meek
1 Cryptic Command
1 Force of Will
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Memory Plunder
1 Seize the Soul
1 Capsize
1 Soul Manipulation
1 Submerge
1 Snuff Out
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Pact of Negation
1 Misdirection
1 Ravenous Trap
Deck Concept:
Here's a joke for you: What does a Lobotomist do when he's bored? He plays Head Games of course! Flavor-Wise, it seems like they're made for each other, and the synergy between them is just awesome. So the core of the deck is Circu, Dimir Lobotomist + Head Games, backed up with Panoptic Mirror. When you play Head Games, Circu will exile a card, and when you resolve Head Games, search your opponent's library for every copy of the Exiled card(s) that your opponent can't cast anymore thanks to Circu! To extend this to every turn for free, use Panoptic Mirror - and eventually you will have Exiled every card in your opponent's library while giving your opponent a terrible hand every turn. Quite evil, no? The deck plays rather haphazardly for a control deck, almost like a circus troop. Hence, the deck title, Circu's Games. See what I did there?
Individual Card Explanations:
Vendilion Clique - This card is crucial support for Circu - it provides targeted discard at instant speed (play on opponent's draw step!) to get rid of the all-important turn-3 play. If you're playing this before Circu hits, then you should get try to get rid of any problematic removal. Also works as a surprise blocker. Please remember that this is a "may" ability, you don't have to use the card replacement ability after looking at your opponent's hand if it looks like it will benefit your opponent. You can also use it on yourself as a pseudo-cantrip. Reusability with Karakas comes in very handy for a pseudo-soft lock.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor - This may be a controversial inclusion? I guess people dislike it because it's such a popular card in Standard right now, but this deck really, really needs it. Jace is Circu's best friend - you could almost consider it Circu copies 4~6. It protects Circu from creatures with Bounce, it draws attention away from you and Circu, the +2 ability is abuseable with Circu's exile ability to check whether or not you want to exile a card, and it's quite good with Head Games (more on that below). Jace's Brainstorm ability is ridiculous - use it often to search for answers. It's a very solid win-condition if you don't want to go all the way with Circu.
Head Games - Circu into Head Games will buy you some time to stabilize further. In that time, you can potentially set up Panoptic Mirror to this every turn. Jace, the Mind Sculptor also works beautifully with Head Games - use the +2 ability accordingly and screw with your opponent's draw step. This buys you tons and tons of time to set up the combo. When you play Head Games with Circu, you'll be searching for copies of the Exiled card which they can't cast anymore, and lands as filler. If you're playing Head Games with Jace or just by itself as a disruption spell, search for cards that are useless against our deck (like Propaganda for example) and you'll also most likely search for lands.
Panoptic Mirror - When you play this, remember to use it's imprint ability on your Upkeep so you don't get 2-for-1'd. Yes, you can play it's imprint ability on your upkeep and then immediately get the Panoptic Mirror trigger. The usual targets to imprint on this card would be Head Games, Consuming Vapors, and Cryptic Command, although any of the tutors, wishes and even the Sideboard Instants are abusable with the Mirror. Also remember that you can imprint multiple cards on this! And yes I'm well aware of the infinite-turn combo with anything like Time Warp - but that's not winning by Circu, Dimir Lobotomist, so I will choose not to include it here.
Mana Drain - Another potentially controversial inclusion. I personally think it's way overpowered, but it was used in a previous CDCC without any complaints about its brokeness, so I assume it will be okay this round as well. And this deck really, really needs it. I'm not kidding, the deck loses so much power otherwise. The mana addition effect really helps out the deck, and pumps out early Panoptic Mirrors, Head Games, and Jace, the Mind Sculptors. Use it wisely.
Agony Warp - It seems innocent enough, but it opens up 2-for-1's and stalls. It allows Vendilion Clique and Mishra's Factory to block safely and survive while destroying potentially 2 creatures. That might seem gimmicky, but it works, and it works well. If played without creatures, it acts as Removal + Fog, and protects our beloved Jace, the Mind Sculptor too.
Cryptic Command - Another all-star. The bounce abilities are really important for the deck, since Head Games actually requires your opponent to have cards. Protect against aggro, combo, whatever you want. A good option to put on Panoptic Mirror.
Consuming Vapors - It was originally Barrin's Spite, but playtesting showed that it was a terrible target for Panoptic Mirror since your opponent can get around it by playing only 1 creature. This is a similar 2-for-1 without the drawback, and the lifegain ability is crucial to surviving any aggro based deck. Notice how even though it is not multicolor, it will still trigger Circu twice. A lot of the deck is actually based around this subtle concept - that even though I'm not running many multicolor cards, the cards enable plays that allow multiple Circu triggers (i.e. Cunning Wish into Free Spells).
Lim-Dul's Vault - To smooth out draws and search for the all-important combo pieces. Combine with Jace to get the cards immediately and shuffle away unwanted cards. If you draw this early with fetchlands, please make sure to crack the fetchland before you play this card. Otherwise it screws up your draws.
Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor - Again, grab combo pieces and cards that you need in a pinch. Vampiric into Jace's Brainstorm works well.
Karakas - Well, it was originally Volrath's Stronghold, but I feel like Karakas is better for the deck. Yes, it provides white mana, but just think of it was a colorless mana producer. I also considered Riptide Laboratory since all of my creatures are wizards, but it's too mana intensive for the early game. Karakas shenanigans with Vendilion Clique are quite good for protection, and it can also bounce your opponent's legendary creatures, which is always nice.
Academy Ruins - Anti-artifact destruction against Panoptic Mirror since it is a prime target for removal.
Consume the Meek - For against Aggro plays. 5 mana is a lot, but doable with Mana Drain and Dimir Signet.
Force of Will and Pact of Negation - Strictly anti-combo, and I wouldn't advise you use it elsewhere unless it's against a game-breaking card that you can't deal with otherwise.
Fact or Fiction - the maindeck has very little card advantage, and this is a card to fetch when you're in a standstill and you need more cards.
Capsize - Bounce is actually a key component to the late game, when you want to be stabilizing with Head Games. But playtesting showed that the opponent was often in topdeck mode in the late-game. This is a way to increase hand size so Head Games can actually be of use. Don't fetch it until you have enough to play its buyback cost - reusability is absolutely golden with Circu in play.
Memory Plunder - Utility card to steal a gamebreaking instant/sorcery spell.
Misdirection - again, anti-combo, it's additional protection for Circu that can potentially lead to advantage.
Seize the Soul - A conditional 2-for-1 that provides additional defense. When Consume the Meek can't sweep everything, this is your answer. End of 3rd turn Wish into Seize the Soul against non-white/non-black based aggro is golden.
Soul Manipulation - With Volrath's Stronghold cut, this provides an alternate method to get creatures back. You can imprint it on Panoptic Mirror if you're going against tons of creature removal.
Submerge, Snuff Out, Slaughter Pact - Hurray for free removal. Use against cards that Agony Warp can't deal with. The Submerge trick is to End-of-3rd turn Wish, 4th turn Jace into +2 Fateseal ability, if need be.
Ravenous Trap - For going against graveyard based strategies. Imprint this on Panoptic Mirror if you require long-term use, though a well-placed 1-shot effect should be good enough.
Sideboard Plan against Non-Creature based strategies: -4 Agony Warp, + 1 Fact or Fiction, + 1 Cryptic Command, +1 Capsize, +1 Soul Manipulation[/card].
R: Copypasta Sauce {Browbeat}
UR: Mana Cache , One Spell to Bind them All {Magnetic Theft}
UG: Epic Struggle , All-In-Poison {Metamorphosis}
UW: Planar Overlay , Decree of the Bailiff {Saprazzan Bailiff}
BG: Thought Gorger , Dark Chroma {Umbra Stalker}
UBR: Dwarven Shrine
WUBRG: Dissipation Field , Maelstrom Nexus
7x Island
3x Swamp
4x Polluted Delta
4x Darkslick Shores
4x Drowned Catacomb
Creatures: 12
4x Circu, Dimir Lobotomist
4x Painter's Servant
4x Cephalid Constable
3x Black Vise
2x Whispersilk Cloak
1x Feldon's Cane
1x Lightning Greaves
Sorcery: 11
4x Preordain
3x Wash Out
1x Diabolic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Ponder
2x Whiplash Trap
2x Rebuild
3x Echoing Truth
1x Capsize
The deck essentially plays permission. However, most of what your opponent does is permissible, since you're going to bounce it anyway. The path to winning is to stall your opponent by bouncing all of his or her threats back to their hand, and keeping them from casting them with Circu.
Painter's Servant is there to name black, so all of your blue spells trigger both of Circu's abilities. It's also helpful with Wash Out if your opponent is playing blue or black and you want to bounce his stuff, just name any of the other three colours and bounce away.
Whispersilk Cloak is there for Cephalid Constable, which provides constant targeted bounce. Lightning Greaves are to protect Circu but also for the Constable for a quick hit.
Black Vise is easy damage when you keep your opponent's hand full of cards they can't cast.
Feldon's Cane helps when games go long and you need more gas.
Preordain, and Ponder are all self explanatory draw.
Diabolic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Mystical Tutor are - you guessed it! - tutors. Get what you need when you need it.
The bounce is split between Whiplash Trap, Rebuild, Echoing Truth, Capsize and Wash Out. Whiplash can target your own creatures to save them, as well as pull devastating stall on your opponent - great against aggro. Rebuild is for artifact decks, but can be cycled away if you're not playing against one. Echoing Truth is for non-creature permanents. Wash Out is basically your Wrath of God, but for every permanent. Capsize is there for the buyback, a more expensive Constable.
This deck is pretty much untouchable since your opponent can't really get to you effectively. Just be prepared for long games - Circu isn't exactly a win-con haha. This deck is for sure meant to grind out wins.
Multiplayer:
MonoBlack
Mono-Red
Cycling
Crush of Wurms
Zoo
Immortal Coil
Control
Reanimator
Mono-G
Cruel Ascension
Landfall
Esper Spirits/Tokens
Phantom Vigor
Not Explicitly Multiplayer:
Allies
Bant
Artifacts
Can you specify which EDH ban list is in effect?
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
إن سرقت إسرق جمل
Level 1 Judge
My Cube for use with 6th ed. Rules
From what I understand, you start with 40 life, take your General out of your deck and put it to the side (leaving you with a 99 card deck).
Everytime your General dies, it gets RFG agian with a counter on it and for each counter it cost 1 more to play.
Also, you can only use cards that match the colors of your General. Do the cards you play have to have the same mana in their abilities? Example, I couldnt play Living Airship in this rounds deck, could I?
BUWGRChilds PlayGRWUB
BUWGR Highlander GRWUB
UBSquee's Shapeshifting PetBU
BW Multiplayer Control WB
RG Changeling GR
UR Mana FlareRU
UMerfolkU
B MBMC B
in EDH there is a unique game zone called the "command zone". your general starts out there and may be cast from there as if it were in your hand. Each time it is cast from the command zone makes it cost 2 extra for the next time it is played from there. There is an optional replacement effect to move your general to the command zone if it would be removed from game or put into a graveyard.
You can only play cards of your general's "colour identity". Colour symbols on the card set the identity. for example, Memnarch is blue, Bosh, Iron Golem is red, and Thornscape Battlemage is RGW. Note that fetchlands have no colour symbols on them and as such have no colour identity. So memnarch, nightscape familiar, and flooded strand would be allowed in a Circu EDH build, but not nightscape battlemage
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
إن سرقت إسرق جمل
Level 1 Judge
My Cube for use with 6th ed. Rules
Shall I roll the dice again for a different card (limited to the legends), or abandon the format? Given the objections of Bustin and Rascal concerning testing, I'd rather drop the format.
Derp. Format's gone. So much for 'summer of commander' or how they call it...
CC2 - 27 Spells
CC3 - 3 Spells
CC4 - 4 Spells
Still working on it. More to follow.
5 Island
6 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
4 Drowned Catacomb
B CC1 SORCERY
1 Imperial Seal
B CC1 INSTANT
1 Vampiric Tutor
U/B CC2 INSTANTS
4 Agony Warp
4 Countersquall
4 Lim-Dul's Vault
4 Isochron Scepter
3 Lightning Greaves
CREATURES
4 Tidehollow Strix
4 Inkfathom Infiltrator
4 Circu, Dimir Lobotomist
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
4 Mind Funeral
3 Jester's Scepter
4 Clutch of the Undercity
4 Glimpse the Unthinkable
I hear you, I would add that even each new set brings about some tinkering... Almost (but not quite) like cube.
Me too, I would like to make an EDH for the contest but there are far better generals for a contest; Circu means trying to max out UB spells, and since it's a 100-card singleton format, all the decks will pretty much go for the same strategy.
For a future EDH round, it would be wise to avoid generals which force a single precise strategy because of their abilities (Uril, the Miststalker comes to mind).
In EDH, decks can be divided in 2 categories; some with a build-around-me general and others in which the general is there as a colour enabler. The latter would be a safer choice but more boring for the contest. I think finding a build-around-me general whose ability can point to various strategies would be key.
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R: Copypasta Sauce {Browbeat}
UR: Mana Cache , One Spell to Bind them All {Magnetic Theft}
UG: Epic Struggle , All-In-Poison {Metamorphosis}
UW: Planar Overlay , Decree of the Bailiff {Saprazzan Bailiff}
BG: Thought Gorger , Dark Chroma {Umbra Stalker}
UBR: Dwarven Shrine
WUBRG: Dissipation Field , Maelstrom Nexus
Ok, so Circu is not the most flexible card to build around but there are some possible wild permutations, I've isolated 2 I'd like to try, for now I'll post this really off-the-wall idea, if nobody picks the other strategy I might decide to go back to it though (also if I find this one is too weak for the contest)...
Here's for the deck:
NOT MY DECK>>> PLEASE SEE LATER POST ON PAGE 3
4 Circu, Dimir Lobotomist
4 Myr Servitor
4 Myr Retriever
4 Myr Sire
Spells (22):
4 Countersquall
3 Undermine
4 Diabolic Vision
4 Time Sieve
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Skullclamp
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
3 Darksteel Citadel
4 Underground Sea
4 Watery Grave
2 Academy Ruins
1 Volrath's Stronghold
The goal is of course to have Circu in play and with the help of Servitors and Retrievers, cast and use Time Sieve every turn, thereby removing (at a rate of 2 cards per turn) all the opponent's library from the game; or enough of it that they quit in disgust :p.
Of course this is more a Magic exercise than anything else and it's still missing a few cards.
NOT MY DECK>>> PLEASE SEE LATER POST ON PAGE 3
Description to follow...
This was a tricky one, but ultimately I decided to do an infinite combo with aluren and circu, with a backup plan of an infinite storm kill with brain freeze. Basically aluren lets you cast the creatures other than circu for free, and then the creatures I run bounce themselves. Since they are blue, they mill a card with Circu, and since they are cast, they count for storm. Lather rinse, repeat. Incidentally the mana base was a pain to run with this sort of deck, I went a lot pricier than I would normally do when constructing one of these to make it work. Then I realized I'm an idiot and only needed 3 colors. I probably shouldn't build decks at 2 in the morning. Also I haven't really looked at other people's decks yet, I'll probably delete this if somebody else came up with the idea. Edit: Hooray! As of this posting nobody else had thought of this!
4 Circu, Dimir Lobotomist
4 Shrieking Drake
4 Aether Adept
4 Man-o'-war
4 Aluren
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Brain Freeze
4 Grim Tutor
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Breeding Pool
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Watery Grave
4 Island
2 Swamp
2 Forest
4 Circu, Dimir Lobotomist
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Shrieking Drake
4 Cavern Harpy
Spells: 27
4 Boggart Birth Rate
4 Frantic Search
4 Snap
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Intuition
4 High Tide
3 Counterspell
2 Diabolic Edict
2 Snuff out
4 Watery Grave
4 Underground sea
4 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
3 Island
This is a very simple deck, hopefully you will like it.
Purpose:
Get out Circu, Dimir Lobotomist and take advantage of his ability using re-playable creatures and spells that untap your lands.
Card choices:
Cavern Harpys and Shrieking Drakes are in here because of the replayability, you want to be able to hit as many cards as possible with your Lobotomist.
Cloud of Faeries, Frantic Search, and Snap are in here because they are essentially "free" spells. Not only that, with High Tide (Chosen over Bubbling Muck because of all of the blue cards in this deck) these actually make you mana, which helps. Cloud of Faeries also works with Cavern Harpy and High Tide to give you the ability: Pay 1 life, remove the top card in your opponents deck from the game.
Boggart Birth Rate is plain awesome. You need 2, and you will play one to return the other to your hand. Using Intuition to get this going you will be able to: B, remove the top card of an opponents library from the game.
Demonic Tutor is in there for anything you need, it helps you get some of the "combos" listed above that require multiple cards.
Because this deck does not have a "good" way of dealing with creatures that are already in play, there are a few Counterspells and a few kill target creature spells.
4 Pithing Needle
4 Force of Will
2 Sapphire Medallion
1 Counterspell
2 Snuff Out
2 Diabolic Edict
In case sideboards matter, this one is to deal with specific threats. If your opponent is playing something with AEther Vial then you have Pithing Needle, if your opponent is playing some sort of combostrom, you can Force of will their Dark Ritual or something. Sapphire Medallion is something that I think would help this deck out a lot, but could not fit it into the main deck.
Cards for sale: Check them out!
As for how the deck works, it's optimized for 1v1. Circu himself is a very 1v1-ish type of guy, so while the deck does work for other players, it only does so in limited forms. The biggest focus is on getting Isochron Scepter: if I'm Boomeranging my opponent's lands on turn three, that is an ideal hand. Lim-Dul's Vault is the best way to get it out on turn four (cast it turn two, Scepter turn three, lock turn four), although Scepter with Vault is pretty good in its own right. Deny Reality's a very potent card, especially considering the mana cost: not only does it cascade into Circu himself, the majority of the cards it cascades into are directly disruptive. I very specifically took out Brainstorm, Ponder, etc. for that very specific purpose.
3 Shadowmage Infiltrator
4 Circu, Dimir Lobotomist
Instants (13)
4 Lim-Dul's Vault
4 Boomerang
3 Capsize
2 Consign to Dream
4 Eye of Nowhere
4 Recoil
3 Deny Reality
2 Traumatize
Artifacts (4)
4 Isochron Scepter
Lands (23)
5 Island
3 Swamp
3 Halimar Depths
4 Drowned Catacomb
3 Darkwater Catacombs
3 Dimir Aqueduct
2 Dreadship Reef
The candles burn out for you; I am free.
4x Underground Sea
4x Polluted Delta
2x Sunken Ruins
4x Drowned Catacomb
3x Snow-Covered Island
3x Snow-Covered Swamp
Creatures:
4x Circu, Dimir Lobotomist
4x Architects of Will
1x Wydwen, the Biting Gale
4x Mana Drain
4x Memory Lapse
3x Ancestral Vision
3x Go for the Throat
2x Undermine
2x Lobotomy
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Hurkyl's Recall
1x Wash Out
3x Ivory Tower
2x Mirror Gallery
1x Sol Ring
Planeswalker:
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
The card of the week was really hard to build around. I didnt want to go combo, so I went with control instead (which I dont really enjoy ether).
I liked Architects of Will because I could change the order of the opponents top cards. Which would allow me to exile the best option with my next spell. Memory Lapse was similar in that idea, put it ontop of their library, then exile it. I wish there were more Fateseal cards printed like Spin into Myth (which I did run for a time, but seemed to cost to much).
Ivory Tower is there so you can play as the control player. Horde your cards and gain life, then counter the big spells till you get what you need.
Lobotomy is black and blue so it meant to triggers. But it also is kinda flavorful with Lobotomist. Plus its not to bad of a card anyways.
Mirror Gallery means multiple Circu, Dimir Lobotomist.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor is a great car, but that isnt why I picked it. The reason I choose it was because it is the only good card with a Fateseal like ability I could find.
Wash Out & Hurkyl's Recall along with the tutor package can get me out of a pinch.
Wydwen, the Biting Gale is similar to Cavern Harpy. But being a control deck, Flash is significant.
BUWGRChilds PlayGRWUB
BUWGR Highlander GRWUB
UBSquee's Shapeshifting PetBU
BW Multiplayer Control WB
RG Changeling GR
UR Mana FlareRU
UMerfolkU
B MBMC B
An 'official announcment': ChefStiX will replace Salty as judge.
Maybe people are waiting to post so their ideas are original haha.
Multiplayer:
MonoBlack
Mono-Red
Cycling
Crush of Wurms
Zoo
Immortal Coil
Control
Reanimator
Mono-G
Cruel Ascension
Landfall
Esper Spirits/Tokens
Phantom Vigor
Not Explicitly Multiplayer:
Allies
Bant
Artifacts