To put it frankly, the other two generals in this color are awful. Damia refills your hand with a bunch of great lands to cycle, fetch or LD out opponents with, as well as the permission required to protect your combo.
How does one play this deck?
This deck is actually fairly difficult to use. The game plan is to deny your opponent permanents with Crucible of Worlds with a Strip Mine-esque effect in your graveyard and an Exploration effect in play. Eventually, your opponent won't be able to produce land faster than you can destroy it. Even in multiplayer, this feat can be accomplished easily if you're allowed to set up enough Explorations, and even if you can't, you can severely cripple one player.
-Be aware that when using Glacial Chasm, you can always just play it, sacrifice a land (Khalni Garden is undoubtedly your best option), get that land back with Crucible of Worlds, and keep your mana and life intact (just sacrifice the Chasm at its first upkeep, then replay it that turn) with even one Exploration effect on board. It creates a lock on the board, but if you only have one Exploration on board, you can't get ahead with mana unless you have Manabond.
-Cephalid Coliseum is the most important land in the deck. Tutor it early and often so that you can set it up with your combo to start dredging a bunch of lands. Having a full graveyard helps accelerate your mana and set you up for your combos.
Changes Log
8/11/2012:
I'm needing to do a complete overhaul of this deck; with Griselbrand now banned, a key member of the engine that kept this strategy going is now removed, so I'm going to rebuild this deck from the ground up at some other time. When I'm not dead-tired I'll finish my edits and use the proliferate engine I've been piloting in my Olivia Voldaren deck and shift it in this general direction. Expect to see this deck redone Soon (TM)!
Phew, big update. Basically, Villainous Wealth kept this deck together, because I was planning to scrap it to rebuild Karador. Then they spoiled Villainous Wealth, the card this deck dreams of casting every game now.
The biggest problem I found holding this deck back was its really spotty manabase, so I removed the stax element in favor of colored mana sources. The stax element is better utilized in my actual stax deck, and was a tertiary win condition here at best. People already dislike playing against this deck enough as it is.
I'm looking for input here, because I know I can improve upon this deck. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to make this deck stronger, I really like the concept and I want to make it even better, so all your feedback is really appreciated. Thanks!
7 Damia, Sage of Stone
Creatures - 7
1 Sakura-Tribe Scout
2 Blood Artist
3 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
3 Eternal Witness
4 Clever Impersonator
4 Oracle of Mul Daya
5 Shriekmaw
Sorceries - 14
2 Black Sun's Zenith
2 Demonic Tutor
2 Exsanguinate
2 Life from the Loam
3 Villainous Wealth
4 Diabolic Tutor
4 Tempt with Discovery
4 Wash Out
5 Increasing Ambition
5 Rude Awakening
6 Life's Finale
6 Spitting Image
8 Decree of Pain
9 In Garruk's Wake
Instants - 11
1 Crop Rotation
2 Cyclonic Rift
3 Beast Within
3 Capsize
3 Dissipate
3 Hinder
3 Perplex
3 Putrefy
3 Realms Uncharted
3 Spell Crumple
5 Evacuation
1 Sol Ring
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Oblivion Stone
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
6 Mindslaver
Enchantments - 5
1 Burgeoning
1 Exploration
1 Manabond
3 Pernicious Deed
6 Mana Reflection
Planeswalkers - 3
4 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
5 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
5 Vraska the Unseen
Basic Lands - 8
4 Forest
3 Island
1 Swamp
Nonbasic Lands - 48
0 Academy Ruins
0 Alchemist's Refuge
0 Barren Moor
0 Bojuka Bog
0 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
0 Breeding Pool
0 Cabal Coffers
0 Cephalid Coliseum
0 Command Tower
0 Dimir Aqueduct
0 Dismal Backwater
0 Drowned Catacomb
0 Exotic Orchard
0 Forbidden Orchard
0 Glacial Chasm
0 Golgari Rot Farm
0 Hinterland Harbor
0 Jungle Hollow
0 Jwar Isle Refuge
0 Khalni Garden
0 Lonely Sandbar
0 Maze of Ith
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Opulent Palace
0 Overgrown Tomb
0 Polluted Delta
0 Reflecting Pool
0 Riptide Laboratory
0 Simic Growth Chamber
0 Tainted Isle
0 Tainted Wood
0 Temple of Deceit
0 Temple of Malady
0 Temple of Mystery
0 Thespian's Stage
0 Thornwood Falls
0 Tolaria West
0 Tranquil Thicket
0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Vesuva
0 Vivid Creek
0 Vivid Grove
0 Vivid Marsh
0 Volrath's Stronghold
0 Watery Grave
0 Woodland Cemetery
Why Damia, Sage of Stone?
How does one play this deck?
Nuances of the Deck
-Death Cloud is at its most potent when you have access to Haunted Fengraf to recycle Azusa, Lost but Seeking.
-Be aware that when using Glacial Chasm, you can always just play it, sacrifice a land (Khalni Garden is undoubtedly your best option), get that land back with Crucible of Worlds, and keep your mana and life intact (just sacrifice the Chasm at its first upkeep, then replay it that turn) with even one Exploration effect on board. It creates a lock on the board, but if you only have one Exploration on board, you can't get ahead with mana unless you have Manabond.
-Damia, Sage of Stone's effect triggers on your upkeep. This is useful to note when considering effects like Glacial Chasm, Academy Ruins and Life From the Loam.
-Cephalid Coliseum is the most important land in the deck. Tutor it early and often so that you can set it up with your combo to start dredging a bunch of lands. Having a full graveyard helps accelerate your mana and set you up for your combos.
Changes Log
3/2/2014:
3/4/2014:
Realms Uncharted
Mana Reflection
-Removed:
Trygon Predator
Restore
3/6/2014:
Nevinyrral's Disk
Rude Awakening
Temple of the False God
Garruk Wildspeaker
Eternal Witness
-Removed:
Exsanguinate
Drift of Phantasms
Notion Thief
Crystal Vein
Curse of the Swine
Plasm Capture
3/10/2014:
Increasing Ambition
Misty Rainforest
Verdant Catacombs
Watery Grave
Overgrown Tomb
Breeding Pool
Woodland Cemetery
Cabal Coffers
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Vesuva
High Market
-Removed:
Havengul Lich
Terramorphic Expanse
Evolving Wilds
Blasted Landscape
Tectonic Edge
Cabal Pit
River of Tears
Remote Isle
Polluted Mire
Slippery Karst
Island
3/20/2014:
Meloku the Clouded Mirror
Unravel into Aether
-Removed:
Krosan Grip
3/27/2014:
Oblivion Stone
Evacuation
Avatar of Woe
Vraska the Unseen
Rhystic Study
Exsanguinate
Black Sun's Zenith
Forbidden Orchard
Riptide Laboratory
Vivid Creek
Vivid Marsh
Vivid Grove
-Removed:
Rampaging Baloths
Mind Grind
Zuran Orb
Descent into Madness
Deadbridge Chant
Garruk Wildspeaker
Meloku the Clouded Mirror
Dakmor Salvage
Ghost Quarter
Urza's Tower
Urza's Mine
Urza's Power Plant
-Fixed the name of Unravel the Aether.
-Updated the Why Damia section.
-Updated the Nuances of the Deck section.
4/11/2014:
Myojin of Night's Reach
Demonic Tutor
Beast Within
Volrath's Stronghold
-Removed:
Gaze of Granite
Worldly Tutor
Worm Harvest
Nephalia Drownyard
4/18/2014:
Temple of Malady
-Removed:
High Market
6/22/2014:
Exploration
-Removed:
Myojin of Night's Reach
9/17/2014:
Clever Impersonator
Blood Artist
Shriekmaw
Villainous Wealth
In Garruk's Wake
Pernicious Deed
Forest
Island
Reflecting Pool
Polluted Delta
Opulent Palace
Dismal Backwater
Jungle Hollow
Thornwood Falls
-Removed:
Budoka Gardener
Avatar of Woe
Death Cloud
Unravel the Aether
Nevinyrral's Disk
Rhystic Study
Strip Mine
Dust Bowl
Buried Ruin
Swamp
Halimar Depths
Mystifying Maze
Temple of the False God
Haunted Fengraf
Phew, big update. Basically, Villainous Wealth kept this deck together, because I was planning to scrap it to rebuild Karador. Then they spoiled Villainous Wealth, the card this deck dreams of casting every game now.
The biggest problem I found holding this deck back was its really spotty manabase, so I removed the stax element in favor of colored mana sources. The stax element is better utilized in my actual stax deck, and was a tertiary win condition here at best. People already dislike playing against this deck enough as it is.
I'm looking for input here, because I know I can improve upon this deck. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to make this deck stronger, I really like the concept and I want to make it even better, so all your feedback is really appreciated. Thanks!