Kadena precon upgrade, using all of the morph cards that are control centered.
Some notes:
11.5 2cmc ramp spells that get Kadena out a turn early
35.5 lands, 4 of which enter tapped
33 cards (1/3) that trigger Kadena
50 mana cards ( 11.5 2cmc ramp spells, 35.5 lands, 3 other ramp spells - Forsaken Monument, Seedborn Muse, and Elven Chorus)
I went for a fun, grindy kind of win rather than focus on a combo or something like Craterhoof Behemoth. I tried to include any morph or manifest focused win condition I could find (Kozilek, the Broken Reality, Thieving Amalgam, Ghastly Conscription, Greenbelt Radical, Vannifar, Evolved Enigma, Roshan, Hidden Magister), and opted for other win conditions that did more than just potentially win, like Forsaken Monument, Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse, Twenty-Toed Toad, and Seedborn Muse.
With the two flash enabling lands, Winding Canyons and Alchemist's Refuge, and the three 3cmc flash enablers with flash, Final-Word Phantom, Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter, and Skittering Cicada, you are able to fairly reliably cast all of your artifacts and morph creatures at instant speed, which can be particularly nice with Everflowing Chalice.
Guardian Project, Lonis, Cryptozoologist, and Satoru, the Infiltrator all do ridiculous things when Kadena is out, and Thought Vessel and Reliquary Tower help you really reap the full potential of drawing so many cards. You can also do some minor impersonation of Dour Port-Mage with Riptide Laboratory, which is nice to have in the land slot.
Heroic Intervention, Wrap in Vigor, and Golgari Charm all help keep you from getting blown out when you go all out. Perhaps it is smarter to hold back a bit, but I always go full throttle with the morph/manifest/disguise army, so these three are wonderful. Not only can they save your army, but you can turn another player's wipe into your win.
Tangled Vale
is just a way to "kinda" make the 12/36 ramp to land ratio and save me a card slot. You really want to get Kadena out on turn 3, so you want a critical mass of 2cmc ramp spells, but they can kind of be dead draws later. All of the 2cmc ramp also does something else, like color fixing, additional ramp, or no hand size, but Vale gives me the option to make a land drop instead of tapping out for some modest ramp.
Update 1:
Added the new bounce card from Bloomburrow, Dour Port-Mage. This adds extra draw and another reliable, on-demand bounce, and I swapped out Mystic Confluence for it. With the addition of the mage, I also took out Familiar's Ruse as I felt that at least bounce wise it adequately replaces both instant, one-use cards, and I've been meaning to add Elven Chorus. I also took out the Crystal Shard for Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar as his bounce seems to mesh better. I also made some minor land adjustments, like adding a second Island so that my basic land count matched my fetch count (4).
Update 2:
Come on - just look at Twenty-Toed Toad. Fits like a glove. Cut Shaman of Forgotten Ways.
Update 3:
Made a few small adjustments like adding 2 additional lands and swapping Fellwar Stone and Everflowing Chalice for Explore and Growth Spiral. I've looked over the manifest dread cards and really didn't see any that fit what I am trying to do here, save for maybe They Came from the Pipes. I've just recently cut Guardian Project for feeling clunky in my hand, and I suspect the pipes will be the same.
Update 4:
Removed a bit of ramp and added more lands. So many are utility/MDFC style lands that they don't really count as a full land, so I added some extra to help compensate and make starting hands better. There's still 12, 2 mana ramp cards between Tangled Florahedron
, Overgrown Zealot, Explore, Growth Spiral, and the 8 mana rocks. After doing the MDFC land math, this land base puts me at just over 36 lands. I removed Thought Vessel and Twenty-Toed Toad because I don't like having such a huge hand anyway, plus I have Urza's Cave and Tolaria West to tutor for Reliquary Tower if I really want that effect. In place of the toad I put back in Vannifar, Evolved Enigma. I told her I didn't know what I was thinking and that I wanted to be with her forever.
Update 5:
I removed a couple of tap lands, bringing me down to 2 (Bojuka Bog and Bala Ged Sanctuary
), as I just hate tap lands so very, very much. I'm sitting at 37 right now which equals out to about 36 really you count Bala Ged Sanctuary
as half a land and Soporific Springs
and Fell Mire
as three quarters of a land each. I also removed the flash Vivien, Crystal Shard, and something else that I can't quite put my finger on in order to add An Offer You Can't Refuse, Negate, and Arcane Denial. If someone manages to kill Kadena early it can make for a rough go, so I want more ways of defending her, and all three of these only cost 1 blue instead of two like Counterspell or Familiar's Ruse. I also added a Crop Rotation in in exchange for the Waterlogged Grove I cut to go down to 37 lands (was at 38 but felt too high once I started drawing). This thing feels a bit like a Ravnica charm with the utility lands I have available.
