Because friendship is magic...the gathering... : )
I've been thinking about this deck for a while and finally put it together. It's partially combo, partially donate, and just a lot of things that I always wanted to play, but in a way that works together. The main thing with this deck is that you are always doing something. Rarity as a commander and a relatively low curve mean that there are usually no turns spent ramping or setting up. You have creatures, they will attack with evasion, Curiosity effects will get you far in life, painful artifacts will ping people, and it'll all hopefully distract your opponents long enough to get a Leveler combo or even a Triskaidekaphile win, which is not crazy. Pyre of Heroes on any one mana human becomes a Triskay and 13 is often doable.
Rarity is very strong, but my play group doesn't see her as OP, and I really do think that's about right. She generals the deck, for sure, but the deck doesn't necessarily need her to function. I guess I can understand completely why some people may not want to play against this power pony. As a build around commander she's just at that borderline of too good, being a Pearl Medallion plus Mother of Runes in the command zone. At the same time though, Rarity helps me play a deck that can effectively be aggressive in combat and keeps up with decks that are sitting back, ramping, and assembling a combo, like a lot of the EDH meta likes to do. So, I take that, plus adorable pony awesomeness, and I enjoy having a slightly odd commander from the days when wizard's tie-ins were not only silver border, but when they really felt like they were passionate about bringing tie-ins to the game. The ponies, Grimlock, Sword of DnD, those were really fun cards. They were unique mechanically in the best possible ways. They were not where we are today, and maybe part of me wants to celebrate that a little bit, and celebrate it with cuteness.
Curiosity and the Catgeist
Drawing cards from Curiosity type effects is the name of the game with this deck. Rarity and mother of runes giving evasion usually means that even the non-evasive creatures can get in on somebody and start to gain you ground. Duelist's Heritage can become absolutely nuts with Bident of Thassa or Reconnaissance Mission. When heritage is on the field, I am probably drawing 6+ cards on average per attack step. This plus the cost reduction ability from Rarity can make for very powerful turns while the wincons are being set up.
Bend That Fiddle
A lot of things in this deck are built around using either Oswald Fiddlebender or Pyre of Heroes to assemble late game combos. Leveler can be found with either of these tutors and combos with Fractured Identity to win. So, there are some unusual choices here maybe, but some of them at least are made to go into Fiddlebender or Pyre. For instance, Gearsmith Prodigy is here as a one drop that can go off Pyre to get either Oswald or Tocatli Honor Guard or Triskaidekaphile. Honor guard is an important piece to be able to tutor for because it will set up Leveler or phyrexian dreadnaught
Our Powers Combined...er...whoops wrong cartoon...
The main combo to win is Leveler plus Fractured Identity using either Stifle or a Hushbringer effect to counter the Leveler hitting us. I am more than okay using Leveler as a big beater that can get evasion from Rarity and then getting something into play like Jinxed Ring or Jinxed Idol to sac the Hushbringer for free and throw down Fractured Identity to deck all opponents at once. Rarity gives us a cost reduction on all the pieces of this combo, and that's just lovely. But the thing here to remember is that the combo win is nice, but not always necessary. We should be throwing around a lot of damage in the early game and can definitely win through combat in an aggressive enough meta.
And I guess it's important to keep in mind that Fractured Identity doesn't need Leveler as much as it is vice versa. Putting three copies of Ankh of Mishra is just mean in a deck that's low to the ground and can just not play lands. Black Vise or Jinxed Choker and similar artifacts can also be great because you should be winning the damage game, so throwing more random damage around will just benefit you, and it can also absolutely kill strategies that depend on life. Necropotence and K'rick hate, hate, hate this part of the deck. A necro player doesn't just have to worry about the damage they've taken but also the damage they will take next turn from three Black Vise. Or, if nothing else, Fractured Identity can always Bronze Bombshell people. Bronzey bae is one of my all time favorite cards, and a lot of what made me want to start this deck was to finally use such a unique and flavorful one.
Keeping It Casual
I'd really like to have this as a casual deck, to use a lot of cards I like, and to do it in a way that is mostly effective in-game. It's fun for me, and I really like decks that are interactive but not necessarily countering spells. Doing things like Wrong Turn to give one opponent's key creature to another player at a critical time is a lot more exciting to me as a player than just keeping up mana for counters. Is it as powerful? No...heck no : ) but it's more enjoyable to me. Similarly, protecting my creatures with something like Quickling is just, I don't know, it's the way I'd rather play than pure counterspell.
Really, I want to keep this deck light and fun and variable enough to make each game feel unique because that's what I like. That being said, there are some definite ways to make this more competitive.
A better land base would help immensely. I really don't want to spend money on lands, mostly because I find it super lame, and I refuse to do it. Fetchlands, shocklands, the good manlands, they'd all help this deck a lot, so add them if you want, but for me it's cest la vie.
Counters and interaction to protect combo pieces could easily replace many of the pain artifacts and things. Rarity as a storm commander could be nuts. Also, protection for Rarity with Lightning Greaves or tefari's protection could help a lot. Building into protecting combos and drawing with Curiosity effects would most likely make the most powerful version of this deck.
More/all available tutors would also power it up. Enlightened Tutor in particular could be huge for helping to set up Leveler combos.
End Of the Rainbow
That's about all I got with this one. I added a couple cards from Kami neon and there was some really interesting stuff for my weird pony/pokes deck. They put in some more "attacks means draws" cards and this deck can always use as many as it can get! We'll see how it looks in the future, but for now, this is one that I continue to keep playing, mostly because it's a deck that is always doing things and always presenting some kind of problem for someone. Is it a game winning strategy? Well, it is sometimes at least : )
