Front Page Feature - EDH #1

Features

zandl

6 July 2016

1154 views

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EDH #1 - The Moth in Reality's Closet

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I’m bringing you a fresh deck each Wednesday from our homepage that caught my eye as it floated down on a deckcycle. I’ll show you the list, provide you with insights directly from the creator, offer improvements, and display a few runners-up that barely missed the cut. Join me as we celebrate our community’s creativity and get the lowdown on a sweet brew!

When am I most likely to see your deckcycles? I’m always taking peeks at TappedOut throughout the day (and night), so there’s not one specific time each week I’m looking for new lists. It’s the luck of the draw, but deckcycling more often can’t hurt you.

This week’s deck belongs to jwe94, who can’t be bother to play your petty "colors."

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The Moth in Reality's Closet

Commander / EDH* jwe94

SCORE: 57 | 27 COMMENTS | 11123 VIEWS | IN 30 FOLDERS

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Commander: Kozilek, the Great Distortion

1x All Is Dust 1x Ancient Tomb 1x Artisan of Kozilek 1x Bane of Bala Ged 1x Breaker of Armies 1x Brittle Effigy 1x Buried Ruin 1x Burnished Hart 1x Conduit of Ruin 1x Crystal Vein 1x Deceiver of Form 1x Desolation Twin 1x Dreamstone Hedron 1x Drownyard Temple 1x Duplicant 1x Eldrazi Conscription 1x Eldrazi Mimic 1x Eldrazi Temple 1x Endbringer 1x Endless One 1x Everflowing Chalice 1x Expedition Map 1x Extraplanar Lens 1x Eye of Ugin 1x Grinning Totem 1x Hall of the Bandit Lord 1x Haunted Fengraf 1x Hedron Archive 1x Homeward Path 1x It That Betrays 1x Kozileks Channeler 1x Kozileks Pathfinder 1x Lightning Greaves 1x Mana Vault 1x Matter Reshaper 1x Metalworker 1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea 1x Mind Stone 1x Minds Eye 1x Not of This World 1x Null Brooch 1x Oblivion Sower 1x Oblivion Stone 1x Palladium Myr 1x Pathrazer of Ulamog 1x Perilous Vault 1x Ratchet Bomb 1x Reality Smasher 1x Sanctum of Ugin 1x Scour from Existence 1x Sculpting Steel 1x Sea Gate Wreckage 1x Semblance Anvil 1x Senseis Divining Top 1x Shrine of the Forsaken Gods 1x Sol Ring 1x Solemn Simulacrum 1x Spatial Contortion 1x Steel Hellkite 1x Temple of the False God 1x Thespians Stage 1x Thought Vessel 1x Thought-Knot Seer 1x Thran Dynamo 1x Titans Presence 1x Tomb of the Spirit Dragon 1x Travelers Amulet 1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon 1x Urzas Incubator 1x Void Winnower 1x Walker of the Wastes 1x Wanderers Twig 1x Warden of Geometries 1x Warping Wail 22x Wastes 1x Wayfarers Bauble 1x Worn Powerstone 1x Wurmcoil Engine

The main goal of the deck is to ramp with mana-rocks and outspeed opposing decks with early bombs and crippling spells. Kozilek comes down just as the hand starts to dwindle away, refills the cache, and controls the game long enough for us to eke out a win.

        Strengths

A colorless EDH deck is an oddity in that it has access to a number of "one-sided" board-wipes, including Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and All is Dust. Colorless EDH decks also tend to remain focused and streamlined as they aren’t distracted by other colors and the staple cards that come with them. Finally, the land-bases can be composed almost entirely of utility lands, granting a huge amount of versatility and staying power to a portion of the deck normally deemed innocuous.

Specifically, this deck makes use of the Eldrazi, which we all know are an incredibly powerful tribe and provide a certain inevitability in the late-game. The deck ramps decently into mid-game control and then transitions into larger threats to try and finish off a crippled group of opponents.

        Weaknesses

Some of the inherent problems with colorless EDH decks are their inability to consistently deal with powerful threats. The number of removal spells and board-wipes is decent, but a deck packed with value and efficient strength will always be an issue. Many of this deck’s creatures are small and/or ineffectual by the late-game, like Warden of Geometries and Matter Reshaper. Additionally, creatures that serve only as beat-sticks, such as Walker of the Wastes, are generally avoided in EDH since they’re quickly edged out of a complex board-state and are easily "solved."

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        Creator Insights

Why did you choose to build a colorless EDH deck out of all the color choices?

"I find the Eldrazi an interesting tribe and concept, plus there’s something I find alluring about never the having to bother with color-fixing."

What do you think your deck excels at?

"Once the deck gets rolling, if it’s not kept in check, it can deal copious amounts of damage. In the last game I played, it dealt 54 damage (22 of which was commander damage)."

What are some areas you think your deck needs help in?

"The deck unfortunately is prone to awkwardly slow starts at times."

Finally, what’s one thing you’ve learned through playing this deck?

"I’ve definitely acquired a newfound appreciation of the choices colors provide as going colorless forces you to take what you can get. So I’ve learned to be less picky on card choices."

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        Potential Improvements

• - Beaters
• We have better options for pushing through damage than vanilla/mostly vanilla creatures, so the following come out: Breaker of Armies, Eldrazi Mimic, Endless One, Kozilek's Pathfinder, Matter Reshaper, Reality Smasher, and Walker of the Wastes.
• - Inefficient Spells
• Some of the spells in this deck just don’t do enough for this deck or are even a hindrance: Deceiver of Form, Grinning Totem, Kozilek's Channeler, Null Brooch, Semblance Anvil, Spatial Contortion, Traveler's Amulet, Urza's Incubator, Wanderer's Twig, Warden of Geometries, and Wayfarer's Bauble.
• - The Whole "Basic Land" Thing
• Without Walker of the Wastes and considering the inefficiency of the Baubles if we aren’t mana-fixing, I think it’s safe to say having more utility lands will outweigh the inconsistent benefit of maybe drawing Extraplanar Lens and maybe getting a few extra mana out of it. Extraplanar Lens and most Wastes can come on out.

• + Bigger Threats
• I know jwe94 explains in the deck description that Kozilek, the Great Distortion should be the only Eldrazi Titan in the build, but the others are simply too powerful to ignore in my eyes. We need more potent threats than something like Breaker of Armies, for example. The following are in: Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Karn Liberated, and Soul of New Phyrexia.
• + Bigger Ramp, Draw, and Control
• If our roughest matchup is aggro, we need to speed things up to give ourselves some more options in the mid-game turns: Trading Post, Spine of Ish Sah, Alhammarret's Archive, Gilded Lotus, Guardian Idol, Unstable Obelisk, Seer's Lantern, Staff of Nin, Sandstone Oracle, Nevinyrral's Disk, Planar Portal, Basalt Monolith, Mimic Vat, and Mindslaver.
• + More Utility Lands
• As previously mentioned, utility lands are one the larger selling points for a colorless EDH deck. Let’s add Blasted Landscape, Cavern of Souls (yes; it works), Command Beacon, Darksteel Citadel, Ghost Quarter, Haven of the Spirit Dragon, Mage-Ring Network, Mirrorpool, Mystifying Maze, Phyrexia's Core, Reliquary Tower, Rogue's Passage, Strip Mine, and Tectonic Edge.

This leaves us with the following list:

1x Alhammarrets Archive 1x All Is Dust 1x Ancient Tomb 1x Artisan of Kozilek 1x Bane of Bala Ged 1x Basalt Monolith 1x Blasted Landscape 1x Brittle Effigy 1x Buried Ruin 1x Burnished Hart 1x Cavern of Souls 1x Command Beacon 1x Conduit of Ruin 1x Crystal Vein 1x Darksteel Citadel 1x Desolation Twin 1x Dreamstone Hedron 1x Drownyard Temple 1x Duplicant 1x Eldrazi Conscription 1x Eldrazi Temple 1x Endbringer 1x Everflowing Chalice 1x Expedition Map 1x Eye of Ugin 1x Ghost Quarter 1x Gilded Lotus 1x Guardian Idol 1x Hall of the Bandit Lord 1x Haunted Fengraf 1x Haven of the Spirit Dragon 1x Hedron Archive 1x Homeward Path 1x It That Betrays 1x Karn Liberated 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth 1x Lightning Greaves 1x Mage-Ring Network 1x Mana Vault 1x Metalworker 1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea 1x Mimic Vat 1x Mind Stone 1x Minds Eye 1x Mindslaver 1x Mirrorpool 1x Mystifying Maze 1x Nevinyrrals Disk 1x Not of This World 1x Oblivion Sower 1x Oblivion Stone 1x Palladium Myr 1x Pathrazer of Ulamog 1x Perilous Vault 1x Phyrexias Core 1x Planar Portal 1x Ratchet Bomb 1x Reliquary Tower 1x Rogues Passage 1x Sanctum of Ugin 1x Sandstone Oracle 1x Scour from Existence 1x Sculpting Steel 1x Sea Gate Wreckage 1x Seers Lantern 1x Senseis Divining Top 1x Shrine of the Forsaken Gods 1x Sol Ring 1x Solemn Simulacrum 1x Soul of New Phyrexia 1x Spine of Ish Sah 1x Staff of Nin 1x Steel Hellkite 1x Strip Mine 1x Tectonic Edge 1x Temple of the False God 1x Thespians Stage 1x Thought Vessel 1x Thought-Knot Seer 1x Thran Dynamo 1x Titans Presence 1x Tomb of the Spirit Dragon 1x Trading Post 1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre 1x Unstable Obelisk 1x Void Winnower 1x Warping Wail 8x Wastes 1x Worn Powerstone 1x Wurmcoil Engine

With just a handful of changes, I think we’ve improved both our early-game speed with the influx of more ramp spells and our late-game inevitably between the stronger threats and vast utility of our land-base. Some notable synergies involve semi-Mindslaver-locking opponents with cards like Trading Post and Buried Ruin, as well as Alhammarret's Archive + Kozilek, the Great Distortion and either Thought Vessel or Reliquary Tower. The past few years have been very good to colorless EDH decks by giving them the versaility and tools they’ve always craved in removal and recursion. The Eldrazi added in BFZ and OGW have really rounded out the deck as a whole and gave it a means to an end in longer games.

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        Runners-Up

Check ’em out, leave some feedback, and give ’em an upvote already.

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Locus of Lightning

Commander / EDH* Lugburz

SCORE: 1 | 2 COMMENTS | 318 VIEWS

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Jund Midrange

Standard* yinvor

SCORE: 2 | 5 COMMENTS | 324 VIEWS

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Meren

Commander / EDH* Rivielia

168 VIEWS

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Do you have anything else to add? What would you do differently? What do you think? Let me know down below!

Keep deckcycling out there! You never know when I could be eyeballing your list.

Happy tapping, players!
zandl

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