WARNING: THIS IS A BUDGET BUILD AND I AM TOO BROKE TO AFFORD TOO MANY EXPENSIVE CARDS. If you do happen to have a not so cheap build that's similar, leave a comment on what you think would make this better. An upvote will let me know if I'm on the right track for this!
With the new addition of the investigate mechanic, and my first deck on the website, I wanted to build both a fairly different type of deck from my local meta (mostly top tier decks with a few madness vamps) and from most approaches to the investigate archetypes. If you decide to run a clue deck, you either go creature heavy or you go mill. Most investigate decks tend to lean towards the creature based strategies, which is where this deck diverts.
The main card in the deck is Fleeting Memories. This card in conjunction with Graf Mole, which gives you mad life gain (I was at 3 life and ended up back at 42 because of this guy) can help you stabilize if you haven't drawn any of your bounce or counter spells.Tamiyo's Journal is the key that turns the engine on. Being able to crack three clues for no mana, triggering practically everything in the deck, can really turn the tides. Graf Mole, Fleeting Memories, Ulvenwald Mysteries, and Tireless Tracker all in one go gives you nine life, mill your opponent nine cards, gives you three chump blockers with tokens, and makes a creature offensively big. That and it makes another clue every upkeep to get you closer to that sweet, sweet mill-out. The second best part of the journal is the ability to tutor anything in your deck. another Fleeting Memories? Or perhaps another Ulvenwald Mysteries? I usually get another Graf Mole because I like to not die from pure damage.
The non-investigate triggering cards in the deck are strictly for utility. Erdwal Illuminator is not only a beefy flyer, it adds an additional clue for the first time it happens on any turn. Cast a Jace's Scrutiny on your opponent's turn with one of those guys out and you get two clues to fuel your journal. Altered Ego may seem goofy, but it is the poster child for adaptability.
For example: An opponent of mine played a Kozilek, the Great Distortion. Now normally I would just fold at that point... If it weren't for the fact that I had an Altered Ego in hand. The look on His face was priceless.
Making a copy of anything on the field is not only hilarious, but it can become a BIGGER version of it. The only downside of that is that it can't copy a flip card fully. So no avacyns or flip-walkers for you.
The creatures are self-explanatory, the clue producing cards are also self-explanatory, but the one thing I found this deck was weak against was hyper creature flooding. so W/G tokens, Bant CoCo, mono white humans, etc. that's where these cards come in. Displacement Wave is one of those fringe rares in Origins that didn't really see a whole lot of play, but for what this deck has to do, the only thing that you'll miss out on is an Erdwal Illuminator for an additional clue and any tokens you may have accumulated. swamped with all those tokens? Wave'em. Got a low cost ball buster like Sylvan Advocate or maybe Jace, Telepath Unbound? Wave and give yourself some breathing room for the time being. you're not supposed to cripple your opponent with them, just give yourself time to set up with your three+ drops, which your deck is mostly consisted of. However, if you REALLY need to hit that reset button, Engulf the Shore is that big blue reset button. Instant speed bouncing is atrocious especially when they're running mostly non-token creatures. I bet they'll have some tough decisions to make when they have too many cards in hand when it comes time for discarding.
All things considered, the only thing that was keeping this deck from clutching a win was the lack of bounce cards. This deck is extremely weak against hyper flooding. if you keep that in mind this deck will treat you right.
Please let me know how you like this deck with an up vote or comment on how you'd do it differently!
