True. I'm also thinking if I still need No Mercy . It has been a good deterrent whenever I get to play it but i'm starting to think it isn't that essential to the deck.

I'm considering adding one or more tutors. I can probably put Diabolic Tutor and/or Long-Term Plans .

Back to the Metamorph discussion...isn't Clever Impersonator best? No phyrexian mana, but ANY nonland permanent can be copied.

Long-Term Plans is interesting, but seems too slow. Three turn clock? I'd rather have Diabolic Tutor .

I already have Clever Impersonator in my list. I initially took out the metamorph for it but I think i'll put it back in the deck in place of Phantasmal Image.

Yeah, it does seem slow. Long-Term Plans costs 1 mana less (than Diabolic Tutor) though. And it is a blue card which is a plus since I have cards like Force of Will , Misdirection and Commandeer in the deck. The real question is if I can/should take No Mercy out of the deck because that seems to be the only way I will be able to find a slot for another tutor. It has been a good deterrent so far but I am able to win a good number of my games without it.

Lastly, i'm thinking of putting Basalt Monolith back in (replacing a land). I'm with "computing" manabase so I have no real way of knowing if I can afford losing a land besides playtesting.

I missed the Impersonator in your list...my bad. Been following this so long, I just hadn't checked for Khans additions yet.

I don't think you need No Mercy . While undoubtedly a good card, and useful when it comes up, I think you'd benefit more from the extra tutor. Which one it is though is still a tough choice.

It being a blue card is advantageous for all the reasons you listed. However, you have a lot of blue cards. 3/4 of your deck is blue. I don't think you should play Long-Term Plans over Diabolic Tutor simply because it is blue.

Basalt Monolith is good, but not really worth running without Rings of Brighthearth .

You're right. Diabolic Tutor seems to be a better choice.

With Mind Over Matter in mind, I was hoping to get a mana rock which produces more than 1 mana in place of a land. Any suggestions on what I could use? Grim Monolith maybe? An artifact that produces multiple colored mana would be awesome but I can't seem to find any.

Khalni Gem comes to mind, as does Gilded Lotus . Mistvein Borderpost is meh...Charmed Pendant is interesting. Eye of Ramos is another one that strikes me as interesting.

I did a search for mana artifacts here, and those are the best ones that came up, that don't cost silly amounts of mana to play. Hopefully one of them strikes your fancy, but if you want coloured mana from artifacts, Gilded Lotus or Khalni Gem is likely the way to go.

Khalni Gem.. Hmm.. Not bad. Not bad at all. The cost is a bit high though. I was hoping for something that costs around 2-3 mana. Will have to think about it but I think it just might be good enough. Thanks man!

Currently trying to find a slot for Ill-Gotten Gains . Any suggestions on what to cut?

Archaeomancer or Swan Song ? I don't know...it's a tough choice.

Yeah, i've been doing some playtesting and right now i'm choosing between Diabolic Tutor and Dispel .

Archeomancer and Swan Song are both far too useful for me at the moment.

Between those two I'd take Dispel.

Agreed. I just found out about Turn Aside . I think I like it. Lol

Ooh thats a good one!

But then again, Dispel can be used against counterspells. Damnit. I'll probably try switching out Dispel for that one and Diabolic Tutor for Ill-Gotten Gains for the time being. Its small things like these that gives me a really hard time.

That sounds good. And you can always go back if you don't like the change.

Ok, so I need some help prepping the deck for a tournament (Duel Commander) on the 24th. My deck is setup for multiplayer so i'm guessing it is a bit slower than the decks i'll be facing in the said event. I'll lose some cards due to the format restrictions so i'm deciding whether to try and "race" against the opposing decks by replacing Sol Ring, Grim Monolith and Mana Vault with duel legal rocks (Worn Powerstone , Thran Dynamo , and Everflowing Chalice ) or play control and run a couple more counterspells.

Hope there are some experienced, competetive duel commander players reading this that can share some of their insights and ideas on this matter. Thanks.

LSG Duel

This won my LSG's Duel Commander tourney a few weeks back. not my deck but i wanted to see why it won. there are huge prizes so everyone runs as many counterspells and draw spells as possible.

Doesn't look much but it seems fast, appears to have good resiliency and has some good removal and draw engines. Very interesting. Not sure how my deck will fare against that one. Hmmm..

Done with the (small) tourney! Was lucky enough to get to 3rd place.

Got a bye on the first round then lost to a Skithiryx deck (1-2) on the second and won the third match against Omnath (2-1).

Against Skitheryx:

Lost the first game due to a bad hand. Did nothing but watch myself get poisoned to death.

Second game started with me having a Helm of Obedience and a Demonic Tutor in my opening hand. Tutored for Leyline of the Void on my second turn. Game was over on turn 5.

Third game was almost in my back pocket since I had a Leyline of the Void and a Fabricate in my opening hand. After mulling down to five, with only one land in hand, I drew a brainstorm and another land. Kept it thinking i'll just hide the Fabricate via Brainstorm 'til i'm ready to use it. My opponent goes first, plays a land and casts Inquisition of Kozilek . He makes me discard Fabricate and I knew I was pretty screwed from thereon. Lol

Against Omnath:

Won the first match in 3 turns. Lol. Played Pili-Pala on my second turn followed by Grand Architect on the third. Tapped Grand Architect to cast Talisman of Dominance which I used to turn Pili-Pala via Grand Architect to blue enabling me to generate infinite mana to cast my commander Oona, Queen of the Fae to exile my opponent's library.

Second game was pretty bad. Mulled down to five and had nothing but lands, Long-Term Plans and an Expedition Map . Was able to prolong the game by finding Glacial Chasm . It eventually got destroyed by a terrastodon and I got trampled on by a 41/41 Omnath. Lol.

Third game was quite exciting. I again had a Grand Architect in my opening hand along with a Demonic Tutor and Lightning Greaves . Plan was to tutor for Pili-Pala on my second turn, Play Grand Architect and use it to cast the greaves on the third and combo out on my fourth turn. Things went as planed except Pili-pala got bitch slapped with a Krosan Grip . All seemed lost at that point. After a couple of turns, all I had on the board was a Clever Impersonator copying my opponent's Gauntlet of Power . After seeing me tap out, my opponent then proceeded to cast an entwined Tooth and Nail to put an end to the game. He was all smiles at that point until I used Commandeer (discarding the rest of my hand) to gain control of Tooth and Nail and use it to put Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Kira, Great Glass-Spinner into play. After 2 attacks of Ulamog, my opponent had to sacrifice his Vigor , the only card left in his board, before deciding to scoop.

That concluded the tourney for me. The Skithiryx deck that beat me eventually won the tournament by beating a Jhoira of the Ghitu deck. Got a Bloodstained Mire from the pack that I won so i'm pretty happy.

Overall, my deck still lacked the consistency I was shooting for. It was slow at times and relied too much on my opening hand to have a chance at winning. Decided to make a seperate French Banlist compliant "list" to better keep track of the changes. You guys can view that here: Oona - Duel Commander in case you want to share some suggestions or opinions on what could be done to improve my decks.

If anyone read this post up to this point, thanks. I'll probably be playing in more multiplayer and duel commander tourneys from now on. I'll make sure to post the "reports" here. :)

@Megalomania

I giggled a little when you said "If anyone read this post up to this point".

Congrats on your placing and the fetch! I'm using Phenax, God of Deception as my commander, but have wanted to try Oona ever since you changed this deck to be piloted by her.

The Helm of Obedience and Leyline of the Void combo is one of my favorites.

Good luck at future tourneys, and I'm looking forward to reading your reviews of them.

Thanks! After that tourney, I really felt like my deck still had a lot of room for improvement. First thing i'm going to try is to run some disruption and spot removals. It appears to be the easiest way to buy me time to combo out. hope it works. :)

Thoughtseize , Duress , Inquisition of Kozilek , Despise ...Not sure what other cards you could run for disruption. Kill spells and other spot removal, there are a plethora of options...I personally really like bounce effects, but straight kill would be better if your playgroup or local area (depending on where/when you are playing) rely a lot on ETB triggers.

@TheHroth - Phenax seems like a very strong commander in the duel commander format considering how it is both offensive and defensive at the same time. I hope I get to play against one sometime soon.

Thanks for the suggestions. I already have some of them in my list Oona - Duel Commander. I like Despise a lot. Will get myself one when I get the time.

Phenax, God of Deception is very strong in Duel, and that is all I play (though not competitively). I feel like Oona is much more suited to multiplayer than Phenax is, and infinite mana combos are something I really like, but are useless in my current deck as I have no outlets (I guess I could add x casting creatures or Mind Grind , but meh...they feel underwhelming in Duel).

I've actually playtested this deck against my own before, and your deck won almost every game. Competitive Phenax decks I'm sure would be much stronger than mine, but because they are slow and you are fast, I don't think you'll have too much trouble if you see them while playing in Duel events.

The multiplayer setup of this deck is quite fast. It loses a lot of its speed without the pieces banned in the french banlist thought. Losing the SDT, Mana Vault, Sol Ring, Grim Monolith and the Vampiric Tutors hurts a lot. Lol.