Hey hey hey... Verity Circle looks like it's worth trying. I had felt that the deck needed one more efficient card-draw engine, and I'd tested Search for Azcanta  ^Flip, but it's likely that Verity Circle is just better. It's still sort of a late-game / control matchup card, since it's hard to have time to play a 3-mana do nothing early, but like Rhystic Study it has the possibility of interfering with certain combos by drawing you into force or misdirection as your opponent attempts to go off.

I'm excited!

I find it very narrow mccgeach, wouldn't seriously consider giving it a slot.

Unless it's a meta thing, many Yisans and Selvalas on your meta?

VelvetVendetta Well, that's sort of a good point. I was actually in a prize match this week against Blood Pod (Tana + Tymna), Alesha, and Najeela; Verity Circle wouldn't have drawn me a card for pretty much the whole match. :/ But, I think that was kind of atypical and usually it'd be ok.

Also... Font of Agonies might be good. Fetch it after Necro! Actually it'd be great in all kinds of midrange matchups, where you actually do have to kill big creatures repeatedly. Also probably fine against decks where you really want to kill the general a lot.

I agree, when I first saw that card I immediately thought "mmcgeach will enjoy this".

Its perfect for your gameplan of holding off abusing necro for value.

Btw we never spoke about your mana base before, I looked at it right now and highly recommend you adding Skycloud Expanse and Darkwater Catacombs.

Those two lands are a small change that increases your chances of a T2 Zur by large.

If you are skeptical, include it as a test, I guarantee you they are worthwhile to make your colorless fast mana always translate into a fast Zur.

I mean, even playing control, we want necro as soon as possible right?

I assume that if you are running gemstone caverns you already noticed that your gameplan, even if is not storming, still relies heavily on necro (or some card adv engine) hitting the board very quickly.

Those two lands I recommended are in line with that perspective.

Btw mmcgeach I'm currently working on a new deck, Adaptive Storm Jhoira, idk how sharp you are on storm decks, but this is (much like control Zur) an outside of the box strat for cEDH, so any feedback is appreciated.

Heya VelvetVendetta, I'm not super keen on those lands ( Darkwater Catacombs , Skycloud Expanse ), since they don't produce mana on their own, so it can be awkward if they're your only land, or an early land. Still, they can be good. But, the mana base is pretty tight. There's basics, fetches, duals, 5 color lands, and utility lands. I guess you could slot something in over City of Brass which is probably the worst rainbow land, but I'd probably go for Morphic Pool or Sea of Clouds .

I'll check out the Jhoira deck.

How useful have Reliquary Tower and Thought Vessel been? This seems like it would be the most useful list for them, but they seem win-moreish since they require Necropotence to do something.

I was curious because I was going to building a list off of this and they seemed like cards I would want to cut, but wanted to get your take on them first :)

Also have you considered Submerge ? Seems like it would slot in pretty well since there's no Ad Naus to worry about and can save Zur in a pinch (Gilded Drake scenario or something)

It's in there for no max hand size, so we can kill our opponents in one shot via Empyrial Armor, and gain massive ammounts of life back, via Cartouche + Empyrial Armor. They are definitely required.

mmcgeach Try the lands, I'm 100% sure they are worth their drawbacks, it's an almost free turn 2 Zur consistency increase, and a significant one.

crstisalie I get what its for, but is it necessary to one shot opponents? It seems like keeping a full grip of 7 interactive cards and tutoring out Arcane Lab for the lockdown would be sufficient.

@deakmana yeah, keep the no-max-hand-size cards. They're part of the wincon. Also they're good if you end up wheeling or drawing a lot off mystic remora or rhystic study. Like, if you have notion thief + windfall, be sure to NOT play your land first, so if you wheel into reliquary tower you can play that for turn. Then one-hit someone.

If you want to cut stuff, I'd look at some of the weaker interaction spells relative to what you might need in your meta. Like, how many anti-GY cards do you need? Probably not all 4 of RIP, Containment Priest, Leyline, and Graffdigger's Cage. You can cut the basic swamp if there's no bloodmoon effects. You can cut the anti-general tech like imprisoned in the moon if you're not playing against general-centric decks (it's good against sisay, selvala, arcum, animar, etc; bad against tymna, thrasios, kess, teferi). You can shave a counterspell if your opponents aren't on counterspells themselves (like, negate or dispel). And so on.

Of course it's necessary. The less players that are in the game, the less people you have to control, upping your chances of winning the game.

@deakmana, think of it like a combo. You draw 21 cards and then you win! Having the power to end the game out of nowhere with a combo-like kill is very strong. It's basically the premise of the whole CEDH format. :)

mmcgeach Thanks for the detailed response :) Its a different mindset for me from a lot of decks where you just go get Necro -> Win or Thief+Wheel -> Win (in the same turn)

deakmana Good players know how to get out of Arcane Lab + Counters situation, simply by breaking it twice in the same turn, as you will be unable to protect it more than once.

In any case, I would find ok to cut Thought Vessel if, and only if, you run expedition map, which this list does not.

In my Zur I favored expedition map on the slot over Thought Vessel because I like the possibility of tutoring Hall of the Bandit Lord and Cavern of Souls .

You're already running Rest in Peace , you could consider running Web of Inertia and Energy Field so that you can never be attacked or take damage.

FelixMortem I'm not the list owner, but no, because Solitary Confinement does that already by itself. Especially considering those two enchantments are basically worthless on their own.

@FelixMortem, yes, that's a powerful effect. We already have one of those with Solitary Confinement and I find that I don't really need 2 of those. Solitary confinement is better by itself, too, without rest in peace. You do need some kind of card advantage, but there's a few ways to get that going.

I overlooked Solitary Confinement , that was a mistake on my part

mmcgeach Funny story, a few days ago a guy looked for me on my LGS and asked me if I was ''the Zur guy'' kkk...After I loled, I said that yes I'm indeed who he was looking for, he asked then if I still had my list, I said no, as I really do not have it anymore, but I recommended yours, saying it was the best control Zur list online (legit title). =]

What do you think of my Voltron Zur deck?

My deck:

Zur the Enchanter

Commander / EDH* FelixMortem

SCORE: 3 | 10 COMMENTS | 1944 VIEWS

@VelvetVendetta I appreciate it. Zur players need to stick together!

@FelixMortem It looks sweet! I can't really comment on casual decks, tho. I don't know what else to say. I just haven't played casual EDH in like... a couple years. CEDH is a harsh mistress. :/

I don't think my deck is super casual, it's competitive at my LGS, we probably just have different power levels across stores

@FelixMortem. That's cool, I'm glad to hear you're having success with it!

There actually is a true "Competitive EDH", which is almost like it's own format. If you want to learn more about it, I'd start here : https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveEDH/