Hi. I like your deck and wanted to give it a whirl. There only cards I don't own is imperial seal. I am waiting to buy it when it gets a reprint of some kind, fingers crossed. In the mean time, what card would you say is the best substitute? Thanks!

Proxy Imperial Seal since you don't have one, see how well the deck works with it

@les_whinen Re: Imperial Seal... It's actually a pretty key card. It's a super efficient tutor and the deck kinda needs that sort of thing to be able to respond to the threats that arise.

I'm not the best at budget builds.... but I'd probably just add another decent card... basically anything from the "maybe" board up on the main list.

Imperial Seal is the 3rd best tutor in the format. To be optimal, it must be ran for peak efficiency.

Ashiok, Dream Render , Narset, Parter of Veils , Teferi, Time Raveler , Despark , Narset's Reversal , Blast Zone , Dovin's Veto , Liliana's Triumph , Lazotep Plating , Dovin, Hand of Control , any of these worth running?

@SynergyBuild, well... I'm pretty hesitant on the planeswalkers, even though they all do pretty good stuff. We just don't have a lot of blockers and are such a punching bag, I can't imagine them staying around for very long.

But, yeah, Dovin's Veto goes right in. Over another counterspell. Which one is prob meta dependent...

Not Narset's Reversal , Blast Zone , Lazotep Plating , Liliana's Triumph , or Despark ?

@SynergyBuild, so those are decent cards to talk about. Well, Liliana's Triumph is prob just bad. Despark seems sort of narrow for being not much cheaper than Anguished Unmaking . Lazotep Plating also looks too narrow to be better than a counterspell.

Narset's Reversal is probably not as good as Unsubstantiate , since bouncing a creature is pretty clutch a lot of the time. It's maybe better if you're playing a budget build and need to use it to copy other player's tutors to increase your tutor density. Could be worth testing, tho.

Blast Zone is a legitimate contender. There's already sort of a lot of pressure on the mana base, tho, so I might not take a land slot from it. Maybe the Orzhov Signet slot. Frequently just blowing it on one is a strong play since you want to clear mana elves, Carpet of Flowers , Mystic Remora , sol ring, etc. Although you'd be unlikely to fire it off until after those things did a lot of work, so, that makes it a little iffy. Engineered Explosives is pretty strong, but being able to play it for 1 turn 1 and fire it off on turn 2 is part of what makes it good.

I have had success with Dovin's Veto , Liliana's Triumph , and Blast Zone , not really the rest, but did want to know about them.

Dovin's Veto was just incredible, easy inclusion, etc.

Blast Zone was something I dropped a sweeper for. Your list runs Supreme Verdict and Toxic Deluge , I used Yahenni's Expertise and Toxic Deluge , now Blast Zone and Toxic Deluge instead. It has worked out well so far. I have gotten the trigger targetted by a Stifle but Mental Misstep ped it.

My argument for Liliana's Triumph is similar to that of a mix of Grasp of Fate and Diabolic Edict . Well, while Zur fetches GoF, making it pure value, many lists run it as a 3 for one, even when it only is great against one or two opponents, you can still possibly hurt three, even when that may not be the common case.

Instant speed, nontargeted, nearly unstoppable removal (excluding countermagic, Sigarda and new Tamiyo are the extent to which this gets stopped) for creatures, even at two mana can blow out lists like Laboratory Maniac builds, Narset, Enlightened Master , Animar, Soul of Elements (doesn't get effected by Pro-black), Sidisi, Undead Vizier , Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder , and Varolz, the Scar-Striped variants. It hits plenty of other decks like Gitrog hard, but is situational.

I think it is really good for that reason, but haven't played it in many games yet, so need to do futher testing to prove anything I said xD!

@SynergyBuild thanks for the detailed info! This is great!

Yeah, I can see Liliana's Triumph being good vs. decks that don't have any other creatures, like say Kess or Narset (or other Zur decks), but how do those green decks not have a mana dork in play? Don't they just sac an elf and then go on to combo out with Gitrog or Ydris or whatever?

mmcgeach Yes and no. Many times, Yidris and Gitrog just do not have a dork. Maybe a Toxic Deluge killed their board and they are trying to just hardcast their commander with lands later on, attatch a greaves to Yidris and try to swing, and then Triumph blows them out, or sometimes they used rocks to cast their commander and just didn't have the dorks by chance, it depends on the situation.

Modern Horizons I think has a ton for this deck:

Force of Negation obviously, it is a joke not to run it IMO. Talisman of Hierarchy is just nearly a better Orzhov Signet, so is an easy inclusion. Silent Clearing I feels worth it, but I don't know how much this deck's manabase can afford it. Hall of Heliod's Generosity has the same issue, but with a ton of play on it, recurring tons of enchantments into the deck, for Zur to refetch.

I have heard of a Second Chance combo with it, using Necropotence to pay down to 5 life, then each turn, you sacrifice it on upkeep, draw your card, main-phase activate Hall to put Second Chance on top, swing with Zur, pass to yourself, rinse repeat. Infinite swings with Zur should commander damage opponents out. Feels weird to run however, so I am not a big fan.

Force of Despair stops many combo decks for free, but this deck doesn't run a plethora of black spells to exile to it, so I will have to test that one.

Prismatic Vista also feels really strong, an easy inclusion fetch, with some downside to be fair.

I have used your decklist to tweak and perfect mine. This is by far my favorite Zur decklist I have seen. It does work really well for me thank you!

SynergyBuild I'm running Signets and Talismans in my (coining an archetype) Superfort Zur deck, which admittedly isn't very good, I rarely win with it because it can't really do much of anything before turn four, but it's at least fun to pilot

My deck:

Zur the Enchanter

Commander / EDH* FelixMortem

SCORE: 3 | 11 COMMENTS | 2673 VIEWS

@Ajw8273: Really glad you like it! I hope you keep winning. :)

@SynergyBuild: I think I'm most excited about Hall of Heliod's Generosity ; recurring enchantments is great for this deck. The talisman or the land might be minor upgrades to the mana base; although the manabase is a little tight as it is. Basic Swamp frequently feels like the worst land; maybe Heliod's can go in over that, assuming you're not expecting a ton of nonbasic land hate.

I think Force of Negation also needs a spot. Hmm. There's a lot of strong counterspells considering we just got Dovin's Veto .

Actually maybe Talisman of Hierarchy is better than Grim Monolith . Early ramp is pretty good.

mmcgeach you keep saying that City of Brass is the problem, so why don't you try a Reflecting Pool instead. it's a rainbow land based on your mana pool, combined with Command Tower you've all the colors you need.

@danielmauricio: IDK if I think City of Brass is a problem; I think I called it the worst rainbow land, but I meant the worst rainbow land of the lands we're already playing. It's better than Reflecting Pool since that card doesn't actually fix your colors and doesn't do anything turn 1. City of Brass is also sometimes sort of cute with Solitary Confinement since you don't take damage from it. Although, if you're playing against a stax deck with Tangle Wire that can be sort of annoying. But we're only talking about a few life points here and there either way, so that's pretty minor drawbacks in any case.

This is my list currently. Just building up some coin for duals and force of will and Mana drain http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/11-02-19-zur-the-enchanter/ Thoughts please?

mmcgeach due to this list's usage of Solitary Confinement , City of Brass often just a better Mana Confluence .

I have also found that Winds of Abandon is a better sweeper in testing than Supreme Verdict .

I also tested abusing more black cards ( Slaughter Pact , Dismember , Yahenni's Expertise , etc.) to use Force of Despair , but it was a mediocre card even with that. I did learn that new Ashiok is pretty good against combo, and Mnemonic Betrayal is really bad against Gitrog, but isn't that bad of a card.

@SynergyBuild, I run new Ashiok in my list and have included Scheming Symmetry since I can't afford Imperial Seal . The two work very well together.

imSandstorm Have you ever found that since you need to target yourself with Scheming Symmetry and Solitary Confinement gives you shroud it is difficult to cast?

Oh wow. SynergyBuild, I've actually not had that situation occur yet but now see that could make Scheming Symmetry a dead card and that's problematic. I'll probably be replacing it now. u.u

What do you guys think of Smothering Tithe ? Too slow in this deck?

imSandstorm I've not been a huge fan, though in a wheel-oriented metagame, I wouldn't be surprised if it was decent. The issue is often, I can't find a real use for tons of mana in this deck. For setup it would be sweet, but without 3 cmc to fetch, or being cheaper to cast earlier, I just don't see it.

Maybe if you build a Notion Thief / Smothering Tithe / Waste Not + Windfall / Timetwister / Dark Deal build it could be good, but w/o red for more better wheels, I don't see it being a real strategy for this deck.

Deafening Silence seems like an easy upgrade over Arcane Laboratory .

is good Bolas's Citadel for this deck thanks for your build it helps me a lot to build my zur deck