Caged Sun loses a LOT of its effectiveness if you're playing more than one color. Mana Reflection is a bit harder to cast, but gives you the full effect (Admittedly, minus the anthem effect, but in Damia EDH I think the tradeoff is worth it)

Paladin852 Yeah that would be good, I'll see if I can pick one up. thanks!

Why Explosive Vegetation over Cultivate and Kodama's Reach ?

plax77

I don't really see that much difference. I can see why you might run Kodama's Reach over Explosive Vegetation , but it's not like Kodama's Reach ramps to Damia any faster, and it seems like Explosive Vegetation is a better pull later in the game, because with Damia out I really don't want dead lands in my hand.

I hadn't really thought about it that much to be honest. Why do you prefer the others?

the one less mana always seemed highly advantageous to me. When I consider mana ramp I always consider sooner to be better. Plus there's that whole "if I haven't played a land this turn I can just play the one I fetched with Cultivate and it won't be tapped" that I've always loved about it.

What is your win condition?

I'm still playing around with it and trying to get a feel for what I really want to do with it, and my designated win condition is where I always tend to hit a wall...

I've won a few games with Time Stretch + Eternal Witness , which while effective, is frowned upon a little in my playgroup, and i try to avoid doing it unless I absolutely have to.

The deck deals with most things that are thrown at it without too much trouble, however it is a bit lacking in the ability to actually go in for the kill and finish the job. Cards such as Deadeye Navigator , Time Stretch and Tooth and Nail definitely do some damage, though.

I've looked over your Damia deck on a number of occasions and I'm a big fan of it, however I play in a much more laid-back, far less competitive playgroup to yours and I'm finding it difficult to strike a balance with this deck between being fun-for-everyone, while also being a scary, effective deck.

Any suggestions?

I figured from the lack of cards like Palinchron that this deck was geared for a more casual meta.

You could easily go for a BUG goodstuff approach with a control theme. This would give you access to some of BUG's great casual power without mandating combos or locks. To effectively do this, you'd need to make use of some larger creatures, but you'd also need to make sure those creatures have strong utility.

Examples:

• Grave Titan
• Consecrated Sphinx
• Frost Titan
• Sylvan Primordial

I also recommend cutting the limited, expensive cards:

• Dark Impostor
• Phyrexian Ingester
• Sisters of Stone Death
• Xathrid Gorgon
• Archmage Ascension
• Sphinx-Bone Wand

Yeah I like that direction. I can definitely see the deck getting scarier by adding more big things with bonus Deadeye Navigator potential. I was recently considering just trying to control until I ramp to an obvious wincon such as ulamog or kozilek, but cards like Grave Titan are probably more synergistic and fun.

There are still a lot of obvious changes that could be made to the deck, and other fun cards I've been experimenting with that I am well aware I would be better off without (Archmage Ascension , Sphinx-Bone Wand etc.) that I will have no trouble replacing.

I'm a little surprised you dislike Dark Impostor and Phyrexian Ingester . Are they just too expensive for what they do?

With an increased focus on larger creatures should I alter my deck ratio to be more creature heavy, do you think?

Anyway thanks for taking the time to help me out, I appreciate it a lot. You've confirmed my suspicions as to what was wrong with the deck, and given me some great ideas and direction!

Dark Impostor 's activated ability and Phyrexian Ingester in general are too expensive. You shouldn't have to pay that much mana for the effect. Granted, Dark Impostor inherits abilities and Phyrexian Ingester gets fat and can be bounced, but they're clunky and inefficient.

You want to make sure that an increased focus on creatures - especially on large creatures - doesn't tilt your mana curve too much. You should increase your ramp package first to support more expensive cards. Then you can worry about expanding your creature base.

Yeah ok I'll play around with it properly tomorrow. I might try adding a Lotus Cobra or Birds of Paradise then.

Lastly, I like the other things you suggested but I'm not really sold on Frost Titan , I feel like there are scarier things for that cost, am I underrating him?

What you need are discard outlets. You have Raven's Crime in your maybeboard. Mainboard that. Also, Spitting Image might be a good addition, although it's quite costly. Wild Mongrel is great, because with Damia online, you can ditch any number of cards.

If you don't have these outlets, lands will clutter your hand and you won't be able to take full advantage of Damia. That said, you don't have enough lands and ramp in the deck. Look into Farseek , Sakura-Tribe Elder and so forth.

You could also probably lose much of the card advantage. Damia should take care of that. You need to lower you curve, because you want to be able to cast many spells each round to (again) take full advantage of Damia.

Instead of running discard outlets, it would be better to run cards like Azusa, Lost but Seeking , Burgeoning , and maybe even Exploration . They'd let you get use out of those extra lands and also further your board position.

Yeah I've been trying to get my hands on Azusa, Lost but Seeking and Burgeoning for some time, as soon as I can acquire them I'll add them. Exploration is a little out of my price range for the time being, unfortunately.

I was playing around with Raven's Crime for a while and it's ok, but I agree that it would be better to be able to continue to play lands to the battlefield while emptying my hand. And yeah I agree I need to work on my mana curve.

Have you considered Venser's Journal ?

Cool deck, looks like a solid beatdown.

Have you looked into Skyshroud Claim ? its great because you can get your shocks with it, getting a good mana fix and ramp in one. Also, Sakura-Tribe Elder is a shoo-in for your deck as you have both Havengul Lich and Sheoldred, Whispering One to keep reanimating him. Also, since most of your creatures are big beaters, you could consider swapping Whispersilk Cloak out for something like Lightning Greaves . Your stuff should be bigger than your opponent's and in this case, the haste would probably be more useful as you get at least one hit in before your opponent can board wipe.

I don't know why I hadn't considered skyshroud for this list, It's probably just better than Explosive Vegetation . I'll try and pick one up.

Sakura-Tribe Elder is something I should probably consider too. I did recently remove some fixing, so if I have mana issues I'll try adding him.

I'm already running Lightning Greaves :P

Thanks for the suggestions! :)

Herp-a-derp, completely missed that :P

Also another two you could consider are Nature's Lore and Farseek . Farseek especially lets you fix what you dont have and can still fetch shocks. Not to mention, there is a promo version which is soooooo pretty :3

I think you could look into cutting some of your draw effects (like Notion Thief) for more ramp. Once you get Damia, Sage of Stone down then you're set for card draw. So more ramp = faster damia with mana to spend on other stuff.

Notion thief is probably one of the weaker inclusions in the deck, but he is usually used to slow opponents rather than as a source of card draw. I'll keep an eye on him now you've pointed him out.

I'm not sure if I have too much draw, I only recently added Mystic Remora and Necropotence (power concerns, not because i didn't think they were good) so I haven't fully felt their impact yet.

Cards like azusa, burgeoning, exploration and oracle of mul daya work far better as explosive ramp with quick card draw though, so a good amount of early draw effects aren't necessarily separate from ramp.

More draw also makes me less reliant on damia, and hopefully more resilient. I have had games before where a chunk of card draw has given me so much momentum that I have never needed to cast and rely on Damia and have won without her. Still, I'll keep it in mind, as you could make a very valid point that adding effects that make my general redundant dilute the deck and are inefficient, also as I have recently added more draw it may turn out to be excessive.

What ramp would you suggest? I would be likely to lean toward Kodama's Reach or Solemn Simulacrum.

Thanks for the comment :)

Yeah, I like things like Kodama's Reach (or Cultivate, dat promo art...) more than Solemn Simulacrum. Sad robot is nice, but 4 mana for 1 land when your commander costs 7 seems too slow for me. Also, I have found Harrow to not be super great in a Damia build. Its good fixing but I think I would just prefer a Chromatic Lantern (which you have).

I've been impressed with both Mana Vault and Dark Ritual. I also like Gilded Lotus and I especially like it more with Kiora's Follower, who is a powerhouse. 6 mana a turn from Lotus seems good.

You also have cards like Ranger's Path (skyshroud number 2) or Explosive Vegetation.

As for all the options, I personally prefer to run stuff which gets lands, so I would lean towards Kodama's Reach and Explosive Vegetation. Its tricky though, especially with your build.

I understand what you're tying to do with it, but it feels torn in two directions. You're going down the control route, which makes me want to suggest burst ramp, but then you're playing battlecruiser which makes me want to suggest big ramp spells.

Out of curiosity, is there a reason you're not running a combo build? you have the cards for it (minus Palinchron). Becasue effectively, if you have Deadeye Navigator + Mystic Snake / Venser, Shaper Savant and Prophet of Kruphix, haven't you already in effect won? Its not like people can really get thorugh that.

Not running harrow, I have run explosive vegetation in the past but I replaced it with skyshroud claim. Being able to grab shocks is pretty sweet. I forgot about ranger's path, I'll keep it in mind if I add another ramp sorcery, I think I prefer it to explosive vegetation here.

Mana vault is a good idea. I'm not sure why I've never considered it. I'll try and pick one up to try out.

This deck has gradually been creeping up in power level, so it is perhaps on that awkward precipice of becoming a full combo list, but I am building to a playgroup so I'm trying not to get too degenerate. I may be at that point already though, so perhaps I should start considering just going all in.

It is battlecruiser in the sense that it runs expensive creatures and a lot of them, but they do almost all still fill control roles with their ETBs, and I have effects to accommodate for that such as Leyline of Anticipation and Chord of Calling. Less efficient than straight spells for sure but this lets me maintain the control element of the deck while also being able to be the beatdown. You say it feels torn in two directions and perhaps you're right, but it seems to play out fairly well.