great deck +1

Joraga Treespeaker is too slow to really do what I need it to do.
Lotus Petal is ok, but it isn't as powerful as Dark Ritual or Mana Vault .
Krosan Wayfarer is underwhelming.
Mind Stone is slower and less viable in this deck.
Culling the Weak is an interesting card, but I don't know if I should play it. It doesn't seem awful, but I'm not sure how it would turn out in practice.

Culling the Weak would be an inconsistent inclusion in your deck. You only have 6, possibly 7, sac targets in the first couple of turns.

The point that I was trying to make with those suggestions is that the ramp you have already included outclasses other fast ramp options legal in your colors. Arbor Elf beats out Llanowar Elves , Utopia Sprawl is a better mana fixer than Wild Growth , etc. If you want more ramp you'll likely to have to dip into mediocre options.

The only card that I can think of that can match the speed of your other ramp is Lion's Eye Diamond , and I have a hard time seeing it being worth dumping your hand.

in my opinion,Culling the Weak doesn't seem to good because you don't have enough creatures, i think that Diabolic Intent would be better.

I will be including a Diabolic Intent when I find one; they're just impossible to locate.

What other changes would you propose?

for Carpet of Flowers , you should drop Chromatic Lantern they both provide mana but the carpet is cheaper(since you don't seem to need it in your deck). and i don't know what to drop for Grim Tutor ...

I reset the discussion on this page to make everything a bit cleaner. Also, I need these cards for this deck.

Vesuva is really great with your deck. Tolaria West is, in my opinion, useless. Chromatic Lantern shouldn't be here with all of those dual lands. Rhystic Study is too powerful in tournament pods. And also, play Lotus Petal and Farseek ! Farseek can be used to search Watery Grave , which is the most effective shockland in your deck, and just pay 2 life, your shockland enters untapped.

Hope this helps you. I am currently building a budget-friendly BUG Damia, with Peregrine Drake , and lots of budget tutors like Beseech the Queen , Diabolic Revelation , and Jarad's Orders . Any suggestions on what to add?

@eros123eros:

Vesuva is too slow, and there aren't any lands worth copying.

Tolaria West is an amazing tutor. While it does ETB tapped if played as a land, it also searches for Pact of Negation , Mana Crypt , and all of my other lands.

Chromatic Lantern is here mainly because I run a large number of colorless-only lands. It's something I have often considered dropping, but I haven't yet decided on it.

Rhystic Study is too slow. I should be ramping into a turn-2 or turn-3 Damia, and Rhystic Study quickly declines in usefulness after the early turns.

Lotus Petal is a possibility, but I don't really know if it really is effective enough. Dark Ritual , the closest card currently in the deck, at least gives two extra mana and can help me get to a much earlier Damia. Thoughts?

Farseek mandates that the dual land come in tapped whereas Nature's Lore and similar spells do not. A shock land found with Farseek enters tapped regardless of whether or not you pay 2 life. Also, I would argue that Breeding Pool is the most effective shockland; I typically get U/G duals first because they support draw, ramp, and control. Black is mostly an accent color that supports tutoring, and I get B/X duals as I need them.

Do you have a link to your deck?

Lion's Eye Diamond works great with your commander and is a great ramp card

The problem with LED is that I'm forced to discard my hand as part of the mana ability's resolution (meaning I instantaneously discard everything). Also, LED's ability has a strange timing restriction that disallows it from being activated during the payment stage of the casting or activation process - it can only be activated any time you could cast an instant. As such, I can't use LED to cast anything from my hand. It would only be useful for casting Damia, but it would also mean I am without countermagic to defend her. If something happened to her before her ability resolved, I would be without a hand or general (i.e. I lose the game).

Hey, I'm new to site. Been playing MTG on and off for the last 15 years. Not sure if anyone's mentioned Vorosh, the Hunter as a possible add. Damn Thing gets bigger and bigger.

Vorosh, the Hunter isn't ideal for this deck. I rarely ever attack, so a creature that's only good in combat is a no-go.

What about adding Time Warp and Walk the Aeons as a faster combo towards infinite turns?

Forbid would be a great addition to the counters in this deck too - being able to counter spells over and over is pure card advantage.

Jace, Memory Adept could be another draw engine and possible win condition for the deck.

Although I understand you can't always rely on your creatures to connect, Sword of Feast and Famine and Sword of Fire and Ice are certainly worth considering.

If you could reliably get the mana for it, Plasm Capture would act as a second Mana Drain for the deck.

Repeal could act as another form of removal, though expensive. The cantrip may well be worth it.

Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox could help with ramp.

Alchemist's Refuge gives an option to give your spells flash, which can really come in handy.

Acidic Slime when flickered with Deadeye Navigator could help lock down your opponents and acts as reusable removal.

If you could have a look at my Release the Mimeoplasm deck when you have the time (though it doesn't run the same commander and is quite different in win conditions, it does run the same colours and some of the same cards. It's not meant to be quite as competitive and it's more budget than yours though), I need to scale it down to 100 cards and I'm always looking for more suggestions I may have missed.

Temporal Manipulation is better than Time Warp .

Walk the Aeons is bad; I don't want to sacrifice three islands to take another turn.

Forbid is also bad; I don't want to discard two cards to counter a spell. Even though I can replace the discarded cards with Damia's ability, I don't want to put myself at the disadvantage of having to discard them.

Jace, Memory Adept is too slow and expensive to do anything for this deck.

Sword of Feast and Famine and Sword of Fire and Ice aren't really relevant to this deck. I rarely attack at all, so including cards that depend on combat would be a waste of deck space.

Plasm Capture is too color-saturated to be reliable. Although it's strong, it isn't practical.

Repeal isn't really relevant to this deck at all. I would sooner run Boomerang or Into the Roil .

Mox Diamond is questionable. It's something I would need to test because I don't actually know outright whether it would be worth pursuing.

Chrome Mox is not good enough. There are very few multicolored cards in the deck, and there are fewer cards I would want to pitch to it.

Alchemist's Refuge used to be in the deck, but I cut it to play Cavern of Souls . The ability was kind of expensive.

Acidic Slime is too expensive to be playable. It's worse than Beast Within unless I have Deadeye Navigator , but I don't even play Deadeye Navigator until the turn on which I win.

Walk the Aeons and Forbid don't require you to pay their additional costs. They give you the option of paying them if you want the card back so you can use it again - and the option to do so is always an upside.

Without buyback, those cards are still just worse versions of things I already play (or would play, in the case of Walk the Aeons versus Temporal Manipulation ).

how good would Merchant Scroll be in this deck?

Merchant Scroll is a good card, but it isn't fantastic in my opinion. Most of the cards it would find are counterspells, although it could find Blue Sun's Zenith or Lim-Dul's Vault . I'll bounce the idea off my friend.

another argument against Walk the Aeons is that considering this deck is for particularly competitive environments the possibility of running into decks with Mindslaver effects is relatively high, so the buyback could potentially be used against you. also it's important to note in this specific case that it says "target player" as opposed to "you".

conversely i'd argue FOR the use of Forbid it seems fitting provided you probably should just use it the turn before yours as opposed to several turns away from your next upkeep.

I'm surprised something like Putrefy hadn't made the list, unconditional removal for both artifacts and creatures along with the denial of regeneration... might've also mentioned Abrupt Decay

Forbid is top disadvantageous. I have to pay 3 for a counterspell, which I already don't like to do (Voidslime and Hinder make the list because of their utility), and I need to lose two cards. While I technically can discard two cards for the buyback cost, it will never be in my interest to do so. That means I need to take a severe hit to my card advantage, and Forbid is expensive to use any number of times.

Putrefy and Abrupt Decay used to be in this deck, but they weren't relevant enough. I deal with threats before they resolve and only rarely afterward. The fact is that I'm often comboing by turn 5, so I can almost always outrace any threats before they can become too dangerous.

What are your thoughts on the Cyclonic Rift already in your deck? If you combo out regularly before turn 5, how relevant is it?

Cyclonic Rift is useful as a board reset the turn before I combo. It's not the best card in the deck, and I have thought about cutting it, but it seems to perform decently.

What is your meta like? What Commanders do you play against? This is a fantastic deck, but at the same time, I cant think of a single reason as to why I would spend $3000+ dollars on a Magic deck... I dont mean to be rude, but I'm just wondering why this deck is so much money. Especially stuff like Imperial Seal ?

If you're asking why Imperial Seal is worth so much, it's because it was printed in an old set with a limited run. If you're asking why I run it, it's because it's a good card.

As for the deck, it's worth that much to me. In all honesty, I have the disposable cash to build a powerful deck that I enjoy playing. Additionally, I had or traded for a lot of the cards in this list; I didn't actually spend $3k in hard cash.

The meta is competitive. I play against combo Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord , Ertai, the Corrupted , 5-color control, and the mirror. There are also some mono-blue lock decks.