Not legal in standard

Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir is actually extremely strong! It prevents your opponents from being able to counter your spells and, with Tooth and Nail entwined, you can search it up to protect your combo from kill spells.

dont you need both slots in tooth and nail to go off? Rune-Scarred Demon and Palinchron ?

When you entwine Tooth and Nail , you tutor for two creatures and then put two creatures from your hand onto the battlefield. You only need one piece in hand (Deadeye Navigator , Palinchron , or Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir ) in order to combo off. When you cast tooth and nail, search for the missing two pieces. Then put Palinchron and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir onto the battlefield. Opponents cannot respond since Tooth and Nail was resolving. You untap your lands, cast deadeye and proceed to kill the board.

@truble:

Praetor's Grasp is not viable. It's too expensive and slow, and it doesn't guarantee enough advantage to warrant running it.

Scapeshift isn't good in this deck because it's too much mana for too little advantage. Scapeshift is as expensive as Skyshroud Claim , and it doesn't provide ramp unless I find very specific lands. It also brings everything in tapped at sorcery speed.

Cabal Coffers was cut way back when Primeval Titan was banned. It's not consistent enough because it has to rely on Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth , and it's an enormous target for LD.

Grim Tutor is in the maybe board, but I'd sooner play Diabolic Intent . It's cheaper.

Green Sun's Zenith is effective because it can provide turn one ramp by finding Dryad Arbor . It can also dig up any of the important ramp creatures, especially Lotus Cobra and Azusa, Lost but Seeking , for relatively little mana.

Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir is anything but weak. It wins games. I've Tooth and Nail ed into it to protect my combo. Doing that normally causes the rest of the table to concede anyway. As an EOT cast, it's very strong.

Defense of the Heart was cut from a much earlier and slower version of the deck because it was inconsistent and easy to answer.

I cut Beast Within and Maelstrom Pulse because they're expensive and clunky. I often win before the need for removal arises.

@ms: Maelstrom Pulse is fantastic in EDH, and it's not even legal in Standard.

Well I was thinking usually you can combo out with just Tooth and Nail

You gen Palinchron and Rune-Scarred Demon

Demon gets Deadeye Navigator

you make infinite mana and then use demon to tutor your deck for Blue Sun's Zenith

then blue sun someone out

then tutor again with demon

and then blue sun someone else out

then tutor again with demon

then blue sun the final person out

I didnt think you needed anything but a counterpell in hand to go off

but I guess Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir would be good too.

Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir serves as a counterspell, can be played at EOT the turn before I combo, and can be found as unanswerable denial using Tooth and Nail .

I've played against this deck, so when I sense Epochalyptik is going to go off in a few turns, I save as many kill spells as I can. It isn't unheard of to use 2 or 3 kill spells to get rid of Palinchron and disrupt the combo. Sure, he can have counterspells but Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir just stops me in my tracks.

That, too. Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir is a hard answer to everything that my opponents could do. The only things that get around it are abilities, and they generally aren't a problem.

Hmm, I have a buddy that plays a version of your deck Epochalyptik (although he has never layed eyes on it, it is a common archetype)

I might have to suggest Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir to him.

What do you think of Plasm Capture ? Do you think its too slow? My ftuend played a version of this deck with it and it seemed to work for him... Also, Coiling Oracle might be worth trying...

Plasm Capture is too expensive (I don't want to play 4-drop counterspells), and it's also completely color-saturated. Those two factors make restrict it far too much to make it viable in this deck.

Actually when I have been playing this deck with Tooth and Nail I search up, Palinchron and Rune-Scared Demon. With the Demon I get Phantasmal Image. From there it is history.

You should get Deadeye Navigator instead. It's much safer and works with both Rune-Scarred Demon and Palinchron .

Phantasmal Image is there as a backup for Deadeye Navigator and as a cheap utility clone.

Regarding teferi--Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir can't be used as a counterspell. I played legacy with it. Once an opponent casts a spell, resolving teferi in response only prevents them from casting additional instants. It's a great card but isn't a counterspell in and of itself, per say. But you were probably just saying it acts similar to a counterspell. Unless I mixed up rules again...haha

Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir takes the place of a counterspell because it serves the same purpose: it shuts down answers to my combo. I know it doesn't deal with objects already on the stack.

Ok thanks, ya I figured you had to know that :-). But about cards that counter activated abilities--would you think that those night be effective against those t1, t2, t3 win decks, especially the Hermit Druid decks?

I've been considering them, but I don't know what I would drop. Stifle would obviously be the most effective option. Trickbind is good, but it's also a 2-drop.

I really don't have the kind of playgroup that would allow me to test those cards, unfortunately. I would need to play on cockatrice or OCTGN to get some more ideas.

Trickbind also stops it for the rest of the turn and can't be countered. I think that is worth the extra mana.

Hermit Druid requires a tap to activate the ability, so it's unlikely to be activated more than once per turn anyway.

@Epochalyptik: how the deck looks right now, putting in a Stifle for Chromatic Lantern , or really, the majority of your maybeboard choices, seems fairly good. You still have a great deal of ramp, and many of your key cards to prevent early-turn wins are cheap to cast. Also, the deck isn't five-color, so the benefit of the lantern is slightly less I'd say, due to the higher probability of you getting the colors you want already within your landbase the first couple turns. Is that somewhat accurate or am I off-base?

The thing about Hermit Druid is, if you Stifle it, you will still need another answer in hand because It will go off next turn again. You might as well just play the other answer instead

Can you let me know what you think of my Damia deck The Grind - A Damia Control Deck the idea is to lurk in a 4-way game, drawing cards and casting removal or wrath or tutor every once in a while until you are ready to combo out.

I sacrificed some of the speed you play in exchange for more removal and counters and such.

I didnt start with your list or anything, but after a few days of tuning it was getting pretty close