Just a suggestion, but I recommend switching over to tappedout....MTGSalvation decklists always look like forum posts and you get the benefit of automatic deck price, mana curve, intuitive user interface, along with a very large and friendly community willing to lend their two cents on your build.

I'm not saying that it's a bad card in any regards, but i think that Dark Ritual is not great for EDH. Sure, 2+ mana turn 1 is broken acceleration, but you lose a card and it's dead in the late-game. I think there would be a more sustainable mana-dork / rock / land tutor which would do more for you, such as Life from the Loam . What do you think?

The general cantrips it late game, it is in no way dead. Life from the loam would put cards into the hand which are the hardest to get rid of (which means they don't cantrip).

Just saying.

Very true dat.

Have you considered Plasm Capture for it's mana gain ability? Or Rewind for it's untap?

While Plasm Capture is a bit of a hefty price to pay for countering a spell, think about when you counter someone's Praetor or Eldrazi, and how much mana you'll get back for that.

What if a guy casts Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur during your turn? Use a Plasm Capture on it, which not only saves you, but could probably turn into a hard casted Consecrated Sphinx and Rune-Scarred Demon on the same turn!

@artakha: Plasm Capture and Rewind are very underwhelming in competitive EDH.

Plasm Capture is a 4-drop, and its cost is completely color saturated. I never want to spend that much on a counterspell, and certainly not with that kind of restriction.

As far as Rewind goes, lots of players like to call it a free counterspell. That's misleading, though, because you still have to pay that massive mana cost to cast it. I'd rather take a cheaper counterspell.

A cheaper counterspell that doesn't give you back the mana? Think about it like this: Rewind is great for mana-correcting. Plus, most cheaper counterspells are either restrictive, or have a downside. Remand doesn't get rid of threats permanently. Swan Song gives your opponent a creature, which, against a saccing deck, is just more fodder for them to use. Plus it doesn't counter creatures, which makes stopping a goliath like Worldspine Wurm or Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger a lot harder. And Mana Leak , Stymied Hopes and most other preventable counterspells aren't good against ramping decks that ALWAYS have enough mana to pay the prevention cost.

Honestly, you're making me feel like you don't want recommendations, because I've seen nothing but you shooting down recommendations in the comments box.

Because most of the recommendations are just bad. You need to keep 4 mana open for a Rewind . Whilst you get the mana back, you then can't cast many cards except instants, which isn't wholly useful. You'll notice that the instants in this deck are mainly counterspells so he'd have enough mana open to then cast another counterspell...... but have wasted a turn when he might have wanted to cast something else. Rewind doesn't give you back mana. It still takes mana away from your turn, because you have to leave it open in the opponents turn. The mana that you 'get back' you can't effectively utilise, therefore it's not efficient.

Mana Leak and Stymied Hopes aren't in the deck so I don't know what your point is.....

Remand is one of the best counterspells every printed. It replaces itself and potentially wastes an opponents entire turn for 2 mana. Swan Song does almost nothing to favour an opponent in a competitive meta.

This is a highly competitive and honed EDH deck to be run in the most cutthroat of metas. Board clear needs to be 4cmc. Counters need to be 2 or less cmc etc. This is how it (generally) rolls.

It's not personal, it's just that most recommendations don't meet the needs of the deck.

@artakha: I will take a Counterspell over a Rewind any day. I don't care about getting the mana back if it's going to cost me so much extra to cast the spell in the first place. It ties up too many resources, and a response blows me out if I overinvest.

Remand and Swan Song are great counterspells in the competitive EDH environment. They protect combos on the last turn, and they are cheap to cast. The fact that Swan Song gives my opponent a token is entirely irrelevant. A 2/2 is meaningless in a combo format. Additionally, I'm alright with Swan Song not hitting creatures because it hits instants, which makes it invaluable for winning counter wars. 1-drop counterspells are important utilities for combo-control decks.

As a side note, nobody plays Worldspine Wurm or Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger at the competitive level. Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger might make an appearance in mono-green super ramp or in an infinite mana combo, but it isn't very common.

I don't run Mana Leak or Stymied Hopes so the comparison to those cards falters a bit. I'm not sure I see where you're going.

It's not that I don't want suggestions. If I didn't want others to say anything, I'd just keep the deck private. Rather, it's that the majority of suggestions are unrealistic.

ChiefBell's assessment is spot-on. This deck is designed to function at the highest level of competition, and most users just aren't familiar with how EDH works at that level. That's not a slight against them, competitive EDH players tend to be in the minority in communities like this.

That said, most users still offer suggestions. I appreciate that, but I need to filter those suggestions based on viability. Diabolic Intent , for example, is a powerful and viable card in competitive multiplayer EDH because it's efficient, effective, and utilitarian. Something like Progenitor Mimic is not viable because it costs a lot, it's slow, and it doesn't do enough to justify either of those shortcomings. What works in casual or even semi-competitive decks and metas does not necessarily work in competitive metas.

How has your testing of Toxic Deluge gone? IIRC you were going to test it out and decide. (Assuming that you have even PLAYED it since then.)

Just used it last week to kill off infinite Palinchron tokens before it got back to his turn so it reminded me.

@Ohthenoises: I haven't had time recently to test anything for this deck, unfortunately. I'm graduating from university in a few months, I just turned in a 44-page thesis last month, and I'm balancing classes, an internship, and several job offers (including a part-time position that I could start at any time), so Magic has taken a back seat. My only contact with the game for the past year (for the past two years, really) has been this site. I don't know if this will change soon or not. I don't have many IRL contact with the game.

On the down-low, I've been thinking about selling my collection and moving the funds back into my bank account. Maybe do some traveling, maybe just save up for the next phase of my life. I'd still be with the site and the game in much the same way I have been, but I currently have a considerable economic investment in the game, and my schedule cannot support the kind of play that would justify that investment.

That is truly unfortunate.

I'd suggest hanging on to the cards unless you are sure you will never miss them. I know plenty of people that years later came back to certain things (not necessarily magic) and had to invest more than what they made selling off their stuff.

Nostalgia might get to you at some point, so make sure you truly want to sell them all (you can always keep a few more casual decks etc too)

If you do, I would recommend keeping the expensive lands. I sold my collection and then picked magic up again after a break. I most regretted selling my lands - because the prices had gone up a large amount. Liliana of the Veil too; but thats another story.

Hello Epochalyptik !

In this deck, what do you think about Swan Song ? I was thinking of cutting or Hinder or Glen Elendra Archmage for it .. What do you think? And what do you think best?

And what do you think of Utopia Sprawl ? I was thinking of cutting Farseek for it .. What do you think?

If possible check out my decklist:http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/527707-damia-the-queen-of-card-advantage

Your tips are always welcome :)

@armando.zuffi I haven't even looked at your deck and let me tell you, if you have a Swan Song , it should be in every blue edh you have. It can counter tutors, board wipes, Nevermore , any enchantment, theros gods, infinite mana X spells such as Fireball (not Banefire sadly), Blue Sun's Zenith , Genesis Wave , ALL KINDS of crazy stuff. FOR ONE MANA.

If Swan Song is good enough for Epoch's dreamcrusher deck, It's good enough for your deck.

@armando.zuffi: Swan Song deserves a place in every combo-control deck. It's a hard counter at CMC 1, and it helps win counter wars. If you're still running Glen Elendra Archmage , I'd cut it for Swan Song . Hinder is cheaper than Glen Elendra Archmage and provides valuable anti-general and anti-recursion power.

Utopia Sprawl is good, but it's only reliable if you're running the 3-3-9. If you don't have all the duals and fetches, it's less consistent (and therefore less reliable).

I don't have time right now to do full deck critiques, but I can answer basic questions here and there.

Thanks for the replies Epochalyptik!

About Forbidden Orchard is really good on the deck? seems to me that tokens can cause serious damage to it .... and it would be a strong match in ameacao as Edric ...

And Cephalid Coliseum ? How do you evaluate this deck?

Forbidden Orchard 's tokens are irrelevant. Combat almost never exists in competitive multiplayer EDH; the format is so combo-oriented that a few 1/1s are meaningless (which is also why Swan Song has no real downside).

Cephalid Coliseum is also fine. The life loss is minor considering Cephalid Coliseum ETBs untapped and taps for on-color mana. The threshold effect is quite strong considering how many early spells and fetches I play.

Would Liliana of the Veil be good in this deck? With all the cards you're drawing per turn, throwing one away to leave opponent's behind in the resource war seems like a good plan.

Discard is not super relevant in EDH. There's so much card draw and tutor power that discard effects fall short of their performance in other formats.

I have a great doubt in using Memory Lapse or Hinder on this deck ... What do you think of Memory Lapse ? And in your deck which protrudes more?

Memory Lapse is adequate, but not fantastic. The nice thing is it stops a general or combo piece for a turn with only 1U, but it isn't super powerful.

Hinder is also adequate for the same reason.

I'm not familiar with the way you're using the word protrude.

Maybe he means, 'which stands out more?'

That's right!

If you had to keep only one of them in your decklist, which would keep? Why?