I'm really liking this deck. Have you ever thought about using Kruphix, God of Horizons for tapping all your mana on the side and then using it to help you BSZ your opponent or so

Kruphix is far too slow.

(Also: Comment cleanup at BNG, they said. Page is too long, they said.)

Orbrunner, Just so you know, it is generally a bad idea to Strip Mine a two mana land in a four player pod. The collective group "your opponents" goes down two mana, while you go down one mana. Overall, this exchange leaves you at a net disadvantage. Best leave that LD for the really deadly lands (Cradle, Stronghold, Tabernacle, etc.).

Your Mystic Remora is sad without a Rhystic Study to keep it company... also Beast Within is one of the best removal spells in the game for green, definitely worth considering.

@essiga9: Rhystic Study and Beast Within are too slow for this deck. I cut both of them a while ago for exactly that reason. In general, 3-drops are in an awkward spot on the mana curve.

@essiga9: Rhystic Study and Beast Within are too slow for this deck. I cut both of them a while ago for exactly that reason. In general, 3-drops are in an awkward spot on the mana curve.

Is there any reason to run snow lands over regular ones or vice versa? You don't have Scrying Sheets , or is it just preference?

The snow basics are there in case some enterprising monocolor player is running snow lands and Extraplanar Lens .

I really enjoy seeing a good logic behind decks. You are pretty on the point. I recently decided to make a little something of a sideboard for my casual damia with wizards and been tinkering about her trying to come up with my own way of being very rude.

I especially love how we can abuse the land ETB's on the deck if we build towards it.

So, what happens when someone, say kicks a Sadistic Sacrament on you or something?

I think the point of this deck is for one of two things:

1) Win before then

2) Not let that happen

As in all of MTG, there will be "good cards" that will disrupt a certain strategy. The thing is though, for something like a kicked Sadistic Sacrament , if resolved, most combo decks would fall over. But usually the chances of that happening are quite low.

@Thres22: Generally, people don't play Sadistic Sacrament in multiplayer because it only handles one target. If you remove someone's ability to win in multiplayer, that player will likely just spend the rest of the game shutting you down and letting your other opponents win.

However, the contingency plan, theoretically, would be to prevent Sadistic Sacrament from resolving. In the event that it does resolve, I would probably still have a way to combo out, but it would be complicated at best.

As enpc said, some strategies are just inherently vulnerable to some cards or other strategies. Combo is vulnerable to its pieces being removed. The countermagic is there to protect it, but it isn't a failsafe shield, unfortunately.

Epochalyptik: Have you ever thought of including Basalt Monolith and running Power Artifact to generate infinite mana? Also, what about Exsanguinate instead of or in addition to Blue Sun's Zenith ? I like Exsanguinate because it can wipe the entire pod at once.

I am new to EDH and trying to find a deck I really enjoy playing. You mentioned in one of your posts that you played at Icon's. I really miss that store. Do you play in DE or MD? I play in DE now. Your deck seem like it would be a ton of fun to play. Would you be offended if I built it and toyed around with it a bit?

@FunGhoul: Basalt Monolith and Power Artifact is a decent combo, but my deck doesn't really have a way to consistently abuse it. I could use Power Artifact in conjunction with Grim Monolith as well, but that's more of a "oh, this is on the field so I guess I'll do that" kind of moment. I'd need to have access to one to know to tutor the other.

Exsanguinate was the deck's original win condition, but I cut it because it was only a win condition. Blue Sun's Zenith can also take out a pod effectively at once, and it has utility outside of the combo. That's kind of the guiding principle for combo choices: the pieces need to be usable in some way outside of a combo so I'm never stuck with dead cards.

I used to play at Icons, but that ended when the store did. I'm a DE local, but I don't play in any of the shops around here. I've been extraordinarily busy recently, and I just haven't gotten back into Magic in a serious way since I left Standard at the Zendikar rotation.

Feel free to build the deck and modify it to your tastes. I'd appreciate if you point people toward this list, but that's up to you. Other users have given reports of playing against this deck on Cockatrice, so people are definitely seeing it and copying it (not that it bothers me; I like that other people think the deck is viable enough to duplicate).

I will say, however, that combo-control is one of the most difficult archetypes to duplicate and play. There are a lot of nuances that may not be immediately apparent to people who didn't make the deckbuilding decisions themselves. Even I'm still learning things about this deck. If you have any questions about an interaction, why a card was included, or how a certain card might perform, feel free to ask.

Thank you. I have tinkered with a few different U/X commanders, but none really took other than Vendilion Clique . While it is a good deck and fun for me, I feel really badly putting anyone through that. For me, Magic hasn't been the same since Icon's closed. I recently stopped playing Standard altogether so I can focus on the longer running formats (EDH, Modern, and Legacy). Eventually, I would like to play in some EDH tourneys.

I definitely understand what you are saying about combo-control being skill intensive. As a Magic player over the past few years, I have started gravitating toward that style of play. I think that is why I am anxious to build this. I will definitely point people to this list and ask, if I have any questions. Right now, I am still trying to keep all of the oracle text updates straight too. Thanks again. I appreciate it!

I made a few changes to your list which I have used almost exclusively to build this deck. I want to give you a sincere thank you for your time and effort. Deathrite Shaman became Carpet of Flowers because fetches are not being played by my opponents to a large extent but blue is a very popular color.Glen Elendra Archmage became Negate for the reasons you mentioned concerning her expensive initial mana investment. Imperial Seal became Diabolic Intent for monetary reasons. Chromatic Lantern became Worldly Tutor because this is the weakest card in your deck and in most games is not necessary. Worldly Tutor address the weaknesses of Green Sun's Zenith . Do you agree with my substitions?

Out of curiosity, what are your feelings on Kiora's Follower ? I know its a 2 drop (and all of your ramp critters are 1 CMC) but follower does let you untap your artifacts. At worst, its comparable to Arbor Elf but with things like Gilded Lotus it gives good value.

enpc ~ if memory serves Kiora's Follower was discussed ina prior sectio of the many comments this deck has seen I believe Epoch's response was something akin to "neat trick but overall lackluster and not advantageous enough to remove something for".

I could be remembering wrong but with a deck built like this one is every single card must be useful at all times and Kiora's Follower just isn't that. Untapping mana rocks and the like is nice but with this build ultimately unnecessary as rarely will he be paying to untap mana vauly and the like anyway. Again only if I remember his prior comments correctly.

Ahh, found the comment. Buried deep in the cleanups. Makes sense. I wouldn't say the follower isn't not useful at all times (hows that for triple negative), but its more down to input to output value. I guess most of the +1 mana permanent ramp in the deck is 1 CMC. Presumably the danger of it would be that you you draw it to play on turn 3 and A) it doesn't ramp that turn which leads to B) you don't have enough mana for catchall counterspells that turn.

I guess the argument comes down entirely to deck speed. its the same thing as the argument of Nature's Lore over Farseek . One gives more choice but isn't as fast.

enpc ~ that's about the gist of it. And as for more specifically about Kiora's Follower you don't ever want to draw something and think "well this isn't aint not wonderfully horribly fantastic but okay" (see what I did there?) And I can think of several specific scenarios with THIS deck where you would not want to draw the follower. And in competetive EDH where everyone's deck is trying to just outright kill the table at the same time, drawing anything that isn't immediately useful (except counter magic of course. Gotta hold that back) is not ideal.

I think you just broke the internets with that one, I tip my hat to you good sir :P

@Frank_Glascock: Glen Elendra Archmage and Chromatic Lantern have been replaced in the paper deck; I guess I never updated the online list. I don't remember what I swapped them for; I should update this soon.

The changes you made do make sense, and I agree with them. I'd probably have the most trouble dropping Deathrite Shaman , but, as you indicated, DRS is a meta-dependent card. Carpet of Flowers is certainly very powerful, and suitable either in addition to or as a replacement for DRS.

@enpc: Bellock86 summed up my thoughts on Kiora's Follower quite nicely. I'm open to further discussion if someone has tested it in a build like this and found results contrary to what I expected, but realistically, Kiora's Follower doesn't seem worthy of inclusion.

Any ideas on what to use instead of the crazy expensive dual lands and the the expensive search lands? either swap them for mono lands or lands that come into play tapped. i know that makes the deck a lot slower but also makes it a little better price wise

try filterlands, try M10 / inn taplands