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Welcome to my Talrand, Sky Summoner EDH deck!

This deck focuses on a very combat focused build which is a considerable departure from what is considered normal from mono blue. What does this mean? Compared to most control decks this is far faster and more aggressive while still maintaining a high degree of permissions game play. OK I'm interested, how does it work? Simple! With a high concentration of very cheep draw effects to gets multiple drakes down fast. This then is followed by an extra turn effect or Time Spiral to get lands to untap and then using that extra turn to drop one of the multiple 'super' draw effects. These include things like Coastal Piracy or Distant Melody these effects typically draw enough in that turn that a followup turn can be achieved. If this happens it's very likely that we will just run away with the game right there. If not, it's going to be nearly impossible to deal with our advantage as we are practically guaranteed to have counter magic up. This combined with easy to make blockers pretty easily blocks out any chance of being killed through combat damage early game. Then once we get back to our turn we go off. Drawing cards to get more combats to beat everyone else down before decking ourselves. In the event that we are unable to win through combat damage we do have an alternative. By applying Isochron Scepter + Mystical Tutor we get Nexus of Fate and from their all that is needed is to flip Jace, Vryn's Prodigy   and ult. This will mill out our opponents in short order.

WHAT AM I LOOKING AT?

  • Baral, Chief of Compliance: A very powerful cheep creature that assists in casting all of the larger spells earlier. With the added bonus of having synergy with Counterspell makes him a fantastic choice.
  • Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  : As the only other creature in the 99, Jace needs to have a strong case to warrant use in this list. But he comes out strong with flip side providing a way of chaining extra turn effects by flashback. He also covers a very important role of having a non combat damage win condition! An absolute must, as this deck can accidentally put itself into a position where combat damage is not possible.

  • Blue Sun's Zenith: Blue sun has many uses from just providing card advantage to decking someone out if high enough. The only high mana cost draw spell in this list.
  • Brainstorm: It's cheap and efficient.
  • Frantic Search: Besides digging for 'free' this becomes quite strong with mana double effects making it more than whats on the surface.
  • Impulse: It's cheap and efficient.
  • Keep Watch: While not an efficient opener most of the time, Watch has surprised me with how often I net a large amount of cards off either my own drakes or someone else's swing. A bit of a sleeper if you ask me.
  • Mission Briefing: While not strictly card draw, Mission does help contribute to getting turn spells and usually reusing them.
  • Opt: It's cheap and efficient.
  • Quicken: It's cheap and efficient.
  • Visions of Beyond: While rarely drawing three, the potential is present and as I want a high volume of cheep draw effects this does not disappoint.
  • Distant Melody: A true powerhouse that can suddenly shift the game in our favor refueling on control magic and extra turns.
  • Gitaxian Probe: It's cheap and efficient.
  • Last Thoughts: While on the surface very over costed, Thoughts has impressed me in just how nice that one extra card per turn is. Additionally, the free drake provided by the cipher trigger makes having chump blockers much easier. And more drakes works well with other parts of this list.
  • Mystic Speculation: Cheep reusable and low cost.
  • Ponder: It's cheap and efficient.
  • Preordain: It's cheap and efficient.
  • Serum Visions: It's cheap and efficient.
  • Search for Azcanta  : Between all the cheap spells being cast and extra turns netting additional upkeep triggers, Azcanta has been a great inclusion to this list. Working well both early game for filtering to hit lands or late game by flipping and digging deep especially with Sword of Feast and Famine.
  • Sleight of Hand: It's cheap and efficient.
  • Time Spiral: This and Timetwister fill a very important role in this deck. That is reshuffling our graveyard and hand refilling the library. This can easily make the difference between self decking and having enough left to win the game.
  • Timetwister: Aside from the awesome benefit of un-tapping lands Timetwister deals with the self decking problem this deck can have.
  • Bident of Thassa: Turning our drakes into a massive draw engine that with extra turns can easily close a game in a blitz of flying drakes.
  • Coastal Piracy: Turning our drakes into a massive draw engine that with extra turns can easily close a game in a blitz of flying drakes.
  • Kindred Discovery: Turning our drakes into a massive draw engine that with extra turns can easily close a game in a blitz of flying drakes. But with a massive risk as the draw is not a may AND as the trigger is on attack not combat damage like it's brethren this can result in a situation that prevents a combat damage based victory. This can be delt with by sacrificing it to Abjure.
  • Mystic Remora: It's cheap and efficient.
  • Rhystic Study: It's cheap and efficient.
  • Windfall: A cheap wheel effect that can be critical if we get unlucky on hitting key cards and can disrupt opponents.

Suggestions

Updates Add

While this deck has been nothing short of terrifying my lgs, optimizations need to be made. While the cards I'm cutting are not bad, their immediate impact is lesser than some other options. Last Thoughts has actually been really good as the extra drakes from the cipher is quite valuable. I just wish it was not four mana.

Changes:

OUT:

  1. Last Thoughts: a really synergistic card that simply is not cost effective enough and relies on the commander to do anything at all. I strongly recommend it in a more casual build as it's a ton of fun.
  2. Visions of Beyond: While having the chance to be Ancestral Recall, this card just often has me asking why? So I'm opting for replacing it with Chrome Mox for more ramp to help get talrand out turn 3. May instead go with Ancient Tomb in place of mox due to early game cards in hand can be quite tight. Curious Obsession is also a viable replacement that may see use. This slot is quite flexible but I'd like to maintain a low cmc curve.

IN:

  1. Consecrated Sphinx: A obvious blue staple that I simply consider too high mana cost to be worth running in this aggro build. However, as last thoughts is also in a similar position with it not running away with the game fast enough the sphinx began to look like it could find a home in it's place. Just having the sphinx in play it can control the game by itself especially when combined with the wheels in our list.
  2. Chrome Mox: more early game ramp is good ramp simple as that, may be replaced by Ancient Tomb depending on how badly I need more blue.

Comments

Casual

95% Competitive

Revision 40 See all

(5 months ago)

+1 Arcane Heist side
+1 Last Thoughts side
Date added 6 years
Last updated 5 months
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

11 - 11 Mythic Rares

30 - 16 Rares

13 - 5 Uncommons

15 - 6 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.77
Tokens Ape 3/3 G, Bird 1/1 U, Bird 2/2 U, Construct 0/0 C, Construct */* C, Copy Clone, Drake 2/2 U, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Emblem Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Foretell, Manifest 2/2 C, Shark */* U, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders CMDR
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