Thoughts on Vexing Shusher for protection for food chain or other ad naus...ive seen it used to great extent on fcprosh

Shaper, do you feel comfortable with the change to 28 lands? What mulligan system do you use?

Frank_Glascock I've been fine with it; I'm on Vancouver. It's ont he greedy side of optimal: 28-29 is the sweet spot. If I was to put another land in it would not be Urborg.

Ancient Tomb?

Ancient Tomb was in for a while. It ended up getting cut because of how color hungry the deck is. It didn't feel advantageous to drop before the third land drop and when paired with the colorless rocks it felt like excessive useless colorless. If I was going to play another land it would probably be Scrubland or Exotic Orchard.

I saw on Discord that you were considering Daze or Red Elemental Blast. Is Negate the victim?

Sorry Shaper, I rechecked the date of those comments. They were two months ago.

Frank_Glascock Daze and REB aren't right for my metagame just now, but they're viable options if other removal isn't cutting it. Negate is definitely closest to the chopping block. I actually play Delay in that slot much more often than Negate; I'll update the list to reflect that.

How does this beat Praetor's Grasp? That is if it resolves.

313Gamer Laboratory Maniac + Demonic Consultation + draw.

So this is probably a really dumb question.. but is there a reason for Yavimaya Coast?

Keeshe I play the UG and BG pains, because the access to G + (U/B) is more valuable than the other lands I could play in those slots. The ones it competes with for slot are Ancient Tomb, Exotic Orchard, Scrubland; I'd rather Yavimaya Coast than any of those.

ShaperSavant: I'm curious, what's the point of Laboratory Maniac? Is it Plan B with Ad Nauseam when you can't accomplish the combo anymore; or do i miss something?

Hipparchos It's the backup plan if Food Chain or all the Allies/Sweeper are exiled. It's also for winning through a board too staxed up with multiple Sphere or Rule of Law or enchantment removal: play LabMan, Consultation/Pact to exile Library end-of-turn/upkeep, win on draw step.

Thanks for pointing that out.

So what would you cut for Laboratory Maniac in the $420 Budget Build?

ShaperSavant I want to get into cEDH and this deck is prefect to start with. So good job on this primer and its budget versions. :) I will buy the $420-Build and slowly upgrade from there.

My first question is, are there any changes you would make since the budget version exists for several months now? And what are the first minor upgrades to do? I'd cut Sterling Grove for Laboratory Maniac (as a Plan B), Divining Witch for Dark Confidant and the maybe put in Containment Priest too (not sure which card to swap with). I'd be happy to get a guideline. :D

Cheers

Or should i focus on the Mana base first?

Hipparchos LabMan, Culling the Weak, Containment Priest (if you're facing Hulk) are the big changes. Sylvan Library and Mana Crypt would be the first cards I bought for the 420 build and I'd focus on improving the manabase after that.

ShaperSavant Would you be ok with these changes? Sorry for being annoying. :)

OUT: Divining Witch, Simian Spirit Guide, Sterling Grove, Wild Growth, Worldly Tutor

IN: Containment Priest, Culling the Weak, Laboratory Maniac, Mana Crypt, Sylvan Library

And ofc thhx for your help, i appreciate it.

Seems good Hipparchos

Shaper, I see Containment Priest and Gilded Drake are back in the deck at the expense of Negate and Worldly Tutor. Is this a concession to the speed of the new Hermit Druid decks? The reason I ask is it seems you are sacrificing a lot in speed with the removal of Worldly Tutor and protection with the lost of Negate.

I don't think FCT needs to make speed concessions to any other deck.

Containment Priest happens to put in a lot of work in some of the paper metas I play in where Hulk/Druid/reanimator is the flavor of the month, and it also happens to work well against Blood Pod and Yisan, which have strong disruption potential against us. I leave it in the general build because of how widely played Hulk happens to be right now while not slowing us down significantly -- it's quite lean for a persistent effect, and flash gives it the blowout potential of a counterspell and makes it very easy to play.

Worldly Tutor is just slow, clunky, narrow, and awful. I don't think the full-power build should play it anymore.

Negate rotates in and out as a flex slot between Gilded Drake and Into the Roil. Gilded Drake happens to be a very efficient way to steal Zur (swinging for FC) and large reanimator threats. You can play whichever one best suits your meta (Negate vs. fast combo; Into the Roil vs. stax; Gilded Drake vs. midrange).

Frank_Glascock

Thanks for the quick response! I like Negate as I do not see midrange combo. What do you think of Sigi's Breakfast Hulk? Is it the flavor of the month or does the deck have some staying power to keep itself in the top five decks in the format? I am thinking of making it.