Jalira's Perfected Polymorph

Shipbreaker Kraken is meh...Kraken of the Straits is meh...Sphinx of Jwar Isle is meh... Whelming Wave and Mystic Speculation both are a little too underwhelming for EDH.

First of all, DarkHero thanks for the input. As I had said before on your own deck, Jalira sounds like a very fun gal, allowing a different approach to your mono-blue deck.

At first this deck started as some sort of Kraken/Leviathan/Sphinx "tribal" where most of the cards I'd polymorph into belonged to either tribe. It was running 5 or 6 krakens and Whelming Wave made some sense at that point. I don't feel like going Evacuation like and my playgroup sees so much Cyclonic Rift that it isn't that much fun anymore. The Wave sounded like an interesting option.

As for the Krakens, Kraken of the Straits is indeed a weaker version of Tidal Kraken . Out. I do enjoy Shipbreaker Kraken though. The ability it has to freeze stuff is cool... Removed for now but might have to test it given the chance. Sphinx of Jwar Isle was there mainly due to ivasion + shroud... That's not half bad...

Mystic Speculation is out too. I'm also removing Mortarpod since Trinket Mage can't search for it.

Brainstorm effects are quite important in this deck. I decided to move my Jace, the Mind Sculptor from my Azami's Excelsus Academy of Wizardry to here.

Aside from that, I'm considering adding 1 Chamber of Manipulation + 1 Prognostic Sphinx + 1 Library of Leng as some sort of combolicious stuff since it allows me to place on the top of my library any creature that I might prefer polymorph into. Unsure about what to remove though. Also a bit unsure about how good AEtherspouts is in EDH.

Helm of Possession is great and all -- but you might have better luck running Vedalken Shackles -- though both is also fine

I know, I know. But I own no Shackles and they are quite expensive. Since this is sort of budgety... I go with the poor man's choice. The deck is built with either cards I already own or cards that only cost up to 2 each.

Thanks for the input. If you have more ideas please do share. :)

Also noticed that the combo I wanted to apply (Library of Leng + Prognostic Sphinx /Chamber of Manipulation ) doesn't work. Damn.

So, does anyone remember anything that allows me to put the discarded cards on top of my library (or shuffle them into the library, or put them at the bottom of the library)?

you should be running Blightsteel Colossus instead of Darksteel Colossus , Inkwell Leviathan is just a fatty, Empress Galina would be a better choice than Callous Oppressor , if you run Leyline of Singularity that would banned tokens from play pretty much and you can steal anything with Empress Galina .

I would take out:

Brainstorm , Preordain , Portent , Foresee , Dream Cache and Ponder since it is redundant and only 1 time use, you are already running Scroll Rack , Sensei's Divining Top , and Jace, the Mind Sculptor instead of those run more counter spells/removals/draws/extra turns btw you should run Curse of the Swine

Trade Routes , Long-Term Plans there are other better draw spells,

Ovinize since it requires a 2nd card to get rid of the creature you want,

I don't use Blightsteel Colossus since due to house rules: infect is unfun and banned from our playgroup. Thus Darksteel Colossus .

Inkwell Leviathan is a fatty with evasion that avoids removal. Nothing wrong with that, I think.

Empress Galina and Leyline of Singularity are an interesting combo. I'm avoiding it though since I also play with tokens. I will have to see how often I have more than one of each token though. If not that many times this combo might be added though. I haven't playtested the deck yet. Just finished it this weekend and still tweaking it. I won't dismiss the suggesions at this point. Furthermore, nothing wrong in keeping both Galina and Callous Oppressor , right? ;)

Trade Routes isn't there for drawing. It combos quite nicely with Roil Elemental . I considered Meloku the Clouded Mirror instead but got none available right now.

Long-Term Plans is one hell of a tutor for polymorph targets.

Ovinize isn't that good as spot removal, no. But it means that I can block whatever easily enough to kill it. Its either that or a Counterspell and I'm trying to keep the counters to a bare minimum since my playgroup is always whinning about counters. On the other hand, Curse of the Swine is indeed a much better card...

Regarding Foresee , Brainstorm and Dream Cache (the only ones I'm actualy running), are nice cards but I could remove them... I was considering Temporal Aperture , Future Sight and Druidic Satchel instead (not true card draw but the card advantage is undeniable). What do you think of those? Again, no counters because people tend to frown at those and whine a bit if a deck has a high ammount of counters. On the other hand, removal on blue (other than returning stuff to player's hand) isn't much of a thing. And with me gaining control of creatures to sac them should be enough. And yet Brittle Effigy comes to mind! Extra turns also tends to be unfun although a Time Warp can be useful if I need to finish someone...

The deck has been changed so that it now incorporates Time Warp and Curse of the Swine .

I'd still enjoy learning what you guys think of Temporal Aperture , Future Sight and Druidic Satchel . They sound fun but I fear effects that reveal the top of my deck might be too much of a drawback... Let me know your opinion, please.

C14 looks good and there's something in there I'm looking forward to add to this deck. :)

Domineering Will, Stormsurge Kraken, possibly Reef Worm, Cackling Counterpart , Cyclonic Rift and Phyrexian Ingester . Now, what to remove?

Major updates to the deck.

After testing the deck a bit I came aware that it was either a terrific deck or a subpar one.Something needed to be done. C14 brought us 2 excelent lands which were promptly added (Arcane Lighthouse now lets me mess with ANY creature my opponent controls). I also went to my Jalira's Cheap Tricks to get Academy Ruins since they do a lot more for me in this deck.

Other than toying a bit with the lands, I felt that the deck needed to be sped up. More creatures to be sacced, more token generatores, more, more, more! Getting faster activations from my commander is crucial! Reef Worm, Myr Retriever, Wurmcoil Engine, Meloku the Clouded Mirror and Solemn Simulacrum do just that. Furthermore, Arcum Dagsson fits the flavor and speeds up the deck a lot, as long as I have a creature to sac to it (which shouldn't be as hard, now).

I believe that the deck should work a bit better now although I'm still trying to find a way to add back Druidic Satchel, Wayfarer's Bauble and Flayer Husk, at least. But will have to test the deck as is first.

I would suggest replacing the Palladium Myr with a Worn Powerstone. Same effect but does not get polymorphed into. Another functional sub to increase the value of your polymorphs could be an Arcbound Reclaimer or a Junk Diver for the Myr Retriever, or you could just run them side by side. They all also synergize fantastically with Arcbound Crusher. The Reclaimer also allows you to put the Dark/Blightsteel Colossus the table just worked together to kill right on top to be polymorphed into.
Also Trading Post.

Those are quite good suggestions. I don't mind running Palladium Myr because it can be sacced and the Powerstone can't.

I've been considering Junk Diver and I'm more interested in using it WITH Myr Retriever but I don't know what to remove for it so I only added one of them. Trading Post is a superb idea as are the Arcbounds. So, right now I have to add 4 cards but am quite unsure about what to remove. What would you suggest, if you don't mind me asking.

That is a good question, the rest of your list looks pretty solid. The one thing that sticks out it the Top. Jalira is one of the only builds where it puts in little to no work, as it only reorders your top three and there aren't really any miracle cards that are auto-includes. I would suggest removing that for a card you're considering, and to maintain function I suggest Prognostic Sphinx, so you can send that Trinket Mage to the bottom in a pinch. Plus it has pseudo hexproof, and lets you ditch the artifact fatties from your hand and polymorph into them if you have your reclaimer out. I would also replace the Future Sight with Sphinx of Jwar Isle so that opponents cannot see your top card, plus it's a 5/5 flying beater with shroud! Another potential replacement would be Pemmin's Aura (one I also considered for a Jalira build I'm working on that led me here) for Crab Umbra, depending on if your meta is heavier on targeted removal or board wipes (board wipes are a bigger problem for me, and I would think more likely given the amount of fatties getting thrown down but whichever is more useful to you). The only other cards that seem like they don't add too much value are the mana dorks, as they can be replaced by non-creature rocks. Even if they can be sac'ed, they still set you back a polymorph and the mana acceleration usually doesn't set you ahead enough, especially because they have summoning sickness. The main strength of Jalira is the ability to quickly set up a reliably consistent and extremely threatening board state in mono-blue, and the less creatures you run that aren't leviathans, the less likely you are to get one.

Also, hidden feature of Jalira, once you run out of creatures in the deck, she fast blinks the colossi (or any artifact if you put the ability on the stack then reclaimer it) if you use them as fodder! More reason to cut down on as many creatures you don't want as possible.

Although those are interesting considerations, I'm not interested in removing Future Sight. Even if my opponent's see my deck's top card, I don't mind it. It allows me to play lands from there, hard cast stuff from there if I want. Its pure card advantage. I like it a lot. Far more than Sphinx of Jwar Isle although that's a cool card. Something I had considered in a previous version.

Crab Umbra is quite cool. I still prefer Pemmin's Aura in general but I will have to pay close attention on how my games go to see which one is most effective and swap it out if needed be. Thanks for the suggestion. Added to my maybe board.

The mana dorks aren't perfect but they can be sacced both to Jalira and to Arcum Dagsson (this guy IS good enough to get its own deck; not doing it though since I find it a bit too broken/unfun a general though). I would prefer more stuff like Chronatog Totem but there aren't that many rocks that turn into creatures... From the games I played I'd say that I either cut on these and add small stuff that can be sacced or produce more tokens. Since these guys serve 3 purposes (again, mana dorks + Jalira + Arcum) I still prefer them over other things.

I do agree though. What needs to be cut down are the creatures. Everything else seems sort of fundamental for the deck to run smoothly.

Cauldron of Souls for double the jalira triggers per creature, and board wipe protection.

Not a bad option either. But that means I'd have to free another spot for it. Furthermore, would have to change a bit another deck (which might not be that much of an assle). Taking it into consideration. :)

budget...?

Somewhat. Not into investing too much money into cards. But do tell me your suggestions and I'll consider them.

It's not a suggestion I have, I was just courious way such an expensive deck dack the budget tag attached to it... But... Blightsteel Colossus

Well, it started as a budget deck with a very low cost. But it developed into something better (or so I want to believe) and more expensive even though I had to buy very few low-cost cards. Most decks I build are built with cards I own. If I have to buy anything, I'll shy away from the expensive singles.

As for Blightsteel, one of the group's house rules forbids infect cards. We find infect a bit overpowered in edh.

Intruder Alarm would work wonders with this deck.

I hadn't thought of that. Instead of Thornbite Staff... Interesting, indeed.

Have you thought about reducing the amount of nonbasics and adding in Snow-Covered Islands for Extraplanar Lens? I have it in my Patron of the Moon deck and it works wonders.

I have thought of that but I don't own the Lens and it seems that when I'm buying cards online I forget to order it. Might add it in a later update.