why not Wound Reflection rather than Final Punishment ?

Thanks, that's a way better card. I'll definitely add that to the list.

Dropped:Dark RitualHonden of Night's ReachCodex ShredderGravedigger

Added:Dreamborn MuseMistform ShriekerLoxodon WarhammerSpell SnareEye of the Storm

Hive Mind and Slaughter Pact or Pact of Negation , will kill everyone who is not in blue or black (depending on which one you cast). Eye of the Storm is a may ability, so it isnt guaranteed that they will cast it, especially if it will kill them.

That's a cheap combo. I like it. Thanks for the input.

I'd recommend Consecrated Sphinx and Recurring Insight if you're having trouble late game. A great card to help out lazav is Dreamborn Muse . Good luck.

Is mill meant to be your predominant strategy, or do you rely more on the combos to get the job done?

Cards I would cut:

• Coerced Confession - Too expensive and inefficient.
• Kiku's Shadow - Slow as removal, situational.
• Midnight Recovery - Slow and unnecessary.
• Mind's Desire - Unnecessary.
• Psychic Drain - Unnecessary and inefficient.
• Sever Soul - Slow and expensive as removal.
• Twisted Justice - Expensive and situational.
• Cabal Interrogator - Expensive to use.
• Haunter of Nightveil - Expensive and unnecessary.
• Mirri the Cursed - Unnecessary.
• Loxodon Warhammer - Irrelevant to both mill and combo strategies.
• Brain Freeze - Situational and unnecessary.
• Hive Mind - Unnecessary and dangerous, especially since you don't appear to be using it in a combo.
• Megrim - You don't have much discard, and this isn't really relevant to either mill or combo.
• Shrieking Affliction - Not really relevant.
• Exotic Orchard - It would be better to use a dual land that is guaranteed to give you U/B. This card is more useful in 3- or 5-color decks.

Before I offer advice on what to include, you should decide the direction of the deck. I suggest focusing on either mill or combo because the two don't really work well together (unless you have a mill combo, but that doesn't really count).

Originally I built the deck around finding ways to get cards to the graveyard in order to activate Lazav's ability, so I used a combination of milling, discard, counters and creature removal as the main focus of the deck. It's only after I've played it many, many times that I can accept some of the synergy the deck is lacking. That and if I get attacked early on(which is often now) I seldom do well, even if I have the mana to cast my spells.

I hate answering a question with another question, but it's the only way I can decided to go with milling or combos. Which strategy is going to produce the most shenanigans?

Do cheeky combos. Not infinite, but the ones that make people bang their heads on the play table.

Combo is better than mill. Hands down. It also gives you the flexibility to do a lot of different things, even without going infinite.

I think part of the problem with the current incarnation of this deck is that you're trying to split your attention between too many things. You're going for the jack-of-all-trades approach, but that naturally means the deck doesn't specialize at doing any one thing very well.

I had a feeling that was the case and since I'd rather have the flexibility, I definitely want a combo deck. Infinite combos are neat, but I agree that the cheeky combos are way more fun to play. It gives you more gratification than being able to just finish an opponent off at almost any point of the game.

I have a feeling I still don't completely grasp this yet, but he's my attempt in replacing that which you said has no place in my deck and why I decided to go with the cards I did.

Bad River - Threw this in over Exotic Orchard. I figured I can fetch Water Grave with it if I don't have it in my hand.

Muddle the Mixture - Counter if I need it, or I can transmute for a removal, a better counter, a better tutor spell, or even Mind Grind.

Reaping the Graves - I had read somewhere that his can be useful after a board wipe, especially if I try to counter it and someone counters my counter.

Squelch - I've always been kind of iffy about this one. Seems like a good idea if someone busts out a Nevinyrral's Disk that no one can do anything about. I'm sure it has some other great uses but I'm just speculating at this point. Eh?

Wound Reflection - This card screamed "combo" when I first saw it.

Consecrated Sphinx - Awesome draw power. Nuff said.

Dimir Infiltrator - Another transmute card like Muddle the Mixture, or an unblockable creature for cards with cipher.

Duskmantle Guildmage - At first I didn't like this card because I thought it was too expensive, but the more I read about it, the more I liked it. Seems like it's got a lot of combo options.

Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur - Don't think I need to say anything about why I chose this guy.

Notion Thief - Decent draw power that can slow down an opponent's draw power.

Chain of Smog - I have a feeling you're going to tell me this card is too dangerous. Reason I went with it is because it could potentially bring everyone's hand down to zero, me included. Could be usefull if Lazav is out, but idk. It's foil and that's why I think I put it in, however I'd be willing to replace it for something better.

Sheoldred, Whispering One - Again, must anything be said?

Exsanguinate - By itself I thought this was okay. With the help of other cards I think this could be an outright brutal combo.

Recurring Insight - Another card with some awesome late game draw power.

Voidwalk - I counted 7 of my creatures that could make this card killer for headbanging combos. Body Double, Clone, Diluvian Primordial, Evil Twin, Sepulchral Primordial, Solemn Simulacrum and Trinket Mage.

Trailblazer's Boots - When I saw this the other day I knew I had to have it. Not going to say it's the best unblockable equipment for EDH, but it has to be up there. But I'm only guessing.

The only other thing I was considering was taking out 1 Island and replacing it with either Bane Alley Broker, Pemmin's Aura or Blustersquall...and I'm leaning towards the Broker. I'm still kind of new to EDH so I'm very open to suggestions and critiques. Thanks to all for any and all help.

I would avoid Duskmantle Guildmage - it's way too disadvantageous. Sure you get an extra card every turn cycle, but you could be bleeding yourself for tons of life per turn. It isn't really worth it when your curve is so high.

As you predicted, I argue that Chain of Smog is way too disadvantageous.

Voidwalk is too expensive and clunky.

Trailblazer's Boots seems unnecessary.

Bane Alley Broker is clunky and inefficient. You should aim for things that give immediate, relevant advantage.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean with Duskmantle Guildmage and how it does any of that. Actually it almost sounds like you're talking about Dark Confidant. Unless I'm getting something mixed up here.

Voidwalk is the only one I want to question but I can see where you're coming from, so I won't and will replace it with something better.

The other 2 cards I have no problem removing and I'll look for something else to replace an Island with, if it's even necessary.

So I have 4 free slots after removing those. My knowledge on what cards are out there isn't as vast as I'd like it to be and my collection isn't that big. Kind of old, but not big. Are they're any good ones that would fit this deck? Blustersquall and Pemmin's Aura seem like a couple good choices but this is just my opinion.

Actually, I'm the one that mixed it up. I confused Duskmantle Guildmage with Duskmantle Seer . Mouseover images aren't working for me right now.

Blustersquall seems rather limited. If you find yourself under frequent threat from combat-oriented decks, you could include it.

Pemmin's Aura is more of a combo card. It works with tap-based infinite combos. Outside of those combos, it's just mediocre.

If you're going the combo route, you can drop Dreamborn Muse and Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker .

Notes made, cards removed, 6 slots free.

I'll be honest, the combos I had thought of kind of suck, and nothing else really comes to mind to fill up the remaining 6 slots.

Spin into Myth and Tunnel Vision cheeky combo that tucks generals if need be and mills a deck. Also works with the Hinder that is already in your deck. It's an on theme combo also.

Teferi's Puzzle Box and Underworld Dreams works, hurts you as well, but stops people from tutoring up combo pieces for their hands.

Warped Devotion and Cyclonic Rift or Devastation Tide or Sunder or Evacuation ..... etc....

When I get a chance I'm going to put all of those in the maybe section(otherwise known as the list of cards I'd like to work into my deck). Don't let the size of the section fool you because most of them probably won't make the cut. Honestly though I really like those combos.

Spin into Myth with Tunnel Vision or Hinder seems kind of cheap but a decent amount of the people I play have at least one Eldrazi, so it's not that cheap.

I would love the Teferi's Puzzle Box and Underworld Dreams combo if it wasn't for the lack of life gain this deck has. That being said, I'm probably still going to give it a try because it looks very, very annoying.

Warped Devotion with any of those cards is just lovely. Exactly the kind of headbanging combos I wanna go for with this deck. Silly question, but say I use Evacuation or whatever with it and someone has their commander out, I know it has to go back to their hand, but if they have to discard it does it go back to the commander's seat or to the graveyard?

Otherwise these combos are what I'm looking for, or they will at least put me into the right direction on making this less of a stall deck and more of a win deck. Thx dood!

Their choice, it's a replacement effect. So they can have it hit the yard or the command zone, also underworld dreams only hits opponents with life loss. I was going off memory when I posted, turned out I was wrong when I decided to RTFC.

It's all good, but now I love the underworld combo because it does what you said. Prevents tutoring, and the little bit of damage is nice too. I can't wait to get a hold of these cards and see if they were the missing link my deck needed.

Oh I got another question about the underworld combo. Since I'll be force to put my own hand at the bottom of my deck, would Bane Alley Broker be okay to throw in there? I understand why it's not a great card but it seems like a nice way to hang onto that one or two cards(i.e. board wipe) you might need without slowing down the combo. Unless there is a better card that does what the Broker does.

And is Prosperity a good card to use with this combo?

One more question that's kind of unrelated. Is Wonder a good card for EDH and/or this deck?

I don't think Bane Alley Broker or similar effects are necessary. There will always be a card you want to save, but that doesn't really matter. You will need to play around it because the effects that would help you save it are too clunky and ineffective.

Prosperity doesn't seem worthwhile because you need to dump your own resources into it. At least the Box doesn't require additional mana to keep going.

Don't play Wonder . It's only even relevant in combat-based decks, and it isn't even great in those cases.

Sounds good. I'll stay away from those.

How does Megrim work if I used it with the Warped Devotion combo? Like say an opponent had 7 permanents out and they all had to go back to their hand, would it do only 2 damage for the instance of discarding or would it trigger for each card and do 14 damage? And if so, is that an alright combo?

I think that's the last question I have for today.

Hey i run Lazav as well, there were only a couple things i was surprised not to see. Traumatize , Tunnel Vision (because i see a hinder already, though you often need to exile their legendary eldrazi first), Keening Stone . another combo-ish thing i like to do is slap indestructibility on my hexproof general with Darksteel Plate and Shield of Kaldra then let the Damnation s fly.

Not sure if your staying away from combo'ing out on purpose but the new dimir guildmage Duskmantle Guildmage goes infinite with mindcrank pretty easily.

I don't have the discard subtheme in my deck, I go for board wipes and mill, but a functional reprint of Megrim is Liliana's Caress if want want another way to get it out there.All that said i like the deck a lot. GL;

Traumatize and Keening Stone I have but I don't like using them unless I know the deck has a way to deal with having itself milled very quickly(eldrazi, ect). Same with Duskmantle Guildmage . It's not that I don't like infinite combos, but I'd rather keep them on the side since most of the people I play with are casual players. Same with Tunnel Vision , though I do wish to acquire one for the side. Liliana's Caress is another one on my list that I have to find and I definitely want to work that in.

Though I'm still looking for a Damnation I never thought of the Darksteel Plate combo. Honestly I've kind of strayed away from having too much to do with Lazav but I'm willing to give it a go. Thanks a lot for the suggestion. :)

No problem, i find having hexproff industructable (insert your opponents best creature here) to be really fun, and any black board wipes that say destroy work fine with it. Don't forget, even if you mill your opponets eldrazi legends you can become them before the shuffle.