After some extensive playtesting I made two changes:

OUT:

• Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons : Mid/endgame I never truely found its potential. Most of the time I was hoping for another card.
• Fevered Convulsions : Endgame I see the potential, but when it comes to these stages of the game I usually locked the table to find out it's a winmore card. In your opening hand and midgame it's just a dead card with a costly ability.

IN:

• Sensei's Divining Top : After an absense I felt the appeal to give it a slot again. More hand sculpting options with the shuffle effect on fetch lands can give you an edge when you are looking for options/answers.

• Rankle, Master of Pranks : I am not sure about the viability of this card in the deck. Perhaps it is meta dependant, but the 3 triggers that are relevant the turn it comes under your control warrant some playtesting.

Looking forward to play with Nath. If you have any questions, then let me know.

I also saw some comments about the primer on top, which couldn't be read. Let me know if you can open and read the content... or not.

Thanks!

PartyJ are you still keeping this up to date?

Hey love the deck I've been play a version of it for years. Are you still keeping this up to date?

PartyJ, I love your primer and use your deck as a template for my own. It’s a pity, that Chains of Mephistopheles, The Abyss, Nether Void and Gaea's Cradle are such expensive pieces of cardboard.

What are your thoughts on Tinybones, Trinket Thief?

PartyJ nice deck.

We are alive and staxing again.

See the latest deck update on top.

Suggestions and questions are welcome.

"Our playgroup decided to stop following all the new sets of WotC and keep playing with all sets we acquired until the pandemic broke out. The last set we decided on being legal for our current playgroup would be 'Theros Beyond Death'. Since I currently solely play with these people, I tend to keep this promise and stick to any card till this set."

Good idea. I may posit this idea to my playgroup... because holy shit the powercreep during the pandemic has been ABSURD. Multiple new 2 card 4 mana (OR LESS) combos, literal black lotus, its just made non-turbo-combo decks pointless to play. The anti-consumerism of this past year or so is startling. So Im glad your playgroup has taken a reasonable approach to trying to continue to play this game in a balanced way!

Additionally, your deck is super cool :D

Hi Nerdytimesorwhatever, thank you for your kind words. Our playgroup is really happy with the houserule and it works like a charm! I even notice that people outside our crew noticed our house policy and show interest. The pool of cards is still immense, so I hear zero complaints from other players here.

You are totally right about the absurd powercreep. I feel magic is starting to lose the magical vibe that it long had when new sets came out. Now I feel overwhelmed by looking at what we are being flooded with. The desire for spoilers is also totally gone here...

As a little sidestep, we went a little nostalgic and created an interesting EDH format for nostalgic sake: Old School '99 EDH

Trying to combine the great format that EDH is with the nostalgic feel of the older cards. The rules are simple and can be found on both decks I created for our format. We really had a blast playing this; less combo and more vanilla style.

See these decks to give you an idea:

Old School '99 EDH | Adun Oakenshield

Commander / EDH* PartyJ

SCORE: 6 | 1 COMMENT | 245 VIEWS | IN 3 FOLDERS

&

Old School '99 EDH | Marton Stromgald

Commander / EDH PartyJ

SCORE: 11 | 8 COMMENTS | 526 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS

Last note regarding this deck. I added Castle Locthwain . A swamp has been cut for it.