Nin-sane in the Membrane (Commander / EDH MTG Deck)

Nin-sane in the Membrane

Commander / EDH*

Seraphim755

Creature (21)

Planeswalker (4)

Land (35)

Enchantment (10)

Artifact (15)

Instant (7)

Sorcery (7)

Commander (1)

Maybeboard

I've searched far and wide for a color identity that matches both my personality and my preferred play style. I started with ghaves-token-and-counter-emporium, but decided that the token and counter life, while fun, just wasn't for me. In the end, thanks to some savor the flavor articles and my good friends Sir_Millzalot and anglophile_ws I realized that I was, at heart, an Izzet player. The fiery, speedy destruction of Red paired with the complex, strange powers of Blue fit me like a glove. But enough exposition. You're here for the deck, and the deck you shall have. Extra thanks to Engineer's wet dream for reminding me that shenanigans with extra turns were a ton of fun.

Nin, the Pain Artist is the commander of this lovely (pseudo) Izzet deck. She doesn't fit the theme of ramping up sorceries and instants, instead serving as a means of destroying my opponent's creatures and letting me draw into some tasty combos. The deck focuses primarily on ramping card drawing and all the good things that entails. Buffing creatures through card drawing, gaining life through number of cards in hand, dealing damage whenever I draw a card, milling an opponent whenever I draw a card, taking control of creatures to sacrifice to Nin and lots of other goodies.

I'm using Tappedout as a means of putting the deck together and being able to eyeball it before actually buying the cards and playtesting it. I'll be updating this regularly as I test things out and figure out what changes to make.

This deck has gone through a significant number of changes since its original incarnation. What began as a somewhat instant and sorcery heavy deck has become a deck focused primarily on drawing cards and making things happen when cards are drawn. This done with artifacts, enchantments and creatures.

Infinite mana: Grand Architect + Pili-Pala

This is, of course, a blatantly easy and probably overdone combo, but oh well. Pay the U to be able to tap Pili-Pala for 2, then use those 2 to untap him and make 1 mana of any color you desire. Repeat until you have an infinity of mana and make good things happen. Things like...

(Possibly) Infinite Turns: Charmbreaker Devils + Increasing Vengeance + Time Stretch

This combo could be a little hard to pull off depending on how your graveyard looks. If you're going to attempt this, make sure you have two or less instants and sorceries in your graveyard. Make sure you have Charmbreaker Devils on the battlefield, then play Time Stretch and target it with Increasing Vengeance, giving you four turns instead of just two. Time Stretch and Increasing Vengeance will both go to your graveyard. At the beginning of your next turn you will randomly return an instant or sorcery to your hand (hopefully Time Stretch or Increasing Vengeance). Go through your turn and start the next one, getting back another card. If you have Time Stretch and Increasing Vengeance, play them and get another four turns. Keep doing this until you win the game. The only way this can really get shut down is if your opponents get rid of your graveyard or counter Time Stretch before you can get it back. Keep a counter spell handy just in case. If it works, congratulations! You now have all the time in the world. Note: If you have Tamiyo, Moon Sage's emblem, the above combo is unneeded and a lot faster. Just play the card, target it, return both to your hand and repeat as often as you have mana to do so.

Other cards are just fun and don't necessarily fit into combos. Dismiss into Dream wreaks havoc on your opponent's creatures as long as you have a way to target them. Stuffy Doll allows you to deal damage to your opponent while still drawing cards. Willbreaker operates similarly to Dismiss Into Dream but allows you to take control of an enemy's creatures instead of just killing them. Paradox Haze works brilliantly with any card that lets you do things at upkeep, giving you two instances instead of just one. Combine this with Venser's Journal to get a ton of health, Dominus of Fealty to take control of two creatures instead of just one, Mind Unbound to accelerate your card drawing, Charmbreaker Devils to get multiple instants and sorceries back... And so on. The list may be longer, but these are the highlights.

Once again, this deck is a work in progress. I'll be brainstorming and consulting with my friends to truly fine tune and perfect this deck, so expect some moderate to extreme changes between now and the time I'm satisfied with it. As always, thanks for taking the time to look!

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Updates Add

Another Large Update! — July 17, 2015

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Sad day, as I removed one of my favorite combos from the deck: the infinite Crypto-Myr clone army. In playtesting I realized that I would end up with an infinite army of creatures that were all tapped except for the last one. In a situation where I have multiple turns that's fine, but to really make it work I need to do it at instant speed. To do that, the combo needs to be about five cards or so, which is just silly. There are better things for me to spend infinite mana on.

Speaking of which, let's talk about some additions to the deck!

Meishin, the Mind Cage: A lovely legendary enchantment that nerfs the power of all creatures on the battlefield based on the cards I have... which is almost always a very large number. As long as I have an unlimited hand size I don't have to worry about creature damage, letting me focus on more important things.
Paradox Haze: A somewhat dangerous card that could pay serious dividends. Two upkeeps means two procs of any "at upkeep" ability. This could help you gain a lot of life with Venser's Journal, bring back cards with Charmbreaker Devils or any number of other things. Or... Your opponent's mean cards could make you hurt yourself. You'll have to be careful with this card, but I think the benefits outweigh the risks.
Sapphire Medallion: Taking the place of Goblin Electromancer, since all the important instants and sorceries I'm playing are blue anyway. This also lets me play a lot of other blue cards cheaper. It reduces the majority of my counter cards to 2B and just generally speeds things up.
Descendant of Soramaro: It's basically scry lite. For a measly two mana you can rearrange the top part of your deck equal to the number of cards in your hand. This would be useful in a deck with a normal hand size, but in one where the hand gets huge quickly it's even better. This card definitely grows in utility as the game goes on.

And that's about it for this update. I'm still parsing through Gatherer with different search phrases to find cards to throw in this, so continue to make suggestions and leave feedback! The time is appreciated, as is a +1.

Some Additions from Origins — July 8, 2015

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Playtesting, Part Deux — July 6, 2015

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Playtest City — June 21, 2015

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The Tweaking Continues — June 8, 2015

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A Slight Addendum — May 16, 2015

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Revision 10 See all

(9 years ago)

-2	Blue Sun's Zenith	main
-1	Clone	main
+2	Descendant of Soramaro	acquire
-2	Goblin Electromancer	main
+2	Ivory Tower	acquire
+2	Meishin, the Mind Cage	main
-5	Mountain	acquire
-2	Myr Propagator	main
-1	Nin, the Pain Artist	main
+2	Paradox Haze	acquire
+1	Sapphire Medallion	main
-1	Sphinx's Tutelage	acquire

Date added	9 years
Last updated	9 years
Key combos	Grand Architect + Pili-Pala Charmbreaker Devils + Increasing Vengeance + Time Stretch
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 43 - 0 Rares 13 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.68
Tokens	Emblem Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Emblem Teferi, Temporal Archmage, Squid 1/1 U
Folders	izzet, Want to buy, Favorites of ALL TIME
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