Etherium Sculptor can help u play your artifacts earlier. Also, in conjunction with your current Future Sight and top, you can draw your whole deck!

+1 from me!

Profet93 Thanks for your +1 and feedback. Etherium Sculptor has been tested previously. Cloud Key offers the same functionality whilst not being rendered useless by Humility and not turning on my opponents' mostly dead removal/boardwipes against me. The Future Sight Sensei's Divining Top Cloud Key combo works well but I don't wish to dedicate too many cards to it; as space is very tight in the deck.

Good point, I also failed to recognize that you can also draw your whole deck through Rings + Basal + Top.

What about Moat, Nevermore, Karmic Justice?

Profet93 Moat only protects me from creature based strategies; of which there aren't necessarily a lot of in Competitive EDH and doesn't do a good enough job to merit its inclusion. Humility prevents cards like Reclamation Sage from interacting with my board, in addition to crippling any kind of aggressive clock. Moat is basically too narrow and too slow to merit inclusion.

Nevermore is also redundant, I have counterspells for cards I don't want to see cast successfully, and any instance of not being able to counter them is typically too narrow to warrant its inclusion. It's also vulnerable to removal etc.

Karmic Justice is one of those cards where I can never quite find the space for and have always been less impressed with it in practise than in theory. Long term, it's great - but I rarely feel like I can take a turn off to cast a card that has no immediate benefit to myself nor slows down any of my opponents' game plans. I have changed the deck a lot since I last tried it - so I'll likely give it a whirl.

deadmanwaltzing

Ok. I'm a new EDH player so forgive me for my lack of knowledge regarding competitive EDH. If I can think of any cards that contribute directly to your overall strategy, I will let you know :)

Brutal!

what about Ether Barrier since you run few creatures.

Council's Judgment for removalDeclaration in Stone for removalOblation to save your stuff and drawPorphyry Nodes constant creature removal

This looks pretty nasty!! Can I ask if this deck set up primarily 1v1 or free for all formats? Or does it do a pretty decent job in both?

Thegreybush88 1v1 Competitive Commander normally uses the french banlist, a different ruleset that this deck doesn't currently comply to. The deck is geared towards pods of 4 players, although performs well in other environments up to and including 1v1; although that's certainly not where it is most strong.

AEther Barrier gives my opponents options; which I never like - and it doesn't prevent them from forcing important creatures through. Competitive EDH is much less creature centric than most people are used to, as such - there doesn't need to necessarily be a huge suite of answers dedicated to making creatures harder to resolve. It is however a good card and was used early on in the deck's inception.

Declaration in Stone is worse Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile was in the deck for a time, but was replaced for a stronger array of counterspells to prevent them from ever resolving. Porphyry Nodes can be devastating - but it's all too easy to play around, and can even help Karador and Meren decks by acting as a sacrifice outlet.

deadmanwaltzing

Thoughts on Oblation? I appreciate your detailed responses, I'm learning a lot.

Oblation was used when the Commander rules on 'tuck' effects weren't in place: AKA - effects that shuffle permanents into their controllers' libraries. It used to be a way to get rid of troublesome commanders; preventing them from being re-cast. Now that's no longer an option, Oblation and similar effects just became useless - Chaos Warp being a possible exception as Red sucks at removing certain permanent types. Hope that helps.

Ensnaring Bridge, or does that only really prevent creature based strategies?

Maybe Isochron Scepter to work with 1 of your 13 instants that are CMC 2 or below

Mana Web can be brutal against some decks (possibly a Sideboard card)?

What about Narset Transcendent

I was planning on trying out cEDH for a while now and this list makes me want to try out Grand Arbiter. Any recommendations on some more budget alternatives for some of the more expensive pieces while I try to convince people to trade me them? Of the more expensive cards, I am currently missing Force of Will, Transmute Artifact, Flusterstorm, Mox Diamond, and Jace, the Mindsculptor.

Also, have you tried out Invoke Prejudice? It looks really good on paper but the mana cost is awkward for a card that may not be relevant that often in a format mainly dominated by combo decks.

Invoke Prejudice would be a consideration for an include if not for the god awful mana cost. Especially when the deck's reliance on Back to Basics, we can't consistently hit 4xU.I'm currently trialing a Isochron Scepter/Dramatic Reversal package, I'd try that before other stax pieces.

Kind of what I figured with Invoke Prejudice. One day I will find a deck to play it in. And I have seen a lot of people try the scepter/reversal combo in other decks and in my experience it has been very underwhelming. The best combos are using cards that aren't entirely worthless on their own and Dramatic Reversal has little to no use in this deck on it's own (although Isochron Scepter seems pretty good, especially if you can imprint something like a Mana Drain). I guess the same could be said of Power Artifact without the Grim/Basalt Monolith to go with it. Either way, if you decide that it deserves a spot, I will give it a second chance.

It's certainly sometimes a dead card, although not as often as one might expect. With a couple of mana rocks it can function as a pseudo ritual to power you into an important spell. It's also easy to tutor for, between merchant scroll, mystical tutor and muddle the mixture, the opportunity cost to run the combo is very low. I am still not 100% sold on it, but will post back when I've had enough time to properly trial it.

I actually decided to try out the scepter/reversal combo as well while I wait for a few pieces to show up in the mail and it has been decent. Still not sold on it but I can see it being a reasonable inclusion. That said, Isochron Scepter has been very good in the games I played it, even when I did not have the Dramatic Reversal. I usually just imprint something like Counterspell but the ability to reuse it every turn, even though everyone else can see it coming and will likely play around it has been very good.

I also tried out Paradox Engine and it has been absurd. I have won every game that I cast it, immediately after resolving it. Although you do not run the Future Sight/Sensei's Divining Top/Cloud Key combo in your list (which Paradox Engine works as a backup Cloud Key), I still think it is worth trying out due to the shenanigans it does with all of the mana rocks in the deck.

I kinda wish all the art was similar to the altered Augustin. I enjoyed the stylistic variety of the older cards, it seems like wizards has settled into a somewhat boring realism. Also cool deck. I would be highly frustrated by it.

jcarver007 Thanks! MIB alters is the guy who drew it.

How do you feel about Approach of the Second Sun in GAAIV? It seems like a relatively perfect shell to play it in and seems incredibly easy to win with.

Ohthenoises - It's slow, costing fourteen mana over a minimum of two cards (more if you're tutoring/drawing to get it back out) Existing combos in this deck tend to cap out at around about 8 mana in the deck, and their individual pieces tend to also have some other uses. Future Sight is a draw engine Grim Monolith is mana acceleration Voltaic Key can either work as another mana rock (by untapping Sol Ring or Mana Vault or a value piece with Scroll Rack etc.

I'm sure there's some sweet casual version of this deck that could pull some really fun wins with it - but that's not this deck, this deck is as cut throat as possible and Approach of the Second Sun is no way near good enough.

Well, it's 6 mana each cast for this deck due to GAAIV reducing it to 12 total.

My curiosity doesn't come from casting it twice in the same turn. More that you can cast some stax pieces, cast it for 6, then draw a bunch over the next turn and cast it again in a turn or so. I mean, without Key + Rings you can only kill one player/turn with the Helm combo anyways so that means you have to wait a few turns as it stands.

Also, a bit of a correction on your description: Rings of Brighthearth doesn't give you infinite activations without Voltaic Key, similarly Voltaic Key can't be used on it's own for infinite activations of the helm so "and/or" should be "and".

All that being said I can completely understand the reluctance. I just feel that 12 mana "I win the game" isn't that bad when it's 2 installments. So maybe it's better meant for a deck with G as ramp haha.

someone tag me please