Oblivion Ring
is probably my favorite card in all of Magic. I love how powerful it is, yet how flavorful the drawback is. For the longest time I wanted to make a deck based around this card and other similar effects, but couldn't find a commander to tie them all together.
Hanna, Ship's Navigator
may not lead as powerful an artifact deck as
Sharuum the Hegemon
, can't stack enchantments like
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
, and isn't as fast as
Sram, Senior Edificer
. That being said, Hanna is cheap and low-threat, and her ability to recur both Artifacts and Enchantments is perfect for the deckbuilder that can't make up his mind between the two.
This deck is meant to play like Prison/Control. Lock down all the threats on the board, make sure nobody can do anything you wouldn't want them to, and then start breaking stuff. This deck is probably the most actively-changed out of all my decks. I'm always looking for good Artifacts and Enchantments to play with. I'm trying to stay away from infinite combos, however as a result of that the deck lacks win conditions. Criticism is welcome!
How to Play the Deck
Hanna plays slow. Your aim is to stay as low-threat as possible, and neutralize anything that is a threat to your board. If you like playing politically, start making wagers. I'll get rid of X if you do Y for me. Pretty often you'll find yourself with a hand full of removal and a near-empty board; Fear not! Don't start shooting down threats just because they're there. You'll end up making someone angry and drawing attention to yourself. If this deck is new to your meta, start removing threats that come after you specifically. Convince players to go elsewhere. Once other people start getting used to the deck, the threat alone of having their favorite things removed is usually enough. If you can get
Leyline of Anticipation
or
Vedalken Orrery
on the board, you become an unstoppable God of disruption.
You will like this deck if you:
- Enjoy control decks
- Can never decide between Enchantress and Artificer
- Like balancing out the board
You will NOT like this deck if you
- Enjoy combat
- Want something fast
- Dislike playing reactively
The Cards
Removal
-
Oblivion Ring
,
Detention Sphere
,
Cast Out
,
Grasp of Fate
: The main workforce of the deck. Should be used as a more temporary means of removal, as whatever you get rid of will come back once the enchantment is destroyed. Be careful not to exile anything with an ETB effect, as that ill come back as well.
-
Parallax Wave
: Slightly different from
Oblivion Ring
et al due to the nature of the removal. Aside from its slightly more complicated combo implications, Parallax Wave can be used to remove one thing for a set number of turns, or a large number of things at once either to clear a board for an attack or ruin someone's combo. Also scares a lot of people into not attacking you.
-
Aligned Hedron Network
: This card has saved my ass multiple times. Removes every big creature on the field, leaves most of my own stuff untouched. Once you get to late game you can sac it, recur it with Hanna and play it again to re-exile any new creatures that may have appeared since it last hit the board.
-
Imprisoned in the Moon
,
Darksteel Mutation
: Removes a creature without actually placing it into graveyard/exile/back in hand. Great for getting rid of annoying commanders, self-recurring creatures, or in Imprisoned's case: Planeswalkers.
-
Control Magic
,
Vedalken Shackles
: Sometimes outright stealing a creature is better than removing it. Definitely good for suddenly turning games around. Considering adding
Mind Control
just for another one.
-
Prison Term
: Stop attacks, blocks, and activated abilities from the enchanted creature. I'm kind of torn between this and
Faith's Fetters
, as Fetters can target ANY permanent, however Prison Term can switch between creatures as threats change.
-
Duplicant
: Creature exile on a body, can be brought back with Hanna.
-
Act of Authority
: Artifact/enchantment exile with no downside. You will most probably never use the second ability unless you're absolutely sure it won't bite you in the ass, or you plan to immediately remove it after.
-
Aura of Silence
: Slows down other artifact/enchantment plays, can also be sacrificed in an emergency to blow something up and then brought back with Hanna.
-
Dispeller's Capsule
,
Seal of Cleansing
: Cheap artifact/enchantment removal that can be immediately brought back (and usually played) with Hanna.
-
Karmic Justice
: People will definitely be aiming for your various artifacts and enchantments; this will either convince them to bother someone else or allow you to take an eye for an eye. I originally wanted to swap this out for
Martyr's Bond
, however the cheap casting cost paired with the fact that YOU choose what to blow up is hard to beat.
-
Phyrexian Revoker
,
Pithing Needle
: Gets around hexproof/shroud, can shut off planeswalkers and other potentially threatening abilities. Way more useful than I initially thought.
-
Oblivion Stone
: Something the deck has always needed was some kind of boardwipe that Hanna could recur. Problem with stuff like
Nevinyrral's Disk
is that it'll blow up most of your own stuff as well. Oblivion Stone allows you to pick what stays.
-
Arcane Denial
,
Counterspell
: Added in two general-use counterspells, because I figured I'm running Blue so it'd be stupid not to.
-
Evacuation
: This is one of my favorite boardwipes. A five-drop but an instant, this can be used to really screw up someone's plans.
-
Planar Collapse
: A pretty broad, low-CMC boardwipe that Hanna can recur pretty easily. Pair this with flash and you can really do some damage.
Tax Effects
-
Blind Obedience
: Stops haste creatures and anything that may need to tap the turn it comes out. Also had
Authority of the Consuls
but took it out.
-
Ethersworn Canonist
: Shuts off Narset/Cascade decks while still allowing you to play most of your own stuff.
-
Propaganda
,
Sphere of Safety
: Great for building up defenses, going without
Ghostly Prison
for now to see if it's worth only having two.
-
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
: THE tax effect. Pretty necessary in a W/U deck. Slows down your opponents while allowing you to ramp into things faster.
-
Rhystic Study
: Absolute must-have in EDH. Considering also adding
Mystic Remora
-
Spellskite
: Absolutely devastating in this deck. If you can get a
Vedalken Orrery
or
Leyline of Anticipation
out, you can pretty much guarantee at least two chances of removal never hitting your stuff per turn. Can also be used to steal beneficial effects from your opponents' sides.
-
Standstill
: Really screws over whichever play is next to you, but pretty much always guarantees you're drawing three cards and helping everyone else out.
-
Torpor Orb
: Shuts down a shockingly large number of utility creatures in EDH while only affecting a small number of my own.
Draw
I'm not convinced I have enough draw in this deck. I've been tinkering with it and will probably still need to some more.
-
Dragonlord Ojutai
: A new addition that really has nothing to do with the theme of the deck, but he's a big flying hitter that allows me to draw one of the top three cards of the deck. I've only playtested him a little bit so far, but he's already pulling his weight.
-
Fact or Fiction
: Ideally this will get some good stuff to your hand and you can recur most of whatever gets dumped to the graveyard.
-
Mesa Enchantress
: I've been repeatedly switching this and
Vedalken Archmage
back and forth, since they're both essentially the same thing for different card types. Should the deck have both? I don't know.
-
Shrine of Piercing Vision
: Cheap, recurrable draw that almost nobody ever removes. Usually I'll bring this back with Hanna and pop it the next turn for a quick draw, since you'll still be drawing one at most.
-
Search for Azcanta
: Starts as a sort-of neat filter effect that allows you to dump recorrable stuff into the graveyard, and then eventually turns into a useful draw effect. This is new, but I'm sure it will be useful.
-
Induced Amnesia
: I originally had a
Memory Jar
in this slot, but found it would help a lot of opponents by dumping recurrable stuff into their graveyards just as well as my own.
Induced Amnesia
lacks the discard, however it is a pretty decent self-wheel effect that can also be used to screw someone else over that may have a decent hand.
Ramp
Despite W/U having a low amount of ramp possibilities, I have yet to really get mana screwed yet, so this may be a good enough balance.
- Azorious Signet: Good, cheap, reliable filtering.
-
Thaumatic Compass
: Was originally
Burnished Hart
, but I think having a similar effect that can later turn into a
Maze of Ith
is more useful.
-
Hedron Archive
: Decent ramp, can be popped for some draw in the late game.
-
Wayfarer's Bauble
: Very cheap ramp that can be brought back again and again with Hanna.
-
As Foretold
: Is this considered ramp? Either way, most of the deck is CMC3 or less so it really doesn't take long for this card to start becoming useful.
Recursion
Hanna will be doing most of your recursion, but a lot of these effects are either wider than Hanna's reach or have other useful bonuses.
-
Replenish
: Brings back all your enchantments at once. Great fun if you have a bunch of
Oblivion Ring
effects in there.
-
Starfield of Nyx
: Bring back an enchantment each turn and can also animate your enchantments for other uses. Be careful here as a boardwipe could end up bringing back everything you've O-Ringed.
-
Sun Titan
: A big creature that can also bring back most of your useful tools.
-
Scrap Trawler
: Really great if you have a decent amount of artifacts both on the field and in the graveyard. May be more useful if the deck were leaning more towards the Artifact side of things.
Other Cards
-
Leyline of Anticipation
,
Vedalken Orrery
: An absolute must-have. Casting most of the cards in this deck at instant-speed allows you to hide most of your plans until the last possible minute.
-
Lightning Greaves
,
Swiftfoot Boots
: Protects Hanna or whatever other important creature you might have out at the moment.
-
Mindslaver
: An extremely mean card; even more mean if you can bring it back with Hanna. Make sure you can win after playing this, because you are guaranteed becoming the biggest threat afterwards.
-
Phyrexian Metamorph
: Copy another creature or artifact. Works well in a pinch.
-
Wurmcoil Engine
: Big, useful creature that splits into smaller, still-useful creatures.
-
Steel Hellkite
: A big artifact flyer that can work as mass destruction if it hits.
-
Claws of Gix
,
Phyrexia's Core
: Sac an artifact or enchantment after it is no longer useful, then bring it back with Hanna.
-
Hope of Ghirapur
: A cheap flyer that can disrupt someone for an entire turn, can be cheap to bring back and play again with Hanna.
-
Copy Enchantment
: Copy any of the enchantments you already have out, prefect for doubling up on any useful effect you have, or stealing a copy of someone else's.
-
Whir of Invention
: I initially considered this to be overcosted, but the fact that it's an Instant really allows you to pull some neat tricks in a pinch. Also can be used to grab an artifact land if you're really screwed.
-
Luminarch Ascension
: One of my favorite cards in Magic. The deck has plenty of defenses so as long as you're all set up it's pretty hard not to get this to pop off and start spewing out Angels every turn. I suppose this could be considered a wincon.
-
Sigil of the Empty Throne
: Wholly focused on the Enchantment side of the deck, but a 4/4 flier for any enchantment you throw down is great even if you happen to find yourself with a hand full of artifacts at the moment.
-
Mirage Mirror
: This has saved me more times than I thought it would. Pay 2 to copy just about any permanent on the board for a turn is super useful; just be careful to remember once it does copy something, it cannot copy something else.
Possible Additions
Ashes of the Abhorrent
: Much like
Solemnity
if there are no cards that this card can stop, it's pretty much a dead draw. The lifegain for dead creatures is nice, however you won't be doing much killing yourself as the deck is full of exile effects.
Consulate Crackdown
: Exiling everyone's artifacts at once could be devastating, however the steep casting cost seems iffy to me.
Cyclonic Rift
: Basically a must-have in any deck running Blue. I just need the card itself.
Sculpting Steel
: Unsure if necessary if I already have
Phyrexian Metamorph
.
Thousand-Year Elixir
: Good to activate Hanna on the turn you play her, but not many other creatures in the deck need this.
Recent Changes
2/14/18: Got a
Torpor Orb
and
Planar Collapse
, took out
Solemnity
and
Ghostly Prison
.
Torpor Orb
I think hits more generalized threats, though
Solemnity
is still amazing in the right meta. I wanted to play with the idea of one less
Propaganda
effect, so I've removed it for
Planar Collapse
. We'll see how this plays out.
4/23/18: Dominaria! I'd love to add
Time of Ice
but couldn't really find a place for it.
Fall of the Thran
was switched in for
Oblivion Stone
. Stone is really slow, and recurrable land destruction seems like a better option, maybe? Also took out
Swiftfoot Boots
for
Curator's Ward
as a test. Ward can give any permanent hexproof, and you can attached it either to something that you plan to sac later to draw two, or just leave it as a nice safety net. Either way, recurrable protection and draw two seems nifty.
8/31/18: Swapped out
Sigil of the Empty Throne
for
Compulsion
.
