This Zur deck seeks to control the board through stax/control pieces tutored out through Zur the Enchanter combat effect, Gain advantage through draw engines, and resolve a Thassa's Oracle combo to win as soon as possible.
This deck has 2 fundamental play styles built into it: Mid-range control, and turbo ad nauseum. Look at your opponents and make a decision on which play style will be the most optimal.
Mid-range control: You will want to focus on resolving Zur the Enchanter, tutoring stax/control pieces and advantage engines, and win through the combo of your choice around turn 5. Once you resolve Zur the Enchanter you can assess the board and politic your way through interactions by tutoring the best stax/control piece for the situation. Opponents playing storm? Get Rule of Law. Someone trying to assemble a Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker Combo? Get Blind Obedience. Did the last player just gain 20 treasures from Dockside Extortionist? Get Stony Silence. Etcetera, etcetera. Once you have slowed the game down and put pressure on your opponents, start accumulating advantage engines to break parody such as: Necropotence or Mystic Remora. Necropotence is going to be your biggest advantage grinder to pull ahead of your opponents. By this point we should have a win combo in hand or at least have the tools to tutor it. From here you can really win through whichever Combo you want and is most optimal for your situation.
Turbo Ad Nauseam: You will want to focus on pulling off a Thassa's Oracle Win asap (by about turn 3/4), most likely acquired through playing Ad Nauseam. You will be focusing on the Thassa's Oracle win condition over the others because it is the the most mana efficient and hardest to stop win condition in the deck. I recommend mulliganing until you start with either Ad Nauseam/Necropotence, or part of the Thassa's Oracle combo and a tutor to get the other. Obviously don't mulligan yourself to the point of being out of the game to achieve this, But definitely consider going down to 5 or even 4 depending on your opponents.
Below I have laid out the different win conditions in the deck, the different stax/control pieces and their uses, the different advantage engines, as well as any other notable pieces and their uses.
Win Conditions:
Thassa Wins: Demonic Consultation + Thassa's Oracle
, Tainted Pact + Thassa's Oracle
, Helm of Obedience + Rest in Peace + Thassa's Oracle
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For the Demonic Consultation and Tainted Pact combos, you will play Thassa's Oracle and with the scry trigger on the stack, cast the combo piece. This ensures that if Thassa's Oracle gets countered, and you can't stop it, you can choose not to play the combo piece and your library hasn't already been reduced to 0 making you lose at your next draw.
For the Helm of Obedience combo, you will want to have both Helm of Obedience and Rest in Peace on the battlefield. Cast Thassa's Oracle and with the scry trigger on the stack, pay 1 into Helm of Obedience with the ability targeting yourself. This will exile your library with the scry trigger still on the stack so that when it resolves, you win.
Heliod Ballista: Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista
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Play Heliod, Sun-Crowned, then play Walking Ballista for 4 mana making it enter the battlefield with 2 +1/+1 counters. Activate Heliod, Sun-Crowned to give Walking Ballista lifelink and. remove a +1/+1 counter from Walking Ballista, pinging an opponent for 1 damage and giving you 1 life. This will trigger the Heliod, Sun-Crowned ability letting you put a +1/+1 counter on Walking Ballista. Rinse and repeat removing a counter and pinging for 1 to win the game.
Helm exile: Helm of Obediance + Rest in Peace, Dauthi Voidwalker + Helm of Obedience
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This combo works the same with either Rest in Peace or Dauthi Voidwalker on the battlefield. Pay 1 into Helm of Obedience targeting the opponent that poses the biggest threat to you. This will exile their entire library making them lose at their next draw. This win condition is the weakest in the deck as there currently is not a way to untap Helm of Obedience built in so you will have to eliminate opponents 1 by 1 which is not ideal.
Stax/Control Pieces:
Anti-Storm: Rule of Law, Deafening Silence, Rhystic Study
Anti-Draw: Spirit of the Labyrinth, Smothering Tithe, Notion Thief
Anti-Artifact: Stony Silence, Blind Obedience
Anti-Creature: Blind Obedience
Anti-Tutor: Aven Mindcensor, Opposition Agent, Psychic Surgery
General Pieces: Drannith Magistrate, Dauthi Voidwalker, Rest in Peace, Cursed Totem
Advantage Engines: Necropotence, Mystic Remora, Esper Sentinel, Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe
Notable Pieces:
Arenson's Aura: This enchantment can be tutored out by Zur the Enchanter in order to deal with a problematic enchantment on an opponent's board or even your own. If you are being locked out of the win by your own Rule of Law or Stony Silence, Arenson's Aura is a great tool in the deck to fix it.
Solitary Confinement: This enchantment synergizes amazingly with Necropotence giving you protection from game winners like Brain Freeze, Grapeshot, Damage, or any other spell/ability that has "target" in the text, while still allowing the card advantage from Necropotence to happen. With Necropotence or any of the other card draw engines in the deck, you can ensure that Solitary Confinement sticks around without draining your hand.
Emergence Zone: Turns out playing things at instant speed is just really good. If an opponent is somehow able to get out from under your stax and control and starts going for the win, popping Emergence Zone to pull of an instant speed Thassa's Oracle or Helm of Obedience play can be massive.
