I should totally run Ethereal Armor, you're right. I think I actually ran it in here previously but took it out to make room for something else. I'll have to squeeze it back in, it's really solid.

I already have it in my Uril deck, good to go.

Why not make it more interesting by adding in the gods. Athreos, God of Passage, Ephara, God of the Polis, Erebos, God of the Dead, Heliod, God of the Sun, Phenax, God of Deception, and Thassa, God of the Sea.

You know, that would spice things up a bit. I have Thassa, God of the Sea in here already, mainly because I can fetch her with Zur + her ability provides some glorious evasion if I need it (the static upkeep scry doesn't hurt either). At the very least, Ephara & Erebos would be useful for card draw. I'll take a look and see if they could potentially make the cut, thanks griffstick.

you know i always like to try to find ways to replace other spells with creatures. how about Archetype of Courage, and Archetype of Finality, for first strike, and deathtouch. and because why not, Archetype of Imagination. also because of all the enchantments perhaps Agent of Erebos for graveyard hate, if thats a problem in your meta.

Definitely some outside the Zur box thinking there! Ultimately I think the Archetypes are over costed for what they do. Agent of Erebos is an interesting suggestion for gy hate. I'll playtest to see if it's viable in here, cheers.

Dictate of Kruphix might work as another arena. +1

Thanks Silverf1sh, good call! I'm normally not a huge fan of hug effects, but the additional draw could be really useful - A fail safe if Necropotence or Phyrexian Arena get nuked.

I run a deck called Fear the Old Blood that has a lot of the same idea; as long as you're either ahead of the game or controlling it, don't worry to much about what you're giving them.

A lot of people disagree; that's never stopped my wins XD

Ha! I like your logic Silverf1sh, I'll playtest it and see how she goes.

I have a similar deck, might wanna add in Eidolon of Rhetoric or an Aegis of the Gods

I actually ran Aegis of the Gods in here and ended up swapping it out. In my experience it didn't really matter if I was targeted, the real threat is people targeting Zur. With that in mind I'd rather have a toolbox of protection for him instead and Eidolon of Rhetoric kind of fits that bill - I definitely like the control aspect and it fits into my lock down strategy. Thanks for the suggestions jfly517, I appreciate it!

+1 from me. I don't know if you want any defensive combos, but I have a Zur deck Zur Voltron, To win against five. that has 2 different no damage combos. Check it out and if you Like it upvote!

Hey Limo, I finally checked out your Zur build. Very different & cool choices in there, nice work!

I also built Zur in a control shell with Thopter Combo as my win con. It was super fun but drew hate like crazy. I can't recommend Vanishing highly enough as a protection piece. Nothing falls off of Zur and can be used in a pinch to protect everything attached to him.

You're right, it's a classic Zur protection staple and I played it in here for years. I ended up swapping it out at some point but don't really recall why! Likely in favour of adding a counterspell or 2 + I have ample protection options in here already. Really like the card though, phasing was such a weird mechanic.

The only thing I'd suggest is swapping out the swiftfoot boots for Curator's Ward I use it in my Zur/Haakon knights tribal deck and it works wonders. Protects Zur as well as the boots, gets tutored for, and draws you cards if they manage to boardwipe or remove him somehow.

Ooh! I've never seen Curator's Ward before, that's an excellent suggestion Aeolus-Wind-King. I'll be making that exact swap, cheers.

Library of Leng is great with Solitary Confinement you get to pitch cards you want to tutor back in library and get unlimited hand size. Then you can use Empyrial Armor and swing with lethal. I JUST switched to the shimmer storm version of Zur. Its nasty

Interesting! I hadn't considered Library of Leng before - I definitely like that interaction with Solitary Confinement coupled with the 'no max hand size' Thought Vessel style redundancy. I just replaced Empyrial Armor to make way for All That Glitters, but this has me thinking that I should possibly put it back, perhaps in place of Battle Mastery.

Cool that you went down the shimmer storm route. This deck is mean enough + I don't think my friends would forgive me if I went down the competitive Zur path, heh.

just recommending one card: Triclopean Sight.

attack, slap that puppy on him, and then Stasis and lose all your friends.

MajordomoTom - yep, I'm into that rudeness. I think I'll take out Battle Mastery to make room for this. Good suggestion, thanks!

As you can tell, I'm tuning a build to make Zur a monster.

That's a key card - giving him vigilance, even on the turn he's attacking, so that your pants aren't down until your next turn.

Do you have anywhere explaining how to play the deck?

get Zur out attack with him, slap on Triclopean Sight attack with him, slap out Stasis attack with him, slap out Eidolon of Rhetoric

have in hand Darksteel Mutation and Trapped in the Tower and Frogify and Encrust to put on the other player's commander

find new friends

MajordomoTom, lol.

Baclash - I don't have a deck guide written, but I'll talk a bit about it here.

What keeps this deck interesting is the toolbox factor. Generally you want Zur on the table and then you simply grab the tools required at the time. If there's no immediate threats, I tend to get all of my protection pieces in place first, e.g. Diplomatic Immunity, Greater Auramancy & whatever other protection pieces I may need/want (hexproof, indestructibility etc.). From there you conquer by either controlling the table into submission or throwing auras on Zur for commander damage slaps. I'm not running a competitive insta-win build by design, but there are some decent card pairings that help steer Zur to victory (e.g. Necropotence + Solitary Confinement . Probably not the in depth guide you seek, but if you look at the card categories I've listed you'll start to get a picture of what this deck is capable of.