What does this deck do? It plays three types of cards that, when combined, cause a slow but steady loss of life to the whole table. The three types are symmetric draw effects like Howling Mine, cards that prevent people from playing out all these extra cards (e.g.
Rule of Law), and cards that punish them for having too many cards in hand such as Iron Maiden. The rest of the deck is land, tutors, a couple counterspells to protect your grindy lock on the game, and some removal.
Why Zedruu? Good question. The deck is primarily UW for its mix of artifact tutors, options for draw and prison, and removal. I wanted a way to see even more cards to help find lock pieces, so Zedruu seemed like a good choice for casual games since many of the effects the deck wants are symmetric. Donating them to someone just means an extra card each turn. It also enables donating Illusions of Grandeur in case your life total gets pressured early on.
This is a concept deck for fun, designed for the more casual end of the spectrum. That said, I try to sketch out something close to an 'optimal' list whenever I make a deck and then scale it to whatever aims and budget I have. So if you're looking over the list and wish you could build it but think "Oh, I can't because I can't afford ABUR duals or Force of Will, or..." then take a step back and focus on the big picture. The cards that make this deck do its thing are almost all quite cheap. The ones with a large price tag will make it more consistent and faster but they're not essential for what it does. Think of the price tag as a way of scaling up depending on the speed and power level of the decks in your playgroup.
