Codie, Vociferous Codex - Deciphering the Code. Restrictions, Stipulations, Metrics. Things that I love!

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darrenhabib
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Post by darrenhabib » 3 years ago



I had a read through the book and it was a difficult study to say the least. The restriction of "Can't cast permanent spells" certainly makes it a little hard to navigate.
I spent a lot of hours going through some thought processes and there is a lot to unpack with concepts. So this thread is more like a brainstorming thing rather than focusing on an end result or solving "Codie".
Brainstorming ideas
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You could play a deck that just looks to play mainly instant and sorcery and look to get value each time you cast one so you get a 2-for-1 effect each time.
You can just play a range of casting costs and be happy that you get a random effect each time.
Even when thinking about this it's important to think about casting costs and what you could hit.
Let's look at the 0 cmc cards with Restore Balance, Ancestral Vision, Living End, Wheel of Fate, Hypergenesis, Resurgent Belief, Inevitable Betrayal, Profane Tutor, Glimpse of Tomorrow, Gaea's Will.


Any 1 cmc instant or sorcery can hit these cards, which are all really powerful.
Just to give you an example you could look to hopefully hit Ancestral Vision or Wheel of Fate into then Hypergenesis and go over the top of everybody with big heavy hitters in the deck.
But it is important to note that this concept isn't anything new and you can look to do the same thing with Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder or The First Sliver but with different restrictions.
If you think about Codie you can only cast one of the zero costing sorcery per turn. So you'd have to spread out your Ancestral Vision, Wheel of Fate, Hypergenesis over 3 turns.
With Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder or The First Sliver you can make all your 1 cmc cards cascade into a 0 cmc. So you just need to cast 3 x 1 cmc in a turn to get all these effects. Plus of course you don't have the restriction "Can't cast permanent spells", which you know, is a thing.
OK so Codie sucks for this type of strategy, we get it, no need to rub our faces in it.
Well it's not quite that simple, with Codie you do get play 0 cmc artifacts which can help with speed like Chrome Mox, Mana Crypt, Mox Diamond, Lotus Petal, Lion's Eye Diamond, Jeweled Lotus.
You can of course still play these with Yidris or First Sliver but you'd lose out on the consistency of the Hypergenesis plan.
If you were looking at Restore Balance to be a big part of your plan then Yidris can't be used but First Sliver could.


At this stage let's look at instant and sorcery you could hit for 1 cmc. For simplicity sake let's just say that the only ones you have in your deck are Profane Tutor and Vampiric Tutor.
So if you cast any 2 cmc instant or sorcery you are guaranteed to hit these in succession. Again for simplicity sake let's just say the plan is to win with some two card combo.
This is probably one of the most efficient ways to try and abuse Codie that I have thought about.
You could play a similar strategy with Yidris or First Sliver but this means that you can't play any 1 cmc cards either, which starts taking it's toll on competitive play.


Now I've even taken this idea of further by thinking of ways you can speed up the process. You have to activate Codie twice and because the Profane Tutor and Vampiric Tutor put card on top rather than into hand you have to wait an additional turn to draw the combo piece.
T1: Birds of Paradise.
T2: Codie, Vociferous Codex.
T3: Activate Codie, cast 2 cmc instant/sorcery, cast Profane Tutor/Vampiric Tutor.
T4: Activate Codie, cast 2 cmc instant/sorcery, cast Profane Tutor/Vampiric Tutor.
T5: Cast the two card combo.

One thing you can look to do is untap Codie and then activate it again. If you have any 1 cmc instant or sorcery you can simply untap and use it again to get another trigger.
For example you have 4 mana and activate Codie getting wubrg and then cast say Cerulean Wisps. You'll still have 4 mana to activate Codie again and you can go another round, but you get to cast a 0 cmc off the Cerulean Wisps.
You might go right I'll just play as many of these as possible and then look to cast out at least 2 x 0 cmc each turn.


Now let's extend the idea of untapping Codie but with the idea of hitting Profane Tutor/Vampiric Tutor.
Obviously you need to cast 2 cmc that untaps Codie but if you only have the wubrg and you spend 2 mana on a spell that only leaves you with 3 mana and this is not enough to activate Codie. So you specifically need an additional mana, you need 5 mana before you activate Codie for the first time.
Casting Profane Tutor and Vampiric Tutor in the same turn also doesn't actually work unless you can draw the card before the other resolves.

I've worked out a complicated sequence where instead you can use Entomb and Profane Tutor in the same turn to try and win with the right type of instant or sorcery you cast from your hand.
T1: Sol Ring.
T2: Codie, Vociferous Codex.
T3: Activate Codie, cast 2 cmc instant/sorcery that untaps Codie, cast Entomb for Razaketh, the Foulblooded.
Activate Codie, cast 2 cmc instant/sorcery, cast Profane Tutor for Exhume to get Razaketh, the Foulblooded into play.
At this stage there are a number of complicated cards and sequences to winning but it is actually arbitrary, the important part is that I'm pointing out that it is possibly to combo as early as Turn 3 with the right cards and sequencing.


Now if the only 1 cmc you ran were Entomb and Reanimate then you can look to do the same thing, but the major difference is the random order in which spells can be cast. If you hit Reanimate before Entomb then you don't have the required targets. You'd need to shuffle it back in or get it back from the graveyard. Then you need to try again over the course of more turns and you could just as easily come out with the same sequence of hitting Reanimate first again.
If you specifically use Entomb and Profane Tutor then if you hit the Profane Tutor first then you can still setup with getting the Exhume.
So I think if you literally wanted to try and combo as quickly as possible then the configuration that would suite best is lots of 2 cmc instant and sorcery that can untap Codie and technically it would be better to have 2 cmc instant or sorcery that also have a draw mechanic.
However this is literally trying to speed up by a turn or two. If you wanted to play the same combo plan but just have quality 2 cmc instant and sorcery and be patient then this would be a more robust deck in general, even if it does lose games because another deck might win quicker.


Resurgent Belief is a one of the newer zero cost suspend spells and you could use it to put any enchantment into play combined with Entomb.
Freed from the Real or Pemmin's Aura on Codie gives you infinite activation's. It doesn't give you infinite mana, but when you cast a spell you get to cast every instant and sorcery under it's cost. You could have Tendrils of Agony along with a number copy spells like Fork to kill opponents. Because you can choose the order which spells are cast in your turn you can line this up easily.

The timing of Codie can be important. It is very much like Golos, Tireless Pilgrim in that although you can activate at any time, you are restricted by only being able to cast those spells with the regular restrictions of Magic rules. If you activate Codie in an opponents turn and cast say a Counterspell, if the card you hit is a sorcery then you literally can't cast it.
Also if you don't end up casting that spell then it will actually be exiled forever.
The cascade mechanic is different in that you can cast spells outside of normal sequences and it will put it onto the bottom of your library if you don't end up casting it. It's subtle differences but can have a big impact to how you build the deck and certainly how you play.
Unless your deck is mostly instants then you are going to want to activate Codie in your own turn so that you can cast sorcery.

Because Codie ability allows you to cast the spell until end of turn, you are normally going to have the card you cast from your hand resolve first.



Coming back to the 0 cmc sorcery, is it possible to just keep recasting one of these as much as possible?
Maybe the plan is to use Restore Balance as much as possible to keep players off creatures, lands and also by people discarding.
The problem is that you only get to cast these cards once. You need ways to shuffle them back in if you wanted to cast them again.


Serene Remembrance is able to shuffle up to 3 cards back into library and itself gets shuffled back in. This is realistically the go to card for this type of strategy.


Another way to do it is to use the big Eldrazi that shuffles graveyards back into library. You can Entomb for Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and this will shuffle all cards back into your library.
Remember that it is random if you hit the Entomb or Restore Balance first.
But the general idea is that you are doing Restore Balance every alternative turn, which probably is annoying enough.

If you were looking to use Ancestral Vision and/or Wheel of Fate in a similar manner the problem is that you can't cast any permanents so drawing cards makes it harder make use of the draw.
Remember you can only cast instant and sorcery and they are all 2 cmc or over for this type of recurring setup.
But this is still a viable option when you are controlling the board with cards like Assassin's Trophy and casting an Ancestral Vision off it. This could only happen every alternative turn however, or if really unlucky just keep hitting Serene Remembrance for no value.

Because you can put Mistveil Plains into play off the fetchlands Arid Mesa, Flooded Strand, Marsh Flats, Windswept Heath then another plan could be to use instant or sorcery that create white permanents. Gather the Townsfolk and Raise the Alarm are examples of this.
There is even lands that could do this with Kjeldoran Outpost, Castle Ardenvale, Westvale Abbey. Even technically you could use Memorial to Glory or Moorland Haunt for this.
This is mana intensive given activating both Mistveil Plains and producing tokens over the course of a couple of turns and of course is subject to the tokens being removed.



Alright back to that old bug bear "Can't cast permanent spells".
You could look at ways to remove Codie either permanently or more preferable temporarily so that you can play out your permanents you might have at a certain stage of the game.
If your deck still plays lots of permanents and after a time you are wanting to flood the board with as many as possible then it is not inconceivable that you use your own removal on it to free yourself up.
Also realistically if you can demonstrate constant advantages off Codie then your opponents are probably going to remove it anyway, giving you a gap to cast out permanents before you commit it again.

But it is worth looking at ways to give yourself windows. There are cards that exile and return to the battlefield at end of turn and you can use that window to cast spells.
Livio, Oathsworn Sentinel, Mistmeadow Witch, Roon of the Hidden Realm, Angel of Condemnation are creatures that can do this.
Astral Drift and Astral Slide can be used with cycling cards to do this.
There are also other permanents like Flickerform, Galepowder Mage, Skybind.
However the problem is that these are permanents so would have to be cast before you put Codie into play.

If you wanted to guarantee giving yourself an opportunity later into the game then instant or sorcery include; Eerie Interlude, Ghostway, Liberate, Long Road Home, Otherworldly Journey, Teferi's Time Twist, Turn to Mist.

Bounce back to hand works as well. Crystal Shard and Erratic Portal as examples.
You can just use removal or bounce spells like Chain of Vapor on Codie to give yourself the opportunity.

There are also lands that can remove Codie temporarily with Sanctum of Eternity, Endless Sands, Safe Haven.
You can even use sacrifice effects like Phyrexian Tower and High Market.



What if we keep scaling up our instants and sorcery to multiple casting costs and we forgo consistency with randomness?
If you only have a few targets below 2 cmc and like 20 x 2 cmc instant and sorcery then any higher cost spell is going to have a far less likely chance of hitting the low cost cards.
Now not to say that you couldn't configure your deck to have tons of combo cards through your casting costs. Again for simplicity you could have a literally all tutor package of instants or sorcery.
This way when you cast a tutor and Codie would cast another tutor and you can go for a two card combo to try and win.

But there are cards that are not recognized as instant or sorcery when cards are being exiled with Codie.
These are the Adventure cards from Eldraine and also the newly spoiled modal doubled faced cards that have an instant or sorcery on the back side.


These cards allow you to put higher casting instant and sorcery in the deck to hit lower casting cost spells that you want to target.
If you have Brazen Borrower or Flamescroll Celebrant then you can cast these for the instant side of them and hit a 1 cmc instant/sorcery.

Another way to control converted mana costs but still have access to casting for cheap are split cards. They have the characteristics of that while not on the stack have the converted mana cost of both sides of the card added together.
For example when checking against Codie while being exiled Rough // Tumble is considered to have a casting cost of 8 mana.
But you can activate Codie and cast the Rough for two mana to hit a 1 cmc or less spell. This means you can try and target your lower casting costs more.
Fuse cards are even more versatile because you can cast either side for certain cmc, or you can fuse them which means cast them together and then the casting cost is both of them added together. So you get a third option of casting costs with them.




Instant and sorcery with x as part of the cost is worth mentioning. They have the flexibility that you can control the casting cost of them while on the stack for triggering Codie.
However they have the downside of the normally these types of spells require x to be more than zero to have any effect. So if they are one of the cards revealed you'll get no value.

Whir of Invention can get a zero cost artifact so you could look at this for value if hit by Codie.
I'm not sure if there are other x cards that get value still?



There are cards that naturally put themselves back into your library on resolution and this means that they are available again for Codie to hit.

The "Beacons" shuffle back into your library.
Beacon of Immortality, Beacon of Tomorrows, Beacon of Unrest, Beacon of Destruction, Beacon of Creation.
Nexus of Fate doesn't even need to be cast to shuffle in.
The "Zenith" cards (Black Sun's Zenith, Green Sun's Zenith, etc), shuffle back in but because they are all x type cards there is no benefit to Codie hitting them.
Ever After and Seasons Past get put on the bottom of your library after resolution.

If Nexus of Fate is the only instant or sorcery you have that is below 8 mana then you can guarantee that you get an extra turn off your big spells.
You could use Volrath's Stronghold to keep drawing Selfless Glyphweaver to cast Deadly Vanity for infinite turns.



If you have ways to get back instant and sorcery cards then you can keep casting them for the Codie value.

Buyback mechanic can put you into a range of converted mana costs to keep recasting.
An example is say using Constant Mists to cast Restore Balance. If you did the trick of using Entomb with Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre/Kozilek, Butcher of Truth then you can keep looking to loop casting Restore Balance.

Dredge is another mechanic and there are 4 of them; Darkblast, Life from the Loam, Shenanigans, Nightmare Void.
You could combine these with a Living End build.

Retrace allows you to discard a land from your hand to keep casting a spell from graveyard.
If you can combine with Life from the Loam then you can guarantee casting it again.

Death Spark is a little bit hard to control, but could be used.



I've already mentioned untapping Codie is beneficial so it's worth looking a permanent ways to untap it.
Quirion Ranger, Scryb Ranger, Kiora's Follower, Aphetto Alchemist, Seeker of Skybreak, Vizier of Tumbling Sands are creatures that can untap at least once a turn.
Seedborn Muse if used with an instant specifically heavy build would work great. Just have to remember you can't cast sorcery in opponents turns, so you'd have to supplement this with stuff that allows you flash, like Leyline of Anticipation or Alchemist's Refuge.

Thousand-Year Elixir, Voltaic Key, Manifold Key, Magewright's Stone can be used once per turn as well.

Voltaic Construct works when you have 5 or more mana to effectively give you multiple triggers with Codie. You get an extra activation for each mana you have 5 or more.
Filigree Sages is the same but costs more so the math is an extra activation every additional 2 mana you have over 6 and over.
Heartstone or Training Grounds combined with Voltaic Construct or Filigree Sages for infinite.

Mind Over Matter can discard cards for extra activation's and an additional mana each time.

Retreat to Coralhelm can get double activation's off a played and sacrificed fetchland.

Unwinding Clock is a pretty unlikely Seedborn Muse substitute as you probably don't want to have to many artifacts in the deck due to Codie restriction and have a lot of instant speed targets to hit

Minamo, School at Water's Edge is actually a land which you are allowed to play so should be a staple in a Codie deck.

If you can get Freed from the Real or Pemmin's Aura on Codie then you can activate it infinite times and then cast a high costing instant or sorcery to cast out all the lower ones from the deck. However with the "Can't cast permanent spells" this is quite hard to do :P
I've already mentioned Resurgent Belief, but Retether and Replenish are other ways to do this. Even Hypergenesis can be used in this way if in your hand.

Isochron Scepter with Dramatic Reversal only needs one other nonland mana producer as Codie provides a mana. The other thing is that with Isochron Scepter you do actually end up "casting" the Dramatic Reversal which does mean that you'll trigger Codie each time. This means any 1 cmc or less so even a Lightning Bolt would get the job done with a loop system (Serene Remembrance).
How to get artifacts into play with Codie on the board?
Transmute Artifact, Reshape, Reality Scramble, Shape Anew, Whir of Invention can do it, but you'd prefer not to specifically sacrifice Codie. Preferably a treasure token for example.

In theory if the only creature in your deck was Thassa's Oracle and the only instant/sorcery in a deck were Reality Scramble, Transmogrify, Polymorph with also Demonic Consultation and Tainted Pact, then you can literally try to combo win with one of the 4 cmc spells. Codie triggers and you'll specifically hit either Demonic Consultation/Tainted Pact.
At 6 cmc there is also Synthetic Destiny, Mass Polymorph, Reweave, Selvala's Stampede. But if you wanted to combo like above you can't mix and match converted mana costs otherwise you risk hitting another "Polymorph" type spell rather the combo Demonic Consultation.



How this deck works
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This has probably been one of the hardest decks I've ever brewed around before. Once you get your head around some concepts there are still like unlimited possibilities where you can take your evil genius plans.

I personally had some stuff I wanted from the deck:
  • Can play with Codie on battlefield entire game.
  • Wanted reasonable control on outcomes of activating Codie.
  • No instant win combos.

Can play with Codie on battlefield entire game.
This basically means limiting the number of permanents where you have no way of putting them onto the battlefield. It also meant that I wanted to be able to cast Codie as quickly as possible and not some build that would want to do it later once you'd already cast a bunch of permanents.

Wanted reasonable control on outcomes of activating Codie.
This is really the core concepts behind the deck.
There are only 3 spells in the deck which are under 5 converted mana cost. All the rest of the spells are 5 mana and over. Given that Codie specifically gives you wubrg a lot of the spells are 5 mana so that you can guarantee casting a spell first time you get to activate Codie.
Now there are a bunch of "split" cards in the deck that have multi spell costs. Both parts of the cards are added together for the purposes of being exiled with Codie so do not count towards cards under 5 cmc, even if you can cast one half of the spell for less than 5 mana.
There are literally only 2 non-land permanents in the deck with the adventure cards Realm-Cloaked Giant and Beanstalk Giant. These don't count towards Codie hits.


Chapter One


Now there only 3 spells in the deck under 5 mana which are Scapeshift, Splendid Reclamation and Artificial Evolution.
Scapeshift is really the key to setting up a very specific type of land base.

Getting multiple activation's of Codie is really key to an efficient game.
The general idea is you want to be setting up ways to get multiple activation's of Codie.
Because lands are the only permanents in the deck that you can put into play when Codie is on the battlefield, I have specifically designed the deck to utilize lands as much as possible.
The thing with Codie ability is that it is a total color fixer. You can play a lot of utility lands including colorless to help you as Codie does provide wubrg through colorless mana.


There are a lot of great lands to get but the key ones you want are Minamo, School at Water's Edge, Griffin Canyon, Deserted Temple as the main ways of specifically getting more activation's from Codie each turn.
Now Griffin Canyon might look like an odd card given that Codie is a Construct, but this is why Artificial Evolution is part of the spells you can hit. It might seem like a meme combination (and it is) but it also actually very effective at doing what you want.
There is also Wirewood Lodge as a back up for an Artificial Evolution target.

Field of the Dead and The World Tree are the next most desirable lands.
The World Tree is not completely essential to fixing your colors as Codie does a good job of that, but there are double and triple pips with some spells so some amount of fixing is nice.
Field of the Dead is essentially the win condition, taking over the game in the later stages, but even in the middle of the game it is a great way to defend yourself with blockers.

Now there is a 1/3 chance of which of these spells you hit and the order is going to matter.
If Artificial Evolution is hit first and you don't have Griffin Canyon or Wirewood Lodge then you can target Codie changing from a Construct to Griffin/Elf. If Codie is removed then you'll lose this reference so obviously it is way better to actually change the lands as they tend to be less removal of lands in general.

If you hit Splendid Reclamation first then you'll probably not get any value. You still cast it so that it goes to your graveyard as there are a number of spells that can get cards back from graveyard so all is not lost.

The dream however is to hit Scapeshift first and then follow that up with Splendid Reclamation.
Now if you do hit Scapeshift off your first Codie activation then you are likely to only have 4 lands in play.
So I normally get Minamo, School at Water's Edge, Griffin Canyon, Deserted Temple, Ancient Tomb in this scenario.

There are also 4 cascade cards at 5 mana with Bituminous Blast, Deny Reality, Natural Reclamation, Volcanic Torrent and so these can be even more of a turbo plan to Scapeshift/Splendid Reclamation.

About 1/5 of the deck are spells that you can cast for 5 mana. This way you are almost certainly guaranteed to be able to cast two or three in succession to get your land base set up.
It's important to understand that the casting cost of your 5 mana spells also fits within the wubrg so that you can cast them in a timely manner.
Although you find powerful spells like Time Warp and Bribery at 5 mana, the double color pips mean that if these are the only spells you have when you activate Codie for the first time you won't be able to cast them. You can think of these as more like 6 mana to cast when you're trying to use them with Codie.



Chapter Two

Once you setup your land base to get multiple activation's off Codie, you will then be moving on to casting your higher converted spells so that you are getting lots of value out of "cascading" into other spells. At this stage it more random to what you'll cast off these but most of them are at 5 cmc.
You will in general only be "casting" one spell each turn, but get between 3 to 4 additional triggers from Codie.
You can think of your spells having either Maelstrom Wanderer or Apex Devastator multiple cascade abilities attached to them.

The advantage of split cards is that they have a higher converted mana cost, most of them at least 7 mana or more. Therefore they themselves are not targets for Codie ability.

There are a number of spells that have in built cost reduction, so although they have 6 or more converted mana cost you can cast them for less mana to help manage activating your lands to untap Codie more efficiently.
Verdant Mastery, Beseech the Queen, Into the Story, Coastal Breach, Curtains' Call, Seeds of Renewal, Dig Through Time, Treasure Cruise, Temporal Mastery all can be cast for less than their mana value.

Understanding color pips and requirements is important to deck building. Originally I had some of the ultimatums in Emergent Ultimatum, Ruinous Ultimatum, Eerie Ultimatum.
The problem is that even if you have The World Tree in play, because Codie needs to be activated you specifically get wubrg and this doesn't match up well with these types of casting costs.

The spells in the deck all vary on abilities but there is a lot of removal. A bunch of the 5 cmc spells are targeted removal. Then when you get up to 7 mana there is a lot of board wipes of various kinds. With basically the only non-land permanent being Codie in the deck you normally get a lot of value off getting more opponents' resources.

There is also a reasonable number of draw cards which normally means you have a few options to what you can sort out with casting costs.

People figure out that Codie in this deck is very powerful so will be the target of a lot of opponents' removal.
With setting up a pretty awesome land base with Scapeshift/Splendid Reclamation you are decently setup to cast Codie out multiple times during the game.
There are also a number of reanimation spells that can help to get Codie back into play, so there will be times that you purposefully leave in graveyard.
I've found it important not to have too many cards that specifically have "target" in the clause for reanimation because if it is the only spell you have to cast and there are no targets in the graveyard then you won't be able to cast it in the first place.
I will point out that I've had a lot of success with Alchemist's Refuge helping out when opponents' use removal. Casting Codie just before your turn gives you the freedom often to then be able to get value off him.
There is Yavimaya Hollow which can save Codie on occasions. Especially if you cast one of your own board wipes you can line up saving Codie.
Flamekin Village can give Codie haste and with a large mana base this has been an effective way to get activation's in the late game.

I will point out that if you do want to cast a 5 cmc spell at these later stages of the game then you will get no value using Codie as you've already stripped out targets (Scapeshift, etc). This does happen and it is the downside of being so consistent in the first place with setting up.
With around 1/5 of the deck being 5 cmc spells this will crop up during games. But you will also see that there are a lot of 6 cmc and over and with the card draw elements on the whole you should find yourself with larger spells to cast in the later stages.



Split cards/Adventures
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A good way to view what is going on with the split cards in the deck is to show a table with the various mana costs you can use.
CMC 2CMC 3CMC 4CMC 5CMC 6CMC 7CMC 8
Punishment 2Crime 5
Discovery 2Dispersal 5
Warrant 2Warden 5
Odds 2Ends 5
Response 2Resurgence 5
Find 2Finality 6
Revival 2Revenge 6
Assure 2Assemble 6
Beck 2Call 6
Rough 2Tumble 6
Hit 3Run 5
Breaking 2Entering 6
Spring 3Mind 6
Catch 3Release 6
Connive 4Concoct 5
Fertile Footsteps 3
Cast Off 5





















Artificial EvolutionScapeshift
Splendid Reclamation



What I love about this deck is that I have been wanting to play split cards for years and years now, but just never figured out a shell for them as there isn't a whole lot of synergy between the actual spells themselves.
So I'm super happy to have a deck where I can cast spells like Assemble that would normally be total jank, but because you can get value off Codie it makes it particularly appealing deck idea.

The other thing is that you can change the core instant or sorcery that are the targets for Codie to completely change what the deck does.
This is actually my third iteration of the deck. Originally it had a creature reanimation theme as well.


Codie, Vociferous Codex

Instant/Sorcery [cmc 1]

Instant/Sorcery [cmc 4]

Instant/Sorcery [cmc 8+]

Approximate Total Cost:

Last edited by darrenhabib 2 years ago, edited 14 times in total.

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grimoiredark
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Post by grimoiredark » 3 years ago

Ahhhhh!!!! You did it! You mad genius you! Been extremely excited to see your take on this deck and I am not disappointed!

Codie caught my eye as an interesting take on a utility spell deck with some added flair. The permanent restriction is...sad, but that can lead to some unique deck building ideas with powerful results as you've shown here.

My plan is to take your advice and come up with a list of my own focusing around some of my favorite reanimator targets like Avacyn, Angel of Hope or Void Winnower (using my aminatou deck as a base for it).

Thank you as always for your insight as your love for deck building is both extremely helpful and just oozes with love for what you do.

Can't wait to see what you do next! :)

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MeowZeDung
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Post by MeowZeDung » 3 years ago

darrenhabib wrote:
3 years ago
This has probably been one of the hardest decks I've ever brewed around before
I KNOW RIGHT!?!?!?!?! Codie had me spinning in circles. I ended up settling on building around high impact 7 cmc spells, then freerolling the 6 cmc reanimation spells. Then that shifted to all in on Living Death/Living End for a bunch of cycled/dredged fatties after forum feedback.

I'm also really eager to see what all I can do with 5+ mana go-wide token spells "cascading" into Mirrorweave, Mystic Reflection, or Tears of Rage. I'll wait a bit before I plunge those depths though.

I'm not sure how I missed your thread when it got posted a couple days back, but yeesh did you brew a good one. I didn't realize that the adventures would never count as instant/sorcery spells off of Codie's trigger. That's smooth. You've managed to make a sweet value deck that can grind where I thought Codie would only ever be a glass cannon or combo/derp machine.

Great job man.
Kykar primer and other active decks (click!)

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darrenhabib
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Post by darrenhabib » 3 years ago

grimoiredark wrote:
3 years ago
Ahhhhh!!!! You did it! You mad genius you! Been extremely excited to see your take on this deck and I am not disappointed!

Codie caught my eye as an interesting take on a utility spell deck with some added flair. The permanent restriction is...sad, but that can lead to some unique deck building ideas with powerful results as you've shown here.

My plan is to take your advice and come up with a list of my own focusing around some of my favorite reanimator targets like Avacyn, Angel of Hope or Void Winnower (using my aminatou deck as a base for it).

Thank you as always for your insight as your love for deck building is both extremely helpful and just oozes with love for what you do.

Can't wait to see what you do next! :)
Thanks I appreciate it. I'm still not settled on the creature reanimation strategy and so I might change the "11 instant and sorcery" to slightly different configuration.
I was thinking more of a lands strategy as you just can't go wrong with putting more lands into play.
Something like Crop Rotation, Life from the Loam, Realms Uncharted, Reap and Sow, Scapeshift, Splendid Reclamation as possible cards to hit.
Anyway my point is that the underlining targets are flexible slots as well and I'll experiment with a few.
I don't know if the deck will actually work, but I am excited to give it a whirl.

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darrenhabib
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Post by darrenhabib » 3 years ago

MeowZeDung wrote:
3 years ago
darrenhabib wrote:
3 years ago
This has probably been one of the hardest decks I've ever brewed around before
I KNOW RIGHT!?!?!?!?! Codie had me spinning in circles. I ended up settling on building around high impact 7 cmc spells, then freerolling the 6 cmc reanimation spells. Then that shifted to all in on Living Death/Living End for a bunch of cycled/dredged fatties after forum feedback.

I'm also really eager to see what all I can do with 5+ mana go-wide token spells "cascading" into Mirrorweave, Mystic Reflection, or Tears of Rage. I'll wait a bit before I plunge those depths though.

I'm not sure how I missed your thread when it got posted a couple days back, but yeesh did you brew a good one. I didn't realize that the adventures would never count as instant/sorcery spells off of Codie's trigger. That's smooth. You've managed to make a sweet value deck that can grind where I thought Codie would only ever be a glass cannon or combo/derp machine.

Great job man.
I got pretty lost at times lol. I've probably gone overboard on the whole split/adventures/modal thing, it doesn't actually need to be that exacting, but I wanted to play these types of cards because I've never had an excuse to before.
Now that I've got insight I'll try and help you with yours if possible.

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darrenhabib
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Post by darrenhabib » 2 years ago

Well I've been giving Codie the rounds and tried quite a few different ideas but still retaining core theory-crafting.
There are some realities and technicalities that I should have thought about more. But Codie is a complicated card to get your head around straight away.

I changed from a sub reanimation theme to a lands theme using Scapeshift and Splendid Reclamation as a main goal.
Minamo, School at Water's Edge and Deserted Temple are the real deal and so you want to get these online asap, which the deck is very well designed to do.
Such is the success of this strategy that I thought I'd add a meme in using Griffin Canyon or Wirewood Lodge in combination with Artificial Evolution to get further untaps.
However during actual game play, this has turned out less of a meme and actually a really great strategy.

You are always getting 5 mana from Codie, specifically wubrg. Therefore you are realistically not going to cast the split cards for the 2 mana portion.
I asked myself the question "what if I didn't have the split cards and instead just focused on 5 mana instant or sorcery?".
Now because the first time you activate Codie you are likely to only literally get wubrg, having any spells that have double pips is a real problem if it's the only spell you have to cast in hand.
It would be really tempting to play extra turn cards for example in Time Warp, Capture of Jingzhou, Temporal Manipulation, however the uu means that if you've curved into Codie Turn 3 and go for a Turn 4 activation you can't cast these without further help.
I researched all the 5 mana instant and sorcery and made a list of potential cards, remembering that we want to avoid double pips in colors to avoid the Turn 4 problem.
The cream of the crop for me and thus added to the deck are:
Hour of Promise, Fractured Identity, Urza's Ruinous Blast, Urban Evolution, Bring to Light, Escape to the Wilds, Windgrace's Judgment, Promise of Loyalty, Petals of Insight, Submerge, Thoughtcast.
The trade off for having more 5 cmc cards is that when casting 6 mana and over cards there will be more random about what gets cast.
There are obviously tons of other 5 cmc spells you could add to the deck, however power-levels and consistency do start to wane and when you are casting your 6 or more cmc cards you do want to have a quality of hits.

Submerge and Thoughtcast seem a little under-powered, however I've focused on a number of cost reduced cards as these can be great for making sure you have the mana to activate Minamo, School at Water's Edge, Deserted Temple, Wirewood Lodge if you have them in the early stages.
Given that Minamo and Temple require an investment of mana, spells that cost less really help if mana is tight.
You could look to say Force of Will for this type of cost reduction, but you can't cast sorcery cards off Codie if looking to counter a spell outside of your turn. Therefore unlikely to be good here.
I've added some other cost reduced cards with Verdant Mastery, Devastating Mastery, Beseech the Queen, Coastal Breach, Seeds of Renewal, Sublime Exhalation.

Given that you almost always have the mana for casting 5 or higher spells most of the adventure and some of the modal creature/sorcery cards I cut.
As there isn't reanimation as such anymore I've also cut almost all the non-land permanent cards.

As I've pointed out the main goal is to expand your land base. As such removing non-land permanents is a great way to control the game.
The deck does have a lot of mass removal in Urza's Ruinous Blast, Promise of Loyalty, Devastating Mastery, Find // Finality, All Is Dust, Duneblast, Ruinous Ultimatum, Coastal Breach, Sublime Exhalation, Blasphemous Act, Ondu Inversion.
On top of this there is also targeted removal, so this deck is heavy on control. It might be a little too much, but the deck has enough draw to usually have a few spells to choose from to cast and you are normally only casting one spell from your hand per turn and then using your utility lands to create 1- 4 additional triggers, and that's how you get massive advantages.
Because the deck is so stack based spells there is very little downside to having a lot of symmetrical board removal.

One problem that became apparent in game was that some of my split cards required targets in graveyards in order to cast.
Crime // Punishment, Bound // Determined, Revival // Revenge, Flesh // Blood.
I thought I'd supplement this with still having Entomb in the deck so that there is more chance for targets.
To go with this I've chosen Daring Fiendbonder so that Codie can be made indestructible. With all the "destroy all nonland" cards in the deck this is great for not having to recast each time.

I've actually kept most of the split cards even though you are not looking to cast for the 2 mana cost.
However with the Minamo/etc untapping plan it is nice to have the option if short on mana.
I've changed the 1 or less cmc cards to Ancestral Vision, Crop Rotation, Entomb, Artificial Evolution, Serene Remembrance.
Rather than using Entomb and Eldrazi to shuffle cards back into the deck, I'm using Serene Remembrance instead.
I have had pretty bad luck with hitting Serene Remembrance as the first spell like way to many times.
It should be a 20% chance but it's been more like 70% and so it could easily be cut to make the deck a little bit more proactive on early activation's.
But once you are setup for multiple activation's off Codie and got enough lands through the Scapeshift/Reclamation plan then I specifically keep shuffling Ancestral Vision, Decimate, Pir's Whim and Serene Remembrance back into the library so that I can just loop these for a lot of control with the 5 cmc spells.
Serene Remembrance is terrible hit at the start of the game, but gets value once you get to the long game. In fact I normally leave it exiled if it is the first hit rather than put it back into the deck.

This is an updated table of what you can expect to cast off the various spells.
CMC 2CMC 3CMC 4CMC 5CMC 6CMC 7CMC 8
Punishment 2Crime 5
Discovery 2Dispersal 5
Determined 2Bound 5
Warrant 2Warden 5
Odds 2Ends 5
Find 2Finality 6
Revival 2Revenge 6
Assure 2Assemble 6
Beck 2Call 6
Rough 2Tumble 6
Hit 3Run 5
Spring 3Mind 6
Blood 2Flesh 5
Breaking 2Entering 6
Catch 3Release 6
Swift End 3
Fertile Footsteps 3
Explore the Vastlands 3
Cast Off 5
Echoing Equation 5
Deadly Vanity 8





















Ancestral VisionScapeshiftFractured IdentitySeasons Past
Crop RotationSplendid ReclamationHour of PromiseVerdant Mastery
EntombPir's WhimUrban EvolutionDevastating Mastery
Artificial EvolutionDecimateBring to LightBeseech the Queen
Serene RemembranceEscape to the Wilds
Windgrace's Judgment
Urza's Ruinous Blast
Promise of Loyalty
Petals of Insight
Submerge
Thoughtcast

I guess the main takeaways from this is that there are lots more 5 cmc spells that you can hit. Before I was really concentrating on hitting Hour of Promise and Pir's Whim to setup the utility lands. However now there is Scapeshift/Reclamation which sets up the land base nicely. So you are just down for more random elements once you start casting your 6 or more cmc spells while still controlling much of the general game plan.

Also there are no 2-3 cmc in the deck. Honestly I tried a few like Life from the Loam and Summer Bloom to go along with the general land theme, but they just didn't work out.
I also didn't enjoy casting Vampiric Tutor or Demonic Tutor off the cast as the deck is basically tutoring up selected pools of cards already. They just never felt proactive enough.

I discussed about color pips, and unfortunately in my experience the Ultimatum's are quite hard to cast . Even with The World Tree in play because you are optimally trying to activate Minamo/Deserted Temple, getting the triple and double pips can be hard to line up.
Same with the modal lands with Sea Gate Restoration, Turntimber Symbiosis, Emeria's Call as they all have triple color pips.
I've adjusted the mana base to better accommodate, however it is something you need to be wary of. Cascading Cataracts has proven useful with these spells. I've also added some filter lands to get double colors more often.
There are more basic lands as I've added Verdant Mastery and Islands for Submerge.
I took out Mistveil Plains because it is simply not needed.

With the lands plan Field of the Dead has proven to be the way to win. Because you get it online relatively quickly in this deck, your own mass removal spells will conflict at times. But you are fine rebuilding the Zombie armies to trade off with opponents resources.
Glacial Chasm is a back up to not being alpha striked.

Husforbi
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Post by Husforbi » 2 years ago

Everytime you post a deck I am amazed of the knowledge of MTG and understanding of the rulings and cards you have - but damn my brain is going through a lecture in logic and math at the same time :D

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Post by darrenhabib » 2 years ago

Alright here is iteration 3.0. I've stripped back the under 5 cmc to exactly just Scapeshift, Splendid Reclamation and Artificial Evolution.
At the end of the day these are the things that I really want to resolve quickly.
Using Serene Remembrance to try and get more value just really isn't necessary and of course ended up being a Codie hit often for no value.
Once you've spent your first few turns setting up with your land base, you then want to move onto the bigger spells anyway so don't really need to shuffle anything back in.

I've added some 5 mana cascade cards which turbos the Scapeshift/Splendid Reclamation plan even more.
As such I've removed literally all the permanents in the deck as these could still be hit with cascade and then Codie "can't cast permanents" then prevents you from getting value.
Permanents are dead draws on the whole as you really are planning to keep Codie around for the whole game if possible.

I removed the Ultimatums due to being a little awkward to cast off Codie ability.

Fractured Identity plan is a bit of a meme rather than being a realistic plan and as a card to actually target opponents permanents it is pretty terrible in multiplayer so I've just removed it.

I updated the primer to reflect the deck current layout and thoughts more.


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