Kalamax, Dino Rave

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 2 years ago

Dinosaur that grows and shoots lasers? Sign me the %$#% up!
Pew Pew

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 2 years ago

Going proactive:
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Instead of being re-active like a value deck where you put your pieces down and just rake in the winnings, this deck needs to be more aggressive. I need to find my land drops and put them down, I need to be pooping out as many Copied Instants as possible. With that in mind, I got rid of the value pieces - Nissa, Bounty and Shark Typhoon, for more aggressive Ramp. I cut a few of the generic Ramp pieces, as I don't care for Basics or having Explore when I have access to Instant speed Ramp like Growth Spiral. Same with Ranger's Path coming out, it's an inferior Skyshroud Claim and I have Eureka Moment as a way to abuse Kalamax's light show. After that, just efficient draw that's good to be doubled.

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 2 years ago

Need Cantrips:
I thought the deck would run one way but I found that it wants to do something completely else. For example, Blue Green is a slave to value and so I put in the traditional ways to do so. Kalamax doesn't want that. He is the value engine, anything else detracts from him. So, other value engines aren't good, instead the deck needed to slave itself to Kalamax's desires and he desires Cantrips.

Skyshroud Claim isn't good in this deck because I rather be churning through, drawing tons of lands and making those land drops. Also, why run this 4 drop Ramp when Jadzi's flipside will let me Ramp as much and as hard as possible. And when I'm done, I can plop her down and start forking all of my spells even further.

God-Eternal and Niv Mizzet are value engines, but they're clogging up the works and so they had to go. Along with all of the other OK cards that don't do quite as much. In their place comes a crapload of Cantrips for Kalamax to break parity on.

Lastly, why Sacrifice the Dino once to gain life with Miren when I can keep gaining life? The Dino gets pretty big and so Lifelink is a lot of life.

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 2 years ago

Land Drops and Wincons:
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I needed more ways of winning, especially if the table collectively decides that Kalamax shouldn't exist. Chandra and Niv-Mizzet smooth over edges but also let me kill faster once I've got an engine running.

Guildmages' Forum is because I can't find a spare Opal Palace. Karn's Bastion to help grow Kalamax and get Chandra to Ult out of nowhere. Maze of Ith to not need to spend removal if someone turns sideways at me plus I know the power of deterrence. Rogue's Passage so tiny Kalamax can turn sideways. Sheltered Thicket as another Dual for Farseek and friends to find, plus it ups my land count as I found I was low on Land Drops with the deck. I've added effectively 2 Lands by not counting Maze.

These Instants all disappointed me. I found that I frequently didn't want to use Reverberate and wanted it to be anything else. Swat wasn't that good. I never wanted to cast Kazuul's Fury, I rather have it be a Land Drop I didn't want to reuse Oona's Grace, I rather just play Land Drops. Into the Story was too swingy in its cost, I rather go with cards where I control the cost like Dig Through Time or where its fixed like Jace's Ingenuity.

Forest and Island become Nonbasics for reasons outlined above.

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Haman
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Post by Haman » 2 years ago

I have a shelved kalamax deck... like 2 version, my kalamax experience is pretty bad.
Sometimes, I would get the benefits of the ramp, but no much cards in hand
Sometimes, my cmdr was killed so many times.. i cannot even cast it.. the cmdr attracts alot of attention.
If i chose to run alot of counters for protection.. there are not good when you cannot copy them for good effects

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 2 years ago

Haman wrote:
2 years ago
I have a shelved kalamax deck... like 2 version, my kalamax experience is pretty bad.
Sometimes, I would get the benefits of the ramp, but no much cards in hand
Sometimes, my cmdr was killed so many times.. i cannot even cast it.. the cmdr attracts alot of attention.
If i chose to run alot of counters for protection.. there are not good when you cannot copy them for good effects
I can see that happening, I hope not as I don't have a spellslinger deck and this fills that niche.

Raising the ceiling and lowering the floor:
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The floor on Mystic Confluence is being another Jace's Ingenuity, but considering its modular nature, I can mix-and-match as I need.

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Post by Tevesh » 2 years ago

Too much draw, not enough action:
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Snakeskin Veil as a 'Counterspell' that gives a bonus if Copied. Telling Time is my least favourite out of the "Impulses" that I have.

Into the Roil is a way to bounce my stuff or my opponents'. It's far more pinpoint than always going to a Wipe like Aetherspouts. Roiling Regrowth, a Harrow it does not make. Getting rid of this one piece of mediocre Instant Speed Ramp. In fact, a lot of the two drop Ramp does feel not that rewarding despite being able to filter for colours; in fact, that's what has kept me from ripping them out until I can figure out what to replace them with.

Inscription does a lot of different things; spot removal, life gain to keep me in the game and pumping up Kalamax. Chemiser's Insight would probably never be cast for for its Jump-Start.

Return of the Wildspeaker feels like a massive "winmore" and Reality Ripple comes in to save Kalamax and his +1/+1s.

Survivors' will help Kalamax turn sideways before he grows big which will help save his dumb dino ass. Opal Palace is a low opportunity cost to make Kalamax big, especially if it is the second or third time I've got to get him in there.

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Rumpy5897
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Post by Rumpy5897 » 2 years ago

As always, can count on you for top notch thread names.

Skimmed the list, and the main question that comes to mind - how does this win? It seems you get to cast a bunch of neat spells, copy them for even more value, and then what? Think that leaning into voltron wouldn't be the worst of ideas, as you'll have a big slab of beef at your disposal. Some cheap evasion cantrips (Charge Through, Leap, Shadow Rift) seem like they could be of some use.

Is Twinning Staff winmore?

Given your 4mv commander, think you can do better than Cultivates. You get to have Rampant Growth, and then I'd probably go for a one-drop land aura because I like those. You could also go even deeper on cheap Exploration variants in Sakura-Tribe Scout. There are options :P

I really like Frantic Search here, but there's not a ton of other land untapping instants at your disposal, let alone ones worth playing. Still, maybe something from Snap, Unwind, Rewind will tickle your fancy?
 
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Post by Tevesh » 2 years ago

Rumpy5897 wrote:
2 years ago
As always, can count on you for top notch thread names.

Skimmed the list, and the main question that comes to mind - how does this win? It seems you get to cast a bunch of neat spells, copy them for even more value, and then what? Think that leaning into voltron wouldn't be the worst of ideas, as you'll have a big slab of beef at your disposal. Some cheap evasion cantrips (Charge Through, Leap, Shadow Rift) seem like they could be of some use.

Is Twinning Staff winmore?

Given your 4mv commander, think you can do better than Cultivates. You get to have Rampant Growth, and then I'd probably go for a one-drop land aura because I like those. You could also go even deeper on cheap Exploration variants in Sakura-Tribe Scout. There are options :P

I really like Frantic Search here, but there's not a ton of other land untapping instants at your disposal, let alone ones worth playing. Still, maybe something from Snap, Unwind, Rewind will tickle your fancy?
Thanks.

Winning is a problem but right now I'm looking at solidifying my early game. I think I've made sufficient changes this time around to solve that. As for Wincons, we have Niv-Mizzet, Parun to ping my opponents to death and Kalamax gets in for Lethal Commander with either Kessig Wolf Run or Rogue's Passage. I do want to shift to more draw so that I can abuse Burgeoning effects. Right now though, my main issue is making the early game work.

Snap is definitely an option, the others aren't as interesting because the Copies would make the original spell fizzle. The strength in Frantic Search is untapping six Lands with Kalamax out while looting four deep.

The problem I had in one word is Velocity:
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I need a way to quickly Ramp ahead of my opponents and have all of the answers. After a few dud of a games and goldfishing, it seems the problem is the lack of draw. The cards being cut don't let Kalamax draw aggressively. Thrasios is added as a way to have Draw on Demand, Rhystic is in the same boat. Fierce Guardianship is there because I need free Counters when players try to kill Kalamax.

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Post by Neptune » 2 years ago

Unleash Fury, Choose Your Weapon, Rush of Blood, and Overblaze are hilarious with Kalamax. If you only play one of them, Kalamax's power becomes 20. Berserk and Fatal Frenzy do the same job, give trample, but sacrifice Kalamax, which you may or may not want.

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Post by Tevesh » 2 years ago

Neptune wrote:
2 years ago
Unleash Fury, Choose Your Weapon, Rush of Blood, and Overblaze are hilarious with Kalamax. If you only play one of them, Kalamax's power becomes 20. Berserk and Fatal Frenzy do the same job, give trample, but sacrifice Kalamax, which you may or may not want.
Interesting idea but I don't think I have enough deck slots to use these cards.

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 2 years ago

Fiddling with Floors and Ceilings:
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Vadrik is more expensive than Goblin Electromancer but while they share the same floor, Vadrik is a cost reducer where the sky's the limit, especially with the random effects that give +1/+1 to my Creatures so I don't need to rely on Day and Night shifts.

I added Electric Revelation because of the Flashback. I can cast this after discarding it and I really like that. By going off of its Flashback, I looked for four drop spells instead of replacing Thrill of Possibility. Out of my 4 Drop Draws, Behold seemed like the most lacklustre and so it gets the axe.

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Post by RowanKeltizar » 2 years ago

Hmm, yeah draw power is going to be important for Kalamax. I would suggest looking at benjameenbear's decklist here, if you haven't already: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=34981&p=137406#p137406
WRBKaalia, Zenith Seeker - Certified Air Raid Material
WBElenda, the Dusk Rose - Drain and Gain
WRAurelia, the Warleader - Tokens/Equipment
URNiv-Mizzet, Parun - Controlled Burn primer
BRGHenzie, "Toolbox" Torre - Creature Feature
BRGSoul of Windgrace - Lands Matter
RGWGishath, Sun's Avatar - I'M YOUR DADDY
GWUBAtraxa, Praetors' Voice - Artifact Stax Beatdown
Budget Starter Decks
UBSygg, River Cutthroat
WU Shorikai, Genesis Engine
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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 2 years ago

Adjusting to the Meta:
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Maybe I'm crazy but I found Exploration to be a little lacklustre. I frequently wanted to cast my Draw on other people's turns, cheat those Lands into play and then continue with my business. Unfortunately, I found that I had to overextend on my turns if I wanted to be greedy (read: always) and squeeze out some value from Exploration's Land Drops. With Druid Class, I can pad my life total and if I happen to come across an extra Land Drop, I can upgrade the Class. It also serves as another wincon by making a huge Land to OHKO people.

Double Vision felt like a winmore. I wanted more options, such as if I ripped through the majority of my deck and I didn't want to deck. Here comes in Psychic Spiral which also serves as another wincon by decking someone who draws their deck.

The Book of Exalted Deeds deeds onto a Mutavault has entered the Meta. Time to add even more ways to deal with that and LD on Lands is one of the lowest opportunity costs I can muster.

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Post by Tevesh » 2 years ago

More abusive meta %$#%$#%:
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Jadzi failed me. I never wanted to cast them and the dream of holding a huge grip, casting the flip side and putting all of those lands into play never materialized. Instead, it was all hopes and dreams. In their stead comes the Sakura-Tribe Scout who will let me easily sneak in extra lands into play from all of my excess draw.

There's been a lot of abusive graveyard recursion shenanigans and I'm really annoyed that there isn't an Instant across Temur that doesn't Exile a Graveyard aside from Burn Away. Out of all options, Return to Nature has the most flexibility and will let me stop these recursion loops. Forking it will be good as well. Between all of the cantrips and draws, I should be able to get Return and sit on it until needed. I'm cutting Repulse because I think it is the least impressive Instant. I have been trying to find a Blink of an Eye but it's been a hassle. I did see some Isochron Scepter technology that looks interesting but that could also be one of the biggest, balliest winmores.

I found I had a spare Misty and so it goes in, plus a Scavenger Grounds to handle more graveyard abuse. It'll suck that my Psychic Spiral won't be as big but I rather lose that out than be subjugated to five copies of Tasha's Hideous Laughter.

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Post by Tevesh » 2 years ago

More gas:
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Surprisingly, I don't want Wilderness Reclamation. I'm basically cantripping my way to victory, so I don't need that much mana and I don't want the heat of the End Step Untap trigger. In its stead comes Once Upon a Time which will let me dig for lands early because making every single land drop is important for this deck and it can fetch me a wincon later in the game whether that is Rogue's Passage, Kessig Wolf Run or Niv-Mizzet, Parun. Casting for free is nifty as well as copying it with Kalamax.

Sprouting Vines comes in as a cheap way to draw lots of cards. If an opponent casts two spells on their turn, this is a draw 3. With Kalamax, that would be four, plus he would grow by 3 +1/+1 Counters. This does nothing flashy besides be another solid piece for the Kalamax machine. Valakut Awakening didn't do anything for Kalamax, so it gets the axe.

The four nonbasics have been lacklustre, with perhaps Alchemist's Refuge being the only Land I'll miss to cast Kalamax on an end step. They leave for more basics for Sprouting Vines.

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Post by Tevesh » 2 years ago

If I'm supposed to Cantrip my way to Victory, then I should put in more ways to pay off Cantrips:
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I want to cast a small Instant on each of my opponents turns, doubling it with Kalamax to accrue enough value that I can push for the win. Wavebreak Hippocamp will help me with that, plus it is Creature for an emergency chump block. Search for Azcanta was on the chopping block due to it having low Velocity but my greed kept it in. After playing with Kalamax, I know Search is great if I'm ahead - not so much when behind or at parity. Plus if someone nukes my 'yard repeatedly, then it surely isn't doing anything. The Hippocamp will help at all stages in the game and under any position I find myself in.

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Post by Tevesh » 2 years ago

More mana shaving:
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I really, really like Hour of Promise, as it fetches whatever you want. I'd almost go to the point of saying that it is the best Ramp spell in the game due to being unrestricted for what it fetches without having to jump through hoops or deal with strings. But my Commander can't pay that off aside from the base spell, so I should look for things I can pay off. Storm-Kiln comes to mind as I'd be getting two Treasures per forked Instant, which can quickly get out of hand, especially if the Storm-Kiln suddenly becomes a big threat. He scales much faster and brutally than Hour of Promise and costs less, so he goes in.

Opt was getting lonely as the only Instant one drop Cantrip until they printed Consider. Once I got my mitts on it, I had to decide what to axe. I first thought of Anticipate because that's 2 mana to look at three cards compared to Consider's 1 for two. Then I thought of Thrill of Possibility, as that's two-for-two but sometimes I just need brute strength draw and Thrill gets a little silly once we have Kalamax out, turning into effectively a 2 mana Ancestral. I looked at my more expensive draw options, I like Electric Revelation's Flashback and so I looked upwards further and came across Unexpected Windfall. I like it, my inner greedy idiot feels like it's a free spell that draws cards with Kalamax, but I know better than to listen to him, he makes me lose games. Consider's Floor is much more manageable than Unexpected Windfall's which is what I'm looking for.

With the deck wanting to cast little Cantrips to get itself to Valuetown, it made sense to include Terrain Generator as another Burgeoning effect. I'm saddened I needed to axe a Mountain but Red is the least represented colour, all other nonbasics are either Fetchable with the Farseek and co. suite or are amazing utility lands, so a Basic had to go.
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Post by Tevesh » 2 years ago

Massive mana upgrade and fine tuning a new direction:
Blessed Respite is technically replacing two cards: Talrand and Psychic Spiral. I put the Spiral in to stop my deck from being decked and added a Mill Wincon. The issue was that the Mill wasn't reliable enough, plus I'd have to pay five to reshuffle myself. Talrand was disappointing just because of how much setup he required. He was one of my earlier decks into EDH when the format was new. Now, he was just clunky and so he gets the axe.

Rhystic Study is one big card advantage alarm bell. That was too much heat for this little deck to draw. So, I axed it in favour of my attempt to get surprise wins. I want to constantly be trickling in a bit of draw, nothing too big or flashy until it is too late. The other option is to kill people out of nowhere, which is where Unleash Fury comes in. At five power, Kalamax becomes Lethal due to gaining a +1/+1 Counter, and doubling twice to 22 Power. It took me awhile but I finally saw the light with @Neptune's suggestion.

Choose Your Weapon comes in as the other doubler but it can also shoot down Flying Dragons. That's not bad. Thrill of Possibility is right where that effect should be costed; paying one more for Electric and then one more on top of that for Flashback, was too big of an ask.

If I'm cutting a big, flashy marque Instant with Psychic Spiral, I should replace it with something that'll actually get the job done. I've had too many drawn out head's ups where my opponent stalled me out until I decked or they got their wincon rolling. A surprise of a few extra turns out of nowhere should help with closing out the game.

The rest is mana fixing. I didn't want to go too low on Basics, so I decided to axe Highland Weald in favour of Taiga. Only Into the North can tutor that up while there's many other cards that can tutor for the Taiga. Sheltered Thicket got replaced by the Ketria Triome - I didn't want to add too many ETB lands. The rest were pretty much basics being replaced by superior Duals or really good Utility.

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Post by Tevesh » 1 year ago

Manabase switcheroo:
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I wanted another Survivors' Encampment and I didn't want to cut more basics, so out came the Snow Duals. This means that Into the North isn't far from being axed. I wanted more basics for all of my basic fetchers and I was feeling a little low on that. I went with a Forest and Island as they're the most prominent colours in the deck currently.

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Post by Tevesh » 1 year ago

Found some stutters:
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Removing the Snow Duals made me re-evaluate Into the North and I realized I wasn't a fan of Farseek either. This should have been obvious to me, as I traded three ETBT Lands that fix my colours for 3 Lands that had no such restriction. At first it seems like blasphemy, to cut Ramp on curve, but I found that the deck was more interested in casting Instants. The spells and Creatures cast at Sorcery speed need to punch above their weight-class. And Farseek and Into the North do not, they find me lands that come into play tapped which slows down my ability to cast Instants. Nature's Lore and Three Visits are fine because I can cast them to chain into other Instants.

In their place comes Khalni Ambush, partly for the flexibility of being a land, but also it's more spot removal for the deck when I need a Creature dead. Road to Ruin I'm trying out; I'll see if fetching Basics at Instant speed is good and maybe the second half Flashback side will be OK too.

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Post by Tevesh » 1 year ago

Dominaria United update:
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Vadrik is strictly superior to the Electromancer but is such a pain in the ass to play with in paper I rather take a weaker 'fire and forget' piece. The Day and Night mechanic absolutely screams "designed with online" as it's terrible to play with in meatspace.

Joint Exploration's baseline looks very similar to Anticipate but the Kicker letting the deck ramp is big and so I think it is better than Anticipate. There aren't other spells that have me questioning their utility, so I went with a like-for-like swap.

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Post by PrimevalCommander » 1 year ago

The best way I have found to solve the velocity question is draw spells that can be cast multiple times or for cheap to dig deep and filter unused cards. You said you wouldn't Jumpstart Chemister's Insight, but why not? Even pitching your last land in hand is a decent risk:reward since you are drawing 4 cards. Chem Insight looks 8 cards deep and can be paid over multiple turns, triggering Kalamax's counters more often. Even Electric Revelation has done good work for me just keeping cards flowing and allowing me to really get more spells cast. Sometimes I have to pitch a card I really like, but I immediately forget that card once I get 4 new ones in my hand. Play

I realize you play several of these already :)

My favorite draw spells Eureka Moment looks good, but I favored the flashback for more "velocity" :grin: . I need to pick one up and try it out.
Growth Spiral didn't impress me when I played it. I like Thrill of Possibility and Electric Revelation better for sheer volume of cards. "Quantity as a quality all it's own."

My favorite Cantrips Honorable mention Leap

Creatures that help Other Twinferno and Slip out the Back are on the sideboard for testing. I just like every other card in the deck, so spots are limited now.

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Tevesh
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Post by Tevesh » 1 year ago

Considering how much of my list already has the cards you've named, I'm not sure I can figure out how you're trying to help.

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Post by Tevesh » 1 year ago

Blasphemy:
Changes 10/15/22
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Cutting Steve? That's nuts but so is not having a Sol Ring. Out of every source of Ramp in the deck, Steven looked like the least useful. He's not a body that lets me put more lands into play each turn nor is he a Sorcery that could benefit from my next change. So he ended up getting the axe for a Sol Ring. If I find something underperforming, I can definiely see him making a return.

Jace's Sanctum is good, don't get me wrong; the issue is that I am bad. When I'm popping off, it's such a large cognitive load to remember these triggers that I end up forgetting them, remembering I forgot, get flustered and start playing slower. Since I'm doing a bunch of slow stuff on people's End Steps, they decide 'this guy has gotta die'. So, I'm just not good enough to squeeze out all of the extra value from the Sanctum. Enter Primal Amulet who I can quickly flip since my whole goal is to cast a little something-something on each turn. Then it turns into an insane doubling land which will help Kalamax go for the finish.

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