Zada: Grinding up an Arcane Storm

[Whipsaw]

Also pretty jazzed about Sardian Avenger — chip dmg, maybe prevents treasure oriented dockside loops from fully going off, could be a 7/1 trampling beater if we go last on T1.

Anyone else looked at this one yet?

[Whipsaw]

Also trying to think through Auntie Blyte, Bad Influence as a potential creature-based removal piece along with Sparksmith. Blyte let's us leverage Crypt/shockland/Ancient Tomb dmg and Sparksmith just naturally plays into out goblin-y token activity. Both are activated ability-based so we can do it to remove RoL/anti-card draw bodies without wasting our spells beforehand.

[Whipsaw]

Loving some of the stuff from ONE...Gleeful Demolition seems spicy for 3 gobbos if we've still got a tapped Vault around

Also liking Blazing Crescendo as pump and card advantage. Also potentially puts Rile back on the menu as a 1-drop cantrip since Crescendo brings toughness with card advantage.

[Ren]

Loving some of the stuff from ONE...Gleeful Demolition seems spicy for 3 gobbos if we've still got a tapped Vault around

Also liking Blazing Crescendo as pump and card advantage. Also potentially puts Rile back on the menu as a 1-drop cantrip since Crescendo brings toughness with card advantage.

I had my eye on Gleeful Demolition, I think I will try to find room for that. Blazing Crescendo also look worth a slot for the extra toughness it brings, I've had lot of success with my Zada deck, goes off almost every game, but always looking for ways to optimise. Will see if I can work those in.

Edit: I cut Academic Dispute for Blazing Crescendo which seemed like a very easy choice, and I cut Forbidden Friendship for Gleeful Demolition which I'm nut as confident about but I have a lot of goblin theme within the deck so more goblins is better than more of other creature types.

Here's my list if anyone is curious, always keen for any feedback or other improvements. I have tried the arcane package from the initial post but I ended up cutting it as never had the right pieces in hand when I was playing.
https://archidekt.com/decks/3093373/zada

[Whipsaw]

Display of Power is probably my favorite from the LOTR set — basically double your stack of cantrips intra storm or if I squint it can kinda function as a red Mindbreak Trap of sorts (copy all the existing interaction already on the stack in the midst of a counter war)

[Toshi]

With this being more or less the central place for all things Zada, Hedron Grinder, i want to share with you two cards i had absurd fun with lately.

For one, Spectacular Showdown is hilarious at granting permanent double strike to all our creatures for a mere - or invoking huge brawls among others. Disrupt Decorum my bullocks!
Smoke Spirits' Aid has become one of my favorite protective spells outside of Otherworldly Outburst. Sure, it can backfire quite a bit, but this is still mono- innit!? The most memorable moment i had was Rile not hitting a single toughness buffing spell, hence me plopping most of my board for some hefty damage and a boatload of treasure...

I've also included Display of Power recently, but didn't get to using it yet.

[Toshi]

Flick a Coin

[Crazy Monkey]

Sorry all, I've been quite bad at checking in here.

I immediately like Flick a Coin as Rile stapled to Sudden Breakthrough. It's great as long as we have sufficient density of effects of offset the damage. 3 Mana is a lot for a cantrip, but a ritual and cantrip on one card is amazing.

I've been consistently impressed with Blazing Crescendo as card advantage and pump. I tested Gleeful Demolition for a bit, but wasn't convinced over Hordeling Outburst despite the improved efficiency. Admittedly I was also being screwed over by Krark, the Thumbless that game.

I didn't test Display of Power because it seemed only worth it to me with multiple Zada triggers resolved, and that's often not how I play the deck.

I recall looking at Smoke Spirits' Aid during prerelease, and I misread it as dealing damage where I chose. I'd read it wrong, and the damage is deal to the creature's controller, which is to us. I may have misunderstood, but I believe that card is quite painful for us.

[Whipsaw]

Flick a Coin

This is going to be bananas in Krark-Saka but also agree with CM -- the draw+ritual combo is quite nice. Almost feels like more of the buffing scrytrips are needed to increase consistency of surviving the ping though. Alternatively also brings Rile back in as a CMC diluter

[Toshi]

I was rather hesitant back then with my first build, when it came to cards that required a toughness set up like Zap or Spawning Breath.
But with Rile later on and Flick a Coin now, the package really becomes worth it. Especially Spawning Breath can make for some nasty exponential Shenanigans - plus, you can cast it off Kari Zev's Expertise...

As for Smoke Spirits' Aid, it might be cut again for Flick a Coin or Song of Totentanz, as they are set to be more integral parts of the deck.

[Whipsaw]

WE EATIN GOOD, FAM

Witch's Mark

[Crazy Monkey]

Unless your hand is empty, Witch's Mark is some of the best draw Zada can get. The discard can also feed a graveyard plan and a discard plan such as Underworld Breach. Even with the discard cost, I would never have considered a 2 card cantrip as a possible card to print.

Even more amazing, it's functionally a pump spell to counteract the addition of Flick a Coin because of the role.

[Toshi]

As a once in a lifetime play i want to cast both Witch's Mark and Underworld Breach of Kari Zev's Expertise now...

[Whipsaw]

Not sure if its for all metas, but I've been having solid success recently with Zurzoth, Chaos Rider as a token generator at higher powered tables where there's a lot of incidental card draw by the other players. Anyone have experience with this one or general musings?

[boggartbae]

Hey y'all, I've been lurking here and playing the deck for years. Love it.

Some potentially good suggestions

_____ Goblin is legal in this format. I know it's cheesy, but it's also a ritual on a goblin. Here's a good writeup about sticker cards, but the TL;DR is that it nets you 1-3 mana when it enters.

Grishnákh, Brash Instigator is 3 creatures for 3 mana the turn we go off, and 2 creatures before then. Also potentially could act as pseudo removal. I think it's probably better than some of the 4 cost token makers.

In a similar vein, Skyfire Kirin, Coercive Recruiter, and Spreading Insurrection all have the potential to "generate" a lot of creatures, Recruiter especially is really good with Twinflame effects. IDK, just a thought.

Seething Song is probably worth it also.

Some bad/silly suggestions:

Chain of Plasma is kinda cute here. If you have 40 creatures and 40 cards in hand you can kill the table. Probably too cute and win-more though, target Zada, and then copy the copies with chain's own effect by discarding cards (choose your opponents as the new targets)

Radiant Performer is probably good enough, and has a clause that prevents it going infinite, which is cool. Steal the board with Kari Zev's Expertise or Traitorous Greed. Radiating anything Zada radiates is probably worth it, but the performer is expensive.

Display of Power with Thud is funny. Sac a creature to thud, target Zada, let her radiate trigger resolve, cast display of power, copy the copies, and choose your opponents as targets. Again, cute, but potentially useful.

[Ren]

Been enjoying this deck for a while, but wondering if you guys have any tricks or methods you use to speed up turns, can easily go off and have a big turn that can take 10-20 minutes to come to a win and can be a bit boring for other players in the game. Often by the time it gets to that point, a win is nearly guaranteed if nobody has stopped me by that point, but there's no infinite loops or combos I can easily demonstrate and have to play it out, making mana, spending it, making a bit more, drawing more cards, making a few more tokens, making a bit more mana, drawing even more cards, untapping, making even more mana etc.

I like playing the deck a lot but if I can find a way to speed up my wins when it seems like I'm about to close out the game would be good. We often play at lunch at work so if the games are quicker, we can get in multiple games but if the game is slow, usually there's only time for 1 game.

[Whipsaw]

I'm a big user of curio loops + an outlet in my cedh version. My go-to outlets are normally Reckless Fireweaver or Impact Tremors with a Dockside loop that makes 4+ treasures. There's enough 2CMC creatures in my deck that I can normally get the infinite treasures then demonstrate the creature/treasure loop to most folks' satisfaction.

I also run Dualcaster Mage with Heat Shimmer or Twinflame for infinite hasty creatures or into the Tremors outlet above.

[Whipsaw]

Just got another copy of Sudden Breakthrough in Ancestors' Aid -- LFG!!!

[Toshi]

While 5 mana is a lot, Daring Discovery looks at least like a lot of fun to copy amongst the board!

[Whipsaw]

While 5 mana is a lot, Daring Discovery looks at least like a lot of fun to copy amongst the board!

This could turn into a complete banger if you could stack a goblin recruiter type effect before radiating it.

[x1372]

Daring discovery is a game changer as far as I'm concerned. If I get a decent setup of even 4+ creatures there's a pretty good chance that it alone can get the ball rolling fast enough to make the critical turn successful, even if you tap out for it and have nothing else in hand. Especially with another sudden breakthrough effect that can get the mana train flowing added to help on that end.

Zada is eating well this set too.

[Whipsaw]

I think I just realized that the discover mechanic gets around anti-draw hate like Spirit of the Labyrinth, Notion Thief, and the new hotness that is Orcish Bowmasters.

[Toshi]

Is Felonious Rage big enough of an upgrade to Otherworldly Outburst to run it (again)?

While Otherworldly Outburst was a dead card too often for me to keep running it, a bigger buff and haste on top seems fine outside of reacting to board wipes.

[Mr Straylo]

I occasionally come back an reread the primer. This is the first deck guide that I ever read. I would love to see what the deck looks like these days if you still play it.

[Uncle_Krupi]

Hi there Crazy Monkey, hope you're well. I'm wanting to build a Jeskai deck under The Twelfth Doctor which does as many Zada/Feather type shenanigans as possible, with the Doctor growing huge off the copies. Is there anything you've always wanted to run had the deck had access to UW? I like the look of cards like Suit Up and Majestic Metamorphosis. Thanks for the thread!

PS. Happy to hear from other Zada enthusiasts as well.