Galazeth - Quantity Theory

[Ertai Planeswalker]

QUANTITY THEORY
feat.

Often when I come turn to the forums I seek advice on decks or am looking for inspiration. So often, I come to take. This time, I want to bring. This is the Galazeth deck that I've created and been improving over the last year. It has really turned into my favorite deck so I mostly just wanted to share it with all of you:

Quantity Theory

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander

1 Galazeth Prismari

Ramp

1 Mana Crypt

1 Ruby Medallion

1 Sapphire Medallion

1 Sol Ring

Interaction

1 Comet Storm

1 Confirm Suspicions

1 Counterspell

1 Crackle with Power

1 Echoing Truth

1 Expansion // Explosion

1 Ghirapur Aether Grid

1 Mana Drain

1 Muddle the Mixture

1 Mystic Confluence

1 Prismari Command

1 Spell Swindle

1 Stifle

Card Draw

1 Future Sight

1 Howling Mine

1 Idol of Oblivion

1 Jeska's Will

1 Rhystic Study

1 Shimmer Dragon

1 Stroke of Genius

1 Thoughtcast

1 Time Spiral

Boardwipes

1 Blasphemous Act

1 Cyclonic Rift

1 Reckless Endeavor

1 Vampires' Vengeance

Artifact Quantity

1 Blinkmoth Urn

1 Filigree Attendant

1 Inspiring Statuary

1 Karn, Scion of Urza

1 Master of Etherium

1 Nettlecyst

1 Saheeli, the Gifted

1 Urza, Lord High Artificer

Treasure Creation

1 Academy Manufactor

1 Dockside Extortionist

1 Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge

1 Goldspan Dragon

1 Magda, Brazen Outlaw

1 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer

1 Storm the Vault // Vault of Catlacan

1 Storm-Kiln Artist

1 Xorn

Blood Creation

1 Arterial Alchemy

1 Olivia's Attendants

Thopter Creation

1 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer

1 Sweep the Skies

Win Conditions

1 Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer

1 Rise and Shine

Other

1 Junk Winder

1 Lightning Greaves

1 Mirage Mirror

1 Swiftfoot Boots

1 Tribute Mage

1 Trophy Mage

1 Unwinding Clock

1 Veilstone Amulet

1 Whir of Invention

Land

1 Academy Ruins

1 Buried Ruin

1 Cascade Bluffs

1 Command Tower

1 Darksteel Citadel

1 Great Furnace

10 Island

9 Mountain

1 Scalding Tarn

1 Seat of the Synod

1 Shivan Reef

1 Silverbluff Bridge

1 Steam Vents

1 Stormcarved Coast

1 Sulfur Falls

1 Tolaria West

1 Training Center

1 Treasure Vault

1 Urza's Saga

1 Volatile Fjord

Approximate Total Cost:

The basic idea of the deck is to just get a high quantity of artifacts out in any way you can and then use that to your advantage. This deck produces A LOT of treasures, clues, food and/or blood tokens and Galazeth Prismari turns all those rocks into permanent mana sources for our interaction. The cards listed under Artifact Quantity all benefit you for having lots of artifacts whether it be through having power equal to the amount of artifacts you have or reducing your spells's cost with the amount of artifacts you have. This deck usually wins by turning bodies sideways, finishing up with a really big Comet Storm, Expansion // Explosion or Crackle with Power fueld by all your artifact mana.

In the meantimes it functions as some sort of control/skies hybrid deck that somehow is nearly ever short for an answer. Note that the category name Win Conditions is thus a bit misleading, but these are cards that can cause a win out of nowhere if timed properly. It's VERY EASY for this deck to accumulate upwards of 10 artifacts starting turn 6 and thus Rise and Shine can make you suddenly add 40+ power to the board that just was not there when your turn started. Oh, and since they were there already at the beginning of the turn, they can attack right away. Smacking people to death with Treasures and Clues is fun. Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer can do something similar: You can usually attack out of nowehere for 20+ damage with his effect alone, but if one of the tokens you control happens to be a Karnstruct... well that's GG most of the time as you're suddenly attacking with 10+ 10+/10+'s.

Commander damage is almost never a thing, the only realistic way you will kill someone with commander damage with Galazeth is if you equip the Nettlecyst to him. But that has not happened to me so far.

So what do you think?

[Ertai Planeswalker]

I updated the decklist.

After initial testing I found Mana Web to draw to much heat. It's effective at what it does but a little too effective meaning it's just a instant 3 vs 1 until one of my opponents either removes the Web or me, whichever comes first. This is built as a multiplayer deck and 3 vs 1 is not something this deck can hold out for more then 2 turns or so. I then first replaced it with Scroll Rack as it would give me additional card selection AND tapped for mana if I needed too, but this is not the kind of deck for it. The games where I had it i'd rather just wished I had a draw spell. So I added Time Spiral, as it's a free draw 7 and hates on the graveyard players at the same time, of which there's always at least one but often two in the pod. I know it also gives my opponent's cards but more often than not my hand is empty far more quickly, and I expect some groaning as is common with Wheel effects being played, as everyone's sequencing plans are thrown out the window, I have yet to test it out, so we'll see.

In deconstructing another pet deck that I have to do some reconstructing / upgrading on, my Mana Crypt became available again, so I switched out Everflowing Chalice which I included primarily just to have a second Urza's Saga target in case my Sol Ring was already out.

[Chromaticus]

I play Galazeth Prismari in historic brawl, and 2 of my favorite "big" spells are Brass's Bounty and Finale of Revelation. They both enable you to keep going off, and have a HUGE turn. The other cards I've really liked are eggs that draw as you come in. Having rocks that cantrip are just awesome - best one is Eye of Vecna.

My favorite thing about Galazeth is that he lets you play non-rock artifacts that are good on their own first. Howling Mine, which you've got, is particularly sweet because of the asymmetric gain

[Ertai Planeswalker]

I play Galazeth Prismari in historic brawl, and 2 of my favorite "big" spells are Brass's Bounty and Finale of Revelation. They both enable you to keep going off, and have a HUGE turn. The other cards I've really liked are eggs that draw as you come in. Having rocks that cantrip are just awesome - best one is Eye of Vecna.

My favorite thing about Galazeth is that he lets you play non-rock artifacts that are good on their own first. Howling Mine, which you've got, is particularly sweet because of the asymmetric gain

Both Brass's Bounty as wel as Finale of Revelation were in the deck at one point, but I cut them both due to the mana requirements. Brass's Bounty is good but it's 7 mana and does not do enough in my experience to justify that cost. Finale of Revelation has certainly been big for me in the past, but I've found that unless you cast it for X=10 or more, the card is also too expensive for what it does as it's sorcery speed. Taking a whole turn off to draw a few cards gives everyone the opportunity to wreck you (read: Remove at least Galazeth) so you can't effectively use them. And at 12 mana, even an effect as good as Finale's is just too often dead in hand to justify it's inclusion imo.

I've tried the draw rocks in a past iteration, even running snow basics so I could use Arcum's Astrolabe, but it made the deck too reliant on Galazeth being out. The deck in it's current form - despite the redundancies - already relies a little too much on Galazeth being out in my opinion (Something I hope to improve in the future with new cards) but running your mana that way makes any removal spell on Galazeth simply an off switch for your deck. Trust me I've tried, but the games where I was hoping to draw up to 6 lands just so I could replay Galazeth and start playing Magic again were not the most memorable of 2021 . It's the kind of thing that looks epic on paper, and then reality happens.

[Chromaticus]

What do you think about The Reality Chip for Galazeth?

I like the idea of a Future Sight that you can split the cost over a couple turns and tap for mana.