Gogo, Master of Mimicry - Draw Go Mill

Post by ISBPathfinder 1 month ago

Gogo, Master of Mimicry

When I first approached gogo, it was off of the back of how good he is with fetchlands. Its nice being able to ramp super hard reliably with your commander in mono blue considering how mana hungry of an ability he has. From there I struggled somewhat as to how to build it and what concept to go with. I randomly jokingly noticed that Brainstorm's storm trigger was a triggered ability that could be copied and then I ran into a few other mill effects and I was somewhat hooked and looking into how to make it function as a mill deck.

From there I started delving into the question of if I could push it into a draw / go style of deck using a bunch of baubles which I can crack and draw from if I don't need to do other things.

Lets list off a bunch of interesting commander interactions that make some unique cards kind of cool:

Wan Shi Tong, Librarian - It has flash and its +/+ counters and draw are both the same ETB so you can scale it part way and then kick a bunch of copies in with the commander.
Venser, Shaper Savant - As a control effect Venser is just kind of ok these days but when you look at copying his ETB you can bounce him back to hand while holding someone down and punching them in the face. He can scale to get several tokens or just disrupt someone with a partial cyclonic rift effect that can bounce itself back to hand for a reload and reuse effect.
Sphinx of the Second Sun / Shadow of the Second Sun - These cards draw and untap the lands. Gogo can copy them to chain extra draw on and they untap the commander and lands used to copy. They work really well with utility land activations, fetchland usage, or even just popping random baubles for draw.
Baubles - Give the option to cheaply have a little draw and utility espeically grave hate or lifegain but we can also copy them if needed with the commander to chain some draw.
Azor's Gateway - This card normally takes wayyyyyyyyyyy too long to transform but with the commander we can set up to one turn transform it potentially and get ready to produce like 40 mana off of this card.
Riverchurn Monument - The exhaust is a game ender. Exhaust it and then copy the effect 6+ times and everyone mills out immediately. One of the stronger game ending mill cards in here.
Vedalken Shackles - Instant speed use mass chainable theft. Normally needing enough islands is harder but this deck ramps islands harder due to how the commander functions and using the commander on shackles is a brutal move. Its a high priority removal target but it can stall. Its a bit unfortunate that I don't have much of a reason to run sac in here as the assumed is that this does get killed fairly quickly but its so good I am gonna do it.
Boompile - it can come in early and give options to sweep nonlands. In a real pinch you activate it and then use the commander to copy its trigger to push it through.
The One Ring - Because this card isn't good enough normally, lets copy its draw effect and spin up the count.
Portal to Phyrexia - Chain the removal with the commander then the option to chain rez later.
Amphibian Downpour - Copy the storm and it turns into sort of a weird one sided non token wrath in that everything is turned into poo.
Court of Cunning - The upkeep trigger is copyable so if you are the monarch...... people are gonna melt. It also has good synergy with the Sphinx of the Second Sun / Shadow of the Second Sun bros so you could possibly pair them together for some nice power milling.
Shark Typhoon - I have killed people now with this by making 40ish+ power of flying sharks at instant speed. Its a no joke wincon or surprise turn around on someone's attack.
Teferi, Master of Time - I like literally every mode of this planeswalker and it sort of plays draw / go as well. In a pinch, the commander's copying on the phase out is still reasonable defense and copying the extra turns wins you games.
Fetchlands - these turn into some silly ramp by means of copying their search effect with the commander. Getting more than one lets you pile up lands fast. If you don't have good fetchlands, there are a metric %$#% of variations of Evolving Wilds these days and while the deck technically works better with the good ones, the bad ones work just fine.
Utility Lands - There are a lot of different uses, most of them draw me cards or defend me if I am being honest. The utility of being able to copy utility effects with the commander opens up my response options without dedicating cards to everything though.

Decklist

Tryno · Post by Tryno 1 month ago

I've made this guy previously, more as a token win-con via planeswalkers for non-evil win cons. It ended up degenerating into infinite turns, or using extra untap phases to use Venser, Shaper Savant or Capsize a billion times and bounce everyone's lands to hand.

With the new ruling on mana abilities though. I like all the cantrip draw. I do think you need more mana rocks though. Gogo is a mana hungry nerd, and 4 mana is his sweet spot.

Otherwise, I don't see how you win consistently using mill. You don't have very many sources to do so.

Post by ISBPathfinder 1 month ago

Tryno wrote: ↑
1 month ago
I've made this guy previously, more as a token win-con via planeswalkers for non-evil win cons. It ended up degenerating into infinite turns, or using extra untap phases to use Venser, Shaper Savant or Capsize a billion times and bounce everyone's lands to hand.

With the new ruling on mana abilities though. I like all the cantrip draw. I do think you need more mana rocks though. Gogo is a mana hungry nerd, and 4 mana is his sweet spot.

Otherwise, I don't see how you win consistently using mill. You don't have very many sources to do so.

I realized more and more that I wasn't going to be super happy if I tapped out on my turn to do most things which is part of why I pushed more towards baubles and fetches. It lets me interact as needed on my opponents and shifted it to a more... draw go style which I love. There are some very powerful planeswalkers though so I will admit that there is power in just having a bunch of planeswalker triggers but I also felt like a lot of them still had issues defending from flyers and it would leave me tapped out.

I felt like a lot of my mill outlets have potential of by themselves killing opponents and I thought that might be good enough. Its possible I might want or need more tutors for some of the better ones though but I am unsure if its worth adding more mill rather than getting better access to the good ones.

GAME REPORTS:

Ok, I kind of hodge podged this concept together on the fly then made my OP post where I tried adjusting it a little towards where I thought it should be. I posted this list after the first game but before games 2 & 3. I am writing this up after all three games, a bunch of stuff is in the mail for this deck and I might have to make more adjustments yet but this is my feedback to date for this deck.

Game 1: 3 player FFA game against Rootha, Mastering the Moment and a stock Mister Fantastic list.

I got my commander out on turn 3 and then played a fetchland on 4 but left it uncracked to play Kefnet the Mindful. Did Turn 5 I cracked and 2x copied the fetch for some more mana.

I managed to flip Thaumatic Compass // Spires of Orazca and got Crawlspace which between it all I was fairly well defended. I got out Tezzeret the Seeker and tripple tutored 3 drops putting into play Simulacrum Synthesizer, Orazca Relic, and Commander's Sphere getting me 3x golems. Somewhere in here I also discard to hand size and bin Wonder. I am feeling REALLY safe right now.... briefly lol.

Unfortunately Rootha has some artifact removal and decides Crawlspace should go. Mister Fantastic then phases all but one creature out then plays Ultimate Nullification.

After this I manage a Fog Bank and find my Maze of Ith. Somewhere in here I fetchland and like 8x copy it putting almost all of my basics into play. This is unfortunately before I get set up with Field of the Dead so no zombies.

At some point late in the game I also crack a Orazca Relic with 11x copies so gaining 36 life and drawing 12 cards at instant speed before my turn..... thats like everything I ever want to do in a game of magic lol.

The game goes for a bit longer with some back and forth, I threaten to Court of Cunning mill everyone out but it gets 2x answered through my counter magic defense. Mesmeric Orb ends up putting in some work but I realize a bit unfortunately that I mill a lot off of that and I can't really utilize my commander to make it better. Still though, it probably mills 30-50 cards from each of my opponents and 25 or so cards on me.

On the last turn I milled into Cityscape Leveler which I unarth and use Altar of Dementia with commander to send 8x mill copies to finish my opponents off.

G1 Conclusion:

I realized a lot of things after this game and some of that was that I kind of leaned away from the artificer and creature strategy some after this game. I had thought I was going to get better and more value out of things like Simulacrum Synthesizer but then I realized I only had like 5 or so things that could trigger it in my whole deck and I decided to scrap it and the Altar of Dementia / big dudes concept I started on just because it really required too much setup and all of it was a little concerning that there was too much setup and it was all not so great without the whole setup to it.

I also had more of the big artifact token stuff in the list before this point with stuff like Karn, Scion of Urza but I realized that they were sort of sorcery speed tapout effects that I wasn't as keen on and so I reduced a lot of that sort of thing. I go back and forth a little on Urza's Saga in part due to its timing potential and how many different abilities our commander can use off of it. I am not sold either way on saga so testing will need to happen.

I loved my defensive setup this game though the mix of defensive creatures, mazes, and crawlspace with potentially a draw / go playstyle was something I was really all about. I have to figure out what interactions I want though and when to utilize them.

Game 2: 3 player FFA against Ulasht, the Hate Seed and Breya, Etherium Shaper (currently sort of a casual early build he is building up but its still combo just probably not very tuned)

I am going last and on my T2 Ulasht plays a Ouroboroid off an earlier mana dork. Ooooooo boy thats a start. My hand has a little interaction but its a Echoing Truth and an Aetherize so I have to just sort of keep playing and stall my concerns.

I play my commander on T3 and Breya plays an Austere Command for creatures before my T4.

I replay my commander on T5, I am just kind of slow to the gates this game. I can't recall if I had a play on T4 but Ulash is just doing horrible things in his corner. He came back from the wrath with the following 3 turns in a row: Doubling Season, Caged Sun, Genesis Wave for like 10. I have gotten my commander out and maybe done a little ramp by then. I also have a Ruin Crab which I use with a fetch to put some mill into action but the early wrath hurt a lot.

Breya puts some big voltron thing on his commander and starts attacking. I use Vedalken Shackles and my commander to steal 4 of his creatures so I can block him if he swings on me.

Ulash then starts doing horrible things with his commander. I see his commander in play with a bunch of mana and counters and he goes to play Ashnod's Altar. I am up such a damn creak I don't know what to do. I can't bounce his tokens out because Ulash can ping them to death so I bounce his commander in response to the Altar. He replays it and threatens lethal with like a 40 powered commander.

It gets back to my turn and I cast the Cyclonic Rift overloaded I draw off my commander drawing the turn before. I die to Ulash before it resolves but I buy Breya like.... one more turn. It doesn't matter and Ulash slams him fairly good maybe a turn after.

G2 Conclusion:

I could be a little faster getting set up I guess. Getting whacked on the first cast is also brutal as this is a slower getting off the ground concept. I don't really know how much I have here other than more ramp or different interaction maybe could have salvaged this. Ulash had a heck of a game with a good curve and he put a bunch of must answer things into play repeatedly and this isn't neccessarily an "answer" based deck.

Game 3: Same group / players as before we added a Oona, Queen of the Fae player but everyone else played their decks back.

I got a T2 PuPu UFO in play, T3 commander, T4 Teferi, Master of Time. I think I did activate Pupo once on T3 but then missed my land drops moving forward so it wasn't really very impressive. Teferi looted me through a bunch of stuff hoping to find me lands which I kept missing on.

This game was weird. I don't know if people didn't realize what I was doing or didn't notice when I kept saying Teferi and then drawing cards on each turn. They kind of overlooked him or weren't paying that much attention to him. There was some light attacking but Pupo stopped several attacks where he could block them and then there were a few attacks made to get triggers where pupo would have stopped their triggers so I didn't get attacked.

I will confess there was some concern because the Oona player played a Visara the Dreadful which just casually sat there without being answered. I noticed my teferi was going to race that though so I pushed on ignoring her.

Well....... I got Teferi over 10 loyalty and then took 22 turns with him. Then realized the fact that he lived meant I had infinite turns as he would get to ult again before I was out of turns. They scooped to that.

G3 Conclusion:

Ok, it was infinite turns but it was a planeswalker ult copied. Its not like I can just execute that without interaction on players they ignored a threat and it executed. I thought briefly if I needed to cut Teferi but he does everything I want him to do and the commander can copy his phase out as a defensive manuver so really I have no intention to cut Teferi even though it was a little cheeze people need to not ignore planeswalker ults.

So, overall I am not really sold that my instants are what I need them to be. I felt like I could use more draw that wasn't just my commander committing all of my mana to something as well. I could probably use another counterspell or two, I could probably use a little more upfront fast mana early in the games. I also wouldn't hate to have another mana double effect or two in here possibly something like a Gauntlet of Power.

Field of the Dead was a big bummer all three games I never got it to work. Too often I blew all of my ramp before I was set up and could execute it. I am not going to bail on it yet..... but its something I have to assess further on. I didn't have Moonring Island for these games and I am curious if I can't reliably get set up soon enough. I might also need to run Expedition Map / Tolaria West if I want to push this. I don't actually know if I am going to double down to try to make it happen or run away from it entirely. Being that I am a mill deck and I went away from Altar of Dementia I don't actually know how useful this setup is for this deck. As it stands I have a feeling that I will probably bail on the concept in the long run just because on average I set up my fetchlands into basics before I would have the 7 unique names set up. I haven't completely bailed yet but it might still happen.

Draw - I think I could use a little more draw that isn't just my commander full sending on effects. I still like doing that stuff but I have a lot of things I have to do with my commander sometimes its even defensive maneuvers so I can't just have him for draw.

Mill count - its something I am still working on as to what mill cards I run and how much I need. Its not something I am sold I have enough or too much of I want more playtesting to really say.

Post by ISBPathfinder 1 month ago

DECK CHANGES:

Stonecoil Serpent → The Enigma Jewel serpent is somewhat of a gamble. It still can work but its primarily good against multicolored voltron decks and even then its still kind of weak if they have trample / unblockable so its a bit too narrow in that its kind of good against flying commander damage decks and with that I am going to trim it. If I could add 3 more Fog Banks I would they just don't exist. The Enigma Jewel should give me some more mana faster which is something I need right now.
Hedron Crab → Muddle the Mixture I have seen the crabs a little bit I think I mulliganed this one once and I did a little bit of milling once with the other. My biggest issue offhand is that they need to be set up early and live a long time. This one also only single target opponent mills so I think I am just off of that entirely. I figured a counterspell that can also be a tutor for Riverchurn Monument or Cyclonic Rift seems kind of fine. I will leave it as a counterspell early and if drawn later it can then pivot to wincon.
Terrarion → Azor's Gateway I thought that the mana generated by these cards was going to be more interesting or useful but as I have moved to a more draw / go style its often just wasted at the end of my activation. At best maybe I respond to a problem by cracking and sinking mana into this effect / copied and use that mana to attempt to activate another ability or counterspell after resolution. I just haven't found it as important and with this artifact entering tapped I thought I might transition off it for now. I am keeping Chromatic Sphere for now just because I do think I probably need a bit more testing of the effect but figured I would start by cutting the worse of the two. Azor's Gateway isn't much of a standout card but thats because it normally takes FOREVER to flip. With this commander we can flip it same turn and we very much want a big stack of mana that the land portion of it provides.
Echoing Truth → Oblivion Stone this is something I don't actually know if it will work out or not but my logic is sort of this. This deck is slow but often just commander plus lands gives me the boardstate I want and am looking for so O Stone lets me catch up to someone who gets ahead and do so at instant speed. HOPEFULLY it lets me reset and buy time because I struggled when I would get behind against value decks especially ones that aren't combat oriented.
Leadership Vacuum → Boompile Leadership Vaccum is a heck of a card but I generally don't struggle against a stand alone commander as much with this deck. I also don't have much extra value with instants. Maybe I regret this but along the same lines as testing Oblivion Stone I figured I add Boompile which is amusing in that I can in a pinch copy the coin flip of to get higher chances to execute in a pinch.
Aetherize → Gauntlet of Power Aetherize is a decent defense but I have so much defense already that this is one of my least favorite ones currently. I decided to just see if we can't move to a proactive plan. Lets make some mana and see how it goes for me.
Treachery → Caged Sun Treachery is a great card and.... sure I could generate mana off of it with my commander..... but then my commander is tapped and I have mana... I don't know I am going to try something else. Lets get some more mana going.
Field of the Dead → Gemstone Caverns I decided for several reasons to go another direction and cut Field of the Dead. First, I tend to ramp my basics early on and even when I have had Field in play I don't ever have the number of unique lands to trigger it on time. Second, I am a mill deck so the attack power of the tokens isn't great and I have no anthems or anything for them. Third, I cut Altar of Dementia which was the other reason I originally justified including field. In comes caverns which sure it only helps in opening hands but thats fine with me its good ramp and I am trying to speed up the first few turns.
Minamo, School at Water's Edge → Talon Gates of Madara I have yet to ever see a reason I need Minamo in here. I burn all my mana for anything I do with my commander so untapping is a little moot. I theoretically could use this with a fetch that puts lands in untapped to ramp untapped lands, then untap, and do something else smaller but its fairly narrow and I am ok moving on. Talon Gates of Madara is a decent effect on its own when cheated in it allows me to save my commander from bad things but also it can be used defensively like a maze effect or deprive a commander for a key turn. I can also chain its effect with my commander so it seems interesting enough for a draw go deck to want that.
Moonring Island → Mouth of Ronom Mooring was only in here for Field of the Dead so lets cut that. Mouth of Ronom is crazy inefficient but it gives me an option at instant speed to lay a chain of bolt for 4 which could be reasonable. Lets test and see if its ever relevant enough to stay.
1 Island → 1 Snow-Covered Island just cleaning up the landbase. I had one other land for the split for Field of the Dead which I no longer need.

So, I went through a TON of lands and there is still some utility I could consider but I will circle back to that stuff after I get more testing in. There were also a few packages I considered but most of the packages I was looking at were just going to take up too much space for me to justify right now.

Gates - So there are a few upsides of gates. I could run Maze's End and up to 8 gates so we are talking about a 9 land package here plus possibly Planar Nexus. I did just add Talon Gates of Madara but still the remaining 9 lands plus possibly land clones with Vesuva / Thespian's Stage and utility land tutors of Expedition Map and Tolaria West is too big of a package. It is decent utility though of note Basilisk Gate could allow me to run Altar of Dementia again and Baldur's Gate could be good mana generation. I just think the setup and size of package is a bit much for this.

Urza - Old school Urza's Mine / Urza's Power Plant / Urza's Tower all got two big buffs with both Planar Nexus and Urza's Workshop. This is a 5 card package that would also want me to run more utility land tutors of Expedition Map and Tolaria West pushing the package to at least 7 cards. It could theoretically still use land clones but its not as useful in my opinion as you need to set up full urza sort of first but the idea of multiple Urza's Workshop does sound spicy.

Locus - This would end up being a four card package include with the highlights being Cloudpost and Trenchpost for this deck. Really, I think this package is mostly good my issue with adding it is mostly that its 4 colorless cards and to include them I would probably also want Expedition Map, Tolaria West and it might also extend to things like Vesuva and Thespian's Stage. This package is somewhere in the range of 6-8 cards to add all of this but it could also have overlap with Urza or Gates in that Planar Nexus is one of the cards and the clones and tutors are things I have considered with each package.

Panoramas - There are some more Panoramas and also a few similar that in short cost mana to fetchland but also enter untapped and tap for colorless. There is some upsides and downsides to these. Early in the game I can use them as colorless until I have time and mana to crack them with my commander where as fetches early can be awkward and sometimes have to be used before I am set up which can suck. They cost mana to crack though which means I can't get as many lands sometimes with my commander. So, upsides and downsides to these but I have added a few to the list and I will sort of see where my preference ends up being.

Combos - I avoided these but I did notice a few land combos for Gogo. I figured I would point them out in case someone else reading would be interested but its not my thing.

Gogo, Master of Mimicry + Deserted Temple + Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx + Minamo, School at Water's Edge - It is commander plus three specific utility lands but due to Urza's Cave and the commander's ability to copy you could fairly easily assemble this combo. You tap Nykthos for mana requiring a devotion of 9+ mana. Deserted Temple goes to untap Nykthos, commander 2x copies the untap to target all 3 lands with untaps and then you untap Gogo with Minamo before its untap resolves. It requires 8 mana from Nykthos to be neutral so anything 9+ mana kicks you into infinite mana and Gogo able to activate infinite times due to Minamo untaps which can stack up. Its a little lame but also requring 9+ devotion and its all very specific commander specialty execution makes it at least kind of interesting.
Magosi, the Waterveil + Gogo, Master of Mimicry - You skip a turn and then you take infinite turns as Gogo can copy the extra turn. I passed on this because I didn't see any interesting part of this and I avoid infinites when I can and I saw no other reason for its inclusion other than infinite turns.

Honorable Mentions (maybe future testing / considerations):

Sorry, that got a bit longer than intended I was just trying to sum up some thoughts and some of what I delved through in the last week.

Post by ISBPathfinder 4 days ago

Alright, well I guess it wasn't last weekend as I couldn't play games this last week but I did manage to sit down for a bunch of 1v1 games against a random guy from out of town. Unfortunately a bunch of people that were regulars moved away lately and the shop is looking a little so so on commander players on the day I show up. I did manage to play this deck twice among other things but given that its still sort of new I felt it was useful test data. The first game I got set up with Court of Cunning in a situation he couldn't connect through or answer and so he got milled for like 60 in a turn leaving him still with a little library but I was holding up a trick still and he couldn't get through so he got milled to death. The second game was against one of my own decks he wanted to play and he got ahead but Boompile reset him and I clawed into position to spawn 4x 8/8 flyers off of Shark Typhoon for my first combat win so far with this deck.

They were just 1v1 games so I won't take too much away or highlight them too much but I did notice that this deck seems to be hurting a bit for draw. I decided to add more draw to the list and drop a little bit of the weaker cantrip effects.

The bad fetchlands like Evolving Wilds have also been a bit back and forth when comparing them to the ones that tap for mana but cost to crack like Bant Panorama. I think I prefer the ones that cost a little extra but tap for mana so far but need more testing. I still think its amusing to have the Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth lands in here to cover for them but I am not getting set up with that early enough often enough to offset the early game need to fetch before commander setup issue often enough. I am not taking any action yet but I felt like its possible that the two fixer lands might be served as some other utility possibly. Its something I am considering at the least for now.

DECK CHANGES:

Ruin Crab → Faerie Mastermind I still think the crab mill is funny but its been underwhelming when I draw it after ramping and I am not seeing it reliably enough early enough. This deck tends to spend a few turns ramping somewhere in the 4-8 mana range and then I will have generally pulled a lot of my lands into play making the crab have a fall off effect if drawn later. Its true I could copy the landfall still but that isn't very economical I generally would prefer to copy the fetch part. Adding in some more draw.
Wonder → Venser, Shaper Savant I don't have enough things that don't fly natrually. I originally included wonder assuming I was going to do more token tactics like Field of the Dead but I have gone away from a lot of that leaving me with wonder being a little awkward. I tried out Venser instead and was fairly pleased with him. He has a lot of potential uses and the ability to copy his ETB with my commander leaves a lot of diverse uses for him in a pinch.
Nezahal, Primal Tide → The Unagi of Kyoshi Island its slightly lower curve and it has flash so I guess this fits the list a little better. Different situations one might draw or be better than the other but having flash feels more in line with the deck we are working with.
Aether Spellbomb → Mystic Remora swapping to a more dedicated draw. I still think the spellbomb might be a cool effect but people knowing I have it can be a pain as people then pressure me to use it. I will be honest in that I never drew the spellbomb and I might circle back to this card later but I saw a draw issue that needed addressing first.
Chromatic Sphere → Instant Ramen I thought the mana the sphere would generate would be useful but in practice it wasn't so much. I was cutting back on some of my lower impact baubles but in this case I think both functions of the ETB and sac both have times I am willing to invest mana into the ramen. The ability to on demand gain 30+ life is fairly reasonable against some strategies so I think this is still something I want.
Phyrexian Furnace → Consult the Star Charts I trimmed down my grave hate baubles to the better effects. The furnace and claws were more meant to be sac for draw triggers but I am cutting some of my weaker sac to draw baubles. Star Charts should be fairly decent with how this deck ramps lands giving me some good selection and dig.
Scrabbling Claws → Rhystic Study cutting some minor grave hate + bauble into stronger draw. I had cut Field of the Dead a little while back freeing up a game changer. I decided having some more dedicated draw was what I wanted to use my last game changer on since I tend to be draw go I don't need free counterspells as much.
Crawlspace → Extraplanar Lens cutting back on some of my pillow fort stuff. This deck tends to have responses to a lot of things so if someone is swarming me I felt like I would rather just be holding onto something like Desynchronization / Aetherspouts than it is to have all that much pillow fort. Its possible I consider and think about more instant speed defenses from swarm but I felt it was better to have from hand answers than something they need to naturalize for now. It is true that I have a few artifact tutors but I can still access things like Boompile / Oblivion Stone in a pinch instead.
Collective Restraint → Tezzeret the Seeker I opted to cut into some of my pillow forting. I was also considering and may still cut the Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth from my deck. Either way after I considered and did decide to cut Crawlspace I came to the other two pillowforters and decided that Propaganda was good enough but Restraint was not. Tezzeret can help me with a lot of different things but with adding the artifact sweepers, and then Extraplanar Lens I just got to feeling like there were enough strong targets for tezzeret at any point that he felt good enough to run.
Observed Stasis → Dig Through Time I don't really love proactively sitting on someone's commander and I wanted more draw. I considered a few options but ultimately with all the fetchlands I think Dig will be fine.
High Tide → Arcane Denial honestly I went back and forth on how useful one shot burst mana was. Since I am kinda.... in a sense a comboish finish deck but with how I am mostly a control deck I felt it was better to go away from High Tide for now even though I haven't played it in here I just wanted a little more consistent mana I felt. I also felt like my counter magic could be bolstered a touch.
Reliquary Tower → Thought Vessel my land count was high at 43 and the utility of the tower wasn't doing a ton for me. I figured swapping it to a 2 mana stone that preserves the utility and adds to my early game ramp plan probably played better to what the deck needs to do and that is mostly get ahead on mana early.

And, it didn't make this round of changes but I very well might look for a Grixis Panorama to replace one of the Evolving Wilds effects. Unfortunately I am running out of options to tap for mana and single mana sac to search to replace how many bad fetches I run. Its something I will keep an eye on as I continue to play as there are times where the Evolving Wilds effects are better but they seem to be better somewhere at or after I have 4+ mana alongside of the ability to crack them which has me leaning more towards the ones I can wait to crack so I can copy with. I have just had a lot of instances where I have like 3 lands in an opener and have to make really awkward decisions on if I think I will topdeck untapped lands in future turns and how and when to play them out.

Post by ISBPathfinder 6 hours ago

Game Report:

I played a 6 player FFA (it had some weird rules that are irrelivant mostly). I won't bother describing everything that happened through the game because it was six players but the big thing of note was someone was playing The Lord of Pain. He was pushing the damage around though rather than just targeting me which I appreciated because he ramped into his commander and the extra players gave him extra triggers which felt a little bit like leaning into some BS on behalf of his commander.

Opening Hand: Gemstone Caverns, Hobbit Hole, Fabled Passage, The Enigma Jewel, Sol Ring, Thought Vessel, Desynchronization

I end up rolling to go first, so.... no Gemstones into T1 commander but the hand is so nuts there is no way I am throwing it back.

T1: Hobbit Hole fetch an island pass.
T2: Gemstone Caverns, Sol Ring, Gogo, Master of Mimicry
T3: I had some decisions here, I contemplated not being extremely greedy and using my Fabled Passage with the option of a 2x copy. The only real reason I would say that I didn't do that this turn is that my hand still has absolutely zero card draw to it. I also drew Mouth of Ronom so I opt to play that and The Enigma Jewel + Thought Vessel because it will allow me to use the fetch the next turn for about twice the power.
T4: I play and use Fabled Passage this turn. I hold up but don't need Desynchronization this turn so I pop and 4x copy the fetch with Gogo putting 5x islands into play with it.
T5: %$#% is going down and for the life of me, I do not have any freaking draw. I play a Gauntlet of Power on blue using most of my colorless mana to play it. I then play Riverchurn Monument holding up like 12ish mana. My hand at this point is Venser, Shaper Savant and Desynchronization. I pass and right before it gets back to me I use Riverchurn Monument with Gogo to mill everyone for 14 cards.
T6: I use the Exhaust effect of Riverchurn Monument and copy it something like 10 times milling everyone out. One player does have a Blightsteel Colossus in deck but he just draws that his next turn then dies the turn after.

Overall...... my deck was clumpy as all hell. I kept an opener with tons of action but no draw and didn't find my draw. %$#% happens. It was a fast game and I still liked how the deck performed. I was probably still down to like 25 life going first from the rakdos pain deck but having gone first and ramped so hard I cut everyone else off on roughly their turn 5 which is a bit brutal. I might not have done it if I had more action in hand and I wasn't playing a six player game against the rakdos pain deck but it was what it was.

DECK CHANGES:

Dig Through Time → Search for Azcanta I thought about it a bit more and while there are pros and cons to both I think the backside of search gives me stronger synergy with my commander in here. The question becomes how useful the front side is but it curves in before my commander and can smooth out my draws so I will give it a shot.
Thaumatic Compass → Expedition Map I decided that instead of a maze, the option for whatever utility land I need is probably more useful as it can still be a maze. I just felt like this deck had fairly decent options already against voltron and decided to cut compass and keep Maze of Ith. Its possible that with cutting Urborg I should
Mystic Sanctuary → War Room I just haven't really found the need for sanctuary in some time. Without going infinite or putting things like extra turns back on top of my deck I just don't really find myself needing this utility. Its kind of minor but I keep finding myself not using its effect while its still somewhat of an early game liability. War Room gives me a little more access to draw chaining with the commander with low downside being a land that enters untapped and makes mana.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth → Fomori Vault I kept running the numbers on the Urborg / Yavimaya and I felt like for them to be all that strong I needed to draw them early and I just didn't feel like they mattered all that much beyond the first few turns which isn't really where I want most of my utility lands to fall. I will leave that for Gemstone Caverns and move to some other utility. I realized that Fomori Vault is actually fairly sick selection / draw even if I just have a few artifacts its still really good.
Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth → Tolaria West similar to Urborg, cutting these fix lands and moving to some utility tutor. I like Toliara West in that its similar to Evolving Wilds in early turns but then transforms later to tutor important utility lands when I have surplus mana.

COMBO UPDATE:

I did more thinking about this commander as a combo commander (why I don't know as I don't combo). I realized that you can use Magosi, the Waterveil with Deserted Temple and the two paired together with Gogo, Master of Mimicry can take infinite turns.

Magosi, the Waterveil skips your next turn costing you 2 mana. Deserted Temple untaps Magosi costing you another 2 mana putting you at 4 mana. Magosi then taps and returns to hand to give you an extra turn (not really costing mana as it was used and untapped but kinda costing a mana). Gogo then needs to copy Magosi 1-2+ times meaning this loop costs roughly 8 mana to execute. If you only copy it once you end up with a single extra turn and since Magosi enters tapped its best to 2+ copy with Gogo in order to take infinite turns.

Given that Urza's Cave can fully assmble this with gogo's assistance and you can also run Tolaria West and Expedition Map to assist in getting the cave I thought it was kind of interesting for some degeneracy purposes. You could even run Petrified Field to defend this combo. Plus you are blue so Stifle effects work well against Strip Mine effects. @Moxnix I am curious how viable sounding of a combo that sounds to you. I don't normally play to that degree but I have contemplated a heavy control blue deck with some sort of wincon like this before.

WATCH LIST:

Thought Vessel - I haven't found no max hand size to be something I need to worry about yet and while I enjoy early ramp for my commander this has been like no other utility. Its true I could just have Arcane Signet or something I was just looking for some other type of utility that I don't have and haven't found on 2cmc rocks. I like Mind Stone for instance in that it gives me that as needed sac to draw option later if needed. So, early ramp is good, I just lack any other real utility here and its making me second guess it.
Gauntlet of Power - Mana is good and I have seen it a few times now and it usually pays for itself the turn I play it then makes me good mana afterwards. I guess its just been a string of games where I have issues with draw and am questioning the things that are more situational to set up and don't draw me cards.
Caged Sun - same with Gauntlet. Just questioning but gonna keep running it for now until I can get more testing.
Fractured Sanity - I fear, it doesn't do enough. Even if I copy it with my commander its a one shot that doesn't mill enough. Even going really deep in with tons of mana its still not going to kill anyone on its own. It does draw a card and it does this stuff at instant speed so I have kind of given it a pass so far but I think in the long run its going to have to go for something else.
Mouth of Ronom - I did get it into play once now. I didn't end up using it but I did notice that 4 damage is a bit of an odd number paired with the high activating cost. I am going to need to double up against a good number of real threat targets and scaling to kill a bunch of tokens is also going to be a bit of a pain in my ass. Just something I noticed is all.
Basic Land Count - There is definately a deminishing return towards the higher end of my land count. I still need blue sources and while I have some of the mana doublers in the list I guess my basic count kind of does matter but I have also contemplated what cutting into the basic count for lands that still tap for blue like Rivendell and Agna Qel'a. I am not doing this yet but its on my radar as something that I could look at. It kind of depends on how much I like my mana doublers still yet though.

I also looked at possibly making room for a Locus or Urza land package in here for like the 10th time. In the end, I felt like I would have to cut too much utility package, basic lands, or fetchlands to make room for the packages and the actual utility they bring to the deck doesn't seem all that well since the commander and fetches already give me access to really good ramp it makes me question the need to have complex land setups that the ultimate goal is just to produce more than one mana per land. I ultimately decided yet again that it doesn't seem to make sense to make room for any of these packages. Most of them ended up being like a 5ish card package and its just a bit too much right now still. Maybe one day I will test it but not now.

Commander	Identity
Erebos
Vren
Alaundo

Commander	Identity
Urza
Omo
Ashling

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