tstorm823 wrote: ↑3 months ago
Would you say that you like 2-mv mana rocks?
They are all the Dan Frazier versions, so yes, you can say that lol. But I also find that t2 rock into t3 Zedruu into t4 gift+mana for either donating (if it is not self-gifted) or protection is a very usual play in my list. I play a bit fewer lands than you do, but I usually have no problem finding lands in my opening hands and leads to better draws in the mid-late game (for things like
Displacer Kitten,
Saheeli, Sublime Artificer,
Jeskai Ascendancy, etc). I have goldfished and played so much with this deck that I am quite experienced with my mulligans. But I also play far less lands that enter tapped. Also, I have a single card that searches in the deck. It is
Land Tax and it is doing heavy work if it is in the opening hand.
tstorm823 wrote: ↑3 months ago
It's a weird experience looking at someone else's list for inspiration, as my brain seems only capable of seeing the different things you've included and not the things you've cut, and that's really where I need inspiration.
Nahiri's Wrath is a card that I recently cut. I have at least 2 cards that can discard stuff for
Barren Glory (
Temporal Cascade and
Lion's Eye Diamond) and
Parallax Wave continues to be an all star as removal as well, other than protecting/flickering my own stuff. I lost a major dmg spell for
Swans of Bryn Argoll, but I still have
Electrodominance,
Shatterskull Smashing and
Terror of the Peaks. Mind you, its been a long time since I have strayed away from
Arcbond and its Golems package. Also, Since I am playing A LOT through Spelltable, my list is tailored with much fewer stealing stuff (just
Gilded Drake) and almost no chaos chards (no
Possibility Storm,
Knowledge Pool or even my beloved
Eye of the Storm that is usually my 101 card). I also run fewer
Howling Mine effects. I usually find that 1-2 donations are enough for making the deck run and I am now extremly selective with my Mine effects (only the beforementioned Mine and
Walking Archive remain. Kami also comes in and out all the time). That results in a more controlly/comboy Zedruu than your list's playstyle. Recently I have even taken out
Mirror of Fate since I am trying to be stricter to the "4-card combos" theory and a Mirror, a copy of the Mirror and a spell that draws cards is essentially a 3-card combo even though it needs a bunch of resources and setup. The nice thing is that I do not miss any of them, since I am doing equally silly and fun stuff with things like
Wormfang Manta. Btw, since I talked about chaos, there is a card that I have tried in other decks and I want to try here as well, is a RW planeswalker, but not the one you think! Not the elephant! It is
Comet, Stellar Pup. Now this, this is the chaos no one has a problem with online. Obviously the randomness makes for the good boy impossible to have any combos, but all modes seem actually good and useful. Blockers, minor recursion or removal. Can have some extra synergies like hitting the Swans for dmg, can be flickered with Kitten, etc.
Since I run a small number of removals like the ones I mentioned and a few more, like Cavalier, and also my deck is more like "If you cant stop my plan I am going to win and I am faster than you" than "I need to stop you from doing your thing", I also cut
Chaos Warp but I am still on the fence about that one. It was either that, or a "sacred cow" aka
Jeskai Ascendancy. It's been too long since I pulled an Ascendancy combo (since the
Banishing Knack days tbp) and, while I do run tons of rocks and
Rise and Shine, that interaction happens once in a year in my deck (or more specifically: when it happens, I have other ways to win the game already). The looting part is more important than the untap in my list, as a payoff for infinite whatever, but even that is not something unique, the deck has many payoffs already.
Plaza by far. As you can see from my list, protecting my Zedruu is of high priority for me and even the sight of me having a Plazza in play with 3 mana open, usually prevent my opponents from targeting it. It is also a land that gives all colors 90% of the time and enters untapped.
Gardens on the other hand, while it is good in theory with things like
Liquimetal Torque that I run, in practice I have yet to use it to copy literally anything and I do play with the deck a lot. To have both Torque and Gardens and a permanent that I will value that much to copy to essentially lose a land for it (lets say a Smothering Tithe) and having the time and open mana to do so, is something extremely, extremely rare. I am seriously thinking of taking it out and put something like a
Restless Spire in.