Going to have to disagree with the person saying we got nothing out of this set, 2-3 cards for a deck in one set is fantastic, and while our gameplan is really bizarre, the majority of our deck is just removal and counter spells, which have new cards all the time, I actually think this deck has more cards to look at each set than my other decks. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I don't have anything to add about
Devastating Mastery it's as good as everyone is saying.
I don't like
The Biblioplex colorless land spots are really tight in my deck, despite having strong fixing, there's just so many lands competing.
- cheaper activation cost isn't as good as it might be in other decks, in my experience, by the time I start activating my utility lands I've already got 7+ lands and we can always activate eot so there's not much need to worry about leaving mana open.
- Revealing is a big deal, the fact that you don't have to reveal at least means you don't have to reveal a board wipe that's on top of your deck, but still, not ideal.
- Only activating at 0 or 7 is pretty detrimental imo, the time I need my draw lands the most is when I'm at 4-6 cards in hand. If you ever go hellbent with this deck I'm pretty sure you're dead anyways and I almost never activate my draw lands with 7 cards unless I know I'm going to be able to play two cards next turn, I almost feel like this land would be better for the builds running reliquary tower, at least then you won't be forced to play a card you might have wanted to save.
- Finally, 50% hit rate is high, but still not ideal, sure it's still a psuedo scry when it misses, but considering how rarely I'll be able to activate it anyways, I want each activation to count.
Quandrix Campus much less flashy but much more dependable, maybe not quite powerful enough but I almost might prefer this to
The Biblioplex.
On a related note, has anyone been using
War Room? The life loss scared me away but if it's been going well for others I might try again.
Eureka Moment I really want midsized draw to work, but it just doesn't, they sit in your hand cause you have 7 cards already, then a threat comes and you don't have an answer because your hand has draw spells instead of answers in them, so you cast the draw spell, and maybe you draw an answer, but now you don't have enough mana to cast it because you spent mana casting the draw spell. The only exceptions I'll make our
Brainstorm and
Dig Through Time because those cards are just broken. (also, sometimes I run
Silundi Vision // Silundi Isle because 80% of the time I just play it as a land)
I might actually try
Quandrix Command one of the problems I keep having is that the end game can become very unfun for my opponents, I've tried letting the final fight look as close as possible, but my opponents aren't stupid and they typically realize they don't stand a chance fairly quickly, after that there's this awkward 5 turn window that feels bad for everyone and gives the deck a little bit of a reputation. This looks like a pretty decent card that can also speed up the clock once you get to the end game. Any other tips to make the end game faster, more varied, or less dominant looking?
Hall of Oracles, If you already have
Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers this might be the next best land that speeds up the clock.
I really hope lessons will be made to work in commander, and if so I agree,
Divide by Zero will be fantastic, there are actually a number of solid lessons, the fact that they are all sorcery is ew, but lot's of them are answers like
Reduce to Memory or
Academic Probation, so a counter/removal spell, and a tutor all in one? yes please. When you don't need any lesson you can always rummage. Heck, I might try it even if they don't fix lessons.
I really don't like soft counters, maybe my meta just has too much ramp but I feel with how long our games go, people can pay for them way too often. I also don't like fight spells/
Stubborn Denial as in response people can try to kill phelddagrif, sure we can bounce him but our spell fails, and an opponent wastes a removal spell, which should be pointed at our other opponents, so I'm not going to bother with
Decisive Denial.
Excavation Technique Shiny... I want it. sorcery is really hard to swallow, especially after I've worked so hard to make my deck operate at instant speed as often as possible. I don't think it's good enough to justify sorcery speed, but I'm certainly tempted.
Study Hall is fine, I feel I have too many colorless lands already and it's a pretty significant step down from
Path of Ancestry.
Vineglimmer Snarl another fixer for the budget decks.
Finally, why aren't we talking about
Solve the Equation? It's not as interesting as the other spells we got, either you want another tutor or you don't, but for me this is an easy yes, of course, I run
Crop Rotation so it might be a bit stronger for me than for other decks.
whew, that's alot of text
TL;DR
Devastating Mastery good
The Biblioplex not so good
Solve the Equation good