MTGNexus

I've been contemplating a Wizard Tribal deck for a while, and eventually settled on Ertai, the Corrupted just as Theros; Beyond Death released. Then I had a sealed deck that tried to abuse Dawn Evangel and realized that Vedalken Aethermage could be recurred for repeatable wizard tutoring value so long as I was playing Auras.

I wanted to exclude non-permanents for thematic reasons. Power level wise, it's a bit below a 75% list due to these restrictions.

It ends up that there a somewhat wide array of semi-combos with Wizards and Auras/enchantments. Most of these are useful to help ensure that there is sacrifice fodder for Ertai, but can also feed into a semi-voltron kill via Fallen Ideal.

• Academy Researchers and Fool's Demise is an infinitely sacrificial creature.
• Glen Elendra Archmage and Puppeteer Clique are infinite sacrifices with Sage of Fables or Solemnity in addition to their effects.
• Stonybrook Schoolmaster and Intruder Alarm can be infinite tokens with a tap effect, or infinite sacrifices with Faces of the Past.
• Boonweaver Giant is a fairly well known combo withGift of Immortality, but also works with Unholy Indenture, False Demise, and Fool's Demise.
• Kitsune Mystic only targets the aura itself, so no amount of hexproof/shroud can stop Treachery.
• Treachery and Flickerform can help keep mana untapped, especially if Serra's Sanctum is online.
• Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and Cryptic Gateway break parity with Arcane Laboratory, which helps slow the game down to the point that the control can be up.
• Animate Dead and Necromancer's Magemark combined as a repeatable creature recursion engine with any method to recur animate dead.

I'm open to suggestions, but I would request that they be at least somewhat on theme with wizards or enchantments.

Just a shoutout to this deck's surprising flexibility, regardless of its thematic focus. Once there are 3-5 cCreatures and 3-5 Auras on the field, the deck becomes a novel control build that can hang with decks at higher power levels.

• Cryptic Gateway → Pyre of Heroes: A slightly lower cost method of getting out higher cost wizards. It can also help set up some of the engines or lockouts
• Arcanis the Omnipotent → Cyclone Summoner: Out of the card advantage engines, Arcanis was the hardest to resolve due to the triple blue on this budget manabase. Cyclone summoner is virtual CA by preserving a large section of my side of the battlefield. Requiring a cast is a bit rough, but having another board wipe that's nearly Cyclonic Rift should be solid.

Dropping both of these together because the engine with both and Intruder Alarm to dump my deck into play never really worked.

This is a sweet list.

I have found Ertai in my bulk rares and I'm gonna try to put together something similar.

Ever consider Bitterblossom? Not on theme, but I imagine it's probably one of the best generals for the card.

umtiger wrote: ↑

3 years ago

Ever consider Bitterblossom? Not on theme, but I imagine it's probably one of the best generals for the card.

Bitterblossom was in the pile that I assembled with originally. It's has overlap with the enchantment side of the deck, and provides bodies for sacrificing but I didn't make my final cuts on first draft and I didn't revisit it as an option. It supports Ertai, the Corrupted,but because the tokens aren't also wizards they don't support cards such as Patron Wizard or Azami, Lady of Scrolls.

It would be a must-include in a non-tribal Ertai deck, but I don't think that I'll include it here.

Any reason for not running the on theme:
Ertai, Wizard Adept
Rayne, academy chancellor

I remember I once ran into an Ertai out in the Cockatrice wilds. The deck was jamming Oblivion Rings en masse, and would then eat the cards under them with Wasteland Stranglers and whatnot to grant freebie sacrifice fodder for Ertai. The list was a majestic pain in the neck to play against, but this seems like the sort of interaction you'd appreciate on a theoretical level at least

This is great fun :3 I've played mono-blue wizards&auras with Rayne and Barrin and I got a lot of use out of Mark of Eviction and Portal of Sanctuary so I thought of those while looking at yr list. Glad yr running Hakim, Loreweaver, I love him

umtiger wrote: ↑

3 years ago

Any reason for not running the on theme:
Ertai, Wizard Adept
Rayne, academy chancellor

Both of those were in my original considerations, and were underwhelming in my experience.

Ertai, Wizard Adept is extremely mana intensive, so I believe it's better to have more ways to reuse the commander, such as Aura of Dominion. Running with Training Grounds might make this low enough cost to use effectively, but 4 mana is a lot.

Rayne, Academy Chancellor is on theme card advantage, but it was a bit too opponent dependent in my experience. She was cut after only a couple games, but was rarely a repeated source of draw.
EDIT: upon reflection, I think the last straw was when I had out Heartless Summoning and couldn't even cast her. I cut a reasonably large number of x/1 creatures that day.

Rumpy5897 wrote: ↑

3 years ago

I remember I once ran into an Ertai out in the Cockatrice wilds. The deck was jamming Oblivion Rings en masse, and would then eat the cards under them with Wasteland Stranglers and whatnot to grant freebie sacrifice fodder for Ertai. The list was a majestic pain in the neck to play against, but this seems like the sort of interaction you'd appreciate on a theoretical level at least

That's honestly a hilarious build route, I definitely appreciate an unexpected engine with underused effects. I do use processor effects with Roon via Void Attendant for a similar style.

The closest I've gotten in this deck was Imprisoned in the Moon in the maybe-board for tutorable anti-commander options. Non-aura enchantments have been difficult to fit in here, I started with Opposition and Rule of Law in here as well and needed more slots for auras and wizards like Drannith Magistrate and Nevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant.

folding_music wrote: ↑

3 years ago

This is great fun :3 I've played mono-blue wizards&auras with Rayne and Barrin and I got a lot of use out of Mark of Eviction and Portal of Sanctuary so I thought of those while looking at yr list. Glad yr running Hakim, Loreweaver, I love him

Hakim is one of the few wizards who can directly recur auras. He's timing restricted and frankly a bit mana intensive, but can be a solid engine by himself for rebuilding. I've considered dropping him but there's frankly no replacement that can do what he does. While he shows up in my maybe cuts a lot, it's unlikely he ever leaves the deck.

Portal of Sanctuary is interesting, and covers similar use to Gift of Immortality on my aura-tutoring wizards. I think it would end up being a bit more mana intensive than I'd like, but looks like a solid option. If there were not a timing restrictions it would likely be in the deck as a multi-use to dodge removal and reuse EtBs.

Mark of Eviction could be an interesting combination with Animate Dead for repeatable recursion. Maybe that should go back in with Cryptic Gateway to cheat the creature back out.

Do you ever reach a board state or mana situation where Debtors' Knell becomes good?

I'm weary of dropping 7 cmc and waiting till the next upkeep. But seems like appropriate power level for what you want to do. I've only ever played it with Academy Rector.

A 7 mana enchantment is hard to cast in this deck because I want to keep up mana for interaction/control. I do play higher cost auras, such as Fool's Demise, but play multiple ways to put it into play directly

If I was running Academy Rector, perhaps Debtors' Knell could make the cut. As my build currently stands, only a 0 counter Lost Auramancers is my only tutor/cheat into play for it. I nearly always would get Solemnity in the same position, because then any recursion turns the auramancer's into a tutoring engine.

I think I would play a 4 mana version, but the mana cost and delay in effect probably are too big of a tempo hit.

Some changes from the past year or so. Just some more recursion and reducing mana costs. I don't get to play the deck much because it's intended for mid-power games but those games don't aren't always a good fit for a dedicated control deck.