Pako & Haldan: Your stuff with a touch of frost (Feat. Marit Lage)

[Ertai Planeswalker]

So i've been brewing this list for a while now. It's a list in which a few things I have been wanting to play come together to create this beautiful monster. However, I'm at 107 cards so I need to cut some stuff but at this point I'm not sure what as it feels like all the fat has been trimmed so now I need to cut into flesh so to speak. Beneath is the deck list with a few card combo's / specific lines of play.

I've come to the combination of Pako and Haldan because they are the only commanders from both Ikoria and C20 that I feel are remotely interesting. I've also wanted to build a deck that autoscales to the opponents power level and the Timmy in me has been wanting to smack people with Marit Lage tokens ever since Dark Depths came out so it has come to this. The deck basically just ramps really hard and uses the opponent's cards against them while also exploiting some combinations in the land base. The deck's own plan is to eventually beat people to death with (a) Marit Lage token(s) but in the meantime can just smack people with their own stuff as well with a little value sprinkled in top.

Here's the decklist. It's also on Archidekt.

Pako, Haldan & Marit

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander

1 Haldan, Avid Arcanist

1 Pako, Arcane Retriever

Interaction

1 Agent of Treachery

1 Beast Within

1 Cyclonic Rift

1 Glacial Chasm

1 Narset's Reversal

1 Submerge

1 Swan Song

Improvements

1 Akroma's Memorial

1 Anger

1 Asceticism

1 Brawn

1 Intuition

Land drops

1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking

1 Burgeoning

1 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove

1 Exploration

1 Mina and Denn, Wildborn

1 Oracle of Mul Daya

1 Wayward Swordtooth

Ramp

1 Boundless Realms

1 Cultivate

1 Farseek

1 Into the North

1 Kodama's Reach

1 Rampant Growth

1 Search for Tomorrow

1 Traverse the Outlands

Copy

1 Bribery

1 Helm of the Host

1 Mirage Mirror

1 Mirrormade

1 Mythos of Illuna

1 Rite of Replication

1 Spark Double

1 Spitting Image

Consistency

1 Crop Rotation

1 Eternal Witness

1 Genesis

1 Green Sun's Zenith

1 Lightning Greaves

1 Mystical Tutor

1 Personal Tutor

1 Swiftfoot Boots

1 Whir of Invention

1 Whispersilk Cloak

Marit Lage

1 Crucible of Worlds

1 Dark Depths

1 Hour of Promise

1 Marit Lage's Slumber

1 Nylea's Intervention

1 Ramunap Excavator

1 Sylvan Scrying

1 Thespian's Stage

Creature

1 Diluvian Primordial

1 Etali, Primal Storm

1 Omnath, Locus of Rage

1 Rampaging Baloths

1 Rimefeather Owl

1 Rimescale Dragon

1 Seedborn Muse

1 Thryx, the Sudden Storm

Card draw

1 Mind's Dilation

1 Seasons Past

1 Stolen Strategy

Land

1 Academy Ruins

1 Buried Ruin

1 Cascading Cataracts

1 Field of Ruin

1 Highland Weald

1 Mouth of Ronom

1 Nesting Grounds

1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds

1 Scavenger Grounds

1 Scrying Sheets

12 Snow-Covered Forest

10 Snow-Covered Island

9 Snow-Covered Mountain

Approximate Total Cost:

So the deck's first plan is to use [Mystical Tutor or [Personal Tutor to find [Boundless Realms or [Traverse the Outlands to in order to really ramp up the land count in the form of snow basics. This makes sure we have all the mana we need to cast whatever Pako's fetching and makes sure we can trigger [Marit Lage's Slumber when we draw it.

Besides a lot of land ramp the deck also plays a lot of cards that allow for extra land drops. Since we will also be fetching lands with Pako, these insure we can always get them onto the battlefield. This suite also turns [Nylea's Intervention into a super card, tutoring multiple non-basics to the field if neccesary.

For resiliency (Read: keeping Haldan on the field) we run [Lightning Greaves, [Swiftfoot Boots and [Whispersilk Cloak .

There's some good Temur value in the deck to make sure we benefit of having snow permanents and a few cards to go with Pako and Haldan's theme of playing my opponent's cards.

The improvements category seeks to improve upon the base creatures we have or steal, as well as make Marit Lage a real killer. [Intuition is a star card here: Fetching [Anger, [Brawn, [Genesis and/or [Spitting Image for an instant combination of value and lethality. I orinally also had [Wonder in here but I cut it. But maybe I should re-include it.

Last but not least is the land package which contains some non-basic tutors to be able to find [Dark Depths and of course [Thespian's Stage to go with it as well as some recursion for replayablity. In order to protect ourselves there's [Glacial Chasm with [Nesting Grounds to make sure the upkeep cost stays at 2 life. I'm wondering if I need to find a way to gain life in this deck as it would allow the deck to keep this combo up forever but maybe that's just win (or not-lose) more.

Anyway as I said in the beginning I need to make some cuts and I would appreciate any advice on that cuts to make and why.

[OCPunisher]

Cuts are always my favorite part about new lists, mostly because they're the hardest part of the deck building process and especially hard to do on your own list. So...
- Starting with the creatures...I'm on the record saying that I think these guys want as few actual creature spells as possible. On top of that, I don't think the snow-themed creatures are very strong in this format. Even if your whole deck is full of snow (it isn't), the payoff on these guys isn't really worth the effort or the card slots. Rimefeather Owl is what, a 10/10 flyer for seven mana? For that same cost you could play a Blatant Thievery, one less gets you Stolen Identity, etc. Speaking of which, Blatant Thievery should probably replace Agent of Treachery.
- On a more positive note, I love that you managed to find room for so many non-creature spells that make copies of other actual creatures. If you have enough haste-enabling, you could consider Stolen Identity as a way to get a quick double-copy. One thing I would be mindful of is Mirrormade, since it's the only one that doesn't copy creatures.
- One other card I think you can cut is Akroma's Memorial. It's usually at its best in a go-wide deck, and that's not what this deck seems to be about.
- Finally, depending on your budget, I would look into at least a couple dual lands for your Farseek and such to find. Not saying you need a Tropical Island, but Breeding Pool has been reprinted several times now and should be reasonable. Lower than that, Cinder Glade is dirt cheap, and Sheltered Thicket is also reasonable. Unfortunately the blue duals are more expensive and there aren't as many of them, but even one will be your most frequent search target.

Hope that helps! I'm gonna try Spitting Image in my own list based on yours, and the Nesting Grounds combo might be worth investigating as well.

[Wallycaine]

Cuts are always my favorite part about new lists, mostly because they're the hardest part of the deck building process and especially hard to do on your own list. So...
- Starting with the creatures...I'm on the record saying that I think these guys want as few actual creature spells as possible. On top of that, I don't think the snow-themed creatures are very strong in this format. Even if your whole deck is full of snow (it isn't), the payoff on these guys isn't really worth the effort or the card slots. Rimefeather Owl is what, a 10/10 flyer for seven mana? For that same cost you could play a Blatant Thievery, one less gets you Stolen Identity, etc. Speaking of which, Blatant Thievery should probably replace Agent of Treachery.
- On a more positive note, I love that you managed to find room for so many non-creature spells that make copies of other actual creatures. If you have enough haste-enabling, you could consider Stolen Identity as a way to get a quick double-copy. One thing I would be mindful of is Mirrormade, since it's the only one that doesn't copy creatures.
- One other card I think you can cut is Akroma's Memorial. It's usually at its best in a go-wide deck, and that's not what this deck seems to be about.
- Finally, depending on your budget, I would look into at least a couple dual lands for your Farseek and such to find. Not saying you need a Tropical Island, but Breeding Pool has been reprinted several times now and should be reasonable. Lower than that, Cinder Glade is dirt cheap, and Sheltered Thicket is also reasonable. Unfortunately the blue duals are more expensive and there aren't as many of them, but even one will be your most frequent search target.

Hope that helps! I'm gonna try Spitting Image in my own list based on yours, and the Nesting Grounds combo might be worth investigating as well.

For once, I think this deck might be making it worth taking into account Agent of Treachery 's 2nd ability, which probably makes him more valuable than blatant thievery. Even if it only goes off once, making Agent a "etb, steal a permanent, draw 3" is pretty strong, especially since the opponents have to burn a removal spell to keep him from getting completely out of hand. And given you only need 2 lands/other cards from Pako in play, that seems fairly trivial to trigger.

[OCPunisher]

Oh wow, that's a great point. I completely forgot about the second ability on the Agent. Usually I can only steal one card before it dies, but this should be an exception. I still think Blatant Thievery belongs in the list, but the Agent might belong as well.

[Ertai Planeswalker]

Thanks for the replies so far @OCPunisher and @Wallycaine. I indeed added Agent of Treachery because he doubles as card draw but Blatant Thievery is indeed a good one as well. I don't know why but somehow it has never come up during my deckbuilding process. You're right about cutting though... if I scrap building a deck alltogether it's usually because I can't make the final cuts.

I think you're right about Rimefeather Owl... I loved the prospect of having a 15+/15+ beatstick but this deck wants to smack with Marit, not owls. Plus I don't actually own it yet which makes cutting it a lot easier.

I can keep Akroma's Memorial out for now purely based on the fact you suggested it and something has to go eventually, but I really loved the ideas of Marit doing an Akroma impression, so I'm going to keep it in the maybeboard.

Regarding Mirrormade: would Clever Impersonator be better? On the one hand it's a creature but on the other hand it's more flexible.

Also, would this deck need Riftsweeper? In case we exile something of ourselves that we want to get back?

About the lands, I have enough decent non-basics but the basics are the only thing really snow and this deck really wants to hit 10+ snow permanents so I'm hesitant to replace them with duals. It's also the reason I'm not running any fetches of some sort. What I could do is add Terramorphic Expanse and/or Evolving Wilds. They have the added utility of allowing me to use every landdrop I have in conjunction with Crucible of Worlds and Ramunap Excavator.

[miehen]

Hi everyone,

this is my attempt on Pako/Haldan. It's just a first draft and I have not tested it yet. Basically ramp into Pako attack with him as much as possible while protecting him. Meanwhile build mana with azusa like cards and revealed lands from opponents and somewhere in the lategame play haldan with a bunch of mana. Input would be greatly appreciated.

https://archidekt.com/decks/586761#Pako_and_Haldan

[OCPunisher]

Regarding Mirrormade: would Clever Impersonator be better? On the one hand it's a creature but on the other hand it's more flexible.

Also, would this deck need Riftsweeper? In case we exile something of ourselves that we want to get back?

I'd probably go with Clever Impersonator over Mirrormade, but I'd go for something like Mythos of Illuna or Stolen Identity over either one of them.

I don't think you need Riftsweeper, and even if you do, it's just another creature spell you might flip over during combat.

Hi everyone,

this is my attempt on Pako/Haldan. It's just a first draft and I have not tested it yet. Basically ramp into Pako attack with him as much as possible while protecting him. Meanwhile build mana with azusa like cards and revealed lands from opponents and somewhere in the lategame play haldan with a bunch of mana. Input would be greatly appreciated.

https://archidekt.com/decks/586761#Pako_and_Haldan

Not a bad start.
- You have most of the standard stuff down pretty well, such as the extra land drop guys and the various ways to protect your pair.
- I'm personally not a fan of the combat-tricks like Blossoming Defense because there are far too many different ways to kill a creature and your combat tricks will never be able to withstand all of them.
- I'd also look to shave a few of the extra draw spells (Into the Story, etc), as your commanders are REALLY good at making you a whole new hand, so you almost never actually need to refill.