WARNING - this deck uses mill as its primary wincon. In general, mill is considered to be a poor win condition and can easily be meta countered by a number of cards that will make this tactic harder. Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Nexus of Fate make this strategy significantly harder if and when opponents play them.
Lets talk about Dennick, Pious Apprentice specifically and what makes him an interesting commander choice.
Pros:
- Dennick has a very low threat profile on both sides of his card. By this I mean that its very rare that someone wants to use spot removal on him because well, usually there is something way more pressing to use spot removal on.
- Dennick (front) is cheap and it leads to playing him early at a stage I rarely have other plays to make.
- Dennick (front) has lifelink and can do some early game pokes to give a life buffer. Even after everyone has superior creatures in play attacking with him is fine as you want him to die and even if he doesn't get killed in combat he can give you life or serve as a blocker. Either way he can buy you time and stall while on his front side.
- Dennick (back) has interaction with mill which allows him to make clue tokens. Several of the sources of mill also trigger every time that we draw cards allowing you to spend mana drawing cards and milling on demand which lets you hold up answers and attempt to trigger additional clues to be generated on opponents turns.
- Dennick (back) creating chaff artifact tokens is a bit of a unique effect. There are other commanders who also do it but not in . These chaff artifact tokens can be utilized by effects such as Urza, Lord High Artificer, Shimmer Dragon, and Inspiring Statuary outside of their function as card draw.
- Clues can be cracked at instant speed allowing for mana to be saved and answers to be used as needed with a backup plan of drawing cards. When you keep mana up for interaction having a backup mana dump for draw is extremely useful.
- Dennick generally needs to be killed so that his backside can be played. I did load up on sacrifice lands to try to help this but in general I still find it hard to kill him sometimes. He can still die in combat but this can be situational.
- Given the above con, when Dennick dies (back side) recasting him, sacrificing him, and then disturbing him again is a huge pain in the ass. I generally find this happens more due to sweepers but that process is still not fast or fun.
- Sweepers can be very detrimental. Lots of the permanents this deck cares about tend to be non-creatures so things that sweep or repeatedly affect artifact and enchantments such as Cleansing Nova and Aura Shards can be very tough to encounter.
- Dennick has two toughness (backside). This can on occasion be very noticeable against cards like Sword of Fire and Ice, Umezawa's Jitte, or Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle to name a few cards that would likely be more painful.
- Bruvac the Grandiloquent - The challenge with going more proactive with mill with a commander like this is you are going to be racing rather than having more of a control strategy. It might work but I think mill takes time to function which still puts me at preferring a controlling concept that plans to go long rather than see how fast I can attempt to mill opponents out.
- Phenax, God of Deception - My issue with Phenax has always been that it seems like it involves a weird mix of strategies that don't work too well together. Milling and playing a bunch of toughness creatures together have always seemed a bit at odds to me. I do think that it has times where it works out I just think that it takes a lot of time to assemble and the deck often has some weird bad cards if someone answers or steals the commander.
- Geth, Lord of the Vault - I think Geth is actually quite a capable commander leaning into black's mono black strength of Cabal Coffers. He can still have issues though if someone cleans up graveyards with something like Relic of Progenitus he can be cut off of reanimating. I think he is incredibly powerful with my only real gripe being that mono black has a lot of things they have trouble interacting with.
- Sai, Master Thopterist - Sai is a great proactive artificer concept. Its a different take on chaff artifacts in that it shifts to being the aggressor but Sai is an incredible commander.
- Urza, Lord High Artificer - Generally Urza is sort of an artificer combo concept. Its not my cup of tea but its another take on artificer that is high powered.
It is true that there are higher powered commanders out there in the same colors or in similar concepts. What I liked about Dennick was his somewhat unique approach to both mill and artificer. Dennick's low threat perception also allows for a lot of pillowfort tactics that can be harder to pull off with higher powered commanders due to higher profile plays.
General Concept:
The general plan is to mill my opponents out while not dying. I have a lot of artificer concepts as well as some cards enabling clues and token generation as well. Cracking clues to draw cards can also generate value and trigger several of the mill effects while allowing me to keep up interaction as needed.
I went a lot more survival oriented on my interaction than traditional Azorious decks tend to be focusing more on not dying than having value sweepers. By this I mean that I often don't stop my opponents from doing things trying instead to at the last second stop their win conditions from killing me or winning them the game. It can be beneficial for my opponent to ramp a bunch of lands or draw a bunch of cards in that it puts them closer to being milled out. The downside is obviously the extra resources it lends them but a lot of draw and ramp heavy decks often run light on win conditions.
Power Level:
I often have a hard time defining power level because its something a bit ambiguous. This deck does not win quickly often taking games into later turns of the game that would normally be identified as a lower power level of deck. That said it is very good at not dying which is part of why it takes games to the later stages. All of this said, I don't think this would ever hold a candle to cEDH decks. I would probably put the power level of a deck like this in the realm of a 7/10 from the standpoint that it isn't cEDH, it isn't fast, and it can be countered if opponents care to change some of their deck composition.
This deck also takes a skilled pilot with good threat assessment for interaction purposes. If you are newer to the game this could be a difficult deck to pilot and your experience may be less. You want a very good grasp of what your opponents are doing and their capabilities as well as a good grasp of how to play control in general to play a deck like this.
Lets start with saying that at the point of me writing the budget section of this page the deck using the tool books at $2500.00. My experience has been that these tools go off of super cheap and busted up copies as well so I would say its probably safe to say that ordering the deck outright would run something like $3K+. The very easy place to start in saving money is going to be looking at the landbase.
- Diamond Valley - I don't expect many players to have access to this card. Given that its also a land that doesn't produce mana its almost like a nonland card which you could replace with other sacrifice outlets. Ashnod's Altar, Altar of Dementia, Martyr's Cause, or Fanatical Devotion would likely be my considerations if you specifically want to keep your sac outlet count up.
- Fetchlands - Fetches aren't a must have for this deck by any means. I include them because I have them and they are great. There are plenty of fixing lands try to get whatever lands you can that provide either color and enter untapped. If you have to go more budget than that you can you will just feel it if you have a bunch of ETB tapped lands. If you cut the fetches I would also probably cut Emeria, the Sky Ruin as when you cut the fetches your consistency on having enough lands to activate Emeria probably goes away. There are some other cards like Trove Warden and Sevinne's Reclamation that also suffer if you cut fetches which might be worth cutting as well if you don't run fetchlands.
- Tundra - Another card I run because I have one and can afford to have it. If you don't have one its fine. You should look at your count and watch Emeria, the Sky Ruin if you don't have a Tundra but there are four other fetchable duals at the time of me writing this without Tundra so I think its probably fine if you still have the fetches to run Emeria without this one.
Don't try to find a replacement for Urza, Lord High Artificer because the answer to that is Inspiring Statuary which I also run. My best suggestion is to look through the thread for cards I cut or have been considering and run them or run something generic like say another Counterspell or something of that sort rather than Fierce Guardianship. Its usually better to include a generally good card or some other card the deck wants than to try to look for a direct budget substitution. Look for other cards we would consider running generically and run them. You might find something like Erdwal Illuminator or Tamiyo's Journal to be fine cards and they are budget cards to pick up even though they didn't quite work out for me.
I often am asked why I don't play larger one shot mill effects like Maddening Cacophony, Traumatize, or Cut Your Losses. The reason is mostly that I use the mill as an engine for my commander to generate clue tokens rather than trying to sprint for a mill kill. It is more important for me to set up multiple triggers that will continue to work for me than it is for a large one shot milling effect. The card advantage I get from generating clues is very good and part of the puzzle.
Its possible to expand this package and look into things like Kuldotha Forgemaster, Blinkmoth Urn, Clock of Omens, and Krark-Clan Ironworks as some potential other cards that "could" work as well. I have considered several of these cards that I listed but ultimately felt that many of these cards felt slow and could be situational and winmore. I opted for the cards I chose based on their speed of use as well as my deck consistency. Clock of Omens untapping Chromatic Orrery with clues sounds fantastic but the problem I had was that my consistency of artifacts that tap for productive things felt too low for me to run that. I just wanted to highlight some additional potential that work on the artificer theme.
Pillowfort tactics are dangerous and can backfire horribly when someone has the right interaction for you at the right time. The hope is mostly to let the other players in the game go back and forth at each other while you just passively survive by being inconvenient to kill. Rather than destroying all the creatures via a Wrath of God you build up a wall named Propaganda and nicely ask them to hit each other instead of you. If you are the scariest person in play they might want to use their Naturalize on your defense but if and when done correctly pillowfort can be viewed as not the most dangerous current threat in the game often allowing you leeway from the other players in the game who aren't viewed as in the dominant position as the other two players are likely trying to figure out how they don't die to some horrible token swarm.
I like to think that a proper pillowfort concept has both proactive and reactive means to not die. Things like Angel's Grace, Teferi's Protection, counterspells, or even spot interaction can all be reactive means to stop yourself from dying but you also want active defenses such as blockers and Ghostly Prison effects. If you enjoy table talk you can even get into some social elements and deals while playing pillowfort tactics such as hyping other player's threat.
Not dying is really underrated in commander. Lots of people want to win harder and focus more on their haymaker / combo plays. Those sort of decks are the ones I want to prey on with a deck like this. Just keep not dying and the long run game is often in favor of a mechanic like mill.
- 3+ lands with both colors covered.
- A sacrifice outlet
- A proactive value play (card draw or milling)
Dennick also needs something to enable him to make clues. Sometimes opponents will trigger his clause on their own but it tends to be very dependent on what sort of strategy they are playing. In most cases I want something to enable him to make some clues. Getting him into play and flipped to his backside is great but it generally takes some additional setup to get the clue generation start and if I can get all of that set up by turn four or five thats generally speaking where I want to spend my early game. Keep in mind that we can sacrifice some of our own other creatures to create clue tokens as well which is part of why I have some death friendly creatures like Academy Rector in the deck.
Personally I would probably throw this one back unless I was already down on how many cards I get to keep. Its only proactive play is Smothering Tithe which it still needs to draw a land to play and even if it curves to that it can't flip the commander easily and it has no means of really triggering the commander to generate clues. You will generally want a slightly more proactive hand than this with the cavoite being if you are going up against very fast decks where you plan to need to respond very quickly. I don't think this is a very good hand though and it likely will struggle.
Example Hand 2: Unexpectedly Absent, Fleeting Memories, Thran Dynamo, Weathered Wayfarer, Command Tower, Relic of Progenitus, Cyclonic Rift
This one is a high risk / high reward. Assuming you are not playing first I would keep this hand banking on Weathered Wayfarer to get me at least one more land. It likely will disrupt the early turns to play for this but I would probably gamble with it and roll the dice. I think if wayfarer gets to activate at least once or twice the hand is fine. It also has the Relic which can be used in a pinch if wayfarer gets hit. If you are going first throw it back. I would likely get another mana fixing land as the first wayfarer trigger if you don't draw lands that provide colored mana in the first two turns. If you draw colored mana lands to play though I would get a High Market early and from there just keep lands going.
Example Hand 3: Island, Academy Rector, Sphinx of the Second Sun, Disorder in the Court, Misty Rainforest, Glacial Fortress, Fractured Sanity
This hand is fine but not amazing. I would probably keep it even though a lot of the plays don't line up great. The sphinx and Disorder are both a bit slow but I would likely play Disorder as soon as I could for 1-2 clues. Fractured cycles here as soon as possible so this hand has lands and turns itself over a bit. The reason I would keep is just that it keeps drawing cards and it has lands to play. The commander and Academy Rector can both play defense while we just keep pushing towards hitting land drops and finding something else.
Example Hand 4: Island, Anointed Procession, Glacial Floodplain, Dovin's Veto, Sevinne's Reclamation, Cryptic Command, Solemn Simulacrum
This hand doesn't have enough land and given the lack of a fetch in hand Sevinne's doesn't ramp us. I think too much of this is reactive and we don't have enough lands in general. I would probably mulligan this.
Example Hand 5: Shadow Kin, Diamond Valley, Kefnet the Mindful, Tectonic Edge, Sol Ring, Island, Flooded Strand
Ohhhh thats a spicy hand. We have lands, a sac outlet, and proactive plays. This one is an easy keep. Its kind of odd in that the Sol Ring isn't even that amazing here but the hand as a whole looks like it curves well. The Shadow Kin can start some clue gen and milling and Kefnet can offer defense and draw.
Most of the early game search tools look for lands or artifacts. My goal with these is primarily to get a sacrifice outlet if I don't have one yet to get Dennick to his backside. If you already have that established go for card advantage or ramp based on what you have. Keep in mind that Dennick does very little on his own so a support card (generally mill effect) to make him start making clues is usually required.
Getting some propaganda effects out and just hitting land drops and letting things happen is where I like to be at this point. If Dennick dies try to get him back out and sort of slow roll him to his backside. Doing both sides in one turn is intensive so I usually try to spread it out over two turns especially given that his front side works well as a road bump if attacked. Given this deck's laid back speed its not too big of a deal to slow play him to get to the backside again.
Pairing Dennick's clues with several other cards such as Grinding Station, Fleeting Memories, Psychic Corrosion, Sphinx's Tutelage and Teferi's Tutelage can result in very fast milling. Its not unheard of once you get enough resources to hit someone for 30+ mill in a turn and you likely do this at the end of turn. I have seen in more than one situation where I can mill half of a library between my opponents end of turn and my own following turn. It usually comes down to how many synergy cards I have, how much mana, and how many clues I have built up. Lots of my turns end up with just one or two of these milling cards paired with clues but even in this situation its possible to mill for 10 or more cards in a turn.
Disruption - I generally don't bother defending most of my board with some of the exception possibly being defending a defense mechanic that I can see would be a problem without (like seeing an army of goblins as a naturalize targets my propaganda). I often save my interaction for opponents wincons rather than backing my own up. It will likely take a lot of judgment on when you need to defend your own board rather than saving interaction for opponents win conditions. Experience with your meta and the deck in general will help you make this sort of decision though.
In the spoilers you can see a writeup of most of the cards in the list. I didn't delve into mana production lands but did most everything else.
- Weathered Wayfarer - It serves as a means to get a sac outlet and ramp as its primary roles. I primarily wanted it as increased consistency of the sac outlets but it also serves as some card advantage and helps making land drops.
- Fog Bank - Its a relatively safe defensive measure. I like that it can push off a lot of the medium and larger threats that propagandas do less work against. This card could be a number of other cards as well I just like mixing active defense with tricks and I like where this guy stands on cost and effect.
- Academy Manufactor - He spins up more artifact tokens for the artificer things but its also relevant that he makes treasure which can be stockpiled as an emergency spellcast or used to cover half of cracking the clue token. This deck also doesn't have a lot of lifegain to offset decks that do direct damage and or life loss so having some food tokens can be useful against those decks.
- Kefnet the Mindful - He offers a strong defense, card draw mana dump, and planeswalker poke options. I like that he offers the punishment of potentially killing attackers which I find to give a stronger defense that pairs really well with the propaganda tactics that I also run.
- Nimble Obstructionist - Its a stifle with a cantrip but beyond that it also triggers Dennick's clue generation as its a creature going to grave. Stifle effects can be very strong against some haymaker and can stall or stop some combos (very situationally). It can also stop an eldrazi from shuffling a graveyard which is kind of a cool use if you ever find yourself in that situation.
- Trinket Mage - Early in the game he can get a sac outlet through Witch's Oven or Expedition Map for a sac land. Later on getting graveyard hate or using Expedition Map to get some ramp land.
- Academy Rector - Sacrificing it can generate a clue token and get me one of numerous enchantments. There are defense options, removal, mill, card advantage options. I don't really have a hard and fast always get card X with this so its just up to your situation on what to get with him. I also don't hate just keeping him alive and waiting as if someone wraths he gets you a headstart on rebuilding and keeping him in play to fetch Cast Out on demand is great interaction.
- Ethereal Investigator - Getting three clues on average and giving some chump block tokens is really useful. As a spirit token generator I would consider him somewhat weak but giving three clues on entering as well is useful. When just curving him he isn't that amazing but later in the game you might have ways to generate more clues or make the clues do additional work.
- Shadow Kin - It is a flash based milling option so it plays well towards keeping mana up and responding. Beyond that a good portion of the high cmc creatures we run they can mimic very well. Milling creatures on our turn tends to be one of the easier triggers since we draw on our turn but even with this its a card I am experimenting with due to its fast start on milling. Ultimately I wish there were more Psychic Corrosion like cards but this is something I am testing for now as I wanted more mill cards in deck.
- Solemn Simulacrum - Its ramp that draws on death and triggers Dennick's clue generation as well when thrown away.
- Trove Warden - It can be a weird sort of ramp off fetches that can recover tools that got removed. It also is something that cares about dying so it helps Dennick's clue generation and can recover a lot of useful tools back to play. Personally I want to slow play killing it as it makes it harder to sweep him but I also think that at some point you have to keep sac outlets up at all times to make sure he doesn't get bounced or exiled.
- Urza, Lord High Artificer - The token he makes on entering often gets very large due to all of the clues and he makes it so that the chaff artifacts tap for colored mana. He is one of the best cards in the deck and I can't blame anyone who tries to use spot removal on him as he totally deserves it. Expect him to get targeted but if he doesn't he is going to run away with things from his mana generation.
- Shimmer Dragon - This dragon turns all of the clues into tap draw effects. Its crazy that he also gains hexproof from his own abilities for having a number of artifacts. He can be very hard to dig out when played often requiring a sweeper. He is a very strong support card for having the chaff artifact tokens.
- Sun Titan - He can be ramp off of fetchlands or he can recover a number of very useful trinkets to play. I usually expect him to die before he can attack but if he is still alive enjoy the value recursion he offers.
- Sphinx of the Second Sun - If this sphinx is not countered or immediately spot removed he triggers another beginning phase which allows an untap and draw. In this sense I find that he pays for himself in the first turn of being played as he draws another card and refunds all of the mana in casting him. If he continues to live from there he is generating card advantage and giving a huge net mana every turn he lives. Excess mana can be dumped in cracking clues in a lot of cases which draws more gas which takes more mana to play. He is very powerful and needs to be dealt with immediately and when he is not he runs away with things in a way that is in my opinion a bit similar but slightly different to Seedborn Muse (he costs more mana, generates less mana, but also triggers upkeep triggers and draws a bit).
- Expedition Map - It gives access to land based sac outlets early and if I don't need those because I have one it allows for some ramp options.
- Relic of Progenitus - When playing mill, you should have plans for graveyard abuse as well as Eldrazi shufflers. In most cases the best solution is to run adequate graveyard hate. I think that graveyard hate options that also have a sacrifice to draw are the best. Relic has the downside of hitting your own graveyard but when you need to clear the grave sometimes it just has to happen. I like relic a lot due to sweeping graveyards and drawing a card in the same trigger.
- Sol Ring - It is hard to say a lot about sol ring other than its cost is low and its mana generation high. Its completely broken in half and its hard to not run in any deck that needs mana. This deck is a bit odd in that it can have a hard time making use of lots of mana early as it tends to be more important to set specific card combinations to generate clue tokens before excess mana is really useful but Sol Ring mana is still very powerful.
- Soul-Guide Lantern - When playing mill, you should have plans for graveyard abuse as well as Eldrazi shufflers. In most cases the best solution is to run adequate graveyard hate. Soul-Guide has the downside that it either draws or it grave hates but its graveyard hate is like having a Tormod's Crypt for each opponent so I think that is well worth the sacrifice and it still can draw a card in a pinch. Its ETB graveyard hate poke can also be quite effective in some cases but I tend to prefer it being in play than trying to time its ETB to be more effective.
- Witch's Oven - Its a cheap sac outlet that makes chaff artifact tokens that can be abused by other effects. Its also cheap to cast which makes it a target for Trinket Mage. The small life gain from food can also be relevant against some decks that run noncombat damage as win conditions.
- Dowsing Dagger - Dennick comes in early and in a lot of cases someone might still not have a creature in play on turn four allowing him to sneak in some ramp. If someone removes him in response its still kind of useful. Once Dennick flips he has flying and can better deliver the dagger for ramp that mostly pays for itself.
- Grinding Station - This card seems primarily useful later in the game where I might have a good stockpile of tokens already in play. The fact that it untaps when you generate artifact tokens can make it potentially do a lot of work at the cost of some tokens. I think it will be somewhat of a weak earlygame card but in the mid or late game it could potentially pop off.
- Thaumatic Compass - Its cheap and is a ramp option that also helps as defensive measure against some large creature tactics. In a sense it serves a similar role as Fog Bank but can only turn back one creature a turn but it also punches through huge trampley and unblockable things which is useful. Its a defensive measure though that also taps for mana which means I can use it to crack clues and cast spells. This deck is mostly looking to ramp in the mid or late game anyways so the fact that it isn't a land until then isn't actually that big of a concern.
- Inspiring Statuary - It turn's the clue generation of the deck into things that can support spellcasting. It makes it a lot easier to make proactive plays while keeping lands up to respond or crack clues. It is weaker than Urza, Lord High Artificer who can make actual mana which can be used to crack clues but I think its still a great effect that while lesser it is also something that can be tutored by a number of blue's artifact tutors. It is possible that I could run more Transmute Artifact / Tezzeret the Seeker / Fabricate effects depending on how important I find this particular card to be but I think its one of my stronger cards even while being weaker than Urza, Lord High Artificer.
- Thran Dynamo - It almost pays for itself the turn it enters play and if it lives from there it boosts how much mana we can bring from turn to turn. Mana throughput matters quite a bit in the mid and late game stages for this deck as cracking clues is expensive.
- Gilded Lotus - Its similar to Thran Dynamo but costs a little more but makes colored mana. All of the same reasons that we run Thran Dynamo transfer for this one as well. While it does lose a little more mana the turn it is played it also provides colored mana making it easier to cast this for the turn and still have mana for responses which can be harder with Thran.
- Chromatic Orrery - Another card similar to Thran Dynamo. It costs more mana but also makes more mana. It makes colorless mana but it also fixes all mana which is kind of cool. I don't think I have ever activated its draw ability but I suppose you could do it. Drawing two cards for ten mana (it taps for five mana normally so five mana and tap is essentially ten mana tap) isn't that impressive especially while in Azorious colors.
- Fleeting Memories - It makes a clue on entering and fires up a mill effect on clue cracking. This is really everything I want to be doing and I wish there were like seven more functional reprints of this card so I could run them all. When looking at the actual power of milling this one is a little weaker because its only on clue cracking rather than on any draw and its only one opponent for three rather than each opponent. This all said, I am more than happy with this card given the clue it generates on entering.
- Ghostly Prison - Strong passive defense vs swarm decks. Tokens are extremely popular wincons in commander and I see a lot of them. Effects like this make it harder for opponents to play big haymaker pump effects and still swing at you with numbers. It can often blunt swarm decks' ability to attack you effectively and deflect random poke attacks.
- Memory Erosion - Its a good punish against decks that chain together a lot of small cantrips and or chaining draw excessively. It can be a bit hit or miss against more casual decks but lots of the more dangerous decks do heavier amounts of ramp and draw which this will affect more.
- Propaganda - Strong passive defense vs swarm decks. Tokens are extremely popular wincons in commander and I see a lot of them. Effects like this make it harder for opponents to play big haymaker pump effects and still swing at you with numbers. It can often blunt swarm decks' ability to attack you effectively and deflect random poke attacks.
- Psychic Corrosion - This might be the most powerful mill play we have but it also spread it out over each opponent rather than focusing in on one opponent. Dennick paired with this card hitting each opponent for two cards each draw results in six milling per clue cracked which if you activate a clue on each player's turn is likely to add up a lot and its also the most likely to trigger a new clue to be generated due to the amount of cards milled per trigger. It can be a real work horse on a board with few other cards setup but again it is hitting everyone for a little rather than one player for a lot so it isn't great at eliminating players but does overall work towards a win.
- Sphinx's Tutelage - This card can do a lot of damage to one player especially if they are playing a one to two color deck. That said, don't overestimate how often you will see its trigger to copy to pop up as even a lot of one color decks have a good number of lands and often artifacts. I would say on average in a one color deck its often normal for 60% of their deck at most to be the same color which makes for a lot of triggers that wont duplicate.
- Teferi's Tutelage - This card adds up a lot with the clues plan but it is a bit weaker on the mill plan. It makes up for it a little in that it triggers a filter on entering play which does add a mill trigger upfront so you have the option to discard a creature or mill into a creature for a clue gen on entering play which is nice. It isn't the strongest of the mill we have but it triggers how we want and it will add up to help what this deck wants to do.
- Thorough Investigation - Oddly enough, both sides of Dennick trigger this card to generate clues through attack rather well. When on his front we want him to die so attacking to hope he dies or pick up lifelink damage is decent anyways. Once he is flipped he has flying and often will have somewhere he can go as well. The value added of delving into the dungeon on clue cracking is fine and it does add up but I actually think its clue generation is more of the reason I run it. Early in the game getting that extra clue generation is great and if it is drawn later its delving is still somewhat relevant.
- Anointed Procession - Twice the clue and treasure token generation. I do have a few other random cards like Urza, Lord High Artificer, Ethereal Investigator, and Witch's Oven that make tokens as well but its mostly in the deck for doubling the clue and treasure token generation.
- Cast Out - It has flash, can answer any permeant, and can be found by Academy Rector. I wouldn't call it crazy powerful but it is instant speed exile interaction that can be cantripped off if you get stuck. Its unfortunate that its a temporary solution given that answering it brings back the card but I think its passable as far as interaction goes.
- Collective Restraint - Strong passive defense vs swarm decks. Tokens are extremely popular wincons in commander and I see a lot of them. Effects like this make it harder for opponents to play big haymaker pump effects and still swing at you with numbers. It can often blunt swarm decks' ability to attack you effectively and deflect random poke attacks. This card is mostly a more expensive Propaganda but if someone has an Urborg or Yavimaya it will tax harder. I have actually considered running Urborg and or Yavimaya in this deck for this card as well as allowing Diamond Valley to tap for mana but I think its probably not worth doing.
- Smothering Tithe - it creates chaff artifact tokens that can be used by Shimmer Dragon, Urza, Lord High Artificer, and Inspiring Statuary but also can just be used on their own as extra mana. I also have Academy Manufactor and Anointed Procession in the deck which can further generate value off of this card. Smothering Tithe is a card that on its own can usually justify its inclusion in decks that have sufficient mana dumps / draw options but when you can make additional value out of the tokens its kind of crazy.
- Teferi's Ageless Insight - It powers up the clue based draw. Its a bit winmore in that I need to already be drawing additional cards which can be a bit hit or miss but even being sort of winmore I haven't had much of an issue with the card. Its something I will have to think about in the future but it does need to be played when somewhat setup already to do much. It does pair incredibly well with Teferi, Master of Time though as both a flavor win as well as an impressive card advantage engine.
- Sphere of Safety - Strong passive defense vs swarm decks. Tokens are extremely popular wincons in commander and I see a lot of them. Effects like this make it harder for opponents to play big haymaker pump effects and still swing at you with numbers. It can often blunt swarm decks' ability to attack you effectively and deflect random poke attacks. Sphere of Safety starts at a lower tax than Propaganda but it can also add up to be a much higher tax to attack. I don't think I am so deep on enchantments that I value it more than Propaganda especially given its higher cmc but I do value having more copies of its effect to the point that I run Sphere of Safety.
- Angel's Grace - I love this card because it denies a LOT of haymaker and combo plays. Cutting off a player who attempts to win via Laboratory Maniac by telling them nope is really fun. It doesn't always solve the problem but some things it just cold shuts down and the things it does well against it does very well against.
- Visions of Beyond - Its just efficient for its mana. We could crack clues for this effect but it does a lot for the mana given we are playing mill. Don't be afraid to cast it early if you get stuck just for the draw one as its not worth missing land drops because you are being stubborn.
- Arcane Denial - Its a cheap counterspell with some added value. Giving a single opponent two cards while shutting down the problem card and drawing a card yourself is a good exchange. You could also run something like Counterspell if you don't care for Arcane Denial but I find that the small added value and easier mana cost of is something I prefer.
- Cyclonic Rift - Cyclonic is a great emergency interaction that can also be used to disrupt entire boardstates. This deck already keeps up mana so the emergency mode of casting cyclonic is entirely reasonable even though you probably do have to plan for the overload in a lot of cases still.
- Disorder in the Court - You can shift someone's commander out over their entire turn by casting this at the end step before their turn and have it return summoning sick. It can also blank tokens as needed or protect utility creatures. You can even sort of cheat Dennick through a wrath with the downside that he returns face up. I like this card due to its ability to do a little bit of different things in its interaction and it also spawns a bunch of artifact tokens that this deck cares about. It does it all at instant speed to boot.
- Dovin's Veto - Its a big old no and don't come back. Uncounterable counters are kind of rude but the things I am probably going to use them on are probably violently unacceptable cards.
- Mana Drain - It counters and gives mana back. That mana can be used for proactive plays or cracking clues the following turn.
- Unexpectedly Absent - This is somewhat of funny interaction given that this deck is built on milling. Its not that uncommon that I can take any permeant and put it on top of their deck and then force it to be milled. I like the range of targeting with this spell and even without paying any extra mana beyond it deals with a problem temporarily. Pay a bit more mana and you can put the problem off if you don't have a means of immediately milling it.
- Fierce Guardianship - Emergency free counterspells are great. It is a non-creature counterspell but being free can be a big deal.
- Generous Gift - It has a wide range of interaction. Costing three mana is a bit high for spot removal but I run it for its ability to interact with any permanent.
- Leadership Vacuum - Lots of faster decks often utilize a commander to move fast. I like that this answers a commander and draws a card. I can think of a lot of commanders I would like to slow down a bit.
- Teferi's Protection - It can be used as someone tries to combo off or do some big haymaker but it can also be used against a sweeper to jump through and keep your board. Its very versatile and powerful.
- Whir of Invention - It can be very similar to Trinket Mage in getting a sac outlet early on but I also think there are a number of useful artifacts later on. Tutors allow some consistency without loading too heavily on any one effect.
- Wipe Away - It can interact with a lot of big problems and doesn't take interaction back. Its a temporary answer but a lot of how I play this deck is geared towards interacting at the right time rather than hard removal.
- Cryptic Command - The tap all function can be very useful against combat wincons and the counter, draw, and bounce functions feel good against most decks where tapping isn't.
- Spell Swindle - I haven't had much of a chance to test this but chaff artifact tokens and a counter seem worth testing.
- Fractured Sanity - I mostly expect to cycle this card and in that situation it will cantrip and do some minor milling which might trigger Dennick's clue generation. Later in the game though casting it for a 14 card mill might be appealing. I like that it seems like a very playable card at essentially all stages of the game rather than hoping to find it at a specific time like how I feel Maddening Cacophony to be.
- Savor the Moment - I have always considered this card to be a 3 mana Explore. I love Explore and I often want to just push for another land drop for cheap. Splitting my turn also triggers upkeep triggers again and allows me to make another clue off of Dennick potentially.
- Sevinne's Reclamation - It can ramp off of Fetchlands early or recover important resources later. I also like how I can accidentally mill it and still get value from it.
- Teferi, Master of Time - In general I like this planeswalker a lot due to how much loyalty he puts on and his ability to interact with problems on opponents turns. More specifically in this deck he has some cool interaction with a number of mill that triggers on me drawing cards like Sphinx's Tutelage which can then push into Dennick clue generation. His ult is very reasonable too but the downside of planeswalkers in this list is that they are not protected from most Propaganda effects.
- Diamond Valley / High Market / Miren, the Moaning Well - Dennick needs to die so he can be cast with Disturb. Having some lands to help facilitate this helps.
- Tolaria West - Get a sac outlet land or a land that taps for more than one mana.
- Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx / Serra's Sanctum - Hopefully ramp me some mana. This deck does play a number of things to the board so hopefully both of these can tap for positive mana.
- Kor Haven - Its mostly for big trampling / unblockable threats but we also in general don't have a lot of defenses from big single monsters other than spot removing them.
- Strip Mine - Mostly if a land is being tapped for four or more mana it probably needs one of these.
Some of these cards are things I have tried myself at one point or have yet to test. I will do my best to outline my thoughts and why I either don't run or haven't run these cards.
- Erdwal Illuminator - I ran it previously but being a creature that I needed to live long term put it on a list of being a bit fragile. It did work well with Dennick but as I added some other token generation especially ones that created non clue tokens and or multiple clue tokens it made more sense to move to Anointed Procession. Its possible that I might want to run both but I saw Annointed as an effect that worked with more cards beyond my commander in a positive way. Its possible at some point I may want to run both or if someone is on a budget you can easily bring this card in as something on theme.
- Bruvac the Grandiloquent - I do think he can do a lot of work but I think he needs to live a long time for that to happen. He is a bit winmore in that I need to set up milling and then play him which is a large part of why I don't run him. If the deck is drawing cards, making clues, and milling already then I am already happy. He can have a lot of time where all of the checkmarks aren't checked for him to do his thing.
- Dreamborn Muse - I ran it for a bit but I felt like it didn't live that long and I had a few situations where I started turbo milling myself via Sphinx of the Second Sun with this. I ended up cutting it to try out Shadow Kin but I think both are a bit so so as far as on synergy milling goes. Dreamborn Muse is a totally reasonable card pickup I just found myself wanting to do some testing and opted to cut it to try out other things.
- Kuldotha Forgemaster - I think there are two glaring issues I have with this card. The first is the lack of flash or haste to get to activate him quickly after playing it. The other issue is I don't have a lot of artifacts in my deck that I would want to jump through all of this for.
- Altar of the Brood - Its a lot of light milling and it probably would add up given time I just think it needs to be played somewhat early and left alone which might or might not happen. Its trigger is unfortunately difficult to trigger clues on opponents turns as I would need permentns entering on opponents turns to trigger its mill to try to get clues out of Dennick. Given this I felt like it wasn't going to help Dennick much and that was enough that I didn't run it.
- Crook of Condemnation - Another reasonable graveyard hate effect. Its nice that it can extract specific cards while alive and its sacrifice is a strong mass graveyard exile. I don't run this card in part because it can't draw a card and its effect also hits my graveyard. It is powerful graveyard hate but its also very dedicated to grave hate and it hits our graveyard as well making it a bit of a harder sell.
- Mesmeric Orb - Its strong mill but its more some milling on everyone. It often gets removed quickly but it also does a lot of work quickly. I ended up cutting it from my list but I suspect it likely needs to come back in. My mild complaint about it is that it doesn't do a lot of milling on one player unless you catch them in the right situation. It is Dennick friendly as far as making clues though I just don't like that its performance sometimes runs counter to how my deck is playing. For instance, if my deck is doing well I might have a bunch of clues and be using them for mana and then suddenly if I untap I mill like 25 cards. This deck taps out hard and draws cards. So, in a sense the milling hits me kind of hard as well which isn't not concerning. If you have a Sphinx of the Second Sun it also burns through extra milling. I cut it in part because when it lives it can become a liability to my own deck.
- Clock of Omens I think this card could do some absolute work in here. The big reason I don't include it though is that I have like... four mana stone artifacts in the deck. I think its really strong with all of them but the issue is I lack a sufficient quantity of artifacts that I would feel comfortable having both mana stones and this in play at the same time. I think what it does works really well with this deck I just don't have enough mana stone numbers to get away with including it. Its possible if I resorted to adding more artifacts like Everflowing Chalice and Dreamstone Hedron it might get there but as of right now I am concerned that I don't have the numbers I want to get away with running the clock.
- Krark-Clan Ironworks Ironworks could do some good work in the right situation. My fear is how many resources it uses up for the tempo it offers. I can think of some late game situations where it might help but I can think of a lot of situations early and mid game where its going to be more of a hindrance than a help. I have a lot of ways to use artifacts repeatedly as well so burning them all for some mana tempo seems somewhat dangerous given how long it can take me to build up my artifact count.
- Blinkmoth Urn - My fear with Blinkmoth is that it helps my opponents first and doesn't do anything for me immediately. Paying five mana for something that does nothing isn't a small thing and helping your opponents is usually a bad idea.
- Tamiyo's Journal - I ran the Journal for a while and the issue is primarily that its just too slow. I think that the sac for tutor is actually somewhat acceptable but being that it is three tokens needed hurts and its very slow token generation is abysmal. For the record I don't think that Diabolic Tutor is really a playable card in this format and the journal felt a little like playing Diabolic with a slow value added onto it later. It wasn't as fast or cheap as I wanted it to be but I could see it being a potential budget include.
- Rest in Peace - Depending on how hostile graveyard tactics in your meta are as well as how many death trigger based concepts you see you could step up your graveyard hate and run Rest in Peace. I think its important that you probably scale back your own graveyard reliance if you run a heavier graveyard hate setup like this.
- Time Stop - It interacts with most things exiling spells on the stack as well as interrupting a lot of haymaker plays. Its a bit weaker to combo in that its a six mana play so its vulnerable to being countered itself but in a lot of ways it can function similarly to a Teferi's Protection except that it protects everyone from what was happening. Its high mana cost is my only hesitation in adding it to my list.
- Wrath of God - I will talk about Wraths globally rather than cherry pick individual ones but you could run wraths. They would help flip Dennick to his backside and if on his backside trigger for a clue. I opted though to focus more on not dying though rather than playing a board control strategy as I felt that there was a lot of power in passive defenses combined with some tricks to deny death. Having more sweeping based defenses leaves opponents knowing a bit better if they have you dead outright and it also denies you the opportunity for them to kill someone else. Sweepers do help keep some commanders in check though and do stall the game so I think they could be played but I think you might want to consider your defenses very differently than how I set mine up if you do run wraths.
- Tezzeret the Seeker - I previously was running Altar of Dementia as a sac outlet and I ran Tezzeret because he could fetch it. I later moved the alter to be Witch's Oven because I have reasons to create artifact tokens and the lower cost let me change Tezzeret back into Trinket Mage which is cheaper to cast. Tezzeret could still be a strong consideration depending on how much you value Inspiring Statuary or some other artifacts like Grinding Station or Mesmeric Orb.
Special thanks to anyone who drops into my thread to have a discussion on the thread. I didn't even know that this card existed until I stumbled over him in the Random Card of the Day thread and stole some ideas that were mentioned there as well.
Also thanks to the primer committee. I stole the formatting for this thread from them and they put in a lot of time and effort to make sure that primers live up to their name.
Lastly, it's fun to keep track of how your deck has changed and evolved as you have as a player. It also gives readers an idea of what cards you've already tried out.
- Trinket Mage → Search for Azcanta The more I thought about the Trinket Mage it felt like it might not be worth the inclusion. Its still probably fine, I just like it a lot more with some semblence of creature abuse to a deck via things like Skullclamp / Birthing Pod / Swords of X and Y to make use of creatures like this. Search gives me some ramp and a mana dump to card advantage option that I kind of dig. I also can use a few of my mill effects on myself to flip it faster potentially.
- Arena Rector → Sphere of Safety I was looking to cut one of my three planeswalkers and I decided that the Rector while still probably fine, it wasn't something I felt like I needed to push. I was looking at my defenses from random pokes and it felt like while I have some decent cards I felt like I was leaning hard on roughly six cards as my passive defense (me not casting spell defense) and I felt like I could perhaps use a little more.
- Sun Titan → Sphinx of the Second Sun Sun Titan is fine, its just a lot of mana for some small recovery in a deck that I want to be keeping mana up and responding. So, I am cutting him for some ramp / draw effect instead. Its more expensive but assuming it isn't immediately nuked it pays for itself. Sun Titan is better on the guarenteed value front but I kind of expect both of them to die somewhat quickly. I guess the difference is I like the sphinx more if they aren't literally holding up spot removal as I go to cast them. I don't really mind if the Sphinx dies before it comes back around but I am hoping that I can get that first untap out of it and I am fairly happy with anything else it does beyond that.
- Altar of the Brood → Grinding Station I will be honest, I don't really know that I stand behind either of these cards but I think that the Altar is a lot less focused than the station. Milling everyone a few cards with the caviot that my deck needs to sort of be functioning is harder. It makes me feel like Altar of the Brood needs another mill outlet to work. Both feel a little dependent on my commander but I feel like my commander plus grinding station accomplishes more especially in that it gets to target mill a player rather than do a little to everyone. I think when everything is set up Altar does more but its also something that needs more setup to function. We will see how it goes and if I don't like it I can always change again.
- Worn Powerstone → Victory Chimes Worn Powerstone gives acceptable mana for its cost but coming in tapped really hurts it some. I like that the Chimes untap each turn which seems like a good way to slowly nibble at clues on opponents turns as well as keep up mana for interaction.
- Force of Negation → Smothering Tithe I did some looking at my counterspells and I think while Force of Negation is good, it is a bit narrower being noncreature counter. I had three counterspells with this designation and I felt like I liked my other two counters with the same designation more. I feel like Force of Negation tends to be more of a card for tap out decks. Its still fine, I just don't know that I have to be as deep on counter magic as I am. Smothering Tithe is a lot of mana production and a number of my enablers for clues also work on treasure so lets give this a shot.
- Dig Through Time → Savor the Moment I think dig is fine, I just want to push a bit harder on ramp and I like that savor is cheap to play and cantrips. I really just haven't seen much for situations I don't like the option of casting Savor to be honest.
- Elspeth, Sun's Champion → Tamiyo's Journal Elspeth is fine, she did a number of things like being sort of board control. It just isn't really what I need this deck to do. Tokens isn't really what I am doing and the sweeper is a bit situational still. The Journal seems kind of crazy so I want to see it in action and see how it does. I don't love it without my commander but it does things on its own and might pull some heat off him while also giving me access to a repeat D Tutor that must be answered which is cool.
- Grinding Station → Erdwal Illuminator with the super minimal testing I have done so far, I think while Griding Station could be good I think it is going to take a lot more token generation than I have going right now. Its ironic as I am cutting it to try to increase my clue token generation with its replacement.
- Heliod's Intervention → Thorough Investigation Cutting some more traditional control effects and pushing up my clue generation / value generation. I didn't actually account for this originally when talking about this enchantment but my commander flies on the backside and is a completely worthless blocker so he can actually sort of give me the attacker trigger in a lot of cases and the extra value generation of the clues seems ok still. I will bring it in and see how it goes but I didn't actually anticipate really having something to attack with to trigger the clue generation of this card which I think I sort of failed on.
- Aura of Silence → Teferi's Ageless Insight I felt like aura of silence is more of a traditional control card. I actually don't care to tax my opponents plays with this deck and while the Naturalize on demand is fine, I think I am ok just being down a control card and pushing a little harder on my draw potential.
- Academy Ruins → Scavenger Grounds I looked at my artifact selection a bit more and I realized I just didn't really care much to use the utility of Academy Ruins all that much. I felt like my enchantments were more likely to be reloaded so I like adding this extra bit of graveyard hate as I felt like I was still a bit light being I am a mill deck.
- Hostile Hostel → Blast Zone oops Hostile Hostel has black color identity. I thought it was colorless or blue for some reason but I had it wrong. I think that Blast Zone plays to the keep answers up kind of concept I was going for here.
- Hedron Crab → Disorder in the Court so, in hindsight I sort of expected more from the crabs than they actually delivered. They mill three to six (fetchland) in a turn and that is about all they do. It isn't enough and I need to cut both crabs even the one that can mill each opponent for 3-6 in a turn its just not enough. Lots of my enchantment mill can spin up and start doing significantly more work than that in a turn when I combine them with additional cards. I want to explore a little more token creation and after looking at it for a bit I think I do like Disorder. Disorder gives me a little bit of interaction that might be able to throw a combo off, strip tokens, or disrupt a commander briefly. It seems like a card that could be used in a handful of ways.
- Ruin Crab → Ethereal Investigator similar to above I found the crabs to underperform for me. I am not quite sure on this creature but I figure I should push for a little more draw / clue token stuff and I think that the blockers it could create could possibly be useful.
- Altar of Dementia → Witch's Oven sac outlet for sac outlet. I did actually get to use Altar once in my testing but it wasn't actually very impressive to me as a mill outlet. I did end the game by milling for roughly 40 at the end with it but I think its like, barely passable sac outlet until the very end of the game. What I like about the oven is that it makes artifact tokens which can be used by numerous things that care about my artifacts in this deck and the small increment of lifegain is something I find somewhat lacking in the deck currently. Moving from a two mana sac to a one mana sac also is a big deal for several of the artifact tutors as well which before now would have had to get Expedition Map into a sac outlet land so its a much faster option that I find more appealing.
- Search for Azcanta → Leadership Vacuum I just wasn't impressed with search. I was forgetting its triggers among all my things and even if I wasn't it just isn't the kind of card I need. I think that a little bit of disruption from leadership seems appealing especially given that it comes with a cantrip. I think a fast proactive or temp plan could really be a problem for this deck and I think Leadership is the type of interaction that I want to hit an opponents commander with rather than something like Swords to Plowshares which has more versatile targeting but a little less desirable effect on a commander. So, I trade off cheap and broad interaction for something a bit more narrow but still powerful that comes with a little bit of draw.
- Comeuppance → Cast Out in my games tonight I realized how awkward Comeuppance is paired with the propaganda effects that I went heavy on. It makes it hard to en mass counterstrike a big attack. I had been eyeballing Cast Out for my enchantment package already and its something I like in this sort of a deck anyways so lets just bring it in.
- Tezzeret the Seeker → Trinket Mage I think this is just a touch faster. I don't know what my hope with Tezzeret is I don't run that many artifacts and outside of getting my sac outlets I don't really feel like I need an artifact tutor. With adding the oven to my one drops I think it makes sense to drop this down as its faster and fits the curve a little better.
- Enlightened Tutor → Dowsing Dagger // Lost Vale I have a lot of redundancy in my artifact / enchantments package and I also struggle a little to maintain my card advantage in the early parts of the game. I just felt like I didn't really need this tutor so lets throw a little more ramp in and call it good. I am not really sold on the dagger by any means but I just figured when in doubt hit up some more draw / ramp and call it good lol.
- Heliod's Intervention → Academy Manufactor I love heliod's Intervention but the card is more of a traditional control effect. I realized that with this deck I am mostly looking to ignore what my opponents are doing only intervening right before they can lethal me. This means I want my interaction to be as broad as possible in nature and so while Heliod's Intervention is good.... I was looking for more things that can interact with sort of anything. I also felt like my interaction might be a little heavy handed right now given the nature of how I am trying to interact I wanted to just go a little more linear and add some more ramp. I am not really sure about this add but I think it hits on things I want to be doing which is drawing, ramping, and gaining life. Its another creature and he is cheap so it adds to my recursion options.
- Erdwal Illuminator → Anointed Procession I realized I was adding a bit more that makes tokens and the creature was just too limited. Some of my new additions create multiple clue tokens in one go and I also have some treasure / food token production so Procession helps all of those things as well.
- Echoing Truth → Unexpectedly Absent Truth can be a big deal vs tokens but I think against non tokens its a lot narrower of an answer. I like that I can absent to topdeck and then mill through whatever I threw up there. With all of the Propaganda and last ditch defense options like Cryptic Command I felt like I wanted a slightly better outside of tokens answer.
- Rewind → Spell Swindle I was contemplating cutting Rewind for something other than a counterspell but I think the treasure production from swindle is tempting. The hard part is using it on things I need countered rather than just trying to cash in for value token production. I will give it a shot and just see how I feel about it.
- Victory Chimes → Sun Titan Chimes seemed good on paper. It wasn't as helpful as I had hoped though given a lot of the time I want to keep my options open until the last second and then have mana throughput then. Sun Titan can help recur a lot of important pieces of the deck as well as ramping me on lands if drawn early not to mention the option to potentially rez him with Emeria or rezing Emeria.
- Mesmeric Orb → Grinding Station I am REALLY not confident in cutting Mesmeric Orb but it has been a little awkward in how much it mills me as well as how I can't really control how well its doing and who its milling hard. All of that comes down to how opponents decks work and how they are tapped the turn I play it which while it is powerful its kind of all over the place on how it performs. Grinding Station is something I didn't really get around to testing but I had some upfront issues with my artifact token creation ability which I feel fairly good about now after a number of changes. I think its ability to untap a bunch is also interesting and it could work with a few artifact enablers with that effect. I need to bring it in for testing to see how it runs and now seems like a good time as I am feeling I need to add some mill for some I wanted to cut and test some different things out. Its possible I bring back Mesmeric Orb as it is powerful I just found that it wasn't the mill I wanted in most cases.
- Wall of Denial → Thaumatic Compass I love Wall of Denial but there are a lot of situations it doesn't quite work against (like big attackers). The compass can't repeatedly deter attackers but it can stop bigger / trampley attackers and when not needed it is mana which is great. I considered just going straight to Maze of Ith but right now I don't think I need the jump in speed of active.
- Dreamborn Muse → Shadow Kin trying out some different mill stuff. I think the Shadow Kin is worse at milling but having flash is interesting and hitting each player on my turn with flash is also cool. The clone function seems interesting too and the fact that it exiles a creature means it could eat an eldrazi if it mills one which would be convenient if unlikely. Dreamborn was really not cutting it for me given how vulnerable to removal it is and how little it did if it didn't live a while (which it just wasn't for me).
- Tamiyo's Journal → Fractured Sanity the Journal is just a little too clunky for me. It costs a little too much and its token production is a little too slow. It is cool as a tutor but its still really expensive as a tutor so I think I will just go away from it. I considered if I wanted Maddening Cacophony for the power of milling but as I looked at that card I kept feeling like it needed to be drawn somewhat early to be of much use. Players draw cards and I have other mill effects and when you look at drawing it later it probably won't be very impressive. I like how Fractured Sanity can give me a small mill on cycling and if drawn later a mill 14 effect for cheap still seems quite useful. In this sense, I felt like it had a lot better function both early and late which is what sold me on giving it a shot.
- Blast Zone → Serra's Sanctum I constantly wasn't using Blast Zone. Some of this might have been due to my objectives of this deck, the lack of token kill options with it, or just having good card draw. Either way I just didn't feel like I actually wanted Blast Zone for this deck and I want to try out some additional ways to generate more mana which Serra's seems interesting for.
- Fog Bank → Lion Sash I really do love Fog Bank but I think to some degree the spot removal of the deck can also step in for the cases that I want and need Fog Bank. Its a cheap defense which is great but I just see SOOOOOOOO much swarm style overrun type tactics that the situations that Fog Bank shines are somewhat few and far between. It is good at turning random titans and such back but honestly I can take some hits here and there from that sort of thing. I think that Propaganda effects also do a good job against just making it annoying to come my way though too. I have some high hopes for the lion and I also think that in a lot of cases where Fog Bank can hold things at bay the Lion can also serve the same function. The lion does lack flying but it can still equip Dennick and sit on defense in a pinch and its ability to brickwall non flyers seems probably better than Fog Bank.
- Cast Out → Tamiyo's Compleation there are pros and cons to both. Tamiyo's can target all but enchantments which could be targeted by Cast Out but I think its removal effect is more desirable for me. Its ability to make cards do nothing and be locked up in play and still making them die to sweepers is mostly a positive change for me. I added Cast Out in part to expand Academy Rector's package while also just being a fairly reasonable tool for decks that keep mana up. I have high hopes for this new enchantment and I think its ability to lock up commanders is something I like over the slight bump in targeting options as well as cycling that Cast Out offers.
- 1 Island → Otawara, Soaring City for most purposes this new land is identical to an Island when played as a land. It has more options most of the time. The downside will be if someone is playing Blood Moon / Back to Basics / Ruination sort of things but its generally something that socially is frowned on enough that I don't have to worry about it.
- 1 Island → Prismatic Vista this is a small change but in short I am prioritizing my plains count slightly due to Emeria, the Sky Ruin. More fetchlands also help with some of my recursion and I even have a small bit of landfall triggers in the deck.
- Hall of Heliod's Generosity → Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx I just haven't ever really felt that I needed Hall of Heliod so I am going to cut it for now. I had done this in my paper previously and forgot to mention this swap. Nykthos is really nice in any situation that it makes additional mana. Its downside is that it taps for colorless otherwise but I think its a small enough thing that I like how much of an upside it has when it does its thing.
- Mystic Sanctuary → Temple of the False God I don't really feel like this is the sort of deck that needs to loop back specific spells. I think I like Mystic more in decks that have more proactive rather than reactive spells. Also, I want more mana.
- Trove Warden → Angel of the Ruins Trove Warden wasn't really working out for me after having seen it a few times. I just wasn't impressed by what it did and the setup it needed. Adding in Angel of the Ruins here for an early game cycler that still has a very relevant later game cast option answer that could also be stumbled into with a rez.
- Serra's Sanctum → Timeless Dragon Sanctum was.... ok but I was mostly finding it to tap for 1-2 mana potentially. I don't think its quite good enough with my current enchantment count. It is a bit odd to cut a land for a nonland but I plan to cycle the dragon essentially every time making him sort of like a land still. I like that the eternalize gives me an option to get a blocker / attacker still out of him after already discarding him. We will see if the commander trigger for a clue is relevant enough but its something I wanted to test.
- Anointed Procession → Smuggler's Share I did a little reflecting on some of my effects that require token production to be happening and while they can be really good, if I am not set up they don't really do anything. Even though I have been pushing a little more other token generation into my list I still think I should probably cut back on this given how inconsistent it can be. I like how Smuggler's Share seems powerful and it should function on its own.
- Thran Dynamo → A Little Chat the extra mana generation stuff is good but not really until I am set up and I have on more than one occasion had issues getting my commander to the backside. I think that this new draw / sac option seems ok in that if I don't need to sac my commander its probably a tad weak but if I don't need to do that then I am probably in a better position. If I do need to sac him the draw seems very reasonable and I set up to play him from his backside.
- Dowsing Dagger → Confounding Conundrum I have been meaning to hate on lands a bit more for a bit. Landfall.deck has been invading the hell out of my meta of late and Conundrum feels like it has very little downside to the card even when its not amazing it still cheaply cantrips.
- Angel of the Ruins → Deep Gnome Terramancer the potential return of the Terramancer is much higher and my total land in play count does matter. I don't know what to expect back from it but I think the potential of this little guy as far as total ramp is really good. The better my opponents decks the more likely he will trigger a few times for me.
- Thorough Investigation → Loyal Drake I don't mind investigation making me clues but it can be sort of time consuming to get to more draw and I didn't find myself enjoying micro manage the dungeon stuff. I just want something a little more compact that will give me some card advantage.
- Timeless Dragon → Archivist of Oghma I have no clue how easy it is going to be to draw cards off of this new dork but I guess its time to test it out. I feel like there is going to be a lot of variance from meta to meta but I guess we will see.
- Wipe Away → Banishment Wipe Away has been borderline on getting cut for me for a bit now. I do like its ability to break through interaction but bounce is often not enough for me in a single target situation. Banishment being able to interact with a whole token army is appealing so lets give it a shot and see how the flexible effect works out.
- Archivist of Oghma → Trickbind I wanted a little more for interaction against combo decks and right now a lot of the ones I am seeing seem like they can be shut down by Trickbind. Archivist has not been impressive in my testing.
- Sun Titan → Space Marine Devastator I am not really sure on the Devastator but its a creature based answer that can scale sidways and create some creatures that can block / be saced to make clues. I just haven't been feeling Sun Titan in this deck lately as it makes assumptions that my opponents interact with me rather than trying to race.
- Tamiyo's Compleation → Fog Bank with the addition of Banishment I think I am ok with just having one of the two of these answers in and while Tamiyo's is far more powerful I think I prefer the broad answer over the more powerful commander answer given that I try to play pillow fort with this. My shift back to using Fog Bank in my 99 is in part due to shifting what metas I play in again and seeing more powerful single card threats than I did in my previous meta. Fog Bank can still suffer from opponents using large size + trample but I think something to keep large attackers at bay is still useful for this concept and its something I want just a touch more of I think for now. Its also worth mentioning that I feel like I see a little less of the overwhelming commander focused decks right now where as in the past there were a few more commander centric decks that could really run
- Collective Restraint → The Golden Throne the propaganda effects haven't been doing as much for me lately and I have wanted more sac outlets and means to stall off death via combos. I don't know that its great but I want to test it out.
- Whir of Invention → Read the Runes Whir has been more awkward than I had thought it would be. Early on it can function as a sac outlet by tutoring up Witch's Oven but the problem there is that its a 4 mana play which is ideally when I would want to flip Dennick. Beyond that it also can be really rough having by turn 4 and I think that has been the larger issue I have had with Whir. As games go late I don't really have anything super juicy that I find myself wanting to have Whir to go and get for me but I guess its funny that I could have instant speed grave hate it just hasn't been as impressive as I have wanted it to be. Read the Runes gives me the early game sac option still and I like how it can work with the mill whenever I draw effects too. The option to sac tokens as an option to bloat my hand up is good too and its something I get to decide after I see the cards I have drawn. I think its an interesting early and late concept that I want to give a shot.
- Emeria, the Sky Ruin → Plaza of Heroes I have had a very hard time setting Emeria up to function in this deck. I think that Plaza as a means to protect Dennick is probably safer and I think it still fixes well for what I need to accomplish in the early game while being a land that enteres untapped at every stage and producing mana which is enough for me to be happy including one. Its possible that I might want to still cut one of the always tapped fetchable dual lands I was trying to run to support this.
These next changes are all related. As I decided to cut Diamond Valley and Emeria, the Sky Ruin from my list I decided to add a package to the list that can conflict some with enabling Emeria to function. The below package of three lands is an opening hand Weathered Wayfarer setup that I like to do that starts with T1 Weathered Wayfarer. T2 tutor and play Flagstones of Trokair. T3 tutor and play Lotus Field ramping off of Flagstones. T4 tutor and play Thespian's Stage using it to copy Lotus Field. This is a four turn opener but it results in being -1 total lands but those lands tap for 7 mana with 3 lands in play. I have used this in other decks that don't have a strong early game strategy and while it does interfere with playing and flipping Dennick I think its a viable opener and wayfarer can still get High Market or other ramp like Temple of the False God / Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. - Diamond Valley → Lotus Field
- Glacial Floodplain → Flagstones of Trokair
- Prismatic Vista → Thespian's Stage