Skittles

[Jacob Orlove]

Also, multicolor cards aren't automatically .5

Something like Mystic Snake (*if* it were legal! - it isn't!) would be 1/3 green and 2/3 blue.  Good luck pairing that one up with something to make the color count match up.

I don't think that sensible, a straight half/half for a 2 colour card is good enough, otherwise no-one's ever playing Flamekin Zealot at WRR1.

Bah.  You didn't invent the format.  Scott used to say it was the mana ratios printed on the card.  If you play Flame-kin zealot, you're obviously playing more red than your other colors.

So what's the consensus on this? I'd like to play Congregation at Dawn, but not if I have to also run Lord Magnus.

[Philatio]

Also, multicolor cards aren't automatically .5

Something like Mystic Snake (*if* it were legal! - it isn't!) would be 1/3 green and 2/3 blue.  Good luck pairing that one up with something to make the color count match up.

I don't think that sensible, a straight half/half for a 2 colour card is good enough, otherwise no-one's ever playing Flamekin Zealot at WRR1.

Bah.  You didn't invent the format.  Scott used to say it was the mana ratios printed on the card.  If you play Flame-kin zealot, you're obviously playing more red than your other colors.

So what's the consensus on this? I'd like to play Congregation at Dawn, but not if I have to also run Lord Magnus.

I think I might have to cave in to Simon on this one just to keep you from having to play Lord Magnus ::shudder::.  It certainly opens up more deckbuilding opportunities, which is a good thing, in my opinion.

But something like Dragon Charms of course are still 1/3 of each of their color.

Phil

[Prometheus]

I decided to give Skittles a try. It looks fun. This is my first list...
so everything is a bit random

Artifact:
Clamp
Vial
Shard
Wayfarers Bauble
Pyrite Spellbomb
Sunbeam Spellbomb
Fellwar Stone

Green:
Viridian Shaman
Thunderstorm Battlemage
Phantom Centaur
Elves of the Deep Shadow
Quirion Elves
Sakura Tribe Elder

Blue:
Trinket Mage
Ninja of the Deep Hours
Impulse
Stormscape Battlemage
Stormscape Apprentice

White:
Raise the Alarm
Leonin Squire
Steelshapers Gift
Treasure Hunter
StoP
Auriok Salvagers

Red:
Fire Imp
Ghitu Slinger
FTK
Imperial Recruiter
Gorilla Shaman
Darigaaz Breath

Black:
Unearth
Reanimate
Twisted Abomination
Bone Shredder
Nightscape Familiar

Gold/Split/Guild:
Psychatog
Dimir Guildmage

Lands:
Gemstone Mine
Mirrodins Core
Dimir Aqueduct
Golgaro Rot Farm
Boros Garrison
Krosan Verge
Mishras Factory
Treetop Village
Ghitu Encampment
Faerie Conclave
Mountain Valley
Rocky Tar Pits
Terminal Moraine
3 Forest
2 Plains
1 Mountain
2 Island
1 Swamp

[Jacob Orlove]

You have one too many artifacts.

My Skittles list is finally turning into something decent to play, so I should have a sideboard of some kind put together in time for Waterbury.

[That0neguy]

How does sideboarding work for skittles?

Because if you have to keep the ratios of cards the same color you will have either 12 or 18 cards and not 15 and therefore an illegal SB.

So you either have to have different sized sideboards for skittles or use some lands in the SB for filler (or non basics if there are some you would actually want to SB)

Also when SBing you must keep your deck legal (ussually by not bringing in more than 4 of a card (1 of a restricted) or banned cards), so do you have to SB out a card of a certain color to put a card of that color in?  If it is legal to mess with the color ratios after SBing you could lean the mana base twords a color you are going to side into more of.

[Philatio]

Sideboarding with skittles is pretty straightforward.

The sideboard is 15 cards; there are no color restrictions on the cards themselves.  You could have an all green sideboard or an all artifact sideboard if you wanted.

Post sideboarding, your maindeck must be legal.

So if you take out a green/white and a white/red card, you could put in a white card and a green/red card.  Basically you put back in the colors you take out.

I've never been motivated enough to build an actual thought out sideboard.  Simon has spent a lot of time doing that.  Sideboarding out multicolor cards is always tricky.

[Jacob Orlove]

Okay, I have a near-optimized maindeck (I think) and an attempt at a sideboard. If we get enough people at waterbury, we can probably get a side event day 2. Otherwise, I'll just play anyone anytime when I'm not judging.

[Philatio]

Okay, I have a near-optimized maindeck (I think) and an attempt at a sideboard. If we get enough people at waterbury, we can probably get a side event day 2. Otherwise, I'll just play anyone anytime when I'm not judging.

Alas, I think work intervenes and keeps me from going to this Waterbury.  An actual skittles event might have swayed me otherwise before I made some other plans, but it's too late now.  Doh!

[Hi-Val]

I think the fractionization of mana costs beyond .5 is really pedantic. If I wanted to run Rakso's Charm, I don't want to have to run 4 other mediocre cards to support it just because its mana cost is .333 in each color. The half-cost does add a lot of elements to deckbuilding; making things .666 and .333 is way draconian and stands against the spirit of the format, I think. In any case, it gets in the way of me deriving fun from the format, which is what I feel the main goal of it is.

Do you want the format to be fun or a pain in the ass to build for?

[Jacob Orlove]

I agree for stuff like Congragation at Dawn, but making the Dragon charms an all-or-nothing proposition is actually pretty cool.

[Hi-Val]

It's cool, but it constrains deckbuilding. Under my system, Rakso's Charm would count as a card and a half, so one could run 5 charms and cover 7.5 card slots. The question is why anyone would do this. If I could use the charms to fill my blue requirement and save on half a card, all I do is open up space further in the deck for more lands, which is kind of pointless. If they were counting as 1.5 cards, then it would add even more to the deckbuilding process because one would have to eventually run another card with an odd number of colors to balance it. THAT is pretty interesting.

Otherwise you could just go with the 5-Color style (gold cards represent one and only one color) but then you can use F/I and Gaea's Skyfolk to cover your blue in an aggro deck and end up running 20 red creatures by cheating.

[Philatio]

Do you want the format to be fun or a pain in the ass to build for?

Well, to be frank, the deckbuilding is most of the fun of the format.  That and playing under the influence of a pitcher of beer or so.

The thing I like about the format is that there are so many constraints.  You have to EQUALLY play all 5 colors.  You have to play cards that have NEVER been rare.  You have to play cards that aren't restricted.  You have to play highlander.  That makes it challenging (to you that might mean "hard" but to me that means "fun") to make a GOOD deck. The format challenges me as a deckbuilder far more than it ever has as a player.  Most of the fun I derive from playing is based around "oh, what is in your deck?  how to work around the cost of that?  what did you have to cut to put in this better card?" in a form of showcasing good decks.

By your logic, I should be able to play Serra Angel because for most of its printings it was uncommon, she is fun, and I'm too lazy to try and find another white card.  Or I should be able to play Tinker, because by all rights, if it isn't getting something broken (ARE there any truely broken skittles-legal artifacts?), it is a fun card.  Even if it is restricted, it's uncommon.  I think the constraints on deckbuilding are one of the most important aspects of the format.

To me, I think you can argue that a card that has ONLY two colors in its cost (a la Congregation at Dawn) can just be considered 50/50 - that is certainly fair, to make some cards like that playable.   And I certainly don't feel like I can say "congregation at dawn is clearly twice as white of an effect as it is green, so it should be 2/3 and 1/3".

But to say something that has ONLY three colors in its cost (a la dragon charms) is something other than  .333/.333/.333 is sort of dumb.  It isn't a two color card - what about the other color that is in the cost, does that just not exist?  Should I be allowed to have three discrete modes on a card that clearly match on the color pie to three discrete colors at no penalty (ie - get a black effect on a card without having to count it as part of a black card)?  I don't think that makes sense.  You might as well call Spite/Malice just blue or just black.

Same goes for the 5-color method.  If you count a gold card as only ONE of the two or more colors on the card, that makes deckbuiding far too easy.

The way I see it, now with the guild mana symbols, split cards (and there will be 15 more split cards in dissension), sunburst and the recent influx of multicolor-type cards, you have more than enough ways to "cheat" the color rules in a fair way without making them obsolete.

[Hi-Val]

Putting aside all the straw man arguments in your post regarding things like Serra Angel and Tinker, I can understand the position that it adds to the deckbuilding process. That said, it effectively makes the charms unplayable unless someone wants to run all five. The only one I'd honestly want to run would be Rakso's (Dromar's) Charm, and having to run 4 other cards that I am nonplussed about for it would effectively make it banned, as it would only show up in decks for flavor.

Perhaps you didn't read my previous post that running the charms where each color counts as .5 means that you have to invest more in running an individual charm because it eats up a half of  a color requirement without physically being another card. That is to say, you fill up your colors faster and free up space for other things; problem is, those "other things" can only be lands. That doesn't seem like an advantage to me. Whatever though, if people want to make it a game of fractions they can and I didn't invent the format, so if you want to make the Charms an "all or nothing" venture then go ahead. I think it adds a considerable amount of deckbuilding skill when you make them all .5/.5/.5 instead of .3/.3/.3 because then people need to run other cards with an odd amount of colors instead of being pidgeonholed into just running charms if they want to run a single one. Running Dromar's Charm, Darigaaz's Charm and Lightning Helix and being set sounds infinitely better than being stuck with cards you don't actually want in your deck but you have to put there because you want to run one.

Can I run Mana Drain in my deck, by the way? U1, not from an "older set" listed on the Skittles page, etc.

[Jacob Orlove]

Actually, the winning deck from the only skittles tournament I've seen any kind of results for had all 5 charms, for whatever that's worth.

[Nomad]

I think the fractionization of mana costs beyond .5 is really pedantic. The half-cost does add a lot of elements to deckbuilding; making things .666 and .333 is way draconian

Personally, I think the appeal of something being .666 is a great thing.  Maybe we should allow Demonic Tutor after all...

Jacob's "Eternal Witness Abuse" deck basically got me every time I played it, despite having a whole one way to find Witness.  Some other guy borrowed my deck, and then played himself out of the win by insisting on swinging with Mother of Runes.

Aaron built a deck, but we didn't get to play all that much.  One game he got 3 fast Hondens and ripped me a new one, the other he basically should have tapped my Mother, but instead got a mouthful of Etched Oracle.

And then in Team Trivia we fucked up and failed to write Ticking Gnomes down on the "name all 8 creatures of type Gnome" question. (answer below, highlight)

(Ticking, Copper, Quarum Trench, Patchwork, Clockwork, Ersatz, Bottle)

[Jacob Orlove]

I usually use either beige or #EFEFEF for background.

My deck actually has a lot of other engines it can get going: avalanche riders with crossroads or reclamation or shard is savage, clamp with any of my token generators (or Shambling Shell) is hot, and crossroads or reclamation plus etched oracle is awesome. I'm going to write an article on my deck/the format for SCG soon, though.

[Nomad]

I usually use either beige or #EFEFEF for background.

My deck actually has a lot of other engines it can get going: avalanche riders with crossroads or reclamation or shard is savage, clamp with any of my token generators (or Shambling Shell) is hot, and crossroads or reclamation plus etched oracle is awesome. I'm going to write an article on my deck/the format for SCG soon, though.

Colours are sorted.

SCG might be cool.  The more exposure the better...

[Nomad]

I've been thinking about your inclusion of Perplex (not listed above, from real playing, imagine that...)
I think there's really much to be made of Transmute in the format.  Honden decks could do worse than to run Brainspoil, I think.  Drift of Phantasms is probably really good anyway, I'd rather run it than Perplex, but it must address what else is in there colourwise.

Phil - you can of course transmute Dizzy spell into whatever 1 cc artifact you might want...

[Jacob Orlove]

Transmute is crazy good in this format, but don't forget to run Diabolic Tutor first if you can support double black cards. I really like Perplex because it doesn't take double of either color--clutch of the undercity and dimir infiltrator are nice in that way too.

So, just for fun, my decklist:

Green:
Eternal Witness
Yavimaya Elder
Thornscape Battlemage
Civic Wayfinder
Sakura-Tribe Elder

Black:
Phyrexian Reclamation
Haunted Crossroads
Gravedigger

Blue:
Drift of Phantasms
Ray of Command
Trinket Mage
Exclude

Red:
Flametongue Kavu
Fire Imp
Avalanche Riders
Lightning Bolt
Thunderscape Battlemage

White:
Orim's Thunder
Seed Spark
Swords to Plowshares
Humble
Radiant's Dragoons

Artifact:
Skullclamp
Aether Vial (best card in the deck, seriously!)
Sensei's Divining Top
Etched Oracle
Crystal Shard
Infused Arrows

Gold:
1 each of G, B, W, R:
Selesnya Guildmage
Shambling Shell
Skyknight Legionnaire
Spontaneous Combustion
2 each of B and U:
Moroii
Dimir Guildmage
Perplex
Clutch of the Undercity

Lands:
Wasteland
Mishra's Factory
Gemstone Mine
Mirrodin's Core
Boros Garrison
Gruul Turf
Dimir Aqueduct
Izzet Boilerworks
Orzhov Basilica
Golgari Rot Farm
Selesnya Sanctuary
Snow-Covered Forest
Snow-Covered Island
Snow-Covered Swamp
Island
Plains
Swamp
Mountain
Forest
Tranquil Thicket
Pendelhaven
Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
Blasted Landscape
Skarrg, the Rage Pits

[EnialisLiadon]

This is my control list--I'm new to the format and my manabase is giving me trouble.  Any advice?

1x Etched Oracle
1x Isochron Scepter
1x Pyrite Spellbomb
1x Skullclamp
1x Sunbeam Spellbomb
1x Wayfarer’s Bauble

1x Bone Shredder
1x Rend Flesh
1x Terror
1x Unearth

1x Deep Analysis
1x Impulse
1x Propaganda
1x Stormscape Battlemage
1x Trinket Mage

1x Eternal Witness
1x River Boa
1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
1x Thornscape Battlemage

1x Avalanche Riders
1x Breath of Darigaaz
1x Flametongue Kavu
1x Slice and Dice

1x Auriok Salvagers
1x Ghostly Prison
1x Mother of Runes
1x Raise the Alarm
1x Swords to Plowshares

1x Hull Breach
1x Dimir Guildmage
1x Lightning Helix
1x Moroii
1x Putrefy
1x Savage Twister
1x Selesnya Guildmage
1x Terminate

1x Ancient Tomb
1x Boros Garrison
1x Dimir Aqueduct
1x Gemstone Mine
1x Golgari Rot Farm
1x Mirrodin’s Core
1x Mishra’s Factory
1x Selesnya Sanctuary
1x Terminal Moraine
1x Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree
3x Forest
3x Island
3x Mountain
2x Plains
3x Swamp

[Jacob Orlove]

Your list is definitely short on manafixing. I'd look closely at Putrefy, Hull Breach, and Savage Twister--you can probably cut two of them to make room for something like Kodama's Reach.

Salvagers seems pretty weak, since he's often just 3W to draw a card, if you have everything set up properly. Aren't there better options, especially since it stops you from running awesome artifacts like Crystal Shard?

Do you have enough instants for Scepter? Impulse is your only pure card advantage engine (Unearth and Raise the Alarm can be good, but that's mostly if you also have Skullclamp), and Lightning Helix is the only one that will go to the dome. I'd question Hull Breach, Rend Flesh, Breath of Darigaaz, and Putrefy, since all have comparable instant-speed options.

Finally, I'd consider some of the invasion CIP tapped duals. They're really good, although just running more of the ravnica block Karoos is probably fine too.

[EnialisLiadon]

Yeah, I think nostalgia of my casual cog deck forced me to put the Salvagers and stuff in...

Would Civic Wayfinder be better than Kodama's Reach?  I think I'm a little short on bodies here, and I'd really like to get Aether Vial in (as more creatures with CIP's + Crystal Shard + Vial = secks).

For artifacts, I'll go -2 spellbombs, +1 Aether Vial, +1 Crystal Shard.

-Hull Breach, -Savage Twister (though I hate to see it go), +Civic Wayfinder...+Lightning Bolt/Incinerate/anothercritter?

I'll put some more work into the mana base and test it.  Thankee!

EDIT:  -Salvagers for...Orim's Thunder?  Another critter?

[Hi-Val]

Fellwar Stone and Wayfarer's Bauble deserve slots in pretty much every deck I think. If you're focused on two colors by running lots of gold stuff in those colors, the Talismans could come in handy as well. If there's something I've learned from Five that applies here, it's that all the busted stuff costs 4 and so anything that gets you there faster is pretty good.

[Mr. Nightmare]

So, I like it.  I've been looking for a good casual format, and even drafting Unhinged is getting old.  So here's my first attempt at a deck, and I'm hoping for A) Feedback on the deck, B) verification that it's legal, and C) To open up a few eyes to cards I haven't seen on lists.  Without further ado:

GREEN:
Sakura Tribe Elder
Thornscape Battlemage
Kodoma's Reach
Eternal Witness
Honden of Life's Web

RED:
Avalanche Riders
Thunderscape Battlemage
Flametongue Kavu
Lightning Bolt
Honden of Infinite Rage

BLUE:
Trinket Mage
Impulse
Muddle the Mixture
Deep Analysis
Honden of Seeing Winds

BLACK:
Shred Memory
Haunted Crossroads
Phyrexian Reclamation
Cabal Therepy

WHITE:
Swords to Plowshares
Orim's Thunder
Mother of Runes
Honden of Cleansing Fire

ARTIFACT:
Æther Vial
Skullclamp
Fellwar Stone
Crystal Shard
Etched Oracle
Wayfarer's Bauble

MULTI: (1xG, 1xR, 1xU, 2xB, 2xW)
Perplex
Selesnya Evangel
Mortify (or Soul Link)
Lightning Helix
Lim Dul's Vault
Terminate
Sterling Grove

LAND:
Crosis's Catacombs
Darigaaz's Caldera
Rith's Grove
Dromar's Cavern
Treva's Ruins
Gemstone Mine
Mirrodin's Core
Wasteland
Mishra's Factory
Nantuko Monastery
Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree
Shivan Oasis
Coastal Tower
Salt Marsh
Elfhame Palace
Urborg Volcano
Archaeological Dig
3x Forest
Plains
Mountain
Swamp
Island



There you go.  The two things I wanted to point out are the Lairs and the Transmute cards, both of which are probably underused.  The Lairs provide less tempo loss than the Rav. lands, and mana fix like no one's business.  You don't have to return a tapped land, so you can still use the land you return.  Savage synergy with Gemstone Mine.  The transmute cards are tutors for basically creatures and Shard.  In a pinch they get Terminate or Helix.  If I've got Hondens, then they can tutor up Grove to keep them safe.  I would like to fit in more basic lands, but at this point, I'm not sure its worth it, since the lands I'm using are better at fixing mana.  Thoughts?

[Jacob Orlove]

A couple quick comments:
Why a mono-black transmute spell over Diabolic Tutor? One more mana, complete flexibility. Muddle the Mixture is a bit more reasonable, but now you have a bunch of random double-mana spells in different colors, which makes them very hard to cast if you draw them. Focusing your heavy mana requirements on one or two colors means that you have much more information about what you're likely to draw, which makes land fetching much easier. For example, between Shred and the black enchantments, you'll have a hard time going wrong with a second swamp, but that makes Muddle much harder to cast.

I think the most playable transmute spells are the U/B ones, because in this format it's easy to get many different colors on the board, but much harder to double up on a specific color. I really like Perplex, but Dimir Infiltrator and Clutch of the Undercity also could be strong.

Selesnya Evangel is pretty weak with so few creatures, and in any case is pretty much strictly worse than Selesnya Guildmage at all times.

Oh, and speaking of weak cards, get that Cabal Therapy out of your list. This is a highlander format--it is going to miss 90% of the time, if not more.

Simon runs the Lairs, but I don't like them much. Here's a comparison chart, assuming 4 basics versus 3 basics and one lair/guild land on the play:

Basics:
Turn 1 Basic (1 Mana)
Turn 2 Basic (2 Mana)
Turn 3 Basic (3 Mana)
Turn 4 Basic (4 Mana)
Turn 5 Nothing (4 Mana)

Lair:
Turn 1 Basic (1 Mana)
Turn 2 Basic (2 Mana)
Turn 3 Lair (3 Mana)
Turn 4 Basic (3 Mana)
Turn 5 Basic (4 Mana)

Guild Land:
Turn 1 Basic (1 Mana)
Turn 2 Basic (2 Mana)
Turn 3 Guild Land (2 Mana)
Turn 4 Basic (4 Mana)
Turn 5 Basic (5 Mana)
(normally you'd play the Guild Land on turn 2, but I didn't want to introduce too many extra variables)

The key difference is that while the Guild Land puts you at -1 mana for the turn you play it, you're at the correct mana counts on all future turns, and eventually you actually get extra mana out of it. The Lair doesn't cost you any mana the turn you play it, but it puts you behind on mana up until one turn after you would have run out of lands to play, at which point you're finally back to your regular mana count.

Guild Lands actually produce card advantage (effectively acting as two lands), Lairs do not. Guild Lands have an upfront cost, but then work normally, while Lairs have no immediate cost but offer severe long term penalties. The only real advantage of the Lairs is that they tap for three different colors of mana, but the guild lands tap for both colors at once--it hurts when your lair is your only source of black and red and you're holding Terminate, for example. Overall, I can't imagine playing Lairs over the Guild Lands.

[Mr. Nightmare]

Thanks for the reply.  Here's what I've come up with.

Basically, you're right on all counts, which is why I was looking for comments from more experienced players of the format.  I'm just getting used to the card pool, so I completely missed the Diabolic Tutor.  I'm so used to it sucking, it never occurred to me. 

-1 Cabal Therapy
+1 Diabolic Tutor

The Evangel was for token generation a la Skullclamp, but her mana requirements are more difficult to obtain than the Guildmage, and although the effect takes more mana to generate a token, it doesn't constrain your other creatures, so she gets the nod.

-1 Evangel
+1 Guildmage

The lairs are cute, and in the long run I may switch them back in, but at least for testing purposes, I'll give the guild lands a try.  Based on the amount of mana I believe I'll need, I've switched to:

-5 Lairs
+ Dimir
+ Selesnya
+ Golgari
+ Orzhov
+ Gruul

Along with that, I've cut the Archaeological Dig and added 1 Swamp.  I may go to 61 cards and add a second basic Island, but I still am on the fence there.

-1 Shred Memory
-1 Muddle

+1 Infiltrator
+1 Clutch of the Undercity

Again, mana issues win out over utility.  The added benefit of Infiltrator being a body doesn't hurt.

[Nomad]

Simon runs the Lairs, but I don't like them much. Here's a comparison chart, assuming 4 basics versus 3 basics and one lair/guild land on the play:

I'm totally onboard with the guildlands, but as you'll recall, my deck is all foil, so it's taken me a while to find them.  Plus beyond grabbing my skittles as I left for Waterbury I haven't really played it very seriously of late.  My attempts yesterday were thwarted when my prospective opponent couldn't find his deck...

Mr Nightmare's deck - black Honden is quite good enough for inclusion, even over and above some of the other black cards you're running.  I like the potential of Selesnia Evangel, picked up a foil one the other day in case.  If Saprolings are in, Skullclamp definitely is...

Phil's been in hospital, so send him some good wishes in a PM and we'll drag him to spring Waterbury for a side event.  Harriet, Ultima and some of the Jersey Coast guys are probably on board too.

[Hi-Val]

I'm writing an article on the format for SCG-- what would you like to see in it? I am giving a rundown on why it's the best format ever and talking about general deckbuilding strategies and what makes good cards.

[Nomad]

I'm sure I responded saying any exposure was good regarding the SCG article.  Card analysis would be good.  Generally the best cards are card advantage strategies.  Manabases tend to mean not everything can be played all at once, and not many cards per turn - I think this partly diminishes card drawing as a premier strategy - the likes of Dimir Guildmage are good, but it's usually better to play an FTK or Avalanche Riders and recurse it.

I'm running Skittles as a side event for Type 1 on 12th March in Princeton, info in thread here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=27302.0
If you can mention that on SCG too, that's fine and dandy by me...
 
Jacob - you did say you might make it...

[Jacob Orlove]

Okay, I played a test game with 6 Guild lands and I was manaflooding like crazy. They are awesome, but they also let you run a lot more utility lands and such. I'll have to figure out what to include. Oh man are they awesome with gemstone, too.

That was an odd game, though, because I had nothing better to do than recur Yavimaya Elder three times and put every basic land from my deck into play, plus some guild lands, factory, and krosan verge. I had something like fifteen mana on the table and I still had gemstone mine in-hand. I would have crushed Kowal with Dimir AND Selesnya Guildmages, but he Fireballed me out.

Edit: I changed my list above to a more theoretical one. Drawing cards is bad because they could be more lands, so Deep Analysis turned into Drift of Phantasms after all. A creature transmute should be really good with my whole recursion engine, too.

I put in a couple of cycling lands so that I can later bounce and cycle them with the Guildlands.