bananamancer

Hadn't really thought of the archivist, but that could be pretty nasty with the weirding. Not sure what cantrips would be worth playing; preordain or ponder, I suppose? hmm.

I like it. Why not gut shot or Bone saw?

I didn't realize that those were modern-legal. I will look into it.

Elvish Pioneer should probably be Veteran Explorer?

Have you thought about Coral Barrier? I always wanted to use that with the impostor and Quickling.

Needs Perilous Forays.

That's fair, though my thinking was that multiple mana rocks would help you cast more mana rocks and/or your lower-cost spells like Innocent Blood, Desperate Research, even Pox if you had enough of them out. You probably need to draw extra cards to make that happen, though. Hmm...

If it were me building around Desolation, I would try to get more nonland sources into the deck and maybe avoid big X spells (assuming that you're playing multiplayer with 20 life) and maybe use spells like Soul Feast to finish opponents, if not Dingus Egg or Ankh of Mishra with the Subversion-type effects you already have.

So what problems are you having with the deck and what constraints are you working with (budget, pre-Modern, theme)?

If you want to blow up all the lands and still win with damage, you could use Obliterate, Jokulhaups or even (maybe) Apocalypse followed by something like Nether Shadow or Ashen Ghoul. Your Pox deck had problems with creature swarms, right? Pyroclasm is good for a start, but you might want something like Pestilence or even Braids, Cabal Minion- she's a house in this kind of deck; I had a friend who ran her with Smoldering Tar back in the day and that was painful to play against.

Black Mana Battery and charcoal Diamond are nonland sources of mana, which helps you get around Desolation, as well as being repeatable where Dark Ritual and Lotus Blossom aren't, so there's that, even if they don't give you loads of mana, having enough of them can help you cast some of your spells without tapping a single land. But the battery especially is slow, so if you'e having problems with weenie rushes it might not be the way to go. :/

Thanks!

Yeah, the idea is interesting- commander but without the big spells... have as yet to play it, though. :/

Sure.

I figure with the life drain you have, the egg might not bother you as much, same with tainted Aether- you could just sac the fiend when it comes in. Spoils of Evil might also be a decent card to include, as might Charcoal Diamond and/or Black Mana Battery (to help you avoid tapping lands, but your mileage may vary)

Dingus Egg? Dingus Staff? If you start punishing your opponents for losing permanents then you might have a better chance of winning.

Unnerve and Cackling Fiend can keep your opponents disrupted as you build towards grinding them out.

I like this as a sort of counter for Eldrazi. Maybe Riot Control for burn? Forced Fruition might be a win condition but then there's the question of land.

Thank you for explaining the idea behind the deck. You only have 5 cards in the deck atm that do anything with Norin specifically (purphoros, confusion, chamber, pandemonium and warstorm), so the idea wasn't really obvious to me. When you're asking for help, the best thing you can do is make it easy for others to help you, even if you just copy/pasted the information instead of a link.

Anyway, that's water under the bridge at this point.

I'm not sure what the problem is that you're trying to solve- you clearly have an idea of what you want to do, the deck as listed (minus Imperial Recruiter since the site doesn't give a price for it) is $302 (With recruiter it's upwards of 5 bills). If it's about ETB effects/damage and you're trying to make it cheaper, your first change should be "add an Impact Tremors."

Blasting Station could also be a thing? Mogg Bombers might be useful, since the ability will deal damage for each creature that comes in, whether they get sacrificed or not. Kruin Striker could one-shot someone theoretically with enough triggers, as well, though it's not really taking advantage of Norin, but it's totally budget. Foundry Street Denizen is in-tribe and more or less (genesis tokens notwithstanding) does the same thing but without trample.

I don't understand why Norin is the commander (I didn't click the link, not going to; you should just explain how you would play the deck and don't make me do extra work helping you, lol).

You know that Imperial Recruiter is something like $250 on its own, right?

Blood Moon is another $40, and it hoses your special lands(ex: Valakut), Magus of the Moon is probably not good enough- play goblin Ruinblaster instead if you *really* need that many ways to stop nonbasic lands from doing whatever it is that you're afraid they're going to do. Swap Goblin Settler (another $40) with Avalanche Riders, maybe?

Is this just a Goblin deck with an off-tribe commander? It seems like it could just as easily have Daretti, Krenko, Purphoros or even Kiki-Jiki as a commander and do better...

From the command zone, yes, the dash cost increases, because you're CASTING it, the same way that if there was a Trinisphere out, it would cost 3 to dash him assuming no other effects were in play. If he's in your hand, he dashes normally.

And manray, you are right, the increase only matters when he dies/gets exiled, but it is there if that happens. Dashing Zurgo for 4 seems like a waste.

No, you can't... Dash is an alternative cost, so you're still casting it; it's not like Derevi's "put this into play from the command zone," which is an activated ability (like Reassembling Skeleton or World Breaker) and never increases.

Since you're casting Zurgo from the zone for its dash cost, you have to pay extra. If he's in your hand, you can do whatever you want.

Hmm. looking at it again, I didn't realize that you were only running 20 lands. That makes it a bit tricky to play a cmc 4 guy, and I also realize that you have no way to kill it and get the trigger that makes it useful, lol. Maybe it's not so good in this build.

What's the Darkblast for?

Driver of the Dead? I mean, it's not turn 2 instant win, but it actually puts the creature into play.

even serum visions would be good; anything that helps you dig for your stuff... Considerign that most of your spells will put 1-2 cards in the yard, delve cards would alos be good, i think.