This has been a long time coming. You all know by now I have my Legend of Zelda EDH deck, Link of the Many, and with how much I talk about it, you would think it's my pride and joy of a deck. You would be wrong. As much as I love the flavor of the deck and tweaking in new story elements from the video games, my first love when it comes to my decks is my Patron of the Moon/Moonfolk EDH deck.
The Soratami have been my favorite tribe since I got started in Magic. Ask anyone who knows me, and they will tell you I have an [unhealty?] obsession with the moon and the color blue, so it was kind of a no-brainer for me to identify with them. It started out as a casual 60 card deck, but when I decided to make an EDH deck, it was kind of obvious which deck would get augmented first. I now give you my baby...
Creatures (24):
-Moonfolk
Uyo, Silent Prophet (alt. General)
Meloku, the Clouded Mirror
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
Soratami Cloudskater
Floodbringer
Oboro Breezecaller
Moonbow Illusionist
Soratami Rainshaper
Soratami Savant
Soratami Mindsweepet
Soratami Mirror-Mage
Oboro Envoy
Soratami Mirror-Guard
Soratami Seer
-other
Keiga, the Tide Star (come on... a TIDE dragon... in a MOONfolk deck... there is NO better flavor than that...)
Kami of the Crescent Moon
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
Azami, Lady of Scrolls
Hisoka, Minamo Sensei
Graceful Adept
Grand Architect
Trinket Mage
Adaptive Automaton
Planeswalker (3):
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Jace Beleren
Tezzeret, the Seeker
Spells (22):
-Enchantment
Training Grounds
Gravitational ShiftXenograft
Tidal Flats
Favorable Winds
Honden of Seeing Winds
Parallel Thoughts
Archmage Ascension
Mind Unbound
-Instants
Cryptic Command
Tidal Wave
High Tide
Gush
Moonlace (it's flavor people... plus I'm waiting for that one moment where it does something to screw someone over)
Boomerang
Oppressive Will
SquelchDeluge
Hinder
Redirect
-Sorceries
Counsel of the Soratami
Sleep
Artifacts (11):
Sapphire Medallion
Sol Ring
Storm Cauldron
Amulet of Vigor
Adventuring Gear
Moonring Mirror
Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang
Crystal Ball
Coat of Arms
Isochron ScepterRing of Evos Isle
Lands (39):
Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
Minamo, School at Water's Edge
Riptide Laboratory
Reliquary Tower
Academy Ruins
Magosi, the Waterveil
Buried Ruins
Faerie Conclave
Cephalid Coliseum
Haunted Fengraf
Seat of Synod
Islands x28
So let's talk about things a little bit. First of all, why did I choose the Patron and not one of the actual Moonfolk? Well, flavor was one reason. Patrons are supposed to be the epitome of the tribes they represent (at least in my mind). It's high (and ever increasing) mana cost can be seen as a deterrent from using it as a general, but his Moonfolk Offering ability allows you to cut his price in half.
The Patron of the Moon also has the unique ability of making up for one of the largest short comings of the moonfolk: the cost of their abilities. Almost all of the moonfolk have some kind of activated ability that requires returning a certain number of lands you control to your hand, in addition to a mana cost. With the Patron's ability, you can mitigate this by replacing two of the lands you returned, or just spam in lands at instant speed.
Yes... at instant speed. Anyone remember a little mechanic from Zendikar known as Landfall? How would you love to hit multiple Landfall triggers at once... on your opponents' turns? Hence why I have Adventuring Gear and Tideforce Elemental in the deck. Why just those two and not more, like Roil Elemental? Because it got degenerate. Thanks to two artifacts, Amulet of Vigor (searchable with Trinket Mage and Tezzeret) and Storm Cauldron, you can go infinite on mana, and yes, Landfall (i.e. "At the end of your turn, I use Roil Elemental's Landfall trigger to steal that creature... and that creature... and that creature... and tha- oh, you scoop?"). I allowed Tideforce Elemental to stay out of the sheer flavor (again, Tides and Moonfolk go hand in hand), and Adventuring Gear because while I can make the equipped creature stupid big, none of them have trample, so they can just be chump-blocked.
Now, here's where things get really fun, and where I am planning on taking this deck int he near future. If I want to maximize the flavor of this deck (which is what EDH is for me: building with flavor), I think Arcane spells would be amazing additions. I actually had them in the deck for a while, but everything was too spread out; trying to do too many things at once. So I am trying to make it a bit more streamlined with the Arcanes, which is another huge reason I love having Isochron Scepter in the deck. Besides being able to Imprint a High Tide on the Scepter, Imprinting an Arcane spell will allow you to continually have something to Splice onto. Here are the Arcane spells I am looking to include:
Disrupting ShoalEvermind
Consuming Vortex
Eerie Possession
Psychic Puppetry
Reweave
Veil of Secrey (Ok... so I lied about chump-blocking when I go infinite with Adventuring Gear ;))
Eye of Nowhere
Ideas Unbound
Murmurs from Beyond
Peer Through Depths
Petals of Insight
Reach Through Mists
Sift Through Sands
Stream of Consciousness
Toils of Night and Day
This is also why Uyo, Silent Prophet would make an excellent alternate General. There are also a few other "Tide" cards that I am working on slotting into the deck.
So that's my Moonfolk EDH deck, and I love this thing to pieces. It is the only deck I care about foiling out (I normal just pass on the foils since they go for way too much, just to fall off later), and I will trade things I need for other decks just to get pieces for this deck. Case in point, when Sword of War and Peace was at it's peak (~$40), I traded it straight up for a foil Keiga, the Tide Star (~$25). It is so much fun to play, and it's quite amusing to see the looks on people's faces when I reveal my General and they just sort of cock their heads a bit.
Now go out there and moon some people...
-JT
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