Copy of: Intet, the Dreamer: I Dream, and the World Trembles (EDH / Commander)

"Clouds are the soil, dreams are the crop."
—Kor saying
https://youtu.be/5sCoCB3-yuA

=== P L E A S E _ N O T E ===

I disassembled this deck in February 2020.

=== D I S C L A I M E R ===

This is meant as a strictly casual, budget EDH deck. I understand that the opinions on what is casual and budget vary, so let me make clear what I mean with these terms. This deck is budget insofar that the average cost of all cards which aren't basic lands is well below 1,- €. And it's casual insofar that it contains only the most essential format staples, no tutors (besides green's land tutors) and no instant-win combos whatsoever. Nonetheless, it is designed to effectively execute its game plan and to not durdle around; so it may still be too powerful for your local meta if the other players bring a Gerrard Capashen theme deck, an archer tribal deck and a Terese Nielsen art deck to the table (which would be flavorfully awesome, nonetheless).

=== I N T R O D U C T I O N ===

In the last few years I have built, played and modified many different Commander decks. I like each deck to have an interesting, maybe even "rogue" commander and its own, unique strategy to provide a diversified gaming experience for me and my playgroup.

What I lacked to this day was a strictly casual and budget EDH deck of the most simple kind: Ridiculously big, evasive creatures that just stomp all over my opponents. I really wanted to build such a deck (if only to finally find a home for my FTV Akroma, Angel of Fury and my Worldspine Wurm), but had difficulties in deciding which road to take. In which colors should it be? Who would be its commander? How will I get the fatties into play - ramp, reanimation, cascade? Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder provides answers to all three questions; but since I already run a Voltron deck (http://deck.tk/0alX2EZm), and a friend of mine is also using him, Yidris was no option for me.

At least I wanted the deck to be red and green. Red provides aggressiveness (haste!) and green the big monsters, along with all the mana ramping and fixing I might need. But of all the Gruul legendaries, none was appealing enough for me to use as commander. Radha, Heir to Keld and Rosheen Meanderer are interesting creatures, but want to be built around to a high degree and thus deemed too restrictive.

In Naya colors, there's Mayael the Anima; but while she is great at digging up fatties from the library, she doesn't reduce their costs by much. Paying six mana each turn for her ability is steep, since I won't be doing much else then, unless I have ten or more lands in play. And Jund's legendaries offer no help at all in regard to cheating big creatures onto the battlefield.

So Temur was my last hope. Animar, Soul of Elements would have been the obvious choice here, but is neither a strictly casual nor a budget commander. Maelstrom Wanderer is effective in his role, but has a CMC of eight and thus is joining the party too late for my taste. Plus, like Animar, he may also draw a lot of hate from the entire table.

The final outcome of the above decision-making process: I would build my deck with Intet, the Dreamer at the helm.

=== S T R A T E G Y ===

Intet's ability is nonspecific in regard to the card types I can play with it for free. This makes her a very interesting commander, since she doesn't dictate the path to go with her. While e.g. Mayael or Animar pretty much define a deck's strategy, Intet can support almost any deck archetype - beatdown, voltron, control, stax, whatever. I however wanted to build a stompy deck; so about two dozen big creatures, a lot of ramp to get Intet out fast and some protection and recursion to keep them all on the battlefield were obligatory for my list.

The mana base is as simple (and cheap) as possible. No Zendikar fetches, no Ravnica shocklands. However, I tried to limit the maximum number of lands that enter the battlefield tapped to ten (fetchlands included). This is still a lot, but at least I won't have more than one tapland in my opening hand in four out of five games.
I run a total of four utility lands. Moneywise, Encroaching Wastes is the cheapest possible answer to Glacial Chasm and its ilk, and the FNM promo version of this card looks gorgeous. Endless Sands may save two or three of my fatties from removal over the course of a game, while Scavenger Grounds deals with reanimator strategies. Both lands are deserts and thus can be tutored for by Shefet Monitor. Opal Palace is a mana fixer that enters the battlefield untapped, and may enable Intet to finish an opponent Voltron style.

My considerable mana ramping/fixing package mainly consists of well known format staples like Wayfarer's Bauble, Cultivate and Gilded Lotus. But there are some mentionable cards as well. Rattleclaw Mystic can provide six mana on turn four if played correctly. Recross the Paths is able to dig for ANY land and may be used multiple times with some luck. And Rebecca Guay's beautiful Elvish Piper recently replaced Fierce Empath, because more often than not I didn't need another fatty, but a cheap way to get one from my hand into play.

Effects for card draw and filtering are important for any deck, but the latter even moreso for Intet. Alas, I don't get to look at the top card of my library before I have to choose whether or not to pay for Intet's triggered ability, but since I want to get the most out of it, this is decisive information.
I always loved Druidic Satchel, but never found a spot for it in my "spikier" decks. Here it serves the purpose of getting any land off the top of my library before combat, so that Intet may hit something more useful. Oracle of Mul Daya would be better at this, but she's not budget, less versatile and dies to Doom Blade.
As far as I know, Brainstorm and Dream Cache are the only spells in all of Magic that let me draw some cards, and then allow me to put cards from my hand on top of my library. This is perfect for Intet, and a flavor homerun.
Crystal Ball and Stormchaser Chimera both allow me to scry before the combat damage step, and the chimera can get HUGE in the process.

For drawing extra cards I use spells which synergize well with the deck's overall strategy, instead of staples like Concentrate or Harmonize. Since the average CMC of my spells is 5, chances are that I get more than one use out of Research the Deep, especially when used in conjunction with Crystal Ball. Urban Evolution helps with ramping, Ugin's Insight synergizes very well with Intet, and Temur Ascendancy is just plain perfect for this deck. For obvious reasons, Drumhunter and Shaman of the Great Hunt were auto-includes. Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius is one of my favorite dragons and a great late game mana sink. He can refill my hand in no time and wreak some havoc while doing so. Etali, Primal Storm and Nezahal, Primal Tide can also provide a crazy amount of card advantage in multiplayer Magic. It's strange that Nezahal isn't a budget EDH staple yet, since Rhystic Study and Consecrated Sphinx are not for everyone.

My list has quite a few answers for a beatdown deck, which is necessary to make up for the time lost to mana ramping and fixing during the early game. My targeted removal spells are Reality Shift, Decimate, Dwarven Blastminer (to clear a path through any Mystifying Maze), Flameblast Dragon (also a great mana sink in the late game) and Terastodon. For mass removal I run Aetherize (if you have Cyclonic Rift use that instead), Steel Hellkite, Disaster Radius, Blasphemous Act, Scourge of Kher Ridges and Kederekt Leviathan. Scourge of Kher Ridges is great because it can be a reusable one-sided board wipe. Used with caution at the end of an opponent's turn, it may kill most enemy creatures while keeping my fatties on the board to swing for lethal on my turn.

You may have noticed that quite a few of my creatures have the Morph ability, which is intentional. If I get all the early game "love" of a fast aggro player, a Morph creature can provide a 2/2 body for 3 generic mana if necessary. In addition, if I don't draw enough lands and ramp spells early game or if Intet catches a Pacifism, Morph creatures allow for "payment by installments" - the Morph cost is usually cheaper than the casting cost of a creature. Last but not least, Morph is an awesome mechanic because of the mind games that can be played with it. Only I know whether that creature attacking you is just a Broodhatch Nantuko or a Krosan Colossus. Would you like to block? :^)

Besides Intet, my 99 contain another 25 creatures with power 5 or greater, among them the biggest non-Eldrazi tramplers in all of Magic: Ghalta, Primal Hunger and Worldspine Wurm. These two cost a few € each, but are worth every penny. Theoretically, Ghalta can be played for GG on turn five, if I manage to ramp out Intet turn four and have some luck with her ability. And the wurm is just plain awesome in regard to art, flavor and power. The new Impervious Greatwurm might be bigger and have indestructible, but Worldspine Wurm won't be stopped by some Reassembling Skeleton. Other remarkable, potentially huge threats in my list are Giant Adephage, a creature which absolutely can get out of control in no time, and Lorthos, the Tidemaker, a game ender who makes way for himself and all my other behemoths. I swapped Naya Soulbeast with Maelstrom Wanderer some time ago, because a) its reprint in Eternal Masters lowered its price to a reasonable level and b) I wanted another haste enabler. In addition, the Wanderer's double cascade ability has the potential to create a lot of momentum.

Last but not least, there are some utility cards in my deck that cover important capabilities.
First and most important: Protection for Intet and my other fatties. Obviously, I run Lightning Greaves, because reasons. Not quite so obvious, I also included Clout of the Dominus, which - while an aura with all liabilities - turns Intet into a hasty, shrouded 8/8, putting opponents on a three turn clock. For only 1 generic mana each, Spearbreaker Behemoth can give any of my fatties indestructible for the turn. And Stalking Vengeance makes any opponent think twice about removing my creatures, since it will deal massive amounts of damage to him or her in return.
If all these protective measures fail, I need some recursion to stay in the game. I already mentioned Endless Sands, which can not only save a creature from Certain Death, but also from Temporary Insanity. Moldgraf Monstrosity is a huge and cost effective threat, and its powerful triggered ability lets me regain a strong board position immediately after a board wipe. And last but not least, Seasons Past is one of my favorite green spells for EDH. Effective recursion and card advantage which in theory allows me to play my deck literally forever, all wrapped up in one neat package.
The last few cards I want to talk about work in the synergy department. My deck used to contain Warstorm Surge, which was a must have for any creature-heavy red deck until the release of Sarkhan's Unsealing in M19. In my opinion, this new enchantment will perform better in my list due to its place on the curve, the fact that it turns ten of my fatties into one-sided boardwipes, and because of its cast trigger instead of Warstorm Surge's ETB trigger - even when my creature spell is countered, I will still deal some damage. Strionic Resonator and Berserkers' Onslaught each trigger Intet's ability an additional time per combat, providing up to three extra cards per turn if I get both online. Other creature buffs in my deck are Mighty Emergence (why settle for mere enormity?) and Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma, as well as the already mentioned Shaman of the Great Hunt. And since I can also use a buff from time to time, Pelakka Wurm and Druidic Satchel replenish some of the life points which inevitably are lost over the course of a game.

=== E V A L U A T I O N ===

This deck is powerful enough to overwhelm opponents quickly, but also has the resilience to win long and stalled games. Sometimes though, due to its high mana curve, it is too slow for keeping up with my opponents, especially when Intet is continuously unable to connect with a player. However, her 99 provide huge plays and a ton of fun without breaking the bank.
If you like what you see or if you have any suggestions, please leave a comment or send a PM. Thanks for reading!