Deck # 2: The 13th House (EDH / Commander) [Revision 95]

"Astrology has no thirteenth house back home in England, Mother Pharika. It stops at twelve. So I turned to the tarot, and the thirteenth card of the tarot is Death."

Dr. Kylie Moriarty intercedes when her clone of Avacyn is attacked by a vengeful Vivien. Vivien kidnaps Kylie and brings her to Theros, planning to destroy her in her clone of Avacyn's stead. Once there, Kylie uses her magic to fight Vivien, as the two vie to become the master of nature. During the battle, Kylie reveals her discoveries about the ecological damage the planeswalkers are doing, and that planeswalkers are too dangerous to be free.

Kylie defeats Vivien, but doesn't kill her. Instead, she starts healing and soothe Vraska's wounds with medical treatment. This is soon discovered by Pharika, God of Affliction.

Kylie's medical knowledge outstrips even Pharika's, and so she invites the Brit to teach her all her surgical secrets, in return for being granted all of Pharika's knowledge of Theros medicine. The exchange of knowledge goes quite well, to the point where Pharika becomes the only deity Kylie considers to be real and worthy of worship.

 Vivien explains that before she kidnapped Kylie, she was following an energy trail and that the energy is only getting stronger and closer to Theros.  Pharika instantly prophecies that this will mean an attack.  Vivien challenges the two healers that all their medical mastery won't be of any use against an attacker. 

 Kylie and Pharika begin crafting clones, which attracts the attention of Erebos and Nylea.  They come intending to challenge, only to find they willingly allow Kylie to clone them and send their clones in to help.  She also produced clones of Bontu the Glorified, Rhonas the Indomitable, Nylea Keen-Eyed, and Erebos the Bleak-Hearted.  These god clones were to distract and control the coming invader until the work was finished.  

 Kylie's medical mastery brings forth powerful healing, complete with a clone of Defiant Bloodlord and several ways to bring the whole graveyard back.  With Vivien's help, she also creates a Helix Pinnacle.  Pharika convinces Vivien to sign Lilliana's Contract, then prepares a squadron of demon clones who provide knowledge in exchange for service.  Qasali Slingers loves this, because draw from the demons means cat tokens from Jolrael.  And at last, Kylie tells the lot that they should just prepare for a sneaky defense, making ready with anti-artifact creatures and spells.  Thus making good use of Liquimetal Coating, an Acidic Slime clone, a clone of Qasali Slingers and Jolrael, and six spells to work against newly metal-coated creatures in an emergency:  Natural End, Appetite for the Unnatural, Springsage Ritual, Krosan's Grip, Return to Nature, Naturalize, and Ruinous Intrusion.  Kylie realized Gaea's Blessing and Skullwinder would allow her to regain access to any of the seven that suited her.  

 A lot of sacrifices had to be made.  Losing the Witherbloom dragon broke my heart.  The loss of Vraska hurt this deck, but it does have other powers.  With Harvester of Souls, I have more control over the draw than I did with Kothophed, It is Mirrorpool and Selesnya Eulogist that prove to be this deck's real power.  While Mirrorpool sacrifices itself to make clones of any creature I have, from Farhaven Elf to Verdant Sun's Avatar, from Acidic Slime to Skullwinder, the real fun is when I make a clone of Rune-Scarred Demon or the production of even one cat token.  Once I have one clone, populate means I can have whatever amount I need at the time, which can erase an army that's attacking me (or at least erase the threats my gods can't block away) or let me go looking, first for the Archetype, then for whatever else is most helpful in the moment.  

Lifecraft Awakening works with Liquimetal Coating to turn an enchantment into a creature, allowing instant protection for Liliana's Contract, Death's Presence, Exquisite Blood, Rite of Passge, or any of the artifacts (Helix Pinnacle does not need such protection). Mind you, it only works when the Archetype is in play.

And now the final piece. Prototype Portal. To my own relieve, not only do I have one, but by sacrificing Vraska, I was able to include it. What does this mean? Frankly, it means Liquimetal Coating whenever I need it. It's all well and good to have one L. Coating on the field and Natural End or cat token away one adversary. But suppose I'm hit with more than one foe? Prototype Portal fixes that by giving me the option to make more L. Coating, so that I can stop an attack (or a broken combo player) by naturalising away up to seven 'artifacts', by populating the cat tokens, or any mix of the two. I've done the best I can.

 Let the 13th House rise.