Tops Down//Bottoms Up: Tripled-Threats

Welcome to Thursday, the new home to EDH process and construction theory. Here at "Tops down // Bottoms up" I'll be taking you through two of the most common deck assembly methods along with the individual strategies of each.

Today we're going Bottoms up with Melek, Izzet Paragon the weird wizard. I can already feel the wheels turning from the art alone. I mean, how many guilds created a champion to run the maze?

Full art Game-day awesomeness!!

At 4UR for 2/4, Melek "izzen't" exactly a mid game threat. He has no evasion, no built-in protection, is obviously Legendary, and doesn't have a relevant battlefield trigger in or out.

Like a true red-blue man, his strength comes from his
three abilities.

First ability gives us an effect similar to  Future Sight, which is somewhat of a "drawback." For most players, is free, relevant information dictating what's to come. So there will be no surprises, save timing.

Our second line of text gives us the end game here, which is Instants and sorceries. This is a nice color pie addition, considering that casting stuff off the top has been mostly a Green boy's club recently, with Garruk's Horde and Oracle of Mul Daya being much more relevant and splashy when compared to Magus of the Future and the previously mentioned card he's named after.

Melek's third ability though is where we get to talk actual card advantage, because this is the place our Weird Wizard friend is going to shine. Getting copies of spells could and should be a big deal. Since the ability triggers at the point of casting, Counters become less relevant to him, which seems pretty good to me. Short of a Flusterstorm, Counterflux, or the ever-elusive Mindbreak Trap, getting to work with spell-spells seems like a relatively comfortable game.

But doubling the spells isn't enough. Rather than make him a Commander, we're actually going to give him a dance partner to further his casting frenzy. Cause double-casting "all the way across the sky" isn't enough. We need to go to almost Triple-Casting.

What does it mean? Well, it means we're gonna lead with Riku of Two Reflections.

How fortunate that it loves Instants and
sorceries

Entertaining the Melek focus, we'll add "Scry" as the core effect to this design. Scry was introduced in Fifth Dawn and included this neat little Enchantment, Eyes of the Watcher. For 2U and (1) for each spell you cast you get to set up your next spell for Melek to copy and since we pay extra for entwine, kicker, and buyback spells, Eyes of the Watcher should be no problem.

Having a creature like Galvanoth who allows you to cast the top card if it's a sorcery or instant without paying will trigger Melek to double it. So multiplying direct damage spells like Lava Axe can lead to a quick end for an opponent without protection, which normally don't see play in EDH due to cost and effect ratio. Milling is another cool tactic that's much stronger in U/B, but doubling a Traumatize doesn't seem too shabby either.

Since Melek and Riku are both needed for the Triple casting we need them out, protected and working quickly. Seasoned EDH players know nothing good stays on the field for too long, but optimally, tutoring for Melek and putting spells on the top of your library with Mystical Tutor help bring your combo down fast. if you have to leave them on the field for a bit artifacts like Swiftfoot Boots, and Lightning Greaves provide protection temporarily while Asceticism grants Hexproof and select Regeneration. Leaving your combo pieces out in the open for too long usually ends badly so making sure you have the protection before hand or the game winning spells at the ready is advised.

Moving outward from the core we look at the "mantle," which will be the part of the deck that's more fluid and interactive. Essentially it's going to be removal and counterspells with a few select creatures to keep our hand afloat and recur spells. This is what makes up about 50% of the deck and where you find players metagame "staples" as well as personal favorites.

Melek's mantle would have other "future sight" type cards such as Oracle of Mul Daya to move land cards or Lurking Predators to cheap creatures into play from the library to both thin the deck and perhaps find an instant or sorcery to cast. Adding Flash-ability enablers like Leyline of Anticipation or Alchemist's Refuge can keep the pressure on your opponent while they wonder what you might have waiting for them because sometimes having a good bluff can keep you alive.

Working farther out brings us to the Top, or the "crust". Riku, of Two Reflections likes both creatures and spells to copy. Since spells alone don't bring the game to an end having multiple versions of Non-legendary creatures can overwhelm your opponent while also multiplying "Enter the Battlefield" effects. Doubling Season or it's more affordable version Parallel Lives triple on the creatures you cast by granting additional tokens. Getting 3 Aether Adept's to bounce threats or blockers out of the way grant you tempo advantage. Getting Eternal Witness two sisters can dig you out of a hole or set up your winning hand.

Wrapping up here we get to flip this right side up and check everything Top Down. Do we have good synergy with Riku and Melek together? sure. Can the deck survive on its own? Absolutely. Will the desired effect work in real time? no doubt. The Core-Mantle-Crust theme for Melek works well together with the support of creatures that like Sorcery and Instant spells, like being copied and keep the heat off the main desire of the deck. I expect Melek, Izzet Paragon to find his way into a few Riku decks with some Scry mechanics fueling some combo's, I know I will!

Join me next week when I go over basic color theories spanning from single to the tri-colors in a two part series called Color Theory! See you then!

- Johnny Confidant