Hakim's Enchanting Story Club [EDH]

[Oversoul]

I had this idea in the early months of 2022, but didn't own all of the various auras I thought that I might want to run, so I abandoned the deck idea at the time. Well, I'd only run a single mono-blue deck all year (The Reality Chip), and felt like doing another one. So, here we are.

I've never really understood why Hakim, Lorewaver isn't a more popular commander. Both as setup for a Voltron-style stack of auras with lethal attacks and as a combo enabler with cards like False Demise, Hakim seems decently strong. How will my approach play out? We'll see. It won't be super-fast, but it should be deadly.

Commander:
1 Hakim, Loreweaver

1 Abduction
1 Abjure
1 Academy Researchers
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Aura Finesse
1 Aura Graft
1 Auramancer's Guise
1 Barrin, Master Wizard
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Brainstorm
1 Claws of Gix
1 Corrupted Conscience
1 Counterspell
1 Crab Umbra
1 Crown of the Ages
1 Crystal Chimes
1 Curator's Ward
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Drake Umbra
1 Dreamscape Artist
1 Echo of Eons
1 Eel Umbra
1 Eldrazi Conscription
1 Enchantment Alteration
1 Evacuation
1 Fabricate
1 False Demise
1 Flight of Fancy
1 Flooded Strand
1 Fool's Demise
1 Force of Will
1 Freed from the Real
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Illusory Gains
1 Imprisoned in the Moon
1 Intuition
1 Iridescent Drake
22 Island
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1 Lat-Nam's Legacy
1 Magus of the Bazaar
1 Mana Drain
1 Maze of Ith
1 Metamorphic Alteration
1 Millikin
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Otawara, Soaring City
1 Pemmin's Aura
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Polluted Delta
1 Private Research
1 Protective Bubble
1 Rayne, Academy Chancellor
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rhystic Study
1 Rootwater Matriarch
1 Rootwater Shaman
1 Sage of Mysteries
1 Sapphire Medallion
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Sol Ring
1 Spellskite
1 Stratus Walk
1 Strip Mine
1 Thirst for Meaning
1 Time Spiral
1 Timetwister
1 Traveler's Cloak
1 Treachery
1 Vanishing
1 Volition Reins
1 Vow of Flight
1 Wasteland
1 Windfall

 

[Oversoul]

This deck has not had a fair shake. First game I got outclassed by big mana production early on at the hands of two separate opponents. Tried to fight back, but this mostly just ended up deciding which of the two would take over the game completely. Amusingly, I lasted just long enough to cause that opponent to lose to the fourth player in our pod. So I was the kingmaker. Second attempt with Hakim took place at a different table, and I got trounced by a deck that started taking lots of extra turns.

No luck yet, but I don't believe that this deck is a total failure.

 

[Oversoul]

Lost a game that I think I could have won, but botched because I was dumb. I had Hakim, Phyrexian Altar, and Treachery, with Intuition in my hand. But I played the wrong cards and used Hakim's ability on the wrong aura for no reason. I think that I could have gone infinite two turns earlier.

Mixed feelings on this deck and I'm frustrated, but I also kind of wonder what I'm even doing with it. Hakim isn't broken enough to slug it out with the high-power stuff that I often run up against, but too easily goes infinite with aura shenanigans for this deck to be a good fit in a slower, more casual pod. This isn't the first time that I've felt like I inadvertently designed a deck with no real home. But I'm thinking about it more because it's the end of the year and I'm looking back on my 2022 decks.

 

[Oversoul]

This poor deck still can't win any games.

 

[Oversoul]

Well, this deck finally got to do a bunch of stuff. While I did lose eventually, that's because Shorikai, Genesis Engine is broken. Hakim put up quite a fight.

 

[Oversoul]

Finally, a win! Dreamscape Artist ramped me like crazy and Hakim did exactly what he was meant to do. My auras kept interfering with any attempts my opponents made to attack me, and I was able to play a slow, controlling game. Finished the last opponent off by loading Auramancer's Guise and a bunch of other auras onto Hakim for commander damage. Like, this deck actually looked really good for once.

 

[Oversoul]

Won a game after some back-and-forth gave me an opening to use an infinite loop with Academy Researchers + Fool's Demise. I had my misgivings after Academy Researchers kept turning up as a dead draw in previous games, but it really proved itself this time.

 

[Oversoul]

I was thinking of taking this deck apart, but I really don't want to have it go out on my last game with it, so I think I'll keep it around for now. The game was the most boring one I've had in a long time and I should have realized it sooner and scooped, but I stuck around until the end. I had a lackluster start and nothing I tried really worked, but I was probably only playing for 5 to 7 minutes out of a game that took more than 2 hours. My opponents killed swaths of time with complex turns that mostly didn't threaten each other or really even do much to kill me. Maybe I should just not play with people who are going to habitually take 20-minute turns and cast extra turn spells doing so. Seriously, that's on me. There were other tables at the store. In fact, lots of folks were playing last night. It's just that I got there earlier than most of them and had already stood around waiting for a pod, so I didn't like the prospect of doing it again.

 

[Oversoul]

I had another lousy game with this deck. Worst one in a while, actually. My third-turn Rhystic Study painted a target on me and drew me some cards, but somehow I never actually drew any configuration of cards that gave me hope for a win or event playing a strong control game. At one point, I had over 20 cards in my hand. Didn't matter. All those cards weren't doing anything.

I'm especially frustrated with this deck because I think that I did a decent job building it and that Hakim should be a reasonably decent commander. But despite all the good cards, this deck fails way more often than not.

 

[Oversoul]

I really should scrap this one for parts, since it's taking up so many great cards and the deck as a whole has mostly just made me sad. Well, how about instead, I revise the list?

-1 Barrin, Master Wizard
-1 Crab Umbra
-1 Drake Umbra
-1 Freed from the Real
-1 Glen Elendra Archmage
-1 Magus of the Bazaar
-1 Protective Bubble
+1 Grim Monolith
+1 Ledger Shredder
+1 Mana Vault
+1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
+1 Protean Thaumaturge
+1 Solemn Simulacrum
+1 Lion's Eye Diamond

 

[Oversoul]

Well, I'm happy with the changes. Won a close game thanks to Eldrazi Conscription beatdown. I blundered and I think I had a rules error go my way, but I guess my opponent also kind of did. So things got a bit weird for a bit there, but I can't blame Hakim for that. Just need to play better.