Take the Apple, Dearie [EDH]

[Oversoul]

In my years of playing EDH, I've built three different incarnations of my Ramses Overdark deck. Earlier this year, I was rocking a Hakim, Loreweaver deck. So when a new aura-based commander came out, I couldn't resist. There were so many auras that I wanted to incorporate into this deck, but space was tight. If the deck performs well, I might tone it down and swap in more Old School jank.

Commander:
1 Eriette of the Charmed Apple

1 Academy Rector
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Animate Dead
1 Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist
1 Argivian Find
1 Arid Mesa
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Aura of Silence
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Casting of Bones
1 Chime of Night
1 Crown of the Ages
1 Crystal Chimes
1 Damn
1 Dance of the Dead
1 Danitha Capashen, Paragon
1 Darksteel Mutation
1 Death Watch
1 Demonic Torment
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Fallen Ideal
1 Festering Wound
1 Flooded Strand
1 Forbidden Orchard
1 Generous Gift
1 Ghoulish Impetus
1 Gift of Immortality
1 Godless Shrine
1 Grim Guardian
1 Hall of Heliod's Generosity
1 Hateful Eidolon
1 Heliod's Pilgrim
1 Kami of False Hope
1 Karmic Guide
1 Last Voyage of the _____
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Living Death
1 Marsh Flats
1 Martial Impetus
1 Maze of Ith
1 Minion's Return
1 Monk Idealist
1 Necromancy
1 Paralyze
1 Pariah
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Phyrexian Tower
8 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Replenish
1 Resurgent Belief
1 Sage's Reverie
1 Scrubland
1 Serra Ascendant
1 Serra's Sanctum
1 Sol Ring
1 Solitude
1 Songbirds' Blessing
1 Soul Link
1 Spirit Link
1 Strip Mine
1 Sun Titan
8 Swamp
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Tragic Arrogance
1 Transcendent Envoy
1 Treacherous Link
1 Unburial Rites
1 Unholy Indenture
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vampiric Link
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Victimize
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Wicked Visitor
1 Winds of Abandon
1 Windswept Heath
1 Witch of the Moors

 

[Oversoul]

Two weeks after building this deck, I finally got to play it. I ended up with some kind of illness the day after constructing this, so I didn't play it that week. Then the following week I had to repair the brakes on my car and ended up not playing any EDH. Well, today it was just one game with this deck, and not a great showing. I had to divide my attention somewhat because all three opponents presented some serious threats. One of those was a deck helmed by Bruna, Light of Alabaster. If you haven't seen a Bruna deck in action before, know that they can get pretty broken. Ultimately, I couldn't muster the resources to stop the Bruna player. Well, I might have been able to, but that would have left me open against the Nekusaur player. So it was a lose-lose situation for me.

 

[Oversoul]

Even worse luck for this deck. Tried it once on Wednesday night, but I ended up with a mediocre start of third-turn Eriette into fourth-turn Minion's Return. By that point, one of my opponents was already swinging at me for 20+ damage. It was only a three-player game, and two of us were essentially run over by big creatures with no recourse. Lame.

 

[Oversoul]

Finally got a halfway decent game with this deck. Unfortunately, I drew into a bunch of creature reanimation stuff when one of my opponents had Liesa, Forgotten Archangel on the board. Same opponent was doing creature recursion of his own like crazy, and I had no real outs against this. I held on for a long time and my deck's defenses proved to be better than I'd originally expected. But his commander was Piru, the Volatile. He gained well over a hundred life and was poised to gain more. No way was Eriette going to be able to keep up with that. It was an unwinnable situation.

 

[Oversoul]

This deck put up a fight in a long game, but couldn't deal with all the ridiculously convoluted shenanigans presented by one of the new "Dr. Who" precons. I'm already sick of those stupid decks. Anyway, when I originally constructed this deck, I sort of deliberately leaned into the extreme aura reliance, knowing that it would give the deck a lower power level. I could have opted for a more oppressive control strategy, but I figured instead of wiping the board, I'd let people keep their creatures as much as possible. What I find is that typical tables at me LGS are just too explosive for this forgiving playstyle.

I bought a copy of Retether specifically to put it in this deck, and I haven't done so yet. Still debating whether I'll keep the deck together or just dismantle it and move on for now. Retether will have other opportunities some day.