Chaoswish Isn't Nearly as Chaotic as You Think Pt. 2

Check out part one of this series to see where the secondish edition of Throne Magician landed before evolving into this:

ForceofPhil's Throne Magician

Aura (1)

1 Atlantean Fate water water

Artifacts (19)

1 Amethyst Core
1 Aquamarine Core
1 Ruby Core
1 Onyx Core
1 Kythera Mechanism
1 Ring of Morrigan
1 Four Waters of Paradise
1 Shrine of the Dragonlord
2 Silver Bullet
4 Wiccan Tools
3 Sunken Treasure
1 The Immortal Throne
1 13 Treasures of Britain

Minion (8)

1 Highland Princess air air
2 Fey Changeling water
1 Lady of the Lake water water water
1 Morgana le Fey fire fire fire
1 Maiden, Mother, Crone water water water
2 Grandmaster Wizard air air

Magics (14)

1 Browse air air air
1 Pendragon Legacy earth earth
1 Plague of Frogs water water water
1 Occult Ritual air
2 Common Sense earth
2 Return to Nature water
2 Apply Alkahest air water fire earth
1 Pact with the Devil fire fire
2 Dhol Chants air air
1 Chaoswish water water air air

Collection (10)

1 Ferryman's Coin
1 Dredge water
1 Exhume earth
1 Poisonous Dagger
1 Fey Changeling water
1 Swap water water
1 Frost Nova water water
1 Raze fire fire
1 Scavenging Fiend fire
1 Poison Nova fire

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Zac and I deep dive into the above list in the video below:

This article will briefly explain why each card is currently on the list, how this strategy can be beaten, and options for combating those problems.

The Artifacts & Aura

Although Immortal Magician is a four-element combo deck, the majority of the list is absent any elements.

Wiccan Tools & Four Waters of Paradise

The backbone of the deck's functionality is Wiccan Tools. Although the combo comprises Kythera Mechanism, Chaoswish, and The Immortal Throne, it requires substantial resources to pull off.

The previous version of the deck used Fire Harpoons and Gift of the Frog to smooth the early turns and stunt opposing aggressive strategies. The card flow is necessary since Magician is subject to mana flood or screw since it cannot choose to always draw a spell like other avatars.

Wiccan Tools maintains card flow without any required threshold of its own and improves card quality by enabling casting denser thresholds.

Four Waters of Paradise acts as a fifth Wiccan Tools, but its "cantrip" is always going to be mana. That can be powerful when trying to chain spells up The Immortal Throne, but it is a one-shot rather than Wiccan Tools entire turn allowance.

The Cores & Shrine of the Dragonlord

The Cores don't need much explanation, but they're valuable for fixing and turboing the most expensive card draw in the deck.

Highland Princess is incredible in this deck as it can find combo pieces when your mana is developed or tutor for the missing threshold via a Core to help develop through the early game.

It is common to sandbag a Core later in the game as a "free" one-mana spell for The Immortal Throne.

Shrine of the Dragonlord feels like a necessary inclusion due to the threshold it provides, but it is typically bad in an already developed game because it doesn't provide mana until the following turn.

Ring of Morrigan

Of course, the game's most generically powerful card doesn't need much to warrant its inclusion, but in this build, it is even more powerful as a means to combat aggressive strategies. While not apparent at face value, the combo of Ring of Morrigan and Silver Bullet is the best removal suite in the deck since a Silver Bullet can tutor for Poisonous Dagger to make every spell cast lethal to a nearby minion.

Against aggressive Avatars that actively encroach on your territory, Ring of Morrigan is part of the Kythera Mechanism and Chaoswish combo. If the opposing Avatar is nearby, then those three pieces assembled can deal infinite damage to bring the opponent to Death's Door. Have Chaoswish always cast another copy of Chaoswish until they are at Death's Door, then Chaoswish for Courtesan Thais to win through Death's Door.

Kythera Mechanism

The only reason this deck exists. Without the Kythera Mechanism, none of the combos would work. 13 Treasures of Britain would not warrant inclusion, and Chaoswish would be relegated to kitchen tables.

Disrupting or removing the Kythera Mechanism is arguably the most significant pinch point for the deck. Ways to help defend against opposing disruption are to disrupt them first (e.g., Feast for Crows their Feast for Crows) or overload removal with spells like Replication.

The Immortal Throne

This is the win condition and is, in my opinion, the strongest option because it does not require your avatar to move, as the Kythera Mechanism and Chaoswish combo with Ring of Morrigan does. Additionally, The Immortal Throne ignores Death's Door.

13 Treasures of Britain

The most powerful draw engine of the deck when combined with Kythera Mechanism. The combo between the two allows you to draw a card for each ally you have in the Realm every turn of the game. Assembling this combo is often the primary plan after early development to bridge the game to The Immortal Throne.

Sunken Treasure

Sunken Treasure is the optimal early-game draw spell to help get through development. The ideal opening sequence is {Croaking Swamp on turn one to summon a Frog submerged, then playing one of the Towers or City of Plenty on turn two for access to mana for Sunken Treasure, which can only be conjured to your homesquare Frog.

Silver Bullet

Silver Bullet instead of Toolbox is primarily due to the aformentioned Poisonous Dagger combo with Ring of Morrigan and because of the two surfacing spells: Exhume and Dredge. If The Immortal Throne is destroyed, Return to Nature or Pendragon Legacy can recycle it to be drawn and replayed.

If The Immortal Throne is buried or submerged somehow, then it would not be possible to sit atop it to win the game without being surfaced. Prior to Gothic, the only way to surface a submerged The Immortal Throne was to turn the water site into a land site, so that The Immortal Throne was buried so that Undertaker could dig it up. Fortunately, the pair of exceptional spells via Silver Bullet solves this much more easily.

Atlantean Fate

Though it's a much-needed -mana spell for The Immortal Throne, Atlantean Fate is a mainboard way to combat Garden of Eden.

The Minions

The minions are much less thought-intensive than the artifacts, as their roles are more straightforward.

Highland Princess

The best minion in the deck, it is good early to help with mana and threshold development, can find Ring of Morrigna to stave off early aggression, and most importantly, is a functional second copy of Kythera Mechanism.

Morgana le Fey & Grandmaster Wizard

Although they have different mana costs, the purpose for their inclusion is the same: card draw. I consider these "action minions." In a game where card selection is rare, card volume is the next best option.

Fey Changeling

Fey Changeling is arguably the best unconditional tempo spell the game has to offer. It can be cast to any site and ignores Ward and Stealth. The important factor for this deck is that Fey Changeling can also function as proactive redundancy by bouncing any of your action minions.

The Lady of the Lake

The Lady of the Lake doesn't do much on her own, but is the absolute best uppercut after an initial right cross. She overperformed in the previous build by regrowing Sunken Treasure to a target site, essentially a -mana draw two.

She is even more powerful in this shell that leans on Wiccan Tools and a handful of mortals (e.g., [Highland Princess}, Morgana le Fey, and Grandmaster Wizard).

Maiden, Mother, Crone

This is the only minion in the build that could be something else, since it is the only minion that doesn't help further the deck's plan. I want a -mana spell for The Immortal Throne, and the lifegain is valuable. It is rare that it survives a turn cycle and rarer to have the luxury to sink mana for a pair of cards. The deathrite trigger is irrelevant.

The Magics

Much of the Magics function similar to the minions, in that they are card volume or selection. The Magics that aren't are combo pieces.

Browse & Pact with the Devil

Selection and card draw. Playable four and five-drops for The Immortal Throne are tricky to come by, so Pact with the Devil at mana is a boon.

Return to Nature and Pendragon Legacy

These recycling cards can help rebuild if a combo piece is disrupted and can stack the deck once it's been drawn through via Kythera Mechaism and 13 Treasures of Britain.

Currently, if the ability to win via The Immortal Throne is somehow stripped, then the recycling cards ensure you never deck and can replay any spell in the deck infinitely. If your opponent is unable to advance their board through the same spell cast infinitely, then they will deck out first.

Alternatively, if you've reached the point of the recycling cards enabling infinite Chaoswishes, you can cast Feast for Crows infinite times to banish the opponent's entire spellbook.

Occult Ritual

This inclusion is primarily for its combination with the recycling Magics to make infinite mana via Plague of Frogs on Standing Stones.

Plague of Frogs

Used as an enabler for the infinite mana combo above, defense against aggression, and bodies to tap to Dhol Chants.

Dhol Chants

With The Immortal Throne at five counters and an onboard Kythera Mechaism, Dhol Chants can lead to a win. Cast Dhol Chants to trigger The Immortal Throne to six counters, tap your allies to flip a bunch of cards with the intent of hitting Chaoswish.

Cast Chaoswish for free, trigger The Immortal Throne to seven counters, choose a -mana spell with Chaoswish (Death Dealer ensures your Avatar sits at The Immortal Throne alone), trigger The Immortal Throne to eight counters, and claim victory. #Exodia

Common Sense

Since Return to Nature puts cards on the bottom of the Spellbook, a shuffle effect to more easily find the recycled cards is valuable.

I could see leaning harder on Common Sense as a means to fix threshold by including an Ordinary site at each threshold — if you cast Common Sense, you already have earth , Croaking Swamp provides water (though you'll never need water since it is the primary element), and any of the Towers provides air . I don't see the need for any Ordinary fire site, since the action fire spells in the deck require at least fire fire .

Chaoswish

Read every other paragraph of this primer.

Apply Alkahest

The Immortal Throne is thirsty for four drops, and there is some amount of defense needed to bridge to the combo. At mana, we want to Dhol Chants into a win, so removal at mana makes sense. Apply Alkahest is strong, though I could see this becoming something else.

Sites

Croaking Swamp

This is the ideal site to play on your first turn. It sets up the Sunken Treasure opening.

The Towers & City of Plenty

These are the ideal turn-two sites to conjure Sunken Treasure to your homesquare Frog.

The Tower of Babel

Assembling the Tower of Babel can lead to some unbelievable turns. Free cards and free mana are degenerate, and degeneracy is what we covet.

Tadpole Pool

Free bodies are degenerate, and degeneracy is what we covet.

Mirror Realm

A second copy of Unique sites is degenerate, and degeneracy is what we covet.

Standing Stones

Necessary for the aforementioned infinite mana combo with Plague of Frogs, Occult Ritual, and a recycling spell.

The rest of the sites are for threshold. Optimally configuring the combination of threshold-producing sites is still a work in progress.

The Collection

[Ferryman's Coin}

Cemetery-hate, yes, but also a -mana spell to Silver Bullet to trigger The Immortal Throne.

Exhume & Dredge

Ways to surface The Immortal Throne should it get buried or submerged.

Poisonous Dagger

Excellent in combination with Ring of Morrigan.

Fey Changeling

Would play three copies in the Spellbook, but moving one to the Collection with Silver Bullet increases the Spellbook density while opening up another slot.

Swap

Swap is the best counter to an opposing Swap

Frost Nova

A much-needed -mana spell for The Immortal Throne that buys a turn against aggression to get to Dhol Chants.

Raze

A way to combat the Garden of Eden, which is extremely difficult to beat. Summoning a Frog from Plague of Frogs onto their Garden of Eden can then Raze it. It's narrow but worthwhile.