I Played 3 Rounds with ForceofPhil's Immortal Magician Combo

ForceofPhil has written about his recent success with Immortal Magician Combo. I built the list and played it to a 1-2 finish across three rounds against air Magician (win), air water Necromancer (loss), and mostly earth Geomancer (loss).

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

Estimated decklist cost: $675.05(USD, via Scryfall)

Opens TCGPlayer Mass Entry with the full decklist pre-loaded.

Select Sorcery: Contested Realm as the Product Line, then click Add to Cart.

Takeaways

I need to play more Sorcery: Contested Realm (SCR). This was my first official event, so I was also unfamiliar with some cards and strategies. Disenchant or Dispel blew me out when I could have played differently.

For example, I should have given my Cores to submerged Frogs or moved my Magician when I didn't need to deploy a site. I don't think meta knowledge would have affected my mulligan decisions much, but I had no inkling whether an opposing avatar was likely to be minion-based aggro or not.

Pros

Magician is definitely my deckbuilding style. I come from Magic: The Gathering, which I still play frequently, so Magician feels like a natural progression into SCR. I played a casual event the prior Saturday, talking about how I would build Magician.

Simple things like playing all the Cores, since Magician can utilize them without 'giving up' a spell, made sense to me. Being extremely greedy with the generous mulligan rule SCR has is beneficial for Magician, which is why it felt like so few sites/mana sources could work.

I think combo can exist, but the tools for a turbo variant don't seem to exist yet, which is good, since everything is sorcery speed.

I really liked casting Common Sense to tutor for sites, which only Magician can access. I may expand the Common Sense package to include general removal.

Cons (or things I executed poorly)

I could not kill things to save my life, and it depended on it. In round two against Necromancer, I was constantly beaten down by Skeletons and Ludbog Cat. It didn't help me that I was effectively stone-rained by a couple of Swaps early on.

I had an opportunity to Silver Bullet Poison Nova, but they had a Failed Mutation that I couldn't get rid of, which put me to Death's Door the following turn.

In the third round against Geomancer, my Atlantean Fate was in hand since the beginning of the game, but every site with a minion on it was Ordinary, including my Tower.

The mini-combo of Croaking Swamp and Sunken Treasure is cute, but is a combo to draw two cards where card advantage is for SCR? It was difficult to mulligan for the combo and the early card advantage combo.

Sunken Treasure felt awful anytime I couldn't make a Frog token and/or after turn three. The Frogs had a higher floor as a mana source, a means to spread out where carriable artifacts were deployed, and a way to enable Dhol Chants.

I may see what other Magician options exist since the threshold restrictions are tight without Wiccan Tools.

The lynchpin for both combos is Kythera Mechanism, which is fine and makes some cards absurd. I had a game where The Immortal Throne was ticking up, and I couldn't see an avenue to get to the -mana spell without access to Chaoswish.

I did not like Silver Bullet because of the tap restriction. Not sure what the power difference is for Collection targets, but I may look at a Toolbox or Ersatz Platz package.

I may have been able to squeeze a different outcome from round three against Geomancer, but I had spent my Browse for Morgana le Fey before they cast King of the Realm. I drew Grandmaster Wizard the turn after that, so it wasn't meant to be.