Because I’d like to improve my decks without spending any money, I added proxies (substitute cards) to the Muse Vessel deck from last week. Obviously, I won’t be playing in any tournaments, so using proxy cards is a great way to test the waters of certain cards or decks without buying them.

My very experienced friend Chris made a few suggestions for how to fix my deck, so I took some cards out: Telepathy, Fabricate, Whiplash Trap, and Parallel Thoughts. They really didn’t add enough to the deck to merit keeping them. I also added some in proxy form: one more Eye of Nowhere, three Ponder and three more Remand. Chris had also advised me to remove Tezzeret the Seeker, but I kept that card because of his ability to untap two artifacts.

I must say, the deck is now much more playable. By removing the unnecessary cards and adding seven cards that require two or less mana, it’s easier to get this deck rolling. Cards like Boomerang, Eye of Nowhere, Exhaustion, etc. allow for enough of a head start that there is time to cast Muse Vessel, Annex or Confiscate.

And how did the deck do in actual games? I lost pretty quickly against an Infect deck, which was an unfortunate start. I also lost against a Burn deck, though that game was much closer and thus more satisfying. However, winning against my Elf deck was the highlight. Annex and Confiscate actually helped the most with that win—sadly, I drew no Muse Vessel.

Overall, I’m much happier with this deck having followed Chris’ advice. Now I just need to get rid of the proxy cards—it’s possible I have the real cards somewhere in my collection, but finding them is a different story.

Anyway, here is my revised Muse Vessel deck (67 cards):

Creatures—4

4 Temporal Adept

Other spells—38

4 Annex

4 Boomerang

4 Confiscate

3 Exhaustion

4 Eye of Nowhere

4 Fellwar Stone

4 Muse Vessel

3 Ponder

3 Remand

4 Repeal

1 Tezzeret the Seeker

Land—25

2 Seat of the Synod

23 Island