Thada Adel and the Lure of the Dark Side

Where do you start with new generals? How do you pick those generals?

I suppose each player is different, each chosen general has his or her own story. Thada Adel is my latest conquest and I have the nagging suspicion she has slowly but surely guided my steps onto the downward path leads to the dark side of EDH: Douchebaggery!

They say the path to Hell is paved with good intentions, it may possibly follow that the path to being an EDH douchebag is paved with artifacts. Once you start a deck with a goodly number of artifacts, the lure is always there to add one more. Then another. Sure, what's the harm? Of course, if you're playing expensive artifacts and Rings of Brighthearth, it's only common sense to include a Basalt Monolith and on and on you go until you have sold your car to pay for the Mishra's Workshop that the deck absolutely needs to function.

I find myself in that exact situation now. I've even discussed sourcing a "Very Poor" graded Workshop to go into the deck that already sports my most expensive individual purchase, a foil Tolarian Academy. The devil on my shoulder is quite persuasive and very pervasive and has made me aware that this can be done, even allowing me to keep my car (though eating until the end of the month may be an issue, and by "end of the month" I mean April, of course).

Now, I'm a grown up. I know that this is not important, nor necessary, and is essentially just a sop to my ego, the ability to, one day, start a game with "Workshop, Something, Go" and witness the general gobsmackedness (or complete obliviousness, depending on the player) all around the table. I can do without. In fact, I will do without, but there will probably always be that little whisper that says "A Very Poor Graded Workshop" every time I look at my opening hand.

And, face it, Workshop is just the tip of the iceberg, there's a lot more under there that the Purple Hippo on the other shoulder will probably just shrug at. When the majority of cards are small fry in the larger scheme of all things EDH, where can you realistically draw the line between "fun" and "un-fun" when it comes to new acquisitions and "worth it" and "not-worth it" when it comes to the financial payout for those new toys?

Let's take a case in point, another of the generals I flirted with was Captain Sisay. (And I have to add an aside here that there's no real reason that my preferred legends, barring Rafiq, are ladies. That's just how it goes!)

Ah, Sisay, what a great idea. You get her into play, you search your deck for a Legend card, and another, and another. Every game you got either Rofellos or Cradle first to give you a little mana boost before digging back into the toolbox for whatever party favour you may need at any given time in a game. Let's be honest, she is powerful, but she was boring as hell to play. Mind numbingly so. I invested a lot of time and resources into building her and then, when the veneer of shiney newness wore off to reveal the repetitive tedium hiding underneath, invested more time into re-building her. It was no use, I wasn't having any fun. My group weren't really appreciating her either so I moved on and shunted a lot of Legendary cards into my trade binders. That time is wasted (though not completely if a lesson was learned) and the money I spent on Sisay I realistically won't get back.

I don't yet have access to all the cards I need or want for Thada Adel, Acquisitor and that's a good thing because I'm no-where near the point, as I am with Rafiq or Azusa, where I can say "That's the deck for now, I'll revise it with the next set." So is it the attraction in the conception of the deck and the acquisition of what I need, accepting that it will always evolve (and probably radically so with both Rise of Eldrazi and the Fall release of Scars of Mirrodin) or is it, this time, in the knowledge that I could put in a lot of very powerful blue and artifact cards? Where do I decide to draw the Douchebag line? Infinite mana? Soft or hard locks? Stealing everything? Or is it merely in my attitude and approach to the game? I'm pretty sure my sunny and friendly approach to the game will make being regularly crushed by rampant artifact mana very enjoyable for my opponents.

Though, upon mature reflection, maybe not.

I've currently decided to draw the line at a GAAIV level of annoyance and I hope I'm pitching my deck right. Then again, as GAAIV is already an integral part of our playgroup, maybe adding another is too much. At what point do I decide to stop the power creep, the road to being a DB deck, and point the tiller in the direction of Phelddagrif?

For what it's worth here's my deck and it's plans. My building logic was that Thada Adel is a thief and she loves her some artifacts. Unfortunatly, those pesky opponents often get to actually play some of those delicious baubles before she can steal them from under their collective noses! So either she steals them from decks or she steals them from play. So it's a "Steal Artifact" deck (with the stupid realisation that I've just cut the actual Steal Artifact!)

General
Thada Adel, Acquisitor

Land (37)
23x Island
Urza's Mine
Urza's Tower
Urza's Power Plant
Darksteel Citadel
Reliquary Tower
Thawing Glaciers
Tolaria West
Academy Ruins
Remote Isle
Lonely Sandbar
Flooded Strand
Polluted Delta
Seat of the Synod
Tolarian Academy

Artifact Creatures: (6)
Solemn Simulacrum
Master Transmuter
Faerie Mechanist
Darksteel Colossus
Duplicant
Etherium Sculptor

Non-Artifact Creatures: (9)
Trinket Mage
Sakashima the Impostor
Body Double
Vedalken Engineer
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Aeon Chronicler
Venser, Shaper Savant
Willbender
Glen Elendra Archmage

Non-Creature Artifacts: (27)
Mana Vault
Sol Ring
Everflowing Chalice
Sky Diamond
Mind Stone
Worn Powerstone
Darksteel Ingot
Coalition Relic
Tormod's Crypt
Sensei's Divining Top
Oblivion Stone
Icy Manipulator
Phyrexian Processor
Sculpting Steel
Avarice Totem
Vedalken Shackles
Crucible of Worlds
Cloud Key
Nevinyrral's Disk
Expedition Map
Darksteel Forge
Voltaic Key
Whispersilk Cloak
Engineered Explosives
Lightning Greaves
Meekstone
Ensnaring Bridge

Enchantments: (3)
Artificer's Intuition
Future Sight
Propaganda

Planeswalkers: (1)
Tezzeret the Seeker

Instant/Sorcerys: (17)
Evacuation
Mind Spring
Fabricate
Fact or Fiction
Rite of Replication
Stroke of Genius
Mystical Tutor
Force of Will
Acquire
Ancestral Vision
Capsize
Hinder
Thirst for Knowledge
Desertion
Brainstorm
Concentrate
Intuition

The first thing to note is that it's 101 cards. This is bad. I updated the deck yesterday lunchtime and have been playing with one card extra since then. To add to that, I suspected I was one card short and had intended on adding a Pithing Needle. Bad News Bears. Counting skilols are not up to scratch, I must ask my 6-year-old to give me a refresher course.

I don't think there's a need to do a card by card except to say that it's slow, like molasses. So what's next for our filching friend? The next phase in the armament process is due to start this weekend with a shipment of the following expected:
Knowledge Exploitation
Vedalken Archmage
Memnarch
Vanishing
Bribery
Treachery
Magus of the Future
Dream Tides
Reshape
Portcullis
Tidespout Tyrant
Quicksilver Fountain
Keiga, the Tide Star
Fatespinner
Fireshrieker
Mycosynth Lattice (which will once again require the inclusion of the newly re-named Steal Permanent

Some cards to protect Thada, some cards to slow my opponents down, some cards to steal things and some cards to facilitate me in doing all of that.

Mycosynth Lattice is giving me pause though. Do I really need to feel guilty about an indestructible Tolarian Academy? Stealing any non-protected permanent for 3U? How long will it take for me to somehow justify to myself the inclusion of Umbrella Mantle, Karn, Voltaic Construct, Basalt Monolith, Rings of Brighthearth and Heartstone? Will I be able to live with the monster I will have unleashed on my playgroup? Most importantly, at what point in all of this will my friends deem it timely to remind me that they are my friends? I wonder if I'll get at least one Mad-Genius-Flicking-the-Switch laugh out before it all comes crashing down in a tide of guilt, recrimination and a plethora of Dust to Dusts?

Or, do I let it all slide because I know that there are certain lines that probably shouldn't be crossed.

At least until Rise of Eldrazi is released.