When the Commander decks came out a in June, I saw Damia and knew I wanted to make a deck with her, so a few weeks ago, I did just that. The list was pretty much just a large number of random cards thrown together that I figured might be at least good. To my surprise, the synergy in the deck is astounding, to say the least.

But despite that, the deck needs tweaking. Right now the only real win conditions are getting out tons of creatures or pulling out Psychosis Crawler or Underworld Dreams and hoping I can pull off a crazy amount of draw power. I won once by using Geth, Lord of the Vault to grab an opponent's Mnemonic Wall getting back Time Warp turn after turn, but there's not really much here in terms of actual comboing.

I'm not really looking to drop a ton of cash into the deck, but rather just enough to give it a bit of focus. Any help would be appreciated.


General:

Damia, Sage of Stone


Creatures:

Coiling Oracle
Nezumi Graverobber
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Eternal Witness
Jace's Archivist
Lorescale Coatl
Man-o'-War
Clone
Masticore
Phyrexian Metamorph
Venser, Shaper Savant
Wonder
Genesis
The Mimeoplasm
Psychosis Crawler
Spiritmonger
Geth, Lord of the Vault
Hydra Omnivore
Vorosh, the Hunter
Sheoldred, Whispering One
Simic Sky Swallower
Avatar of Woe
Terastodon
Tidespout Tyrant


Planeswalkers:

Jace Beleren
Garruk Wildspeaker


Artifacts

Sol Ring
Lightning Greaves
Swiftfoot Boots
Crystal Ball
Darksteel Ingot
Phyrexian Altar


Enchantments

Khalni Heart Expedition
Necropotence
Rhystic Study
Rites of Flourishing
Aluren
Asceticism
Mind Control


Instants/Sorceries

Vines of Vastwood
Chainer's Edict
Counterspell
Demonic Tutor
Doom Blade
Mana Leak
Rampant Growth
Tribute to the Wild
Beast Within
Cultivate
Spell Crumple
Stomp and Howl
Diabolic Tutor
Fact or Fiction
Harmonize
Rite of Replication
Living Death
Rise from the Grave
Tidings
Time Reversal
Time Warp
Beacon of Tomorrows
Praetor's Counsel
Genesis Wave


Land:

Ancient Ziggurat
Command Tower
Dimir Aqueduct
Dreadship Reef
Drowned Catacomb
Golgari Rot Farm
Halimar Depths
Jwar Isle Refuge
Rupture Spire
Simic Growth Chamber
Temple of the False God
Vivid Creek
Vivid Grove
Vivid Marsh
8 Forest
7 Island
7 Swamp

If you can get one, I'd say switch out rite of flourising for an Azusa. With Damia out you only get an extra land a turn while they get more cards. With Azusa, you get twice the benifit and they get none of the benefits. Even having a Sakura-Tribe Scout or a Walking Atlas might be better for you.

Paradox Haze gives you double the upkeeps and double the refills. It makes masticore worse if you don't have Damia, but it makes Damia a little better if you have masicore.

Leyline of Anticipation makes life easier by letting you play things when you're sure it's safe. Or bewteen upkeeps, for even more cards.

Helm of Awakening works for everyone, but not everyone will be filing their hand to 7 each turn. You're almost guaranteed to get more use out of it. I ran it in a Niv-Mizzet deck, and I was happy to see it every time. Alternatively, you could run Stone Calendar.

Elixir of Immortality seems necessary here. Especially if you go with paradox have.

I think you could lose Chainer. Too black mana intensive, and you've already got Geth.

Nirkana Cutthroat is just bad. Edh doesn't care about a 3-power vanilia creature for 3. At 6 mana, you be better served by Acidic Slime/Deadly Recluse/Thornweald Archer/Winged Coatl for deathtouch, as power doesn't matter, and anything big enough to need deathtouch will wreck 3 toughness as much as it will 2 or 1 toughness. At 12 mana, you can do better, or you're stalled out at three lands.

All real good points. Now, for my playgroup I like Cutthroat. In a tournament setting, I might drop him for something else, but he's saved my ass in multiple 1v1 against my friend's Korlash deck.

I might go with the Atlas and/or Scout over Azusa if I get my hands on a Seedborn Muse, but I suppose I'll wait and see what get's pulled in the upcoming Kamigawa sealed I'm doing with my friends.

Maybe Kozilek would be good in addition to the Elixir as he also works with the card draw theme, but that's not a bad idea in and of itself.

There are a couple of card choices that I think could be improved. I'll try to pick them all out. I also have my own Damia deck and I'll try and suggest some stuff.

Also let us know if you want your deck more focused on multiplayer or 1v1.

Boomerang is okay. but Capsize is almost always better. Since you have black why not Recoil
Mana Leak is weak late game. replace it with another hard counterspell. For Damia I really like Forbid.
I would replace Rampant Growth with Kodama's Reach more land is more better.
I think sign in blood is a bad idea. its double black and you pay two life. You have blue card draw available, find something there. I would run Diviniation over sign in blood. On that note, I also think you could replace Vision Skeins.

Underworld Dreams seems weak when an opponent starts at 40 life.
Having had Wild Mongrel in my own original list, I have to say I have never been happy when I drew him. You might think he is great cause you can make him huge with Damia out, but he is pretty boring without her. (Even with her he doesn't do much.)

I'd like to 2nd that Nirkana Cutthroat is just bad. There are many better options. I wouldn't even play Vampire Nighthawk. He is too small and too weak.

Jace's Archivist seems like you are just gonna end up helping your opponent get cards. Explain him, cause I don't get it.

So here are a few cards in my list that really shine for me.

Any of the titans in M11 or 12.
Dread Cacodemon Pestilence Demon Reiver Demon are all helpful to control the board.
Sheoldred, Whispering One and Garruk's Horde are both really good and pre release cards so they shouldn't be too hard to find and trade for.
Praetor's Grasp
Mind Shatter and/or Mind Twist
Urborg Elf Best Damia elf there is!
Birthing Pod is really good. I do think has gone up in price though.
Acidic Slime can kill just about anything. This is a staple green card in my opinion.
Solemn Simulacrum
Cloudthresher
Overbeing of Myth With Damia out you skip that extra draw but the Overbeing of Myth is gonna be a big beater and its card advantage while Damia isn't out.
Trygon Predator
Putrefy
Soul Manipulation
Maelstrom Pulse
Shriekmaw
Yavimaya Elder<---another green staple.
Wrexial, the Risen Deep Way fun EDH card. He also works with Windfall and Jace's archivist if you want to keep those guys in. If you do, consider adding Prosperity

Brutalizer Exarch is great. lots of versatility.
Deadwood Treefolk
Aether Mutation This is great when you bounce a real big creature of your opponents. However is can also work well with creatures like Mulldrifter Shriekmaw and Acidic Slime

This last set of cards are pricier, but others might be willing to drop some money or trade or just happen to have these.

Hornet Queen is in one of the commander decks.
Spiritmonger this guy is AWESOME! 6/6 for 5 that regens and can change colors!
Pernicious Deed
Cadaverous Bloom This card isn't a lot of money but it might be harder to find.
Mystic Snake I love this thing. leave a mana open and birthing pod it into play, they'll never see it coming.

I have Psychatog in my Damia deck. YMMV as it's a new deck and I haven't had the atog in play yet, but I figure that late game, a well-stuffed graveyard can turn him into a big beater.

Only if you're not playing ANY recursion. Selectively exiling a card or two from your GY is fine, but in many EDH games your GY is a powerful resource, second only to your hand. In fact I often refer to my GY as my other hand.
I've generally fount that converting a card in your GY into 1 point of damage is usually a very inefficient trade.

I'm at school now so I can't comment much on the rest of your post, but I will say that Mongrel is at least a little evil with Time Reversal and the like. So is Lorescale Coatl, but he's that way with the entire deck.

Needs:
Tortured Existance
Rites of Refusal
Bog Witch
Chamber of Manipulation
Dawnstrider
Diplomatic Escort
Hag Hedge-Mage
Mindless Automaton

Swapped around a few cards:

- Nirkana Cutthroat
- Scion of Darkness
- Stitch Together
- Windfall

+ Hell's Caretaker
+ Praetor's Counsel
+ Sheoldred, Whispering One
+ Spiritmonger

Made some much heavier changes this time around. Deck's getting a little bit nastier, I think. Any suggestions still more than welcome.

+ Demonic Tutor
+ Jace Beleren
+ Man-o'-War
+ Rhystic Study
+ Phyrexian Altar
+ Venser, Shaper Savant
+ Aluren
+ Garruk Wildspeaker
+ Genesis
+ Beacon of Tomorrows
+ Tidespout Tyrant

- Wild Mongrel
- Vampire Nighthawk
- Hell's Caretaker
- Chainer, Dementia Master
- Sorin Markov
- Sword of Body and Mind
- Underworld Dreams
- Collective Voyage
- Boomerang
- Sign In Blood
- Vision Skeins

Just made a Damia deck last night. Here are some cards I own that I thought would work great with her (not on your list currently):

Fatespinner makes your opponents skip a phase and since you are already skipping draw step, it's a win (for you) lose (for them).

Words of Waste and Delirium Skeins really speed up your card advantage.

Burgeoning and Far Wanderings for land advantage (I'm assuming Damia reaches threshold rather quickly).

Lord of Extinction, Mind Maggots, Vampire Hounds, Oblivion Crown and Narcissism for fatties.

Urborg Syphon-Mage for live advantage.

Keeper of the Dead to kill them non-evil critters.

This is a fantastic card. I'm throwing this in my Damia deck. This with Paradox Haze is just unfair.

Oh man totally agree. I just happen to have one lying around here. Now time for the challenge of taking something out to put it in...