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Today's three avatars are all ones that are tricky to figure out, and they're also all ones that I haven't given advice on in the first 11 articles.  Let's see if we can find a way to put them to good use.

Deck 1 Maelstrom Angel

This avatar is worded pretty cumbersomely, but basically it lets you pay 3 mana to play a random spell with the same CC as an unblocked creature of yours.

This type of ability seems to point towards a few different strategies.

1. Evasive creatures.  This makes sense — it's through unblocked creatures that you get avatar triggers, right?

					The problem:		Evasive creatures costing 2 mana might seem ideal, since they let you curve into a 3rd turn avatar activation.  But even when you are swinging on turn three with your Dimir Infiltrator, you probably could find better things to do with your three mana than play another 2CC spell chosen at random.  I'll put it this way.  The BEST case scenario is something like a Tidehollow Strix.  A far more common scenario is flipping a Spatial Binding.  Or a Countersquall.  Not worth your mana.
					The solution:		Pick evasive creatures that cost a little more than 2.  This way, when you pay three for the avatar, you have a better chance of getting a bargain.  You may not be able to "curve out like a sligh deck" anymore, but you will get to play spells that are actually worth your mana.
					A caveat:		Don't go so overboard looking for expensive unblockable creatures that you try playing a Deep-Sea Kraken with this avatar.  A quick Gatherer search will show you that the only other spells out there costing 7UUU are Eternal Dominion and Myojin of Seeing Winds.  In other words, a permanent Silence on yourself and a Hill Giant.

2. Creatures with unique casting costs.  Some people like to minimize the randommess of their random effects.  For instance, me.  So we'll search for creatures that don't share a casting cost with anything else, guaranteeing we'll always know what the avatar will reveal for them.  And with all the hybrid cards coming out lately, there are more unique CCs floating around than ever before (probably).

					The problem:		Yes, your Fangren Firstborn will always autoreplicate, and yes, his ability is even cumulative, but is that any kind of a gameplan?  Spending tons of mana over several turns to get a bunch of vanilla attackers?  How will you even connect with him in the first place?  Similar stories could be told of Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers and Rakdos Augermage.  The truth is, a lot of the cards with unique casting costs just aren't worth copying in this manner.
					The solution:		Search for ones that are!  I did have some success in one deck swinging with several Wasp Lancers for instance.  Messenger Falcons and Mindleech Mass could be good as well.  (As great as it sounds though, you shouldn't be using this avatar to copy your Isperia the Inscrutable.  Uh, unless you have a Mirror Gallery in play too.)
					A caveat:		You will be having to spend a lot of time on Gatherer before you've really got a list of these cards figured out.  And even more time before you can whittle them into a sensical decklist.

3. Creatures with rare, but non-unique casting costs.  What if, instead of your avatar flipping the same card every time, it gave you a choice from three cards, all of which were great?

					The problem:		These are even harder to find in Gatherer than the previous type!
					The solution:		I tackled this by searching for creatures to attack with that had at least three colored mana in their CCs, and then seeing what other cards were out there at those CCs.  My favorite result was Chromescale Drake — he's a good target for self-duplication, and he can also randomly hit The Unspeakable.  Or, in the "worst case" scenario, a Grozoth.  (But even Grozoth isn't bad, because he fetches up the other Chromescale Drakes in your deck, setting you up for a lot of card draw.)  Oh and the Drake has evasion, increasing the odds of triggering your avatar.  Oh and his affinity makes him easy to cheat into play. Other good cards in this category include Butcher Orgg, Deep Spawn, and Bogardan Phoenix (look around on Gatherer to see what spells share those CCs — you'll see they're pretty desirable lists).  There are also a lot of great multicolor CCs out there, especially with the upcoming MED3 release, but I haven't farmed through these too exhaustively yet. Fun fact: there are three creatures costing 2BRG, and all three have graveyard triggers.
					A caveat:		Careful attacking with that Dawn Elemental.  You might flip over a Proposal.

4. Throwing caution to the wind and playing creatures with common CCs.  This could be fun, if roulette wheels are your thing.  I suppose there is an element of excitement to be found in choosing from the 100+ cards your Phantom Monster can pull up.

					The problem:		How viable a strategy this is remains to be seen.  (Then again, this is the casual room we're talking about, so do what you like.)
					The solution:		I think the best way to make this "work" would be to build your deck such that it doesn't rely on flipping something useful, since there are many times when it won't.  Build your deck so you have other things to spend your mana on when you decline to pay three for a moribund Breezekeeper token.  But build it so you're ABLE to pay three when you want to capitalize on that Fact or Fiction you just flipped.
					A caveat:		This isn't the type of deck I find fun, so if it's what you want to make, you're on your own.

5. Creatures with cheatable CCs.  Paying 2 for your Spire Golem and then flipping 6 CC cards with him has to be good, right?

					The problem:		Most cards with cheatable casting costs share one of the above problems.  Either they're unworthy of copying, have difficulty getting unblocked, or pick from too variegated a list.
					The solution:		You're probably best skimming Gatherer not only for things like "affinity," "madness," and "rather than pay," but also for creatures among those results that fit multiple of the above categories (unusual casting costs, evasion, etc).  Salvage Titan probably won't be so great for you.  Bringer of the Green Dawn is looking better though.
					A caveat:		Not even here does Scornful Egotist get to shine.  His only options are Maelstrom Djinn, who we could've gotten for cheaper, and Slipstream Serpent, who is generally an embarrassment.  Oh, and sometimes he'll copy himself.

So!  How do we turn all of these into a deck?

Like I said above, I'm madly in love with Chromescale Drake for this avatar.  So let's play blue with a bunch of artifacts.

If we're playing blue, we should also run Wasp Lancer and Ghastlord of Fugue, both of whom have unique casting costs and are highly desirable copy targets.

What else does the deck need to run?  Card draw, so Thoughtcast.  Bounce, so Æther Spellbomb.  Stalling, so Sun Droplet.  And pumpups, so Empyrial Plate and Lightning Greaves.  (All of these, of course, aid the artifact theme that Chromescale Drake requires).

I ended up adding a black splash, for both removal and Illusory Demon (your avatar activations do NOT trigger his sacrifice).

A typical run with this deck has you powering out an early Chromescale Drake, keeping a large hand size (thanks to him, the Thoughtcasts, and sometimes a Grozoth token), and then beating down with an army of Empyrial Plate-aided fliers.  And bouncing whatever creatures stand in their way.

Here's the decklist.  As always, my decks are casual and highly customizable.

Avatar: Maelstrom Archangel Land (22): 9 Island 4 Seat of the Synod 3 Swamp 4 Vault of Whispers 2 Ancient Den Creatures (12): 4 Wasp Lancer 2 Illusory Demon 2 Ghastlord of Fugue 4 Chromescale Drake

Noncreatures (26): 4 Æther Spellbomb 3 Serum Visions 1 Darksteel Pendant 4 Dimir Signet 3 Empyrial Plate 1 Lightning Greaves 2 Sun Droplet 2 Last Gasp 2 Terror 4 Thoughtcast

It took me more iterations than I care to admit before I finally got to that workable of a Maelstrom Archangel deck.  This one's a blast to play though!

Deck 2 Stuffy Doll

There's a reason this avatar costs only 0.12 tickets.  It's ridiculously janky and very hard to find a use for.

Of course, that's the exact kind of card that I love!

This is another one with really cumbersome wording, but basically you can split any damage source to you in half and send one of those halves to your opponent.  Instead of taking four from your opponent's Ravenous Baloth, you only take two and your opponent takes two.

Note:

• You can only use it once a turn.  It's much better against one Baloth than against four Saproling tokens.
• It rounds up both times.  Using this on your opponent's 5-power Woolly Thoctar will cause you to both take 3 damage.  Using it on an Eager Cadet won't affect how much you take, but it does sneak in a free one point to the opponent.
• It can work on your sources, too.  Let's say you cast an Inferno.  Instead of both players taking six, you will take three and your opponent will take nine.  (Creatures on the battlefield are still taking the usual six of course.)
• The avatar, not the source, deals damage.  In other words, that incoming Rhox War Monk is not gaining your opponent any life.  And that Thieving Magpie is not drawing your opponent any cards.
• The damage source doesn't get targeted.  Only your opponent gets targeted.  Feel free to send two from your opponent's shrouded Pincher Beetles back at him.
• You start at 14 life.  The avatar will reduce how much damage you take, but 14 life is still not a lot.  Not to mention, if you're following the Inferno strategy, you're probably dealing plenty of damage to yourself.  Most Stuffy Doll decks will probably need some defense and lifegain.

Taking the above together, I knew I wanted a red deck for all of the global damage effects.  It wasn't long before I found my superstar:

Let's say you're both at 12 life when you tap him.  Instead of dealing 6 and 6, he'll deal 9 and 3 (the avatar gives you a 6-point swing).

Or let's say your opponent is at 16 and you're at 8.  Instead of dealing 8 and 4, he'll deal 10 and 2 (the avatar gives you a 4-point swing).

Or let's say your opponent is at 8 and you're at 16.  Instead of dealing 4 and 8, he'll deal 8 and 4 (the avatar gives you an 8-point swing).

In other words: Hidetsugu and this avatar combine best when you're at a higher life total than your opponent.  If you're at double the life of your opponent, Hidetsugu will kill him instantly.

As said above, we'll obviously need a lot of defense and lifegain for this to happen.  I tinkered around with various life gain strategies before I realized: instead of dealing damage and gaining life as two separate events, what if I combined them?  In other words, what if I enchanted Hidetsugu with Spirit Loop?

All of a sudden I had my theme.  In went not only 4x Spirit Loop, but also 2x Lifelink, and then several creatures to put them on besides Hidetsugu.  My favorites are Hammerfist Giant, Cinder Giant, and good ol' fashioned Orcish Artillery.

Because of Cinder Giant, we're using creatures that have toughness 3 or higher.  He pairs well with Wall of Hope specifically (which is good, because we need something cheap to stall in the early game, given how expensive most of our threats are).

The only way Hammerfist Giant has of surviving himself in here is a Test of Faith.  But on the other hand, when he's wearing a Spirit Loop he doesn't necessarily need to survive, because he just cleared the board and gained you 20+ life.

Last note before the decklist: because a lot of our creatures are both large and with tap abilities, I threw in 2 Serra's Blessing.  The rest should explain itself.

Avatar: Stuffy Doll Land (23): 12 Mountain 11 Plains Creatures (17): 4 Wall of Hope 4 Orcish Artillery 3 Cinder Giant 4 Heartless Hidetsugu 2 Hammerfist Giant

Noncreatures (20): 2 Lightning Bolt 2 Lifelink 4 Boros Signet 4 Spirit Loop 2 Test of Faith 2 Serra's Blessing 2 Lightning Helix 2 Disenchant

Deck 3 Mayael the Anima

Obviously, for this avatar to work, your deck needs a lot of creatures with power 5 or greater.

Also obviously, if your deck has a lot of creatures with power 5 or greater, it probably won't work so well no matter what your avatar is doing.

So how do we strike a balance?

We cheat.  We'll use creatures that we don't even need to hardcast in the first place, like Krosan Tusker and Naya Sojourners.  And creatures that are abnormally large for their CC, like Canker Abomination and Groundbreaker.

We'll also use deck manipulation, to make sure our avatar consistently triggers.  Brainstorm, with this avatar, basically only makes you put one card back instead of two.  Any card with scry can help out the avatar as well.  Mirri's Guile was brought to MtGO pretty recently, bringing great delight to folks as nostalgic as myself.

And we can use tricks.  Wisdom cards will have plenty of fuel with all of this card draw.  Shivan Wumpus' drawback is now only half as steep.  Cards like Treefolk Harbinger get an extra leg up.

Looking at wisdom, Krosan Tusker, and Brainstorm makes me want to run GU.  Most of the below decklist should be self-explanatory after having read the above, but I do have a few quick notes first.

• Even when not in play, Maro's power and toughness counts as a number.  He WILL trigger your avatar if you have enough cards in hand.  (Between the starting handsize and all the extra drawing, this will almost never not happen.)
• Conversely, no matter how many creatures your opponent has out, Canker Abomination is always a 6/6 when he's not on the battlefield.  He will always trigger your avatar.
• Paradox Haze does benefit the avatar.  I originally ran four, but it honestly gave me more than I could handle when multiples were out so I cut it down to two.
• Don't necessarily get in the mindset that you have to use your avatar to draw an extra card every single turn.  Even if you never draw with it, it still functions pretty identically to the Prodigal Sorcerer avatar, helping you sort out unwanted cards each turn.  And it has a bigger starting handsize.  (I'm not saying you should want to never draw with your avatar, just that you don't always have to.)
• It's not unusual to get four green mana with Sacellum Godspeaker, which helps us wade through our gigantic hand.  I'd feel dopey running a whole deck full of WotC's "5-power matters" cards next to this avatar, but I can allow myself two slots out of the sixty.

Here's the list.  I'm italicizing the creatures who can trigger the avatar (17 in total).

Avatar: Mayael the Anima Land (22): 11 Forest 11 Island Creatures (23): 4 Llanowar Elves 2 Sacellum Godspeaker           4 Maro 2 Canker Abomination 3 Aeon Chronicler 2 Gigapede 2 Kodama of the North Tree 1 Mahamoti Djinn 1 Soramaro, First to Dream 2 Krosan Tusker

Noncreatures (15): 4 Brainstorm 2 Mirri's Guile 2 Remand 1 Lightning Greaves 2 Rending Vines 2 Paradox Haze 2 Endless Swarm

Are these decks the only ways to crack those avatars, of course not.  But I hope I've given you all some ideas.

See you next time, and have fun with Vanguard!