Here are my top 10 most innovative/coolest mobile computers. Note: I define mobile computers as anything that is portable or can fit in a luggage bag – and runs on a desktop OS. No iPads or mobile phones here.
10. Dell Adamo XPS (2010)
Dell came up with the thinnest laptop on the market in 2010 and one of the thinnest all time – only 10mm thin. They accomplished this by having the keyboard recess into the lid, the lid acting as a kind of ‘storage’ for the keyboard. And also a heat strip where the laptop opens with the swipe of a finger. pretty cool.
9b. Dell XPS M2010 (2006)
The father of the desktop replacement, this massive 20 incher weighed 20lbs! but folded into a briefcase so technically it was ‘portable’ and thus qualifies for this list. Still the fact that Dell thought up such a beastly machine over 13 years ago, is why it belongs on this list.
9a. Acer Predator 21X (2017)
Have to put this as a tie with the Dell because this is really pushing the limits of what could be considered a desktop replacement. A massive 21 inch curved screen device that weighs 20lbs and packs a huge amount of power this may as well just be a desktop at this point.
8. Asus ROG Mothership (2019)
One of the coolest laptops unveiled at this year’s CES, the Asus ROG mothership is basically a battery powered all-in-one PC with high end specs. Core i9, 144hz display, RTX 2080, its all there – and the keyboard is detachable so that gamers can use their own keyboard/mouse without the built in one taking up space like in most gaming laptops.
7. Porsche Design Book One (2017)
Yes its similar to the Microsoft SurfaceBook – but it has one key difference which is a 360 degree Yoga hinge. This means the Book One combines the Lenovo Yoga’s convertible form factor with the Surface Book’s detachable hinge. It’s the only computer with this design.
6. Acer Aspire R7 (2013)
A laptop that looks like the Starship Enterprise – this laptop has a screen that can be lifted upwards and moved closer much like an easel – this is geared towards artists and creators, but the screen can also flip backwards as well – and the touchpad above the keyboard. Very unique.
5b. Acer Iconia 6120 (2010)
A dual touchscreen notebook where you can use pretty much anything on the bottom screen, including a custom keyboard. This predates the Lenovo YogaBook by several years and is still an interesting design today.
5a. Toshiba Libretto W700 (2010)
Coming out at around the same time as the Acer Iconia, this dual screen netbook also featured dual touch screens, again – WAY before dual screen multitouch devices were a thing.
4. Sony Vaio UX (2006)
The ultimate UMPC, the Vaio UX is still a marvel of design and engineering. It ran Windows XP (can be upgraded all the way to Windows 10) and can fit in your pocket! It was the first computer to have an SSD and had a fingerprint scanner over a decade before it was commonplace on notebooks. Truly an amazing piece of tech.
3. Razer Edge Pro (2013)
Razer Edge Pro was a gaming tablet that ran a Core i7 with a GTX 640LE and paired it with a console grade gaming controller. This idea was very unique and allowed users to play Windows games on the go in a form factor much smaller than gaming laptops – and way before the Nintendo Switch as well.
2. Asus Zenbook Pro Duo (2019)
Just announced at this Computex 2019, the Zenbook Pro Duo packs a 15″ 4K OLED display along with a secondary 14″ 4K display AND a third numpad/trackpad display AND a RTX 2060 graphics card. This thing is the coolest computer I’ve seen in quite a while, and I’m excited!
Onkyo DX (2010)
Technically this would belong to Razer’s Project Valerie if they ever made that laptop, but since they didn’t – this netbook gets it. It has a dual display – one display slides out from under the other – and its also a convertible display on top of that! I have no idea why this design idea was not adopted by other makers but out of all PC makers – Onkyo – an audio equipment maker was the one to come up with this. Surprising.
One thing that’s really changed about me from the past is I no longer care about showing off my wealth; that’s something that I’ve criticized Chinese people for a lot and still do. I don’t understand whats the point of showing off your wealth by buying a fancy car or wearing expensive designer clothing. Like whats the point? You want people to know you are rich? Why? So they can rob you? Sounds arrogant to me.
I am actually quite blessed to say that since 2011 since I got my first job out of university, I haven’t really ‘struggled’ to make ends meet, per say. I’ve been living comfortably (I’m not rich.. just comfortable) for the past 6 years. But I was a poor university student before 2011 plus things in Canada usually cost more, so one of the first things I did when I first came to San Francisco was to buy up a lot of brand name clothing! A&F shirts, Lacoste polos, Lucky Brand / Guess jeans, you name it. I spent a lot of money on new clothes, only to realize that it didn’t really matter. I didn’t really care about the names and SF people really didn’t care either. When I lived in Korea I threw away all my American clothes and exchanged them for no name Korean brands – which were ironically better quality because they were made in Korea and alot of the name brand clothing was made in China. But the important thing is the style. I noticed in Korea people didn’t care about brands so much like in China – they cared about the style more. If it looked good, then wear it. Who cares who its made by? I learned this when I was in Korea.
So now I don’t care what brand I buy or wear anymore as long as it looks good. The opposite applies to electronics. I own laptops by Asus, Microsoft, Lenovo, Dell and Apple. My speakers are made by LG, Sony, Yamaha, Klipsch, Polk Audio, Creative, and Bose. My phones come from Sony, Apple, Essential, Blackberry and Google. My TV is Panasonic. My headphones are Sony, Fender, Monster, Audeze and Master&Dynamic. My microphones are Shure. My cameras are by DJI and Sony. My Keyboards are from Aorus, Logitech and Microsoft. My mice are from Asus, Microsoft, Razer, and Logitech. So yes I have brand name electronics – but they are all different brands. I don’t really have brand loyalty but I do care that they are not some cheap no name Chinese knockoff. That is important to me. But thing to note is that for electronics, I care about functionality of what I buy more than the design.
Take a look at this computer.
Apple MacBook Pro
This computer is the epitome of form over function. It’s sexy looking, it’s thin and it’s made of aluminum. It’s nice looking. But it’s rather limited in functionality. There’s no touch screen. The graphics are integrated. The keyboard has shallow travel. There’s only 2 ports on it and one of them is for charging. The only reason I have this computer is for MacOS – which is essential for my programming tasks. It may as well just be a travel ultrabook – and even then the iPad Pro + keyboard kills it in portability, or Microsoft Surface Book 2 just kill it for the specs. Overall I only have this computer for the OS thats it. This computer costs $1900 when configured with the Core i7, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD.
Now look at this computer.
Lenovo ThinkPad TP25
This computer is the epitome of function over form. I use this one as my main computer over the MacBook – even though it costs the same amount of money, $1900. It’s not sexy looking sure – it looks like it came from the early 2000s in fact – but it has way more functions than the MacBook has. It comes with the same specs first off – Core i7, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD. Furthermore – it’s tested to military standards, keyboard is spill-proof, the keyboard is a full 7 row keyboard with at least 4x the amount of key travel the MacBook Pro has, it has mobile broadband (WWAN) and a removable battery (the Macbook you can’t even upgrade the RAM), it has a full set of 8 ports (no dongles needed), it has Nvidia 940MX graphics (granted not the most powerful but still better than integrated), you can use the pointer without taking your hands off the keyboard (its called a trackpoint), and it has a touch screen – and it weighs just 0.5lbs more, and a full 3 year warranty. So yeah. I’m taking this computer almost every time (except when I need to program or use Final Cut Pro).
Here I’m responding to TP25 haters…
Function over form. For much the same reason I have a Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact over the new iPhone X. Because even though that phone looks better with the thin bezels and OLED screens and stuff – mine has more battery life, microSD, headphone jack and IP68. top spec hardware specs too. And did I mention at half the price of the iPhone X? Yeah that too. I’ll always take the more useful over the more stylish for electronics. For clothing I take the stylish over the brand name. Because clothing is a huge part of how people see you and how you present yourself. A good stylish looking shirt or blazer is going to draw way more attention than using a sexy bezel-less iPhone X. I guarantee you.
On the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, people have been celebrating how revolutionary it was.. and yes, it does deserve all that praise. Steve Jobs was a brilliant marketing genius and visionary. Apple products haven’t been the same since he passed away. The Apple Watch (whats the use case?), the iPad Pro (stylus?), the new iPhones (no headphone jack?) and the new MacBook lineup (all USBC?) have all been criticized a lot since they came out and some design flaws like the camera bump in the new iPhones, no headphone jack, the elimination of magsafe and switch to all USBC etc have caused to people to wonder if Steve Jobs was alive if those things would have been approved.
Well, I’m not sure, but definitely I can say the presentations haven’t been as awe-inspiring with Tim Cook in charge. He’s more of a quiet delegator whereas Steve could light up the room and take charge with everything.
The iPhone brought *capacitative* touch computing to the massive. Previously, touch screens have been mostly resistive touch which made those devices very hard to use and required a stylus to use them. Back in the mid 2000s I did use some Palm devices, Pocket PCs and carried around a hefty Windows Convertible PC (yes they had those back then!) all which required styluses to use. It was a pain.
After the iPhone and iPad came out, every device got much easier to use, and just using the fingers was so simple and easy.
There are some things I miss about the pre-iphone phones though. I think people unfairly look at the old Blackberrys and Windows Mobile devices as crap compared to the iPhone but thats not exactly true. People forget that the original iPhone had no 3G, no copy+paste, you couldn’t attach images in emails, there was no selfie cam, there was no video capability or flash, no third party app store, etc. A lot of smartphones back then had all those features. No it wasn’t as easy to install a third party app onto a Pocket PC or Palm OS device as an iPhone’s App Store, but there definitely was a thriving marketplace for those old devices. It wasn’t as bad as people thought it was.
Moreover, I liked how every device looked so unique. You had flip phones, slider phones, swivel phones, dual slider phones, transforming phones, etc. These days everyone has the same phone.. iPhone 7, Samsung Galaxy, etc the same black slabs everywhere. Back then there was very slim chances you and your friend had the exact same phone model. Here are some standouts (I own alot of these):
Nokia XpressMusic 5700
Blackberry Porsche P9981
Samsung Alias 2
Pantech Matrix Pro
Nokia N95
Nokia N93
Nokia E90
Nokia E70
Motorola Aura
Motorola Flipout
Yeah especially Nokia had a lot of really cool designs… we won’t be seeing these kind of designs anymore unfortunately.
And another thing is cellphone charms! remember those?
cellphone charm
Young people might not even know that back then, phones had a hole where you could attach a charm to it.. that hole is not longer on modern smartphones so cellphone charms (the way people could customize their phones) have now been replaced by smartphone cases, which IMO isn’t quite as great. Yeah you can still customize your phone with a case, but its not the same as having a good old fashioned charm.
So yeah just pointing out some of the negative side effects of iPhone’s legacy..
In other news, I’m going to Korea next month and not a moment too soon.. been dying here of boredom having nothing to really do. my plan right now is to just save up money for next year. After the hassle of getting yet another work visa at the border, I don’t really plan on doing that again. I’m planning to leave in another year or so, and go back to either Korea or Canada. Yes, that means I’ll have to leave my current job, but unless I can work remotely it just won’t work out. I don’t get enough vacation time with my current job to get the freedom that I want.
Also, planning on selling my home too. There are a few reasons for this. Yes having a place in San Francisco is nice and all, but the housing market in SF is beginning to cool off, and for the price I could sell my apartment for, I could easily buy another place in the US (I’m thinking San Diego because of the weather and West coast location), AND have enough spare money to help me get another place in Vancouver Canada (with the help of a mortgage) as well. I’ll just rent out a storage locker while the unit is on sale and then just move things out when I get my new places. But yeah that’s my longer term plan. My best friend in San Francisco is in the same situation as me except he is 5 years older so its probably even more urgent for him, but he doesn’t want to stay here either. And besides him I have very few friends and very little reason to stay in SF. 90% of my friends are in Korea or Canada so it makes more sense to move to those places instead. I’m in the USA just for saving up money that’s it, but hopefully the US/CAD exchange rate remains the same next year else I’m losing a lot of money if I don’t exchange now…
Yup! It’s another gadget article! This time we’re gonna look at the coolest computers that have come out over the past decade (2004-2014), as PCs come in many different shapes and sizes. Of particular interest to me are PCs that are quirky or unique in some way, as Handheld PCs and Ultra Mobile PCs interest me greatly, being very niche devices. That said, a lot of people may not know some of these PCs exist, which is the purpose of this article to provide some rare PCs that have been available.
This is a Handheld PC from Sony that weighs only 1.4lbs, has the potential to have up to 256GB SSD, a single core Intel Atom processor, 2GB RAM, and 8″ 1600×768 screen.
This is the first UMPC that came out. UMPCs are like small PDA sized devices that run full blown windows, this one comes with up to Intel Core Solo 1.33GHz processor, split keyboard, 2GB RAM, 60GB HDD, SD card slot, 1024×600 screen, and weighs 1.72lbs.
This is another UMPC thats pretty cool. Runs on a VIA 1.6Ghz CPU, 64GB SSD, 2GB RAM, 5″ 800×480 OLED screen, only weighs 0.91lbs, and runs full blown Windows Vista, has a built in keyboard and comes with a docking station as well.
This is Dell’s discontinued 20″ desktop-replacement “laptop”, and the form factor was pretty darn cool. It came with a Core Duo 2.16Ghz processor, 2GB RAM, ATI X1800 GPU, 2 100GB HDDs in RAID 0 configuration, and also came with a Media center remote and detachable keyboard. Did I mention this thing has a handle on it??
There’s a lot of Windows 8 convertible ultrabooks out there, and this is one of the coolest. It looks like the evolution of the Vaio Duo series. Intel Core i7 1.8Ghz, 12GB RAM, 2880×1620 resolution, Geforce GT 735M, 1TB HDD, has a multitouch screen and weighs 5 pounds. The coolest part of this notebook is that the screen flips into three configurations: presentation mode (reversed), normal mode, and tablet mode.
It’s an ultrabook that has two screens. Two. Screens. The one on the inside is non touch and the lid itself is a touch screen. They can be dual-screened or mirrored for presentations too. Comes with Core i5 1.7Ghz, 4GB RAM, 2 13.3″ 1920×1080 FHD screens, 256GB SSD, and weighs 3.4lbs.
Now this looks like a high performance machine! Looks like a car… performs like one too: Core i7 CPU, Nvidia GTX 460M graphics, FHD display, 16GB RAM and a whopping 8.4lbs.
Asus just doesn’t stop with the cool looking PCs. This one is designed with audio in mind, with massive Bang and Olufsen powered speakers attached to it. It also comes with the Core i7 processor, 4GB RAM, 1TB HDD, Nvidia GT 335M GPU, FHD 18.4″ display, and weighs a massive 9.7lbs. For a multimedia laptop though, can’t get better than this.
What’s next Asus? How about a PC made with Bamboo? Like a high end piece of furniture? This elegant notebook comes with a Core i5 processor, 6GB RAM, Nvidia 310M GPU, 14″ 720p display, and weighs 5lbs.
Sony’s VAIO series of PCs are very diverse, and this is Sony’s UMPC entry. It came with Core 2 Solo 1.2Ghz processor, 1GB RAM, 48 GB SSD, 4.5″ 1024×768 screen, a keyboard, a fingerprint reader, weighed around 1.2lbs and ran full blown Windows Vista. This was probably the most powerful UMPC out there at the time.
Well Dell makes some pretty cool laptops too. This one is only 10mm thin, and fits the keyboard inside the display when closed, which acts as a stand as well. It came with a 1.4Ghz Core Duo, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, 13.4″ 720p display, and weighed 3.2lbs.
This is probably the most powerful “tablet” I’ve seen yet. Razer made a tablet (actually a full PC) that could play heavy games with a proprietary controller joystick that attaches to it. The specs? HD display, 8GB RAM, Core i7 1.9Ghz CPU, Nvidia GT 640M GPU, 256GB SSD, and weighs 2.1lbs. Have you ever seen a tablet that had that kind of specs??
Yes, this is a PC!! Actually its a 27″ table-top PC that you can either use flat on a table to play party games, or as a massive desktop computer. The specs? 27″ FHD resolution display, 1.8Ghz Core i5 CPU, 8GB RAM, Nvidia GT620M GPU, 1TB HDD, and weighs a massive 15.7lbs.
Panasonic Toughbooks are renowned as incredibly durable laptops. They are military spec tested and they look like a tank. Fully rugged, 10″ swivel screen, Wacom stylus, Core i5, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, fingerprint reader and weighs about 5.1lbs. You will not find a tougher looking notebook than this.
Fujitsu makes some very interesting looking laptops and tablets. In fact they were one of the first to make slate tablet PCs. This one came with Core 2 Duo CPU, 10.4″ 1024×768 display, 1GB RAM, 80GB HDD, fingerprint reader and weighed 3.5lbs.
This is a UMPC/Handheld PC from Fujitsu, slightly smaller than the Sony P series, but also a convertible tablet that has a digitizer and fingerprint reader as well (!). It comes with an Intel A110 processor, 1GB RAM, 40GB HDD, 5.6″ screen, a webcam, and weighs 1.5lbs.
I know a lot of PCs in this post are Handheld or UMPCs, but they are all very unique and niche PCs so I want to cover this one as well. The Vulcan Flipstart has a 5.6-inch screen with 1024×600 resolution, a 30GB hard drive, built-in Wi-Fi, bluetooth, VGA webcam, Pentium M ULV processor running at 1.1 GHz, and 512MB RAM. Curiously, this unit has a small screen on the lid when closed, that displays PIM information like Calendar, time, email, etc.
Manufactured by a company called Dialogue Technology, the Flybook VM has a unique design that allows the screen panel to be lifted up, swung forward, and tilted into a more ergonomic position, or used in a traditional position. It came with a 12″ screen, 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 80GB HDD, a DVD burner, a sim card reader, fingerprint reader, webcam, and weighs 3.5lbs.
This is one of the most unique netbooks I’ve seen. A 62B SSD, low voltage Pentium processor, 2GB RAM, netbook specs but has a unique dual 7″ touch screen display with a virtual keyboard and a clamshell form factor. This is the last Libretto Toshiba ever released, and in limited quantities.
As of Sept 2014, the best convertible ultrabook on the market. Weighing only 2.6lbs, with new Core M processors, 8GB RAM, 3200×1800 display, 256+GB SSD, a gold color option, and a unique watchband hinge that allows it to be ultra thin, this is how ultrabooks look in the future.
I put this one here only because its the smallest gaming laptop that has been released recently (barring the Razer Edge Pro). Yes, it’s an 11″ gaming laptop with all the fancy AlienwareFX lights, with an 1.3Ghz Core 2 duo, 4GB RAM, 11.6″ 720p display, 160GB HDD, Nvidia GT 335M GPU and weighs 4.4lbs. It’s an ultraportable gaming laptop.
Asus’ EeePC’s started the netbook trend, and this one is the original convertible netbook. 8.9″ touch screen, 1.33Ghz processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB SSD, and weighing 2lbs put its in the standard netbook/UMPC territory.
Can I say UMPC’s look cool? Yes they come in all sorts of flavors, but most of them didn’t catch on because they were too expensive and too underpowered. This one had looks like an oversized Sony PSP, had a 4.8″ screen, a 1.2Ghz Via processor, 30GB HDD, only 512MB RAM, and weighed 1.2lbs.
Similar to the Fujitsu Lifebook U810 and U900, Viliv makes quite a few UMPC/Netbooks (you can also check out the S5 and the S7, and this one is the lightest of the lot, weighing a mere 0.85lbs!! It had an Intel Atom 1.33Ghz CPU, 64GB SSD, 1GB RAM, and 4.8″ touch screen.
The OLPC Project, or the One Laptop Per Child Project, was designed to provide a cheap computer to children in developing countries. They were powered by a 433Mhz AMD CPU, 256MB RAM, 1GB Flash disk space, 7.5″ LCD display, and averaged 3 hours of battery life. They had a handle, could be rotated into ‘e-book’ mode as a convertible laptop, and can be powered by a hand-crank generator. Unfortunately, they still ended up costing $200, more than the $100 target price, with specs that are lower than the average netbook.
I swear Asus and Sony make the coolest laptops. This one has a second display on the lid of the notebook that displays PIM information making using of Windows Vista “Slideshow” feature. It came with a Core 2 Duo processor, Intel GMA 950 (infamous integrated graphics), 12.1″ 1280×800 display, webcam, and weighed 4.2lbs.
What an interesting laptop. Can be an ultrabook, a tablet, an Easel, a Star-trek enterprise mode… quite a versatile machine. Similar to a cross between a Sony Vaio Duo and a Sony Vaio Multi Flip… specs are 15.4″ 1080p screen, core i5 processor, SSD and HDD options and 6GB of RAM, and weighs a relatively heavy 5.2lbs.
A 3 in one computer! It runs Android on the display which can also become a tablet, and the keyboard itself is a core i5 PC with 500GB HDD. So it’s actually two computers in one! That’s pretty cool, I think. The keyboard can also hook up with another monitor to become a desktop as well.
In Magic the Gathering, 187 or Blink creatures are creatures that trigger abilities when they enter the battlefield (comes into play). The recent Magic Expansion Avacyn Restored have alot of cards that work well with cards that enter the battlefield. Hence I began making a deck that I call the Venser or Flicker deck. The reason why to call it Flicker is because the first card that made creatures go off and onto the battlefield without recasting is called Flicker and since then, this effect has been called ‘Flickering’ creatures in and out of the battlefield. Of course, the deck is based around a Planeswalker card called Venser, which you will read more about below.
Theme:
Like my Persist deck, I like to build decks that are fun to play, yet reasonably powerful. I don’t like decks that are too weak, or too strong. Basically I’m going to exploit the triggered ability of creatures that enter the battlefield repeatedly to create card advantage.
Lands: (20/60)
Every one of my 60 card decks have about 20 land. For this deck, I relied on a blue/white mana base since alot of blinking creatures are in blue and white. Hence I have 8 cards that are blue/white dual lands.
Creatures: (18/60)
For creatures, I just put creatures that are blue/white, reasonably cheap, and have a good effect when they enter the battlefield. I also tend to favor creatures that slow my opponent’s board development down. Wall of Omens is a good card drawing engine, and is much faster to cast than Mulldrifter, which I was also considering. Blade Splicer is going to be my card of choice for doing damage, and Gilded Drake is incredibly powerful, stealing opponent’s creatures for free! I also needed a way to gain life. Between Kitchen Finks and Aven Riftwatcher, I chose the Finks, just because its better at beatdown. Riftwing Cloudskate is my last major card, since it can bounce anything back to an opponent for 2 mana and 3 turns, or 5 mana. Man-o’-War didn’t have as much versatility. And of course, the best bouncer in the game, Venser, Shaper Savant because its amazing – it can counter spells and bounce anything back, it’s Riftwing Cloudskate on steroids. I also put a single copy of Restoration Angel in to fit the theme of the deck.
Non Creature Spells: (22/60)
The final third of the deck are non creature spells. Here, I mainly focused on cards that slow down an opponent, and focused mostly on defense. The centerpiece of the deck is Venser, the Sojourner. This guy kicks ass. He flickers any permanent you have, and is basically the win condition for the deck. I have 3 copies each of Crystal Shard and Erratic Portal which function for both offense and defense, AND returns my own creatures to my hand so I can re-use their abilities. Parallax Wave has been amazing for this deck because it exiles creatures for free, and can be used the same way as the Shard and the Portal. Umbilicus, Blood Clock and Equilibrium are obscure Magic cards that I put in this deck; nobody expects them and they get really annoyed once I play them. Simultaneously returning my creatures back to re-use their abilities for free while slowing down my opponent? sounds great. I also have copies of Propaganda and Ghostly Prison for slowing an opponents attackers down. I’ve had opponents had to pay 6 mana(!) before just to attack with one creature which I just return to their hand. It’s great. Finally, I have one of the best commons ever made: Rhystic Study. So, every spell an opponent plays costs one more or I get to draw a card? It’s just ridiculously good, especially in multiplayer. So the final decklist:
From my Last Magic article, I want to continue talking about how I build my decks.
Theme: So, I don’t like building decks that are too powerful that win on the first turn (like my Hulk flash deck), because they aren’t fun to play against. Nor do I like to build crappy decks that always lose. I like to strive for the middle. A good combination of cards that are fun to play, and have some neat combo flavor to it (I’m a Johnny player). So every deck has a theme to it. A bunch of cards that work well together. I call this deck Persistence is Futile because it uses the mechanic Persist. Basically, any creature with Persist has the ability to come back from the graveyard after it dies with a -1/-1 counter on it. If it dies with a -1/-1 counter on it, it doesn’t come back. I’m going to exploit this mechanic to make a deck.
Lands: (20/60)
So by rule, every constructed deck I play is 60 cards, no more, no less. This is the optimal number of cards. The optimal number of lands is about 1/3, or 20 cards. So 20 cards are lands. Since a lot of hard to kill creatures with Persist reside in Green/White, I choose to use Green/White as my mana base. So what lands are good for green/white? Temple Garden, Razorverge Thicket both give green white so I’ll put those in. Since persist also works well with +1/+1 counters (which cancel out -1/-1 counters), I’ll put Oran-Rief, the Vastwood in, which I can use to make my persist creatures near invincible by cancelling out -1/-1 counters. Since there are a number of nonbasic lands, I don’t want to use Sunpetal Grove, Windswept Heath or Brushland since they are suboptimal for this deck. I will put in one Yavimaya Hollow because its legendary, and it can regenerate my creatures, making them even harder to kill, and round out the rest of the mana curve with plains and forest. I have more plains because I’m going to be using more white cards. So the decklist so far looks like:
Creatures: (20/60) For creatures, this becomes fairly simple. Put mostly creatures with persist, along with a few additional creatures that can come back after they die. So G/W creatures with persist are Safehold Elite, Kitchen Finks, and Heartmender, which I will put in since they have synergy with the theme. I will not put 4 Heartmender since they are a bit costly at 4 mana. I will also put in 4 Epochrasite as they come back 3 turns after they are killed. Some Eternal Witness are also nice to bring back some non creature cards back. A single Mikaeus, the Lunarch helps distribute +1/+1 counters, and Melira, Sylvok Outcast single-handedly makes persistence creatures invincible if she isn’t killed. So the creatures:
There are other creatures I could’ve considered. Green/White has a lot of creatures that are generally hard to kill, but I considered all the options. Troll Ascetic and Thrun, the Last Troll are hard to kill but require 2 mana open to regenerate. Mother of Runes requires one turn to be able to tap due to summoning sickness. Glory and Genesis are doable, but requires some mana open and a way to get them to the graveyard. Forgotten Ancient requires multiplayer to really shine. Vengevine needs more creature spells to be cast. Spawnwrithe needs to hit the player at least once. Phytohydra is too costly. Darksteel Myr doesn’t have any power. Anurid Brushhopper needs 2 cards to discard. Phantom Nantuko, Cho-manno, Revolutionary, Weatherseed Treefolk and Commander Eesha while durable, still doesn’t fit well into this deck’s theme. So there’s not much room for changing cards here.
Non Creature Spells: (20/60) The final third of the deck are non creature spells. Here, there can be lots of options. I wanted some ways to get rid of creatures and permanents. Swords to Plowshares and Oblivion Ring will do fine here. A way to protect creatures from hate is needed. Lightning Greaves is the standard way to do that. Power Conduit is the combo card I use with Persist, So I’ll put 4 of those in. Since the creatures are going to be hard to kill, it wouldn’t hurt to add Worship and Luminarch Ascension in as well. Cream of the Crop is going in as a one of, since it works better than Sensei’s Divining Top in this deck. As for the remaining 3 slots, they are really debatable, but I’ll put Umezawa’s Jitte, Garruk Wildspeaker, Elspeth, Knight-Errant, just because they’re good in any deck. So the final decklist:
And there you go! The construction of a fun, casual deck to play around with. Some of the more expensive cards can be swapped out. Swords can be replaced by Path to Exile. Greaves with Swiftfoot Boots. Jitte with Basilisk Collar (or Rancor, if you need a form of evasion). Temple Garden with Graypelt Refuge. Elspeth doesn’t have a good replacement, but Darksteel Plate can still make your critters indestructible, or Ajani Goldmane, which is generally easier to get than Elspeth, and fits well. If you want to make the deck legal for Modern format, you can replace Yavimaya Hollow and Genesis with something else. Add some more land in, or I would say Juniper Order Ranger if nothing else, since it fits so well :).
