***I've updated the deck since I wrote the intro below, leaning slightly less on creatures that can untap Araumi, and slightly more on creatures that will make my opponents discard their hands, and creatures that will get the wincon win done by themselves.  It still uses creatures to untap Araumi, just not as many.  It's mean to do, but one of the best chances this deck has to win is forcing opponents to discard their hands, or most of it, via encoring cards like Elvish Doomsayer, which slows down opponents enough to have a better chance to win.  This deck has won a couple of games against primarily level 8+ decks, so it can hold its own for the most part, it just lacks instant speed responses, so it needs to act quickly once Araumi is cast.  Anyway, it's a fun deck, but eventually, I'll probably be changing the deck to a non-Artisan style (I'll keep my final decklist here intact, and start a new one).  It's fun to pull out against other Artisan and unadjusted precons, except that it's usually too strong... so I kinda feel bad doing that.  Too strong for "weak" decks, but not capable of hanging with the BIG boys in any real sense... Araumi is too easily removed.  We'll see how much better it can be with rares and mythics in due time.

--------------------------

This is a new deck for me, but I've been scheming on it for many months.  It's an Artisan format deck, so it's only commons and uncommons, but don't let that fool you, as this is a very versatile Swiss army knife once your graveyard starts filling up with options to encore.  It should go without saying that Araumi is a self-mill deck and that this is best played against 4+ opponents... the more opponents, the more lethal the creatures are when they're encored, but the more opponents you have, the more cards you have to exile from your grave to encore a creature.  So, while this can certainly be played against three opponents and be a very dangerous deck (or against six or more opponents), its sweet spot is four or five opponents due to the requirement of exiling a card per opponent to encore.  But with more opponents, when you encore a creature that mills, you'll mill that many more cards, so it's really just getting enough cards in there for that first encore to mill a big chunk of your library, then you're off to the races.

The beating heart of the deck is being able to encore a creature that untaps Araumi (like Teardrop Kami), letting you untap Araumi once for each opponent.  With cards like Mirkwood Bats, Zulaport Cutthroat, Kalastria Healer, etc, eventually milled into your grave, untapping Araumi three times and encoring those three for eight mana should end the game, and might even do it with only two opponents... the more opponents, the easier Araumi wins, and the more work creatures do when they're encored.  With five opponents, when you encore Mirkwood Bats each opponent loses 25 life on ETB of the five Bats, then they lose 25 more at the end of the turn when the Bats all die.  They die simultaneously as part of the resolution of the encore effect that created them... they enter simultaneously, and they leave simultaneously, although their death triggers obviously go on the stack separately.  They all see each other dying at the same time, instead of dying one after another (which would change what the triggers see in play, or see die, when they resolve).

At the moment this is a ~$100 deck, but about $50 of that is in two cards.  Mana Drain and Cephalid Coliseum are both easily replaced by a cheap Counterspell and basic Island, making it a $50 deck in two seconds.  One could also argue that putting in a Rhystic Study and Mystic Remora would be justified, since both are Artisan-legal and excellent for card draw, and maybe I'll flinch and swap them in at some point.  Building this deck keeps you walking a line of using cards you intend to mill and play out of your grave, and cards you want to draw and play out of your hand.  At the moment, aside from some ramp and counterspells, etc, almost everything can be played from the grave, and I think self-milling is almost more important than card draw.  I can eventually mill into a creature that draws me cards when encored, giving me big draw once one of the four cards are in my grave.  

This deck is made to be very well-balanced and difficult to shut down, having answers for most other decks, or their responses to this deck.  For example, with five opponents, encoring Dusk Mangler results in each opponent discarding five cards, sacrificing five creatures, and losing 20 life, which I think is pretty solid value for seven mana (ha!).  Nevermaker and Sedraxis Alchemist provide short-term removal of anything causing any problems, one triggering on death, the other on ETB, which should open the door for combing out.  For each mechanic (mill, draw, creature removal, recursion, etc) there are cards that trigger on ETB as well as cards that trigger on death, just in case something like Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines finds its way into play.  Because you need to mill early and often, I tried to stick to creatures with ETB triggers, as I only added a couple of sac outlets for finishing a game off, so making your own creatures die early in a game might rely on the generosity of your opponents, and if they learn how fast this deck can end a game, they won't be helping you out much.  Most of the cards that rely on a death trigger are intended to be sacrificed when the encore trigger removes them at the end of the

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dread Return is a key card to the deck, as it can bring back Laboratory Maniac for no mana cost, albeit limited to sorcery speed, but normally that's not a big issue, as Araumi's shenanigans will be on your turn as well.  Potentially, with the ability to untap Araumi multiple times, you can mill yourself down to a very small library with a few cheap cards, and then force yourself to draw the rest.  Like, for two mana Halimar Excavator can mill 64 cards with four opponents, or 125 cards with five opponents, and for another two mana Floating-Dream Zubera will make you draw 16 or 25 cards.  So milling yourself out is potentially easy to do, then use Dread Return to put LabMan in play, then draw out the remaining cards in your deck, all for four mana.

Minister of Inquiries and Nimbleclaw Adept make a nice one-two tandem, getting to use each Minister twice, as well as untap Araumi.  Normally I would use Nimbleclaw's other untap for a land/rock to help pay for the next encore, but if more milling is beneficial, Nimbleclaw will help Minister of Inquiries do it for cheap (mill six cards per opponent for one mana; normally Stitcher's Supplier is the only one does that).  There are other options for creatures to put in the deck that cost 3cc that can be encored to untap Araumi, but Nimbleclaw lets you untap mana sources to help pay for the encores, which is worth the extra mana in its cost.  And if you encore a tapping creature to untap Araumi, then encore Nimbleclaw, you can reuse all the copies you previously used to untap Araumi, which helps if you only have three opponents.

Syr Konrad, the Grim should be in the deck, but currently, my only copy is in another deck.  Konrad triggers in three ways, and Araumi gets each of those fulfilled in excess.  Creature deaths?  You get a lot when encore triggers resolve at the end of the turn, plus every other creature death.  Creature cards entering the grave from anywhere other than the battlefield?  This is a self-mill creature deck, that's what this does.  Creature cards leaving my graveyard?  Not only does encore exile the creature from my grave (i.e. it leaves) but you have to exile a card for each opponent, which, again, in a creature deck, means a lot of creatures leaving your graveyard.  To top it all off, if he's in your graveyard you can encore him with Araumi and get death triggers from all the copies that die from the legendary rule... if you have four opponents, they'll each lose 9 life, or five opponents will lose 16 life each.  It's not nearly as powerful as something like Mirkwood Bats to encore, but if desperate, it can work.  Draw it or mill it, you can use it either way.