Hello there. Yawgmoth's Will is a card that I considered in the deck, but I do not have a good reason for its exclusion outside of the limitations of 99 card slots and the deck still being in its experimental phases. Worldgorger Dragon is a really good idea actually. It gives me a target in the event that Protean Hulk gets removed from the game. Blinking Murderous Redcap gives me a way to kill the table. I really dig this idea actually. Just not 100% what card to cut for it.
Quick Info
This deck has been in production since August 9th, 2018 (the release date for the Commander 2018 product). I bought each set, but this was the commander that spoke the most to me.Gyrus, as it seems, was largely criticized for its brutal double exile that prevents any real abuse of his ability. I largely wrote this deck off in its early stages, but thanks to Modern Horizons, the final piece that made me drag this out of the graveyard was Lesser Masticore. The deck is surprisingly resilient with different win conditions in the event of removal. This deck runs a Reanimator Hulk package and a suite of cards that positively interact with Necrotic Ooze.
Playing the Deck
The early game strategy is to "Jund 'em out". Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast against FlashHulk, Lightning Bolt against greedy Ad Nauseam players, and a suite of hate against artifacts, enchantments, and creatures. The strategy is to survive the first few rounds against faster decks that will look to take the game quickly. While at the same time, we can start setting up win conditions.
This is a homebrew attempt at a competitive deck in colors that typically only run Prossh and uses a commander that will fly under the radar at most tables until you start machine gunning everyone. This deck can also win on the attack step using Gyrus after a Hermit Druid activation to make a token of Necrotic Ooze and win before damage is even dealt. So far, this deck has performed well against 75% pods and I continue to play test when I have the available time against hardcore cEDH groups.
I am Chief_of_Compliance, a long-time EDH enthusiast and lover of all things cEDH. I am very proud of this homebrew and I'm excited to present it to the cEDH community. This is my 3rd crack at building a competitive edh deck. I saw Gyrus as an interesting commander and this deck has been under construction since Commander 2018. While I still feel like its ability is nerfed as a result of R&D from being too cautious in designing this Jund commander, I wanted to focus on what the card could do and build around its restrictions rather than writing it off. I've harassed my playgroup for ideas, wonderful people on Discord for advice, and scoured the multitude of resources available online to hand-pick every single card on this list to maximize the potential of this deck. This deck tries to utilize as much interaction and ETB creatures for longevity while I search up win cons. Because this is a highly underused commander (even in casual lists), the strength of this deck is its ability to fly under the radar.
EDIT: Also, the classic Sylvan Safekeeper can help protect your commander. That's important since your deck is so reliant on it.
I guess I wanted to address the idea that my deck is reliant on my commander. While this is true to point, the deck does not win via my commander in the way voltron decks do. It is far more reliant on utilizing lands in a way that is unusual and against green's desire to ramp and cast giant creature spells. If drew similarity to any commander, it would be The Gitrog Monster in that my commander offers a value engine if she sticks on the battlefield for a turn or two. In essense, the lands are the spells. My lands protect me, like Glacial Chasm and Maze of Ith. If anything, the deck needs a Rishadan Port and other spell-mimicry lands and more ways of dealing with Blood Moon, which absolutely would wreck me.
The ultimate goal for this deck is to break into cEDH as a rogue build (even if it's in the lower tiers). Which means I need to have ways to deal with Tymna the Weaver, General Tazri, and Zur the Enchanter.
Why does Scouting Trek net you advantage with Manabond? The lands don't end up in your hand.
You didn't comment on the rest of the cards I'd offered though, and I think there are some really interesting suggestions.
Of course Meloku is great for you, and also Overburden, Mana Vortex, and Kefnet the Mindful seem to be very useful.
Kefnet is one that I know people think is bad, but with all your draw triggers seven cards shouldn't be a big issue for you, and his ability is very relevant since you like bouncing your lands.
I also think that either Devastation Tide or Cyclonic Rift should be in your deck. I know they're everywhere, but that's because they're so effective at what they do.
EDIT: Also, the classic Sylvan Safekeeper can help protect your commander. That's important since your deck is so reliant on it.
I feel like Overburden is a card that this deck could like. Bouncing lands gives you more triggers for your commander - and I don't think you actually ever lack them. Your opponents, though, could suffer greatly from the effect, especially decks like Animar or Karador, or aggressive creature decks. If you want to go further down this route you could try Mana Vortex, but you did mention that your deck is already "unfun".
Saccing lands in blue is actually something that's rarely truly been explored, so I think you have a lot of room for new secret tech cards. Stuff like Excavation, Psychic Vortex, Rushing River, etc. Obviously these are pretty bad, but they might be a good start.
Of course bouncing lands is much more common, and I'm still disappointed to see no Meloku the Clouded Mirror as a classic, no Kefnet the Mindful as a new power card, and no Uyo, Silent Prophet to copy stuff like Explosive Vegetation for ridiculous combos. I am also surprised to see that your Floodbringer isn't Oboro Breezecaller to combo with stuff like Maze of Ith. I also think Soratami Savant is worth a try - 3 mana is a lot to keep up all the time.
Finally, Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar is a card.
Expanding on that, green has recently received more tools for mass land recursion, like The Mending of Dominaria and World Shaper. They include some self mill which would go well with your LFTL and Crucible package.
Another thing that you should heavily consider is that your board control is quite lacking. Sure, it's green's weakness, but blue has more than enough to cover for it with mass bounce. Nonland bounce is especially common, and especially effective since most of what you care about are your commander and lands - so mass bouncing shouldn't be a problem. Devastation Tide, Cyclonic Rift, Turbulent Dreams, Distorting Wake... They take care of a LOT of problems.
Why the hell did I think AEtherflux Reservoir costed 3cmc. I must have been tired or hungover, but thank you for correcting me. I always use Trophy Mage it to get my Cloudstone Curio. I must have missed Oboro Breezecaller combing through creature-land synergies. I excluded Uyo, Silent Prophet and Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar strictly due trying to keep the mana curve low and since the deck tries to not focus on creature-based strategies. Meloku the Clouded Mirror presents an interesting opportunity to bounce lands for cheap. World Shaper gives me a good death trigger to get my lands back and deserves a play test.
As it turns out, I can recover quite quickly against MLD. Life from the Loam, Ramunap Excavator, Crucible of Worlds, and Splendid Reclamation all put me right back into the game. My deck also doesn't care about all my land getting blown up, because my mana curve is pretty low. The deck isn't trying to drop large CMC creatures or play high CMC spells where losing my land would hinder my play. I care about my lands coming into play to net card draw, but don't really care what happens to them afterwards.
Wow this is an interesting take of Tatyova! I think it is totally different from Gitrog and personally I find her more fun to Play. You can check my deck on my signature (it's a wip) for more ideas. I've found out that killing the table with Scorching Desert is the least expected way. As for the dorks, I prefer ramp spells because they can cantrip late game.
Mana dorks help casting her, but don't help with the lands strategy. The Gitrog Monster is far more degenerative and earns its spot as a cEDH deck. I wanted to do something different, but is still no where near competitive enough (where cEDH is concerned). The issue that I've found is my deck stalls out many casual and some 75% decks, making it "unfun" for the group. And the deck doesn't feel like it would stand up against most of the cEDH decks out there. The toolbox design gives it silver bullets, but flash hulk is a thing. No way this deck goes turn-0 or turn-1.
I think you could cut Gemstone Cavern and one of your fetchlands. 9 is a really solid number to make sure that you have all the colors necessary, and the rainbow lands help generate any color you need.
Glad I could help. I'll be interested to see what your game reports look like with this deck! The synergy between the strategies is very impressive and makes for an efficient deck, methinks.
Gemstone Caverns was a leftover from The Gitrog Monster. I agree that it is not really optimal outside of the opening hand, and only situationally good if I'm on the draw. I think adding Memory's Journey is the play here.
Next week I'm going out of town for vacation, but I'm going to try and head to the shop on the following Monday and Wednesday if I can squeeze it to report the standings and gameplay analysis.
Quick Info
This deck was built at first to prove my playgroup wrong that Tatyova is not a watered down version of The Gitrog Monster. I am an EDH player exclusively, but I often find inspiration in Legacy or competitive Modern designs and comb through those deck lists for EDH applications. As I was building this deck, I remembered that Legacy Lands was a thing. Sadly, I had lost an eBay bid on a fairly reasonably priced Tabernacle many years ago and I prefer not to run proxies unless I own the card. For all intents and purposes, this deck strives to mimic Legacy Lands where all possible while amassing a huge amount of card draw.
Early Game
The early game strategy is simple: cast Tatyova as soon as possible. Mulligan aggressively if you need to since your commander is a card draw engine. I've been reviewing many other Tatyova builds and they tend to eschew using mana rocks / mana dorks in favor of cards like Exploration. While I agree in losing the mana dorks, doubling up on the mana acceleration can ensure that I have Tatyova in play and have enough mana to cast her again (because she will die often).
The second part of the early game is survival against faster decks. For this, we have Glacial Chasm, Maze of Ith, and Scavenger Grounds. We also have our own land destruction package with Strip Mine / Wasteland and similar cards to slow down decks trying to win in the first 4 turns of the game.
If we get very lucky, Thespian's Stage / Dark Depths can close out a game quickly. Yet, while indestructible, Marit Lage can still get exiled or bounced. Pulling this off by turn 2, however, will let your opponents know that you aren't f***ing around.
Mid Game
The deck really shines in the mid and late game because of the toolbox nature of the deck combined with lands as the main win condition (we'll get to that in a moment). Lands are incredibly difficult to interact with outside of mass land destruction and spot removal such as Strip Mine / Wasteland. The same goes for abilities stapled to a land, which unless a deck is heavy on stifle effects, will not be able to counter what my lands are doing.
Trophy Mage gets us Cloudstone Curio or Aetherflux Reservoir. The latter is self-explanatory in that this deck gains a lot of life and can blast someone in the face for 50. Cloudstone Curio, however, plays a unique role in the deck for its ability to bounce lands (a nonartifact permanent I control) to keep the value train going.
Late Game
At the end of the day, this deck aims to win the war of attrition through the value of toolbox lands. How long can I deny opponents from their resources? How long can I keep them from their win conditions while setting up my own? This deck is very good at stalling out the game.
We got to the end, now what? How does this deck win? Through pure shenanigans. Laboratory Maniac is a requirement for this deck because it is very possible to deck yourself. Marit Lage (especially repeatable with so much land recursion) can win the game after I've drawn out all the removal over the course of the game. The real win condition is the reason I built this deck.. Sunscorched Desert.
Retreat to Coralhelm + Cloudstone Curio + Skyshroud Ranger (or variants) + Sunscorched Desert + any other land. Yes, this is an extremely convoluted way to win the game, but so immensely satisfying to infinitely play a land and machine gun an opponent. For having so many moving parts, the combo is surprisingly easy to pull off. For the exception of the Curio, the combo contains parts that does not pose any immediate threat to draw removal over the course of the game.
General
This deck, in its current form, is far-and-away from the finished project. The original form only played basic lands until I scoped out a Legacy Lands deck list. Since I've been playing this deck shortly after the Dominaria prerelease, the deck has not yet lost a single match. It has tested well against The Mimeoplasm, Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, and Edgar Markov. It very nearly lost to Memnarch, but survived by drawing out every counter and removal spell until I limped my way through with commander damage.
I am Chief_of_Compliance, a long-time EDH enthusiast and posting another deck of mine that I hope you will all enjoy. This is another deck that became loosely inspired by a Legacy deck. It began as a draw-go deck with incremental card advantage (since card draw is stapled to the commander) and was built as a UG variant to The Gitrog Monster. It has since become a toolbox land deck that tries to stall out the game (or sneak a win out of nowhere) through the value engine that is Tatyova, Benthic Druid.
Note: You do not need a Timetwister for this deck, and can easily be replaced by Day's Undoing. I got my copy as a wedding present many years ago and slip it into a deck I'm playing whenever possible. Since M19 has reprints of Scapeshift and Crucible of Worlds, this deck can easily be build on a budget.
I think that this is a beautiful pile of cards. The recommendation that I would add is to lower your land count so that you aren't flooded. While I understand that Cascade is a way to filter through your lands and get to the business spells, I think you can afford to shave off 2-3 lands and still have a decent land count to get off the ground.
Some cards that I would suggest that would be helpful to your game plan are: Memory's Journey, Dark Confidant, Aetherflux Reservoir, and Rapid Hybridization/Pongify/Nature's Claim. The Journey is useful to make sure that you get another chance to try again with your combo (in the case of 'yard hate or a well-timed 'yard exile effect from an opponent in response to your Dread Return). Dark Confidant is an easy way to start accruing great card advantage relatively early and with minimal cost to you; I think the CMC curve of your deck has got to be something around 2, so you should be able to draw cards until you win the game. Confidant and the Journey also have low CMC's so that flipping them over with Ad Nauseam isn't painful. Aetherflux Reservoir is the new way that competitive Commander decks kill with Storm since the incidental life-gain is so important and you need a lower Storm count in order to kill the table too. Finally, the cheap CMC removal effects are just generally good. Competitive Commander games are usually dominated by FlashHulk strategies and similar Storm strategies, so I would personally recommend the Claim since it also hits Food Chain in addition to mana rocks/mana sources.
Overall, it's a great deck with a low CMC curve and a highly efficient package of spells to generate card advantage and maximize your mana advantage. I'd love to play against it sometime!
Thank you for the feedback and you bring up some very good points. I'm not new to EDH, but I am new to trying to break into the cEDH scene. Aetherflux Reservoir offers a great additional win condition for a deck that is trying to have as many win cons as possible to be able to adjust on the fly. I will take into consideration shaving the land count, but I'm not sure how many or which ones to cut. Maybe City of Brass and Mana Confluence to mitigate unnecessary early game life loss (since fetching is already chunking my life totals. So, I think their replacements will be Aetherflux Reservoir and Nature's Claim.
This deck is the final product of several different builds, inspirations, and cards acquired over a very long period of time. This deck is *not* a budget build. It started as a two separate decks: Tasigur, the Golden Fang dredge/delve and Jhoira of the Ghitu suspend/storm. As I started paying closer attention to Legacy (with I share a love of both archetypes), I noticed that the deck lists were surprisingly similar. Once Yidris was spoiled, I had an idea to cram both in the same deck.
Early Game
This deck has many win conditions set for various stages of the game. This iteration tries to close up shop as early as turn 2 with a Hermit Druid. This Hermit Druid combo is slightly different than the traditional set-ups and utilizes a Legacy dredge combo. To accomplish this you need the following: a land in hand, preferably a blue source. There are zero basic lands in the deck, so activating Hermit Druid instantly dumps your library into the graveyard. This places Narcomoeba onto the battlefield for free. You play your land, bringing back Bloodghast. Flashback Dread Return; sacrificing Narcomoeba, Bloodghast, and Hermit Druid to get Laboratory Maniac into play. Unearthing a Fatestitcher is also an option to get your 3rd creature. There are enough 1cmc draw spells or cycle lands to ensure at least one is in your hand.
Mid Game
Dredge -> storm is the mid game plan for this deck. The ability to out value your opponent cannot be overstated. Strip Mine / Life from the Loam can really help disrupt our opponents. Unlike similar locks with multiple land drops (Azusa or Oracle of Mul Daya), I use this to keep an opponent from key lands in an attempt to keep them off their colors.Vaporing something only to Strip Mine their ability to re-cast is value in its own right. Since dredge sets up my storm up, the mid game win is to Tendrils of Agony. There are a lot of tutors here, so being able to call up win conditions (see Hermit Druid above) should not usually be an issue. Cracking a Lion's Eye Diamond in response to Infernal Tutor nets you 3 mana and your choice of win condition.
Late Game
The late game is not something this deck has typically had to deal with because either the deck has won already or has had its win conditions disrupted and we are already dead with no good way back. Yidris is a 5/4 trampler, which can easily put opponents on a clock. There is still enough answers to other threats that we might be able to force our way to winning through commander damage. Although depending on the board state and assuming Yidris has been sent back to the command zone many times, this might not be viable to close up the game.
General
This deck truly benefits from the decks that came before. From piloting the Gitrog,Jhoira, and Tasigur in different stages of my learning of the game and grasping advanced mechanics through the school of hard lessons, I struggled with things such as "when do I crack the Lion's Eye Diamond?" or "why am I purposely putting things in the graveyard?" I've earned a 6th sense of piloting this deck because it's quite literally all my decks in one.
Some notable inclusions: there is no Sol Ring. Why? Colorless mana in this deck is not helpful towards the overall game plan. Yes, a turn 1 Sol Ring is good and can help me cast lots of things, while a 0 cmc Mana Crypt is better. Spending a crucial colored mana source to cast Sol Ring to tap for 2 colorless is much less effective when I may need mana open for other things. There is no Force of Will. I go back and forth with this card. It's obviously very good, but this deck is also very conservative about exiling its own stuff. Also no Dig through Time for the same reason.
Unlike most Yidris builds, this deck is not overly concerned with cascade triggers. That does not mean that the deck ignores cascade. Yidris is a 5/4 beater that can easily stick around for at least a turn's worth of combat damage. Cascading a Brainstorm into an Lion's Eye Diamond, 0 cmc mana rock or suspend spell never feels bad. This is also not a "fun" or "casual" deck, so if your playgroup is not too keen on Hermit Druid, storm or dredge combos and you still want to play it? Dialing the deck down to 75% could help keep the game fun without being degenerate.
I am Chief_of_Compliance, a long-time EDH enthusiast and returning to the cite now that I have a little more free time. I am very proud of this deck and is the closest thing to a competitive deck I've ever built. It pulls from several different designs, most notably Legacy storm and Legacy dredge. This is a budgetless deck and I was lucky to acquire most of these cards before many of the buyouts (I purchased my one copy of Lion's Eye Diamond back in 2016, a week before the buyout for $70) and selling the collection of foil Modern staples I accumulated well before the format existed. The deck was originally 3 different decks: Tasigur, the Golden Fang, The Gitrog Monster, and Jhoira of the Ghitu. It's now a Frankenstein's Monster mash-up of all of my favorite archetypes.
This deck has been in production since August 9th, 2018 (the release date for the Commander 2018 product). I bought each set, but this was the commander that spoke the most to me.Gyrus, as it seems, was largely criticized for its brutal double exile that prevents any real abuse of his ability. I largely wrote this deck off in its early stages, but thanks to Modern Horizons, the final piece that made me drag this out of the graveyard was Lesser Masticore. The deck is surprisingly resilient with different win conditions in the event of removal. This deck runs a Reanimator Hulk package and a suite of cards that positively interact with Necrotic Ooze.
Playing the Deck
The early game strategy is to "Jund 'em out". Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast against FlashHulk, Lightning Bolt against greedy Ad Nauseam players, and a suite of hate against artifacts, enchantments, and creatures. The strategy is to survive the first few rounds against faster decks that will look to take the game quickly. While at the same time, we can start setting up win conditions.
This deck runs both Hulk and Necrotic Ooze as our options to set up a win with a lot of ways to tutor for the cards we need. Getting cards in the graveyard is one of the most important lines of play here, either dealing with threats with an extra ETB removal using Gyrus or simply winning the game with infinite counters on Necrotic Ooze with Devoted Druid, Morselhoarder, and Walking Ballista in the graveyard. The most fun is playing with persist with Hulk, since when he dies, he tutors up the entire win condition with Disciple of the Vault, Melira, Sylvok Outcast, Lesser Masticore and a sac outlet like Viscera Seer or Carrion Feeder.
Why Play This Deck?
This is a homebrew attempt at a competitive deck in colors that typically only run Prossh and uses a commander that will fly under the radar at most tables until you start machine gunning everyone. This deck can also win on the attack step using Gyrus after a Hermit Druid activation to make a token of Necrotic Ooze and win before damage is even dealt. So far, this deck has performed well against 75% pods and I continue to play test when I have the available time against hardcore cEDH groups.
I am Chief_of_Compliance, a long-time EDH enthusiast and lover of all things cEDH. I am very proud of this homebrew and I'm excited to present it to the cEDH community. This is my 3rd crack at building a competitive edh deck. I saw Gyrus as an interesting commander and this deck has been under construction since Commander 2018. While I still feel like its ability is nerfed as a result of R&D from being too cautious in designing this Jund commander, I wanted to focus on what the card could do and build around its restrictions rather than writing it off. I've harassed my playgroup for ideas, wonderful people on Discord for advice, and scoured the multitude of resources available online to hand-pick every single card on this list to maximize the potential of this deck. This deck tries to utilize as much interaction and ETB creatures for longevity while I search up win cons. Because this is a highly underused commander (even in casual lists), the strength of this deck is its ability to fly under the radar.
1 Gyrus, Waker of Corpses
Creature
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Devoted Druid
1 Disciple of the Vault
1 Viscera Seer
1 Hermit Druid
1 Caustic Caterpillar
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Imperial Recruiter
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Apprentice Necromancer
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Riftsweeper
1 Manglehorn
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Collector Ouphe
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Necrotic Ooze
1 Morselhoarder
1 Protean Hulk
Enchantment
1 Necromancy
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Sylvan Library
1 Animate Dead
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Pattern of Rebirth
Artifact
1 Mox Diamond
1 Chrome Mox
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Walking Ballista
1 Lesser Masticore
1 Fire Covenant
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Pyroblast
1 Fatal Push
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Nature's Claim
1 Crop Rotation
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Summoner's Pact
1 Assassin's Trophy
1 Entomb
Sorcery
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Life // Death
1 Vandalblast
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Natural Order
1 Collective Brutality
1 By Force
1 Imperial Seal
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Reanimate
1 Gamble
1 Faithless Looting
1 Buried Alive
Planeswalker
1 Liliana of the Veil
Land
1 Badlands
1 Bayou
1 Taiga
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Strip Mine
1 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Copperline Gorge
1 Mana Confluence
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Polluted Delta
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Wasteland
1 Maze of Ith
1 Blooming Marsh
1 Marsh Flats
1 Arid Mesa
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Command Tower
1 City of Brass
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Blood Crypt
1 Stomping Ground
1 Dryad Arbor
I guess I wanted to address the idea that my deck is reliant on my commander. While this is true to point, the deck does not win via my commander in the way voltron decks do. It is far more reliant on utilizing lands in a way that is unusual and against green's desire to ramp and cast giant creature spells. If drew similarity to any commander, it would be The Gitrog Monster in that my commander offers a value engine if she sticks on the battlefield for a turn or two. In essense, the lands are the spells. My lands protect me, like Glacial Chasm and Maze of Ith. If anything, the deck needs a Rishadan Port and other spell-mimicry lands and more ways of dealing with Blood Moon, which absolutely would wreck me.
The ultimate goal for this deck is to break into cEDH as a rogue build (even if it's in the lower tiers). Which means I need to have ways to deal with Tymna the Weaver, General Tazri, and Zur the Enchanter.
Overburden, Mana Vortex, and Kefnet the Mindful are interesting inclusions in a deck trying to deny resources in a non-traditional sense. Cyclonic Rift is already in the deck. Sylvan Safekeeper is a nice land-sac outlet and is repeatable to keep whatever creatures I'm looking to keep alive. Titania, Protector of Argoth could be interesting as a pseudo-stax inclusion.
Why the hell did I think AEtherflux Reservoir costed 3cmc. I must have been tired or hungover, but thank you for correcting me. I always use Trophy Mage it to get my Cloudstone Curio. I must have missed Oboro Breezecaller combing through creature-land synergies. I excluded Uyo, Silent Prophet and Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar strictly due trying to keep the mana curve low and since the deck tries to not focus on creature-based strategies. Meloku the Clouded Mirror presents an interesting opportunity to bounce lands for cheap. World Shaper gives me a good death trigger to get my lands back and deserves a play test.
Scouting Trek + Treasure Hunt gets me an insane amount of ramp if I have Manabond out.
As it turns out, I can recover quite quickly against MLD. Life from the Loam, Ramunap Excavator, Crucible of Worlds, and Splendid Reclamation all put me right back into the game. My deck also doesn't care about all my land getting blown up, because my mana curve is pretty low. The deck isn't trying to drop large CMC creatures or play high CMC spells where losing my land would hinder my play. I care about my lands coming into play to net card draw, but don't really care what happens to them afterwards.
Mana dorks help casting her, but don't help with the lands strategy. The Gitrog Monster is far more degenerative and earns its spot as a cEDH deck. I wanted to do something different, but is still no where near competitive enough (where cEDH is concerned). The issue that I've found is my deck stalls out many casual and some 75% decks, making it "unfun" for the group. And the deck doesn't feel like it would stand up against most of the cEDH decks out there. The toolbox design gives it silver bullets, but flash hulk is a thing. No way this deck goes turn-0 or turn-1.
Gemstone Caverns was a leftover from The Gitrog Monster. I agree that it is not really optimal outside of the opening hand, and only situationally good if I'm on the draw. I think adding Memory's Journey is the play here.
Next week I'm going out of town for vacation, but I'm going to try and head to the shop on the following Monday and Wednesday if I can squeeze it to report the standings and gameplay analysis.
This deck was built at first to prove my playgroup wrong that Tatyova is not a watered down version of The Gitrog Monster. I am an EDH player exclusively, but I often find inspiration in Legacy or competitive Modern designs and comb through those deck lists for EDH applications. As I was building this deck, I remembered that Legacy Lands was a thing. Sadly, I had lost an eBay bid on a fairly reasonably priced Tabernacle many years ago and I prefer not to run proxies unless I own the card. For all intents and purposes, this deck strives to mimic Legacy Lands where all possible while amassing a huge amount of card draw.
Early Game
The early game strategy is simple: cast Tatyova as soon as possible. Mulligan aggressively if you need to since your commander is a card draw engine. I've been reviewing many other Tatyova builds and they tend to eschew using mana rocks / mana dorks in favor of cards like Exploration. While I agree in losing the mana dorks, doubling up on the mana acceleration can ensure that I have Tatyova in play and have enough mana to cast her again (because she will die often).
The second part of the early game is survival against faster decks. For this, we have Glacial Chasm, Maze of Ith, and Scavenger Grounds. We also have our own land destruction package with Strip Mine / Wasteland and similar cards to slow down decks trying to win in the first 4 turns of the game.
If we get very lucky, Thespian's Stage / Dark Depths can close out a game quickly. Yet, while indestructible, Marit Lage can still get exiled or bounced. Pulling this off by turn 2, however, will let your opponents know that you aren't f***ing around.
Mid Game
The deck really shines in the mid and late game because of the toolbox nature of the deck combined with lands as the main win condition (we'll get to that in a moment). Lands are incredibly difficult to interact with outside of mass land destruction and spot removal such as Strip Mine / Wasteland. The same goes for abilities stapled to a land, which unless a deck is heavy on stifle effects, will not be able to counter what my lands are doing.
Because of Crucible of Worlds, Life from the Loam, Ramunap Excavator, and Splendid Reclamation, we have a lot of ways to get our lands back from the graveyard. Command Beacon ensures we don't have to pay the commander death tax.
Trophy Mage gets us Cloudstone Curio or Aetherflux Reservoir. The latter is self-explanatory in that this deck gains a lot of life and can blast someone in the face for 50. Cloudstone Curio, however, plays a unique role in the deck for its ability to bounce lands (a nonartifact permanent I control) to keep the value train going.
Late Game
At the end of the day, this deck aims to win the war of attrition through the value of toolbox lands. How long can I deny opponents from their resources? How long can I keep them from their win conditions while setting up my own? This deck is very good at stalling out the game.
We got to the end, now what? How does this deck win? Through pure shenanigans. Laboratory Maniac is a requirement for this deck because it is very possible to deck yourself. Marit Lage (especially repeatable with so much land recursion) can win the game after I've drawn out all the removal over the course of the game. The real win condition is the reason I built this deck.. Sunscorched Desert.
Retreat to Coralhelm + Cloudstone Curio + Skyshroud Ranger (or variants) + Sunscorched Desert + any other land. Yes, this is an extremely convoluted way to win the game, but so immensely satisfying to infinitely play a land and machine gun an opponent. For having so many moving parts, the combo is surprisingly easy to pull off. For the exception of the Curio, the combo contains parts that does not pose any immediate threat to draw removal over the course of the game.
General
This deck, in its current form, is far-and-away from the finished project. The original form only played basic lands until I scoped out a Legacy Lands deck list. Since I've been playing this deck shortly after the Dominaria prerelease, the deck has not yet lost a single match. It has tested well against The Mimeoplasm, Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, and Edgar Markov. It very nearly lost to Memnarch, but survived by drawing out every counter and removal spell until I limped my way through with commander damage.
I am Chief_of_Compliance, a long-time EDH enthusiast and posting another deck of mine that I hope you will all enjoy. This is another deck that became loosely inspired by a Legacy deck. It began as a draw-go deck with incremental card advantage (since card draw is stapled to the commander) and was built as a UG variant to The Gitrog Monster. It has since become a toolbox land deck that tries to stall out the game (or sneak a win out of nowhere) through the value engine that is Tatyova, Benthic Druid.
Note: You do not need a Timetwister for this deck, and can easily be replaced by Day's Undoing. I got my copy as a wedding present many years ago and slip it into a deck I'm playing whenever possible. Since M19 has reprints of Scapeshift and Crucible of Worlds, this deck can easily be build on a budget.
1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid
Creature
1 Floodbringer
1 Sakura-Tribe Scout
1 Skyshroud Ranger
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Llanowar Scout
1 Budoka Gardener
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Trophy Mage
1 Ramunap Excavator
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Wayward Swordtooth
Enchantment
1 Flooded Shoreline
1 Manabond
1 Trade Routes
1 Leyline of Anticipation
1 Exploration
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Retreat to Coralhelm
1 Sylvan Library
1 Burgeoning
Land
1 Tropical Island
1 Dust Bowl
1 Strip Mine
1 Alchemist's Refuge
1 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Breeding Pool
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Wasteland
1 Maze of Ith
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Sunscorched Desert
1 Scavenger Grounds
1 Dark Depths
1 Tolaria West
1 High Market
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Terrain Generator
1 Command Beacon
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Reliquary Tower
6 Forest
5 Island
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Mox Diamond
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Aetherflux Reservoir
1 Cloudstone Curio
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Walking Atlas
Instant
1 Realms Uncharted
1 Memory's Journey
1 Pongify
1 Intuition
1 High Tide
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Sunder
1 Cryptic Command
1 Nature's Claim
1 Remand
1 Crop Rotation
1 Gush
1 Mana Drain
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Brainstorm
Sorcery
1 Timetwister
1 Scouting Trek
1 Summer Bloom
1 Walk the Aeons
1 Life from the Loam
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Treasure Hunt
1 Splendid Reclamation
1 Explore
1 Scapeshift
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
Thank you for the feedback and you bring up some very good points. I'm not new to EDH, but I am new to trying to break into the cEDH scene. Aetherflux Reservoir offers a great additional win condition for a deck that is trying to have as many win cons as possible to be able to adjust on the fly. I will take into consideration shaving the land count, but I'm not sure how many or which ones to cut. Maybe City of Brass and Mana Confluence to mitigate unnecessary early game life loss (since fetching is already chunking my life totals. So, I think their replacements will be Aetherflux Reservoir and Nature's Claim.
This deck is the final product of several different builds, inspirations, and cards acquired over a very long period of time. This deck is *not* a budget build. It started as a two separate decks: Tasigur, the Golden Fang dredge/delve and Jhoira of the Ghitu suspend/storm. As I started paying closer attention to Legacy (with I share a love of both archetypes), I noticed that the deck lists were surprisingly similar. Once Yidris was spoiled, I had an idea to cram both in the same deck.
Early Game
This deck has many win conditions set for various stages of the game. This iteration tries to close up shop as early as turn 2 with a Hermit Druid. This Hermit Druid combo is slightly different than the traditional set-ups and utilizes a Legacy dredge combo. To accomplish this you need the following: a land in hand, preferably a blue source. There are zero basic lands in the deck, so activating Hermit Druid instantly dumps your library into the graveyard. This places Narcomoeba onto the battlefield for free. You play your land, bringing back Bloodghast. Flashback Dread Return; sacrificing Narcomoeba, Bloodghast, and Hermit Druid to get Laboratory Maniac into play. Unearthing a Fatestitcher is also an option to get your 3rd creature. There are enough 1cmc draw spells or cycle lands to ensure at least one is in your hand.
Mid Game
Dredge -> storm is the mid game plan for this deck. The ability to out value your opponent cannot be overstated. Strip Mine / Life from the Loam can really help disrupt our opponents. Unlike similar locks with multiple land drops (Azusa or Oracle of Mul Daya), I use this to keep an opponent from key lands in an attempt to keep them off their colors.Vaporing something only to Strip Mine their ability to re-cast is value in its own right. Since dredge sets up my storm up, the mid game win is to Tendrils of Agony. There are a lot of tutors here, so being able to call up win conditions (see Hermit Druid above) should not usually be an issue. Cracking a Lion's Eye Diamond in response to Infernal Tutor nets you 3 mana and your choice of win condition.
Late Game
The late game is not something this deck has typically had to deal with because either the deck has won already or has had its win conditions disrupted and we are already dead with no good way back. Yidris is a 5/4 trampler, which can easily put opponents on a clock. There is still enough answers to other threats that we might be able to force our way to winning through commander damage. Although depending on the board state and assuming Yidris has been sent back to the command zone many times, this might not be viable to close up the game.
General
This deck truly benefits from the decks that came before. From piloting the Gitrog,Jhoira, and Tasigur in different stages of my learning of the game and grasping advanced mechanics through the school of hard lessons, I struggled with things such as "when do I crack the Lion's Eye Diamond?" or "why am I purposely putting things in the graveyard?" I've earned a 6th sense of piloting this deck because it's quite literally all my decks in one.
Some notable inclusions: there is no Sol Ring. Why? Colorless mana in this deck is not helpful towards the overall game plan. Yes, a turn 1 Sol Ring is good and can help me cast lots of things, while a 0 cmc Mana Crypt is better. Spending a crucial colored mana source to cast Sol Ring to tap for 2 colorless is much less effective when I may need mana open for other things. There is no Force of Will. I go back and forth with this card. It's obviously very good, but this deck is also very conservative about exiling its own stuff. Also no Dig through Time for the same reason.
Unlike most Yidris builds, this deck is not overly concerned with cascade triggers. That does not mean that the deck ignores cascade. Yidris is a 5/4 beater that can easily stick around for at least a turn's worth of combat damage. Cascading a Brainstorm into an Lion's Eye Diamond, 0 cmc mana rock or suspend spell never feels bad. This is also not a "fun" or "casual" deck, so if your playgroup is not too keen on Hermit Druid, storm or dredge combos and you still want to play it? Dialing the deck down to 75% could help keep the game fun without being degenerate.
I am Chief_of_Compliance, a long-time EDH enthusiast and returning to the cite now that I have a little more free time. I am very proud of this deck and is the closest thing to a competitive deck I've ever built. It pulls from several different designs, most notably Legacy storm and Legacy dredge. This is a budgetless deck and I was lucky to acquire most of these cards before many of the buyouts (I purchased my one copy of Lion's Eye Diamond back in 2016, a week before the buyout for $70) and selling the collection of foil Modern staples I accumulated well before the format existed. The deck was originally 3 different decks: Tasigur, the Golden Fang, The Gitrog Monster, and Jhoira of the Ghitu. It's now a Frankenstein's Monster mash-up of all of my favorite archetypes.
1 Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder
Creature
1 Golgari Grave-Troll
1 Cloud of Faeries
1 Fatestitcher
1 Putrid Imp
1 Narcomoeba
1 Hermit Druid
1 Baral, Chief of Compliance
1 Stinkweed Imp
1 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Bloodghast
1 Dark Confidant
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Simian Spirit Guide
Enchantment
1 Pernicious Deed
Land
1 Badlands
1 Bayou
1 Taiga
1 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Strip Mine
1 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Blood Crypt
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Steam Vents
1 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
1 Watery Grave
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Marsh Flats
1 Arid Mesa
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Command Tower
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Barren Moor
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Mox Diamond
1 Lotus Bloom
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Aetherflux Reservoir
Instant
1 Frantic Search
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Mental Misstep
1 Noxious Revival
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Swan Song
1 Thought Scour
1 Cabal Ritual
1 Mana Drain
1 Dark Ritual
1 Pact of Negation
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Brainstorm
1 Nature's Claim
1 Memory's Journey
Sorcery
1 Timetwister
1 Summer Bloom
1 Infernal Tutor
1 Life from the Loam
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Ponder
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Faithless Looting
1 Thoughtseize
1 Past in Flames
1 Wheel of Fate
1 Dread Return
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Duress