MTG Salvation

Quote from spentbullets

Got a few games in with Roon last night, so I thought I'd drop in to leave a raving review of my new pal Perplexing Chimera. This card is so much fun, even without ready access to a blink enabler.

My friends were playing Sen Triplets, Scion of the Ur-Dragon, and Omnath, Locus of Mana. Triplets player scooped after burning out and losing an early Karn Liberated to a 3v1 assault, so I was left with the other two. Long story short, Perplexing Chimera, Aura Shards and a clone of someone else's Prophet of Kruphix in play enabled me to steal Scion, in the process destroying the Chimera and sending it to my graveyard with Aura Shards, then Omnath cast Genesis Wave for 13 and I flashed in Eternal Witness followed by Perplexing Chimera and stole his spell. The game was pretty much over after that.

I think you should make room for Perplexing Chimera. Maybe you could cut Fact or Fiction, if you aren't too attached to it.

Quote from spentbullets

I must admit I'm still torn on whether or not to include Skullclamp. It seems like a shame not to include it in my deck when I'm running 10 possible targets for it. Plus, the added card advantage could occasionally draw me into Sun Titan, Karmic Guide, Reveillark, or Eternal Witness, enabling me to recycle my clamp targets. A chance to clamp Coiling Oracle once a turn with Roon and Sun Titan in play is an extremely tempting proposition.

Quote from Omega Furnace

You seem to be missing a couple of zombie lords.
Undead Warchief
Death Baron

Also, you might benefit from Phyrexia's Core and/or Trading Post to go with that Spine of Ish Sah.

It seems somewhat odd to me that you run Braids, Cabal Minion but not Smokestack. Is there a reason for that?

Quote from spentbullets

I'm curious about Ixidron. How do you use this card effectively without rendering Roon useless? Does it require Conjurer's Closet or another blink enabler?

Also, why Courser of Kruphix and not Oracle of Mul Daya?

Lord of Tresserhorn: This deck is a multiplayer agro-based deck in Grixis colors with a zombie theme designed to punish opposing players’ boards while using resilient threats to kill off opponents through combat damage. The deck has alternative win conditions because decks that rely only on the combat phase are easily stopped. If you are looking for a quick combo deck or an all-out swarm deck, this is not the deck for you. I appreciate all feedback, both positive and negative. The ideas I’ve gotten from these forums have been instrumental in improving my decks. Thanks for reading this primer!

Deck History

I built an EDH deck around Lord of Tresserhorn because I loved the card when it was printed, and I thought it would be a challenge. I’d built many other decks with more popular commanders, so I was ready to take on an original deck that I could call my own. The name of the deck comes from the TV show “Lost”, and it’s an often-repeated quote from the character John Locke. I use it to show that I built this deck to overcome the obstacle of Lord of Tresserhorn’s drawbacks. And I use it because my friends said it couldn't be done!

This deck was originally a voltron-oriented deck designed to kill people through commander damage supported by control elements. However, this original version did not work well. I eventually went a more agro route. The deck has become an agro-oriented deck with a heavy zombie theme. I have settled on the current list after playing many games against many different styles of decks; however, it is currently geared towards the meta I most often face, so changes should be made to reflect the kinds of decks you regularly face. The deck now works best by clogging up the board early, dropping a recursion engine, and finishing off players with combat damage through recurrable creatures, or through repeated plays using etb creatures (ex: bringing back Gray Merchant of Asphodel every turn).

Though I have played the deck a lot, I'm sure there are cards that I've missed that would be great in the deck. If you suggest a card, please try to suggest a card that I could cut make room for the one you suggest. I would like to stay with the zombie theme as much as possible, and any reason to cut non-zombie cards would be welcome too!

Why play Lord of Tresserhorn?

Lord of Tresserhorn is unique. Most people you play against will not be familiar with the card, and will scoff at you when they read what it does. However, Grixis colors provide you with the ability to attack from many angles (combat damage, bleeder effects, etc) while providing you with a great removal suite.

Reasons to play Lord of Tresserhorn:

• You want to use a unique commander – this commander comes from a generally underwhelming set (Alliances) and comes with effects that seem to make him bad.
• You want to play a deck that does not require you to play your commander – though your commander is powerful, there are games where you shouldn’t use him. But it’s great to have the threat of a 2-turn clock by turn 6, and readily available access to a sac outlet as well.
• You like interactive play and the combat step – this deck is first and foremost an agro-based deck, so you will be doing a lot of attacking, blocking, and dealing with removal.
• You enjoy complicated board states – this deck, and its commander, does not lend itself well to linear play. You will often need to decide if you are going to follow a line of play that emphasizes your commander, a line of play that emphasizes board control, or a line of play that will utilize “bleeder” effects (incremental damage over time).

Reasons to not play Lord of Tresserhorn:

• You enjoy linear play – some players enjoy decks that are fairly straightforward and play out in similar ways each game. This deck does not do that.
• You do not like the combat step – some players enjoy decks that focus more on combos or spells to do most of the work. This deck does not do that.
• The deck can be blown out by board wipes – although the deck has many recursion engines, repeated board wipes will generally wreck this deck.
• Generally weak to flying – although this deck has a ton of power to spit out, it lacks good flying creatures, and decks that run a bunch of them (most notably vampire tribal, which a buddy of mine plays) will have a good matchup against this deck.

Other options for Grixis commanders: (there are many options, I will list the most popular here)

• Nekusar, the Mindrazer – this commander is very popular, but plays a very different game, often relying on forcing people to draw cards to do damage.
• Thraximundar – a very powerful general, most commonly found in control or voltron-based strategies. He’s powerful, he’s a zombie, but his very high cost and relatively vanilla abilities make him great in the deck, but not at the helm of the deck.
• Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge – a very interesting general, but also generally found in decks that rely more heavily on spells than creatures.
• Marchesa, the Black Rose – a relatively new general, seems very powerful, and probably could find a place in my deck. For the time being, I have not faced her enough to speak intelligently about her.

Decklist

Deck by Card Type

Outcry's Lord of Tresserhorn (by card type)Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards

Commander 1 Lord of Tresserhorn Creatures (33) 1 Cryptbreaker 1 Gravecrawler 1 Nightscape Familiar 1 Relentless Dead 1 Undead Augur 1 Cemetery Reaper 1 Coffin Queen 1 Death Baron 1 Diregraf Captain 1 Fleshbag Marauder 1 Gleaming Overseer 1 Liliana's Standard Bearer 1 Lord of the Undead 1 Zombie Master 1 Corpse Augur 1 Erebos, God of the Dead 1 Gisa and Gerald 1 Graveshifter 1 Purphoros, God of the Forge 1 Risen Executioner 1 Tormod, the Desecrator 1 Undead Warchief 1 Vindictive Lich 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel 1 Havengul Lich 1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier 1 The Scarab God 1 Geth, Lord of the Vault 1 Grave Titan 1 Kokusho, the Evening Star 1 Rot Hulk 1 Thraximundar 1 Razaketh, the Foulblooded

Enchantments (8) 1 Phyrexian Reclamation 1 Dreadhorde Invasion 1 Gate to Phyrexia 1 Grave Pact 1 Tombstone Stairwell 1 Dictate of Erebos 1 Liliana's Mastery 1 Rooftop Storm Sorceries (9) 1 Feed the Swarm 1 Finale of Eternity 1 Agadeem's Awakening 1 Toxic Deluge 1 Wheel of Fortune 1 Damnation 1 Living Death 1 Haunting Voyage 1 Decree of Pain Artifacts (6) 1 Sol Ring 1 Arcane Signet 1 Torpor Orb 1 Ashnod's Altar 1 Sword of Feast and Famine 1 Embercleave Instants (4) 1 Malakir Rebirth 1 Cyclonic Rift 1 Rise of the Dread Marn 1 Hagra Mauling Planeswalkers (1) 1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General Lands (38) 1 Academy Ruins 1 Badlands 1 Blood Crypt 1 Bloodstained Mire 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Cavern of Souls 1 Command Tower 1 Crumbling Necropolis 1 Dragonskull Summit 1 Drowned Catacomb 1 Island 1 Luxury Suite 1 Morphic Pool 1 Mountain 1 Path of Ancestry 1 Polluted Delta 1 Rocky Tar Pit 1 Steam Vents 1 Sulfur Falls 1 Sulfurous Springs 8 Swamp 1 Tainted Isle 1 Tolaria West 1 Training Center 1 Underground River 1 Underground Sea 1 Unholy Grotto 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 1 Volcanic Island 1 Volrath's Stronghold 1 Watery Grave

Card Choices by Function

Beef/Fodder

Yes, he's THAT good.

• Gravecrawler: This guy is an all-star in this deck. He is cheap, recurs easily, can carry equipment, can be Skullclamped, is a combo piece. If I could fit 5 more of these in this deck, I would. He's also a fairly common tutor target.


• Nightscape Familiar: A problem with this deck is that its average converted mana cost is high. This guy helps by both being low on the curve himself, and also reducing the cost of many spells in the deck, including the commander!
• Cemetery Reaper: All our zombie lords are helpful in terms of beefing up the size of the zombies, and carry an additional benefit. This guy happens to be one of only 2 ways this deck deals with opponents' graveyard shenanigans. Definitely an important creature.


• Death Baron: Again, a zombie lord with added benefits. This one allows us to make attacking always profitable, even with defending fatties.


• Gleaming Overseer (added 5/19/19): This guy is in for testing with amass. He also adds evasion to our tokens, which is great. Finally, he provides two bodies on turn 3, which should help power out Lord of Tresserhorn on turn 4. I chose this card to include over other great options, like Vizier of the Scorpion, Eternal Skylord, and Dreadhorde Invasion, but if my deck ever gets more into tokens, those three are likely to be added.


• Zombie Master: Added 1/4/16. He's really powerful for the swampwalk ability, but he's also a liability. Theft or cloning abilities can give your opponents an ability to run you over quickly, but he also gives a much needed boost to the mid and late games for a quick finisher. And with the flavor of the card, how could I NOT run this guy?!


• Lich Lord of Unx: A unique creature, and a token producer. The more valuable asset is that he offers another way to win (milling), in case of board stalls. 9/9/14
• Crypt Ghast: This deck requires a lot of mana to keep going, and this guy helps immensely. Unfortunately he's not a zombie, which makes him a bit harder to recur. And the extort triggers can help late game, as this deck has a lot of ways to blow through our life total.

Left unchecked, this guy ends games. Fast.



• Liliana's Reaver: One of the few "dumb" creatures, in that all he does is attack. However, connecting will put more beef on the field and cause opponents to discard, which nets us card advantage - something this deck sometimes lacks, depending on the draw. 4/25/15


• Undead Warchief: Zombie lord with a bigger-than-average buff to make all our zombies much more potent. Also helps power out the top of our curve by making zombies cost less to cast. New addition, this guy is expected to perform well in this list.


• Gray Merchant of Asphodel: A very important creature, this guy can quickly end games through a board stall by casting and recurring him repeatedly. Also pads our life total, which we tend to need in the late game.


• Grimgrin, Corpse-Born: A very solid piece of beef. A combo piece. Also removal on a stick. This guy is scary.


• Geth, Lord of the Vault: He has intimidate, so he can get through even when your other creatures cannot. He's also amazing in the late game, able to steal opponents' creatures from their yard and mill more. Do note that he cannot target creatures in your own yard.


• Grave Titan: One of our stronger creatures, this guy is amazing for his ability to amass tokens for our uses. Regrettable that he's not a zombie, but he's a familiar tutor target when you're lacking beef.


• Kokusho, the Evening Star: He's one of our few flying creatures. He's also some insurance against a board wipe, making it a losing proposition most of the time. More importantly, casting, killing, and recurring him repeatedly is a quick way to end a game.


• Ob Nixilis, Unshackled: New addition, just trying to him out. This is a meta call for me, and testing will tell if he's worth the slot. 2/24/15


• Thraximundar: Brutal attacker, great removal, and on theme. This guy ends games quickly if you can keep him alive.

Recursion

Remember, recursion to your hand is better than to the top of your deck.

• Phyrexian Reclamation: One of our strongest pieces of recursion because it puts the creature directly into the hand instead of on the top of the library. This is a fairly common tutor target, depending on your hand. It's also strong in that it's low on the mana curve.

We rely heavily on our artifacts.



• Reanimate: Our only spell that recurs a creature, this card can be an absolute blowout. Very strong in opening hands, where you can choose not to play a land and instead discard a fatty, then Reanimate it the next turn. Note that you can get a creature from any yard.


• Coffin Queen: Fantastic recursion engine. Errata'd a zombie. She can get a creature from any yard and keep it in play.


• Lord of the Undead: Another fantastic recursion engine, made even stronger by the fact that he brings the zombie to your hand instead of on top of your library. Also pumps other zombies - be careful though, because it will pump opponents' zombies too!


• Gravedigger: Recursion on a stick. Solid drop, great to play, then sacrifice, then recur him using another card.


• Havengul Lich: Probably the strongest recursion in the deck, although tacked onto a fragile body. You can recur a creature from any yard directly into play. If you can protect him, he will end the game very quickly.


• Unholy Grotto: Utility land that can recur any creature of ours. Although it puts it on the top of the deck instead of in your hand or in play, this is a very protected piece of recursion, as my meta has very little LD (land destruction). Only downside is that the recurred creature must be a zombie.


• Volrath's Stronghold: Like Unholy Grotto, but better. This can get any creature from our yard to the top of our deck. All upside. A fairly common tutor target.


• Academy Ruins: We have some incredibly powerful artifacts, and this is our only way to bring them back. A fairly common tutor target, if you have some powerful artifacts already in play.

Tax Effects

• Blood Artist: The ideal tax effect - cheap and efficient. This guy provides insurance against board wipes, and can make your own wipes more profitable.
• Bloodchief Ascension: A tax effect with inevitability. This card is in the deck to provide an alternative way to win, in the event of board stalls. Obviously better earlier in the game than late. This card can also stop some combo strategies from firing off. This is more of a meta card call, and you could consider substituting another card for it if you don't see combo decks with graveyard strategies often in your meta.5/19/19
• Diregraf Captain: An efficient tax effect tacked on to a zombie, along with a zombie lord effect.


• Falkenrath Noble: A bit on the expensive side for a tax effect, but one of the deck's few flying creatures. 1/4/16


• Vengeful Dead: Another expensive tax effect, but worth it because it's a zombie and also because it cases each opponent to lose life.9/9/14

Mana Fixing

• Sol Ring: There is a reason this is included in most lists and is banned in french edh. It's exceptional in this deck, as we have many high cost cards.


• Fellwar Stone: This is more of a meta call, but in 4-player matches this usually can end up tapping for any color. Other rocks, like Coalition Relic or Darksteel Ingot would do just fine here.


• Chromatic Lantern: This card is great mana fixing. What pushes it over the top is that our deck has many utility land that only produce colorless mana; this artifact can alleviate that issue and let those utility lands produce colored mana.

Removal

• Cyclonic Rift: Tested and true, this card is versatile and powerful. It can save you early from a problematic permanent, or it can clear the way late game for a game-winning attack. There is no true substitute for this card. I originally also ran Wash Out, which is another option for mass bouncing and I have used with some success.


• Dreadbore: Unconditional removal that can also hit planeswalkers. Great card, very efficient, never unhappy to see it in the hand.

One of the greatest sweepers in our colors.



• Terminate: Unconditional instant-speed creature removal at a very efficient cost. Great removal spell.


• Fleshbag Marauder: Recurrable removal on a stick. Zombie creature type. Non-targeted removal. This guy is great, and just gets better in the late game. Keep in mind you have to sacrifice a creature too, but even on an empty board you can play this guy and sacrifice him to himself. Gets bonkers if you have Grave Pact or Dictate of Erebos on board.


• Hero's Downfall: Instant speed, unconditional, can also hit planeswalkers. The cadillac of creature removal.


• Oblivion Stone: This card is an all-star in this deck. This is one of the few cards in our deck that can hit problematic enchantments and artifacts. It can also be recurred with Academy Ruins. Icing on the cake: you can protect your own permanents. Though it costs a lot to use, the deck is designed to generate high amounts of mana. A fairly common tutor target.


• Stronghold Assassin: Creature removal on a stick. Zombie creature type. Efficient casting cost. This guy is great, and the activation cost (sacrifice a creature) actually benefits us when you have Grave Pact or Dictate of Erebos on the board.


• Toxic Deluge: The best sweeper we have. This card is simply amazing against many decks, and required against others. This card gets around hexproof/shroud, indestructible, and protection from black. A very common tutor target when problematic permanents hit the board.


• Karn Liberated: One of the few cards in the deck that can hit problematic enchantments and artifacts, Karn Liberated is expensive but powerful. He doubles as an inevitable win condition if left unchecked. He's powerful in modern, and he's powerful here for similar reasons.5/19/19


• Decree of Pain: Another powerful sweeper, and potentially a source of massive card draw. There will be times this deck is behind on board position, and this card is very helpful, even if just cast for the cycling cost. If I had it, I would probably switch this out for Damnation, but through testing Decree has been a fine substitute.

Card Draw

• Frantic Search: This card lets you both draw cards and fill your yard, while losing zero tempo. Great card, efficiently costed, and one of only a few ways to fill your yard directly from your hand.


• Phyrexian Arena: An EDH staple for black decks, this card can generate massive card advantage, which is something this deck lacks. A common tutor target, you'll want to look for this when you are running out of juice on the board.


• Wheel of Fortune: Another new addition, this card serves multiple purposes of the deck: Fill up the graveyard with creatures to reanimate/recur, draw cards, and force opponents to pitch a starting hand. Early on, this allows us to empty our hand and refill it. Late game, if it resolves, this will force opponents to discard cards that they have probably been holding onto for a while, cards which likely answer threats that other decks have out.


• Erebos, God of the Dead: Two benefits in one card: card draw and lifegain prevention. Black is always willing to trade life for card advantage, and this card is no different. We have many ways to gain life in this deck, so do not hesitate to use the card draw as often as possible. Icing on the cake is that he easily becomes an indestructible beater in this deck.

Tutors

The classic tutor.

• Expedition Map: Great mana fixing, and especially important when you consider how many utility lands we have in the deck. A great early play is to crack this for Academy Ruins, then recur the map to continue going to get other utility land. Also very important when you have a strong board but lack a recursion engine, it can also go get either Volrath's Stronghold or Unholy Grotto. Also can search out the other part of the strong Cabal Coffers/Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth synergy.


• Demonic Tutor: The classic tutor. Amazingly efficient cost, unconditional. This card has a strategy section below dedicated on what to go get and when.


• Diabolic Tutor: High cost, but still unconditional. There are better tutor options available (Cruel Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Grim Tutor), but lacking those, this is a decent substitute. Again, for common tutor targets, refer to the strategy section titled Tutor Targets. 4/10/15


• Increasing Ambition: Very powerful tutor, in that you get to use it twice. Because this deck can make an absurd amount of mana, you can generally rely on the fact that you will get to flash it back. Again, for common tutor targets, refer to the strategy section titled Tutor Targets. 2/24/15


• Sidisi, Undead Vizier: Versatile tutor option, and can leave behind a very relevant body. Also feels good to reduce the number of plain tutors I have in the deck, as I feel it makes games play out similarly over time. New addition, excited to test her out!


• Beseech the Queen: Another great tutor, but make sure you remember that you must reveal the card with this tutor, so choose your targets wisely. Again, for common tutor targets, refer to the strategy section titled Tutor Targets.


• Tolaria West: You do not want to play this card as your land drop unless you're desperate for blue mana. This card is best when used for its transmute, which will let you get any of your very powerful utility lands. Again, for common tutor targets, refer to the strategy section titled Tutor Targets.

Utility/Combo

He will draw you a ton of cards!

• Skullclamp: One of the more broken cards ever printed, this guy is a common tutor target. Your creatures die a lot in this deck (both by the hands of opponents and your own), so getting this on the board early will pay great dividends. This card can draw you a ton of cards, and can also provide an incentive for opponents not to destroy a certain creature. Versatile, efficiently costed, and capable of drowning opponents in card advantage. Cannot overstate the value of this card.


• Necromancer's Stockpile: New addition to the deck and already liking it. This card can turn your fatties into another card and a token on the table, to be recurred later. Make sure that you have access to a recursion engine prior to pitching fatties that you consider "must haves".


• Torpor Orb: A very common tutor target. This artifact turns off all ETB effects...including your commander's! This turns your commander into a 4cmc 10/4 regenerate. Be careful, as it turns off a few of your own good ETB creatures (Fleshbag Marauder, Gravedigger, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, and Purphoros, God of the Forge). It also is powerful against many decks you'll face, including many in my own meta.

This effect can lock down games.

• Ashnod's Altar: An efficient sac outlet, the altar is important for a few reasons. First, the deck has times where it wants to sacrifice creatures (ex with Grave Pact out), and this provides an outlet. However, this also allows you to pitch your smaller creatures to power out your fatties ahead of the curve.


• Herald's Horn: Added 11/3/17, this card seems like it will be great in this deck and will help us churn out our dudes more quickly, and also allow us some situational card draw.


• Loxodon Warhammer: This equipment provides a solid source of lifegain, which can be important as this deck inflicts a solid amount of damage to itself. More important, this will also give your commander trample, which, when combined with his high power, can spell commander-damage death to opponents who hoped to chump block their way to victory.


• Sword of Feast and Famine: Probably the strongest sword for commander purposes, this also gives evasion, which can help our commander get in for lethal damage. The trigger is incredibly powerful, as it allows our lands to untap, letting us keep the pressure on our opponents.


• Sword of Fire and Ice: One of the strongest swords, this gives our creatures a source of evasion (protection from red/blue), but also gives us something we need when we connect - card advantage. Versatile and powerful, and a fairly common tutor target.


• Grave Pact: A backbone to this deck, having an effect like this on the table usually allows you to control the flow of the game. Forced sacrifice also gets past hexproof, protection from black, and indestructible, all of which can be problems against this deck otherwise.


• Purphoros, God of the Forge: As of writing, there is not enough red mana symbols in the deck to turn Purphoros into a creature, but that's not his purpose. This card provides another path to victory. In the late game, this deck spits out a lot of creatures over and over, and having Purphoros out while you do that puts people on an inevitable clock, even if they're protected from losing via the combat phase.


• Black Market: As stated multiple times previously, our creatures die. A lot. And so do the opponents' creatures. This card is capable of providing us massive mana each turn, which can be used to either spit out our hand or cast a game-ending Exsanguinate. Bonus - so far in testing, my meta has not been able to properly assess this card as a major threat.


• Dictate of Erebos: Like Grave Pact, having this effect is incredibly powerful in this deck. Having it at instant speed is even more powerful. This is a fairly common tutor target, and the damage it's capable of will keep your opponents wary when you leave 5 mana open.


• Liliana, Dreadhorde General (added 5/19/19): This card is simply amazing for the deck. The static ability is there reason to play the card - the card draw fills up our hand and lets us keep building up the board with little fear of overextending. The plus adds to our board state. The minus is amazing for removal. And the ultimate should finish off a game. This checks all the boxes and is a no-brainer add.


• Rooftop Storm: Most of our creatures are zombies, so this card makes them free. It also makes your commander free (before paying commander tax). However, this card also enables the few combos that are in the deck, most notably is Rooftop Storm + Gravecrawler + Grimgrin, Corpse-Born.


• Exsanguinate: Generally used as a win condition when you can generate massive amounts of mana through Black Market, Cabal Coffers, or Ashnod's Altar, this card can also stabilize you in the midgame against very fast decks.


• Bojuka Bog: A staple in any black deck, this card can also be tutored for using Tolaria West or Expedition Map when you find out you're playing an opponent who relies upon their graveyard to power their deck. Unfortunately, this is also a card that can be used against this deck to success.

Lands

Other utility lands have been discussed above according to their function. The rest appear below.

This plus Urborg generates tons of black mana.

• Badlands: An "ABUR" (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised) dual, these are flawless lands. Run as many as you can. Keep in mind they are both land types (like shocklands), and so cards that fetch one type of land can also get their corresponding ABUR dual or shockland.


• Blood Crypt: The red/black shockland, these are great lands that give you the option of coming into play tapped (CIPT) or untapped. Also fetchable. Run as many as you can.


• Bloodstained Mire: One of the powerful fetchlands, these are great mana fixers that also allow you to grab a shockland or ABUR dual.


• Cabal Coffers: Half of the powerful synergy of Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. These two together are capable of generating massive amounts of black mana, which can be used to power out your fatties or cast a game-ending Exsanguinate.


• Cavern of Souls: Name zombies, which then makes most of our creatures uncounterable. Very little downside too, as most of our nonzombie spells have colorless mana requirements anyway.


• Command Tower: One of the best lands you can run in edh. Comes into play untapped, taps for any of our colors.


• Crumbling Necropolis: Like Command Tower, but CIPT. Still strong due to the mana fixing it provides.


• Dragonskull Summit: Another dual land that conditionally comes into play untapped. You will usually have a swamp in play, so this usually functions as another ABUR dual.


• Drowned Catacomb: See Dragonskull Summit.


• Lavaclaw Reaches: Our only "manland", it that it can turn into a creature. This is one of our only creatures that can avoid board wipes. It can get in for early or late-game damage, and taps for two colors too. Great land.

This plus Cabal Coffers generates tons of black mana.



• Rocky Tar Pit: A "budget" fetch, but still a fetch. Can get any of the ABUR duals or shocklands.


• Steam Vents: See Blood Crypt.


• Sulfurous Springs: One of the "painlands", the downside is pretty negligible in a format where you start at 40 life. In addition, the deck has many ways to gain life to help offset life lost to payments. Comes into play untapped, which helps keep up tempo.


• Tainted Isle: Another conditional dual land which generally will be turned on because the deck usually has a swamp in play.


• Temple of Deceit: Comes into play tapped, taps for 2 colors, and scry 1 when it comes into play. The scry is very strong in the format, it helps filter our draws so we get what we want.


• Temple of Epiphany: See Temple of Deceit.


• Temple of Malice: See Temple of Deceit.


• Temple of the False God: Our deck has a high mana curve, and this mana can tap for two. It's always a gamble to play this card, but the potential benefit outweighs the risk of not meeting its conditions.

Can copy any of our powerful utility land.



• Thespian's Stage: Very powerful card in this deck, as we have many utility lands. Most notably, can copy Cabal Coffers for ridiculously large mana production.


• Underground River: See Sulfurous Springs.


• Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Half of the powerful synergy of Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. These two together are capable of generating massive amounts of black mana, which can be used to power out your fatties or cast a game-ending Exsanguinate.


• Vivid Marsh: I'm trying out this card. The CIPT sucks, but the fact that it can produce any color a few times is good.


• Volcanic Island: See Badlands.


• Watery Grave: See Blood Crypt.


• Island: Some say the most powerful card ever printed. I keep at least one basic in case a creature of mine gets Path to Exiled and I need a blue mana source.


• Mountain: I keep at least one basic in case a creature of mine gets Path to Exiled and I need a red mana source.


• Swamp: Comes into play untapped, powers Cabal Coffers.

Notable Exclusions

This list is always a work in progress. You can also look at my changelog to see some cards that have been replaced, but probably had an argument for them at some point.


• Damnation: I like the card, I think it has a place in the deck, but I haven't yet gotten my hands on one. It would probably replace Decree of Pain.


• Underground Sea: Wonderful card, but I don't own a copy. Would probably replace a basic swamp.


• Army of the Damned: This is a very powerful spell, but in testing, it seems very slow. In addition, the zombies come into play tapped, and in a 4-player EDH game, it allows 3 opponents time to deal with the threat. Although I enjoyed its power when I had Purphoros, God of the Forge out, it currently is not in my list.


• Endless Ranks of the Dead: In theory this card seems like an obvious inclusion, but in reality I find that my zombies die quickly. And in games where my zombies aren't dying, I am usually already winning. I found this care to be a "win more" type card, and have since taken it out.


• Ashen Ghoul, and similar cards (ex Nether Shadow): These types of cards, although cute, did not provide enough power for the deck.


• Counter Magic: The deck is in blue, and Counter Magic is very powerful; however, in playtesting this deck, I have found that cards that are reactive are generally going against what the deck is trying to do. I agree that counter magic is powerful in many decks, but after much thought and many games, I have decided against it.

Strategy

Playing the Deck

Dangerous, but won't paint a target on your head.

Mission Statement

As discussed previously, this deck can win a few ways. The goal of the early game is to establish which path of victory (see section below) you will take: are you going to be able to quickly land your commander and hit a creatureless opponent? Are you going to have to clear away problematic permanents first and then swarm an opponent with creatures? Is a deck so controlling that you'll have to find a way to win without the combat step? The cards you start with will determine which way you go, though you can use tutors (see section below) to help sculpt the path for you. After you decide that, you'll need to find a way to clear the board and finish off your opponents. Sounds easy, but how do you do it?

Early Game

Early on, you will have to begin setting up value engines and appear as non-threatening as possible. You will want 2-3 lands if you have a mana rock in your starting hand, 3-4 if you don't. Look for a decent mix of creatures, utility, and removal. Cards like Phyrexian Reclamation, Necromancer's Stockpile, or Sol Ring are great early plays that you will draw value from repeatedly, but most players will not consider you a "must kill" target at that point. If other players are playing creatures, feel free to drop your 1-3 cmc creatures, which should keep the early agro opponents from attacking you successfully. If you have a recursion engine on the table or in your hand, do not be afraid to trade creatures early on. Now would also be a decent time to drop cards that might get you some notice: Phyrexian Arena, Gravecrawler, or Torpor Orb will draw attention, but they also are very powerful and will set up an explosive mid game.

The early game is also the time where you need to evaluate other decks. If there is an opponent or two who seem to be screwed on mana or are not able to land a creature, they might be ripe for a quick kill with your commander. Other decks might begin dropping utility creatures that can cause problems from you down the road (Mother of Runes, Fauna Shaman are good examples). In these instances, you will need to begin figuring out how you plan on dealing with those creatures: do you have a sweeper in your hand? Or do you have Grave Pact? If you lack answers to specific threats, now might be the time to tutor for them as well.

Gets past hexproof, protection from black, and indestructible!

Mid Game

Now's the time where the deck gets going. Fatties start coming down now, like Havengul Lich, Grave Titan, or your commander. Make sure to keep extra black mana available for the turn(s) when you plan to play your commander, in case he is destroyed. Or "when" he gets destroyed. This is the part of the game where, depending on the table, you will be painting a giant mark on your forehead. In general, you will want to have Torpor Orb on the field before casting your general, or you must be comfortable with sacrificing 2 creatures, losing 2 life, and letting an opponent draw 2 cards. If you cast him without the orb, make sure to choose carefully the opponent that you let draw cards - this can either be a political tool, or just pick the player that is the least threatening to you.

If your opponents do not have lethal threats (creatures or combo pieces) on the board, it's time to drop equipment on your fatties and go to town. This is also the time to recur creatures for value - cast Gray Merchant of Asphodel, sacrifice him to Grimgrin, Corpse-Born, return Gray Merchant to your hand using Phyrexian Reclamation, and cast him again. The deck provides a double threat of both board position and incremental damage that will be difficult for an opponent to prevent. In addition, many of your bleeder effects hit the whole table, so you're hitting all your opponents.

If your opponents have threats that must be answered, do not hesitate to use tutors to find those answers. The deck will naturally draw into resilient threats - but you have to live long enough to draw them. At least 10% of the cards in the deck is removal, and a lot of them are repeatable. The best route involves casting Grave Pact or Dictate of Erebos, and then find ways to sacrifice your creatures (Lord of Tresserhorn, Ashnod's Altar, Grimgrin, Corpse-Born are all good options). As they die, so will your opponents' creatures. If you can, make sure to get bonus value out of all this death by having Black Market on the board. Using and abusing recursion in the mid game is a great strategy to win games or to get to the late game.

If you have a barren board and your opponents do too, then you should try to find a way to stuff the board with fodder. Good cards to do that are Grave Titan, Necromancer's Stockpile, Lich Lord of Unx, and Cemetery Reaper. Even if you have no plan to kill opponents with zombie tokens, they almost always prove useful, either as sacrifice fodder with Grave Pact out, chump blockers, creatures to sacrifice to Ashnod's Altar, or creatures to carry equipment.

Cast, sac, recur. Rinse and repeat.

Late Game

So you laid low in the early game, you got repeated value out of creatures in the mid game, but the game is still not over. What can you do now? Thankfully, the deck doesn't need much to deal the lethal blow. The "Paths to Victory" section below discusses all the ways this deck can win, but here are a few things to look out for:

If your graveyard is full of creatures, simply casting Havengul Lich with a ton of mana can replenish your field quickly. If your opponents' graveyards are full of creatures, Geth, Lord of the Vault can put them directly into play. Creatures that quickly bring you back from a barren board state are Gravedigger, Lord of the Undead, Geth, and Havengul.

If the graveyards are sparse, bleeder effects are a good way to go. Casting Kokusho, the Evening Star with a way to sacrifice him and a way to recur him will finish the game quickly. Same with Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Any of these with Purphoros, God of the Forge on the field will kill opponents even faster. Another bleeder effect is Bloodchief Ascension, and if you were able to activate it early, it should severely slow down your opponents' ability to react to the threats you put on the board.

If you have a large number of counters on Black Market, or if you control both Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, then you should have access to a great deal of mana. If so, a large Exsanguinate will also end the game quickly.

Using your Commander

Learning when and how to use Lord of Tresserhorn is one of the hardest aspects of playing this deck. Your general has two primary functions:

• Quick commander damage – playing a 4 CMC 10-power commander can quickly end games if left unchecked. I will generally go for a quick commander kill if I’m playing against a deck where I think my commander will survive 2 rounds and I have some type of equipment for him. The best equipment for your commander depends on the type of deck you're facing and the board state. If my opponents have small creatures, I will want Loxodon Warhammer, but if my opponents only have red or blue creatures, I will want Sword of Fire and Ice.

In these circumstances, I will focus on getting out protection for my commander and ride him to victory. If I plan on going this route, I will generally tutor for Torpor Orb to remove the downside from casting my general or equipment to help my general connect directly with opponents.


• Readily-available sac outlet – this commander is also very useful as an ever-present sacrifice outlet. I sometimes will cast this card in order to sacrifice some creatures (usually when I have an effect like Grave Pact out), which clears the way for my creatures. This is especially important against decks that have evasion from our deck, such as protection from black (equipment, Animar, Soul of Elements, hexproof/shroud). These types of games generally end up becoming a war of attrition, and my tutor targets will include recursion engines (Phyrexian Reclamation, Havengul Lich, Volrath's Stronghold) or Grave Pact/Dictate of Erebos.

Important Synergies

This guy can get huge!

In addition to learning how to use your general as a tool, it is important to look for certain synergies in this deck that keep it going in the mid-late game. Such synergies include:

• Skullclamp and Gravecrawler – these two together will net you a ton of card if left unchecked.


• Gravecrawler + Rooftop Storm + zombie on field + sac outlet – this gives you infinite recursion, giving you whatever benefit that sac outlet provides: infinite mana (Ashnod’s Altar), infinitely large creature (Grimgrin, Corpse-Born), infinite damage to table (Purphoros, God of the Forge), infinite creature sacrifice (with Grave Pact effect in play), etc. Although I do not like combos, these synergies come naturally and can end stalled-out games.


• Academy Ruins + Oblivion Stone – late game, this provides you a way to keep the board clear while your recurrable threats do the heavy lifting.


• Gray Merchant of Asphodel + Rooftop Storm + recursion engine (like Phyrexian Reclamation) – with a decently developed board state, you can usually cast “Gary” a few times a turn, which will quickly kill the entire board while padding your life total in the mean time.


• Having Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth allows for large amounts of black mana.


• If you have Reanimate in your starting hand, and a powerful fatty (like Thraximundar) in your hand, you might consider not playing a land on your first turn. Instead, move directly to end phase and discard Thrax. On turn 2, you can play a swamp and reanimate thrax, putting someone on a very quick clock.


• Be sure to remember that Havengul Lich can repeatedly cast ANY of your creatures directly from the yard for its cost plus 1. This becomes very dangerous when you can punish people for having cards come into play repeatedly, such as Purphoros, God of the Forge or Gray Merchant of Asphodel.


• Sometimes the safest place for your creatures is the graveyard. Knowing that your deck has many ways to recur creatures, do not be afraid to discard effective creatures while using your draw cards like Frantic Search – you can usually get them back later!

Tutor Targets

With this out, your commander has no drawbacks.

This deck has a decent amount of tutors in the deck, and knowing when to tutor for certain cards in certain situations will enable you to pilot it to success. But it takes practice.

• If you think you are going to go the route of commander damage, your first tutor option is usually Torpor Orb. This allows you to cast Lord of Tresserhorn without sacrificing creatures, allowing an opponent to draw cards, or losing life. The flipside of this is that Torpor Orb turns off a few other powerful cards in the deck, most notably Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Purphoros, God of the Forge, and Gravedigger. Recognize when you should use Torpor Orb and when you should avoid it.


• If the game looks like it will be going long (ie. You don’t think you can kill people quickly), you should generally tutor for a recursion engine. The most powerful is probably Volrath's Stronghold because it’s a land, and therefore the hardest to destroy.


• If you have creatures and you have recursion, you will likely want to tutor for a card that will lock down the board. Depending on your mana situation, you should consider tutoring for Grave Pact or Dictate of Erebos. One of these, along with your creatures and a recursion engine, will allow you to effectively clear the opponents' boards of creatures.


• If you already have almost all parts of a combo together, you should usually tutor for the final piece of that combo. Targets include Gravecrawler, Rooftop Storm, Purphoros, God of the Forge, or Grimgrin, Corpse-Born. Note that even if you do not have combo pieces, Gravecrawler tends to be a great tutor target due to his synergy with your commander, your equipment, and your combo pieces.


• If you need beef on the table to protect yourself, you should usually tutor for Grave Titan or Geth, Lord of the Vault. Grave Titan is good because he provides cheap tokens, and Geth is good when opponents’ graveyards are full of goodies I’d like to reanimate.


• Finally, you will need to be aware of problematic permanents that stop this deck in its tracks. Humility, Ensnaring Bridge, and Sphere of Safety type cards will cause this deck to struggle. If you run into these, you will need to tutor for Oblivion Stone or Karn Liberated.

Paths to Victory

Paths to victory: so in what ways does this deck win? There’s a few, and keeping your opponents on their toes regarding what to look out for from this deck is a strength.

• Commander damage – the most obvious is slapping Lord of Tresserhorn down with some equipment and beating face.


• Combat damage – the deck has a good amount of ways to produce problematic creatures, both tokens and non-tokens. The fact that they keep coming back can swarm some opponents. Keep in mind also that an overloaded Cyclonic Rift at the end of an opponent’s turn is a great way to break through a stalled-out board.


• Combo – as discussed in the synergy section above, there are a few combos that can immediately close out a game.


• Bleeder wins – the deck also has ways to win through bleeder effects, using Falkenrath Noble, Blood Artist, Purphoros, God of the Forge, Diregraf Captain, and Kokusho, the Evening Star to slowly drain the life from your opponent.

Deck Weaknesses

Flying - ouch!

You’ll need to know your deck’s weaknesses in order to be successful. This deck has a few:

• Flying creatures – this deck is weak to flyers. The only ones at the time of writing are Falkenrath Noble and Kokusho, the Evening Star, neither of which are zombies (which means not as recurrable). And Falkenrath Noble's combat stats are not impressive. Our biggest protection against a flying swarm is our wrath effects: Toxic Deluge, Oblivion Stone, and Decree of Pain.


• Problematic artifacts and enchantments – Grixis colors are traditionally weak to artifacts and enchantments because we lack green and white (the colors best equipped to handle those types of cards). This is especially important to keep in mind because your mid-late game tutors will probably need to be answers to these card types. Choices include Oblivion Stone, Karn Liberated, and Cyclonic Rift – not plentiful options. If these types of cards are causing you problems, red had quite a few ways to destroy artifacts (Shatterstorm, Viashino Heretic), or you could add more artifact options like Spine of Ish Sah.


• Quick combo decks – this deck has some answers, but a very fast combo deck is nearly impossible for this deck to stop. If your meta is full of this type of deck, you may want to consider using a different deck or swapping in some counter magic for some of the deck’s beef. Good counter magic for this deck are ones that only have one blue mana symbol, like Arcane Denial.


• Wrath effects – Wrath of God type cards in high numbers cause problems for this deck. You will be faced with the decision to overextend your resources and go for a kill, or play conservative and carefully. Keep this in mind, as the only source of card advantage besides recursion is in the deck is Phyrexian Arena, Erebos, God of the Dead, and Frantic Search. Protect your resources wisely and try to avoid overextending. This is also meta-dependent, and if my meta was full of board wipes, I would consider some cards that are mass recursion, like Living Death.

Sample Hands, Mulligans

Hand #1

Hand: Gravecrawler, Toxic Deluge, Frantic Search, Expedition Map, Swamp, Temple of Malice, Sol Ring
Keep or Mulligan?: Snap Keep
Reasoning: This is just about the perfect hand. You've got a recurrable dude, you've got amazing removal, you've got card draw, and you've got land/filter. With this type of hand, don't be scared to discard Gravecrawler to Frantic Search, as you'll most likely be able to cast him from the graveyard soon.

Hand #2

Hand: Thraximundar, Bloodchief Ascension, Ashnod's Altar, Decree of Pain, Academy Ruins, Swamp, Thespian's Stage
Keep or Mulligan?: Mulligan
Reasoning: At first glance, this hand seems to have a lot - a big fatty, removal, recursion, sac engine, and a 1 drop game winner. In reality, this hand is very slow and will get you nowhere without perfect top decks. You won't have a guy on the board until you draw one, you can't even cycle the decree for a long time, and because you have no source of damage, an early Bloodchief Ascension won't be activated.

Hand #3

Hand: Karn Liberated, Nightscape Familiar, Lord of the Undead, Terminate, Swamp, Cabal Coffers, Volrath's Stronghold
Keep or Mulligan?: Keep, but risky!
Reasoning: This is a decent hand, as you can probably curve the familiar into the lord, and hopefully draw some land to keep up removal. It's not a bad early play, but the rest of the hand is stagnant until later in the game. However, with a bit more mana, you will also be able to cast your commander (you have 2 dudes to sacrifice), and you have a recursion engine to bring those guys back. I would probably keep this hand, depending on my opponents, but there is definitely an argument for mulliganing or partial-Paris mulliganing away at least the Karn Liberated and the Cabal Coffers.

Personal Bio

My name is Dave. I’m 32 years old and live in Northwest Indiana. I started playing Magic in early 1995, but took a long break when I went away for college in 2003. I began playing EDH in 2011, when I came back to magic after an 8-year hiatus (for college and law school). Some friends and I dusted off our old cards and started hitting up the local gaming shops, where we quickly learned we’d fallen WAY behind in terms of rules, deck composition, and card pool knowledge. We went to work building many decks and testing against each other.

I play all formats, although my favorite is EDH. I am semi-competitive in standard and modern, and generally keep up with those formats. I have played legacy in the past, but that format is not popular in my area and so I do not play it often. I tend to prefer creature-based strategies, and avoid combo or control; however, I also like to build outside my comfort zone so I am willing to play any strategy.

Change Log

• 3/20/14:
+Loxodon Warhammer, -Braids, Cabal Minion
+Hero's Downfall, -Dreadbore
Why: People have been chumping my commander and my bigger creatures - Loxodon Warhammer should be great in this deck. Braids, Cabal Minion was decent, but it draws a lot of hate and I never felt it did enough to justify a slot in an already crowded 4 cmc slot.

• 5/14/14:
+Underground River
+Sulfurous Springs
+Death Baron
+Dictate of Erebos
-Jhessian Zombies
-Pontiff of Blight
-Akoum Refuge
-Jwar Isle Refuge
Why: The lifegain lands weren't helping much, and CIPT was hurting. I think I'll be happier with the painlands. Death Baron is going to be very helpful in terms of allowing my small/midsized zombies to put real pressure on opponents, and Dictate of Erebos is simply amazing for this deck. Jhessian Zombies has felt pretty useless so far, and my mana base is solid enough now where I do not think I need the landcycling from him. I found Pontiff of Blight was rotting in my hand often, and I want my 6 cmc creatures to be game-ending by the time they hit the board.

• 5/21/14:
+Karn Liberated
-Tolarian Winds
Why: Karn Liberated is another way for me to deal with problematic enchantments and artifacts, which have been hurting this deck lately. Tolarian Winds sounded great in theory, but I was usually afraid to play it early because I'd lose something I couldn't recur, and late game the card wasn't going to dump enough juice into my graveyard to be worth it.

• 5/22/14:
+Tolaria West
-Izzet Guildgate
Why: Tolaria West is a great card that another user brought to my attention - it can tutor up any of my utility land, usually being Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Cabal Coffers, Academy Ruins, or Volrath's Stronghold. The guildgate was alright, but I have been happy with the mana base so far and am never lacking a color.

• 8/15/14
+Necromancer's Stockpile
-Grim Harvest
Why: Necromancer's Stockpile looks very powerful on paper, so I want to test it. I have not been happy enough with Grim Harvest, it makes me play passive, which I feel is not what the deck wants to be doing.

• 9/9/14
+Wheel of Fortune
+Undead Warchief
-Vengeful Dead
-Lich Lord of Unx
Why: I finally picked up copies of Wheel of Fortune and Undead Warchief, so I'm trying them. out. The wheel seems like a no-brainer for this deck: it lets me stock up my graveyard, leaves my creatures in a safe place (the graveyard), and fills up my hand. It also forces people to ditch their hands. The warchief seems very solid as well, as my curve is still pretty high and the lord buff is significant. In terms of my cuts, Venegeful Dead was the weakest of my tax effects - it's tied for the highest on the mana curve (4), only triggers when a zombie dies, and does not gain me any life. Lich Lord of Unx was a neat card, but in play it was often too slow to be effective. I have better token generation, and though the deck makes a ton of mana, it only creatures a ton of black mana, so I was never able to abuse his mill ability like I wanted to.

• 2/24/15
+Living Death
+Insidious Dreams
-Ob Nixillis, Unshackled
-Increasing Ambition
Why: Ob Nixillis, Unshackled just didn't perform the way I'd hoped. I picked up a FTV: Annihilation, loved the new art on Living Death, and also realized it's a great card. Did some testing with it this past weekend, it performed very well. Increasing Ambition was fine as a tutor, and I occasionally flashed it back, but at sorcery speed at its high cost, I was always a target after tutoring. Insidious Dreams is instant speed, allows me to craft my yard and tutor up cards that will have good interactions with my yard. I'm very excited to see how it performs.

• 4/11/15
+Sidisi, Undead Vizier
-Diabolic Tutor
Why: As far as tutors go, Sidisi is only one more to cast, but can potentially leave a relevant body behind, or can be cast without the exploit if I'm in a pinch for a body on the field. I expect to enjoy the versatility of Sidisi much more than Diabolic Tutor.

• 4/25/15
+Sword of Feast and Famine
-Liliana's Reaver
Why: My commander needs to get through more often, and swords are an easy way to accomplish that. In addition, Sword of Feast and Famine is probably the most powerful sword in commander, and the land untap will be helpful. Liliana's Reaver was a solid beater, but that's all he was - a beater.

• 1/4/16:
+Zombie Master
-Falkenrath Noble
Why: I've been testing out Zombie Master. Though he can be a huge liability (via theft or cloning), he's too strong to not include. He's a mid game threat or a late-game finisher. He's also another zombie, which the noble (which had underperformed at 4 cmc) was not.

• 11/3/17:
+Herald's Horn
-Swamp
Why: Herald's Horn seems like it will be very impressive in this deck. With the cost reduction effect, we can churn out our zombies more quickly, which means taking chunks out of our opponents' life totals more quickly. The situational card draw is icing on the cake.

• 5/19/19:
+Liliana, Dreadhorde General, Gleaming Overseer
-Bloodchief Ascension, Karn Liberated
Why: Through testing, my list has morphed into one that doesn't look quite like my original thread. These two have been taken out for testing, and I haven't missed them. Bloodchief Ascension does nothing until it has 3 counters, and once it does, it makes you Archenemy. Karn Liberated is great removal for probably permanent types (enchantments and artifacts) but lately I haven't been facing down ones that this deck cannot simply fight through. On the other hand, Liliana, Dreadhorde General is AMAZING for the deck: the static ability should fill our hand, the plus makes fodder, the minus is amazing removal, and the ultimate should end the game. Gleaming Overseer provides evasion to all my tokens and gives me two bodies on turn 3, which can help with casting Lord of Tresserhorn early.

Roon of the Hidden Realm: This deck is a multiplayer toolbox-style control deck with midrange elements in bant colors. The deck ramps early, sets up value creatures, and then blinks those value creatures to bury your opponents in card advantage and lock down the board. The deck will generally win through combat damage, usually done while the deck also holds the rest of the table in a soft lock.

Deck History

I've been playing with Roon of the Hidden Realm since the Commander 2013 decks were released. It began as mostly a midrange type deck, generally blinking creatures for value and winning with a game-ending spell or massive board presence. In its early iterations, this deck's favorite line of play was to either blink creatures like Armada Wurm repeatedly, or to cast Tooth and Nail to get Avenger of Zendikar and Craterhoof Behemoth. It packed a ton of tutors and played a fairly linear style of game.

This deck has evolved to become a more controlling deck in response to the cutthroat meta that I currently play in. This deck is no longer designed to keep friends - it is mean, and once its engines get pumping your opponents will not enjoy playing against the deck. I have opted for more counterspells in order to fight the quick combo decks I am used to facing, but this deck is very versatile and you can change it to fit your meta very easily.

I have gotten a ton of great ideas from various users on these forums, and without their help this deck would not be as successful has it has been. I enjoy this deck because it has a decent matchup against every type of deck, and is slightly unassuming to begin with. Any criticism or feedback would be appreciated; however, please note that I have played this deck heavily, so if you suggest card(s) for the deck, please also suggest card(s) to remove and back those choices up with reasoning. I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you have. Thanks for looking at my primer!

Why play Roon of the Hidden Realm?

Roon of the Hidden Realm is a ton of fun to play! Bant colors provide you with some of the best answers in the game, and some of the most versatile creatures in magic.

Reasons to play Roon of the Hidden Realm:

• You enjoy value creatures. This deck does not always play the most flashy creatures; not the type of creatures that hit the board and people ooh and aah over them. Rather, the deck plays creatures that give you the most bang for your buck, and then brings them back to the battlefield repeatedly. If you like playing value creatures, this might be the deck for you!
• You like "turning dudes sideways." There are a ton of ways to win a game of magic, and combat damage is only one of those ways. If you like winning by attacking with creatures, this might be the deck for you!
• You like to feel in control of the situation. This deck tends to always have an answer for what other decks might try to do. If you like playing a reactive game, this deck might be the one for you!
• You like interactive games. As mentioned above, this deck plays a lot of reactive spells that allow you and your spells to interact with those that your opponents control. If you like interactive games, this deck might be the one for you!

Reasons to not play Roon of the Hidden Realm:

• You prefer winning outside of the combat step. Some decks win with big spells, and some decks win with combos. If you like playing those styles of deck, this deck might not be for you.
• You like playing big flashy creatures. This deck is full of creatures that provide value when they come into play. If you prefer a style of play that allows you to cast a creature and say "I WIN!", this might not be the deck for you.
• You like a linear style of play. This deck can be challenging to pilot because you will need to be ready to react to what opponents play, and to be able to do that you must know your deck well. If you prefer a deck that plays a more straightforward style of game, this deck might not be the one for you!

Other options for Bant commanders: (there are many options, I will list the most popular here)

• Derevi, Empyrial Tactician: An extremely powerful commander - so powerful he was banned as a commander for 1v1 ("French") edh. This commander would be a decent substitute for Roon; however, Derevi often wants to play a much more controlling type of game than Roon. In addition, Roon provides another blink outlet, which this deck is based around.
• Rafiq of the Many: Rafiq usually wants to play a more voltron-style of game; that is, he is most powerful when you put a lot of equipment or enchantments on him and try to hit players directly with your commander. These decks play a very different type of game than the type that Roon plays.
• Jenara, Asura of War: Another reasonable alternative to Roon, Jenara is much more reasonably costed and allows for multiple angles of attack (commander damage from Jenara, etb value from the rest of the deck). However, like with Derevi, I prefer Roon because he gives me guaranteed access to a source of blink, which is what the deck is centered around, which allows for more slots in the main deck for cards not dedicated to blinking other permanents.
• Phelddagrif: This guy is generally found at the head of a "group hug" deck, which looks to appease its opponents by giving them cards and other resources while playing a political game with its opponents. Again, this type of deck plays very differently than a Roon deck.

Decklist

Deck by Function

Outcry's Roon of the Hidden Realm (by function)Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards

Commander 5 Roon of the Hidden Realm Beef/Fodder (1) 6 Armada Wurm Mana Fixing/Ramp (8) 0 Mana Crypt 1 Mana Vault 1 Sol Ring 3 Chromatic Lantern 3 Coalition Relic 3 Commander's Sphere 3 Darksteel Ingot 3 Farhaven Elf Blink Enablers (4) 2 Mistmeadow Witch 3 Eldrazi Displacer 5 Venser, the Sojourner 6 Deadeye Navigator Removal (20) 1 Path to Exile 1 Swords to Plowshares 2 Cyclonic Rift 2 Gilded Drake 2 Qasali Pridemage 3 Aura Shards 3 Beast Within 3 Krosan Grip 3 Mangara of Corondor 3 Oblation 3 Reclamation Sage 4 Sower of Temptation 4 Supreme Verdict 4 Wrath of God 5 Acidic Slime 5 Ixidron 6 Austere Command 6 Duplicant 7 Angel of Serenity 7 Luminate Primordial

Tutors (5) 1 Mystical Tutor 2 Eladamri's Call 2 Survival of the Fittest 4 Birthing Pod 1x Green Sun's Zenith Card Draw/Filter (5) 1 Sensei's Divining Top 2 Sylvan Library 3 Rhystic Study 5 Mulldrifter 6 Prime Speaker Zegana Control (8) 2 Arcane Denial 3 Disallow 3 Dissipate 3 Spell Crumple 4 Glen Elendra Archmage 4 Rewind 4 Venser, Shaper Savant 5 Perplexing Chimera Utility (11) 2 Coiling Oracle 3 Eternal Witness 4 Clever Impersonator 4 Panharmonicon 4 Phyrexian Metamorph 4 Spike Weaver 5 Karmic Guide 5 Reveillark 5 Seedborn Muse 6 Sun Titan 9 Rite of Replication Land (37) 0 Arid Mesa 0 Breeding Pool 0 Command Tower 0 Dust Bowl 0 Flooded Strand 0 Glacial Fortress 0 Halimar Depths 0 Hallowed Fountain 0 Hinterland Harbor 0 Krosan Verge 0 Mana Confluence 0 Marsh Flats 0 Minamo, School at Water's Edge 0 Misty Rainforest 0 Reliquary Tower 0 Savannah 0 Seaside Citadel 0 Sunpetal Grove 0 Temple Garden 0 Temple of Enlightenment 0 Temple of Mystery 0 Temple of Plenty 0 Tropical Island 0 Tundra 0 Verdant Catacombs 0 Windswept Heath 0 Wooded Foothills 4 Forest 3 Island 3 Plains

Deck by Card Type

Outcry's Roon of the Hidden Realm (by card type)Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards

Commander 5 Roon of the Hidden Realm Creatures (29) 2 Coiling Oracle 2 Gilded Drake 2 Mistmeadow Witch 2 Qasali Pridemage 3 Eldrazi Displacer 3 Eternal Witness 3 Farhaven Elf 3 Mangara of Corondor 3 Reclamation Sage 4 Clever Impersonator 4 Glen Elendra Archmage 4 Phyrexian Metamorph 4 Sower of Temptation 4 Spike Weaver 4 Venser, Shaper Savant 5 Acidic Slime 5 Ixidron 5 Karmic Guide 5 Mulldrifter 5 Perplexing Chimera 5 Reveillark 5 Seedborn Muse 6 Armada Wurm 6 Deadeye Navigator 6 Duplicant 6 Prime Speaker Zegana 6 Sun Titan 7 Angel of Serenity 7 Luminate Primordial Artifacts (10) 0 Mana Crypt 1 Mana Vault 1 Sensei's Divining Top 1 Sol Ring 3 Chromatic Lantern 3 Coalition Relic 3 Commander's Sphere 3 Darksteel Ingot 4 Birthing Pod 4 Panharmonicon

Enchantments (4) 2 Survival of the Fittest 2 Sylvan Library 3 Aura Shards 3 Rhystic Study Sorceries (5) 4 Supreme Verdict 4 Wrath of God 6 Austere Command 9 Rite of Replication 1x Green Sun's Zenith Instants (13) 1 Mystical Tutor 1 Path to Exile 1 Swords to Plowshares 2 Arcane Denial 2 Cyclonic Rift 2 Eladamri's Call 3 Beast Within 3 Disallow 3 Dissipate 3 Krosan Grip 3 Oblation 3 Spell Crumple 4 Rewind Planeswalkers (1) 5 Venser, the Sojourner Land (37) 0 Arid Mesa 0 Breeding Pool 0 Command Tower 0 Dust Bowl 0 Flooded Strand 0 Glacial Fortress 0 Halimar Depths 0 Hallowed Fountain 0 Hinterland Harbor 0 Krosan Verge 0 Mana Confluence 0 Marsh Flats 0 Minamo, School at Water's Edge 0 Misty Rainforest 0 Reliquary Tower 0 Savannah 0 Seaside Citadel 0 Sunpetal Grove 0 Temple Garden 0 Temple of Enlightenment 0 Temple of Mystery 0 Temple of Plenty 0 Tropical Island 0 Tundra 0 Verdant Catacombs 0 Windswept Heath 0 Wooded Foothills 4 Forest 3 Island 3 Plains

Card Choices by Function

Beef/Fodder

• Armada Wurm: The lone card in the deck that is used just for beating face. This deck usually wins from controlled board states, but sometimes there's no substitute for making a 5/5 trampling wurm every turn. If you want more beef in your deck, Thragtusk is also a good addition.

Mana Fixing/Ramp

The best ramp in the game.

• Mana Vault: Great ramp artifact, helps power out lots of the deck, and the life loss is negligible in a 40-life format. Obviously better in the opening hand, but still a relevant draw in the mid game.


• Noble Hierarch: The only mana dork this deck uses, primarily because it has exalted in addition to its ability to produce mana. Does not have an enter the battlefield (etb) trigger, but still worth it. Can be recurred with Sun Titan and Reveillark.

"Sad Robot"



• Sol Ring: The best artifact ramp available. There is a reason this card is banned in 1v1 ("French") edh - because it is broken. Can help power out our general as early as turn 3.


• Coiling Oracle: This guy is a great 2-drop which can speed you up a great deal. He's also a great way to continue (or start) a Birthing Pod chain. Finally, he's recurrable with both Sun Titan and Reveillark.


• Farseek: In a deck with lands that have multiple basic land types, this is very good at making sure we have the correct mana. This card competes with many other similar cards, and there are good arguments for using those others instead. Find the ramp spells you like and reap the benefits!Replaced 11/15/16


• Chromatic Lanern: A great card, especially when your deck uses quite a few utility lands - this will turn them all into mana-producing lands as well!


• Coalition Relic: One of the best mana rocks available. Fixes mana problems, and can ramp 2 turns ahead if used at the end of the opponent's turn.


• Commander's Sphere: This is a solid mana rock, and it has the additional use of not being a dead late-game draw, as you can cantrip it in a pinch. Bonus points for being recurrable with Sun Titan.


• Darksteel Ingot: My meta has a lot of artifact destruction, so that is why this mana rock is included. Depending on your meta, there are other very good mana rocks you could use here, including Fellwar Stone, Chromatic Lantern, or the signets would be great choices too.


• Farhaven Elf: Early mana ramp, and can be repeated ramp when blinked. Can be recurred with Sun Titan and Reveillark.


• Kodama's Reach: Great at helping you fix your mana and ramp into an explosive turn 4 play (like playing your commander).


• Wood Elves: Early mana ramp, and can be repeated ramp when blinked. Can be recurred with Sun Titan and Reveillark.


• Oracle of Mul Daya: Any card that allows for an additional land drop in this deck is already good. Allowing you to filter from the top of your deck is even better. He has no etb triggers, but the pure power of this card to ramp you significantly and to filter your draws is enough to warrant his inclusion in the deck. 12/10/14


• Solemn Simulacrum: a/k/a "Sad Robot", this guy is great in almost any 3+ color edh deck. He fixes mana, blocks early agro, can be blinked for more value, and can be recurred with Reveillark.

Blink Enablers

Keeping him alive usually spells game over for your opponents.

• Mistmeadow Witch: Very great card, one of our few early-game creature drops. A source of repeatable blink, can be used both offensively or defensively, depending on the situation. Can be recurred with Sun Titan and Reveillark.


• Conjurer's Closet: After much consideration and some prodding, I'm testing this card. It's relatively high costed, but after the initial investment it's a free source of blinking, where nearly every other blink engine requires a mana investment. Will help close games out. 12/10/14


• Eldrazi Displacer: An amazing source of blink, this guy can be used offensively or defensively. The only catch is the colorless mana requirement, so your mana base might need some slight changes to make sure you can make use of this guy when you see him.


• Venser, the Sojourner: The only planeswalker in the list, and it has earned its spot. Venser is very versatile, both because he can blink for no extra investment, and because his second ability is very relevant in order to help you push through damage (which this deck sometimes has a hard time doing). Also, his ultimate will win you games. A must-answer for your opponents, cast him when you can protect him.


• Deadeye Navigator: a/k/a "DEN", this guy is a powerhouse, and nearly broken. Can be paired with Acidic Slime for a very common game ending boardstate. Pair with any other cards for insane value - Sun Titan for repeated recursion, Angel of Serenity/Duplicant for removal, Prime Speaker Zegana/Mulldrifter for card draw, Wood Elves/Farhaven Elf for ramping. Cast when you can protect him and the game is usually over soon after.

Removal

It won't make you popular, but it will make you safe.

• Condemn: This is a meta call. I have some very aggressive decks in my meta, and tucking their commander (eg Aurelia, the Warleader) is vital to my survival, as this deck takes some time to get going. If your meta is a bit slower, I would consider adding more beef to the deck.2/24/15


• Path to Exile: Super efficient and unconditional removal, at instant speed, and exile. The drawback is minimal in EDH. The bee's knees of removal.


• Swords to Plowshares: Like Path to Exile - Super efficient and unconditional removal, at instant speed, and exile. The drawback is minimal in EDH. The bee's knees of removal.


• Cyclonic Rift: Generally used to end games by overloading it, this can sometimes save your bacon early game on problematic permanents. Make sure you wait until your opponent's end of turn to overload it, then you should usually be able to untap and finish off an opponent.


• Gilded Drake: Finally added 3/5/15, this card is incredibly powerful: it's low on the mana curve, scales with the power of your opponents, and is one-sided with the help of any blink enabler.


• Qasali Pridemage: One of the deck's few answers to Torpor Orb, this creature also has an exalted trigger and fills a great role on the lower end of the mana curve. Bonus points for being recurrable with both Sun Titan and Reveillark.


• Aura Shards: This card will make the table angry with you, so be prepared to protect it and yourself. If you mana to untap with this in play, you should usually be able to take control of the entire game. Make sure to note that its ability is a "may" ability, so if there are no artifacts or enchantments you want to blow up, you are not forced to blow up one of your own (which was a problem with the now-outclassed Harmonic Sliver).



Protect yourself from combo decks.

• Bant Charm: Versatile removal, and again a meta call for me. In my meta, I've found that tucking generals is one of the few ways I'm able to survive long enough to make it to the late game with this deck. If your meta is a bit slower or less competitive, I would consider replacing this with another counterspell or another fatty creature. 3/5/15


• Beast Within: One of the best removal spells around, because it can hit any type of permanent. This deck is also not concerned with giving an opponent a 3/3 token - it won't do much damage, and if it threatens you, you can blink it away forever.


• Krosan Grip: A green EDH staple, and for good reason. This card can stop many combos dead in their tracks.


• Mangara of Corondor: Exiling any permanent is exceedingly powerful, and this guy can do it repeatedly if you have an instant-speed blink enabler (such as Roon of the Hidden Realm - all you do is activate Mangara's ability, and with it on the stack, exile Mangara. When those two abilities resolve, Mangara is exiled using (for example, Roon's ability), and then Mangara's own ability resolves, exiling the targeted permanent. Since Mangara is already in exile when his ability resolves, he will not be exiled permanently.


• Reclamation Sage: Superior for this deck to Harmonic Sliver, this guy is very versatile, can be blinked for value, and is recurrable with Sun Titan and Reveillark.


• Sower of Temptation: Great early-game pseduo removal spell, also can be bounced late game to steal higher quality threats. Efficiently costed and scales as the game progresses. He's a new addition, but I expect him to perform well for this deck.



They don't flip back over when he leaves play.

• Supreme Verdict: The uncounterable clause is very important for EDH purposes. Having access to a 4-mana wrath effect is also powerful. Remember that your deck can bounce back quickly (no pun intended), running many different sources of graveyard recursion.


• Acidic Slime: One of the finishers of the deck, this guy will not make you friends. But it will make you win. Pair with Deadeye Navigator for brutality. When killing lands off in a multiplayer game, be sure to go for a particular color of mana for one opponent at a time (for example, destroy all blue sources from a player using Grimgrin, Corpse-Born as a general). This will allow you to render that opponent harmless, which will allow you to focus on another opponent.


• Ixidron: A great addition to the deck that many players will not see coming. He is tutorable using Birthing Pod and Eladamri's Call, making him the only tutorable "wrath" in the deck. Keep in mind that even if your opponents kill Ixidron, their creatures remain face-down, meaning that if you catch a few enemy commanders this way, their only way to turn them face-up is to either blink them, or kill and recast them.


• Austere Command: Amazing, versatile sweeper. This card allows you to choose the most problematic of cards to destroy, while keeping the rest around.


• Duplicant: A blinkable source of exile, this creature is a good answer to indestructible creatures. Also recurrable with Reveillark.


• Angel of Serenity: One of my favorite finishers of the deck, this angel is very versatile - it can exile problematic creatures, allowing you to survive or allowing your creatures to connect, or it can also serve as a source of recursion for creatures in your own graveyard. Also flies, so it has some form of evasion. When blinked one or twice, usually ends the game.


• Luminate Primordial: Swords to Plowshares on a stick - this guy is great both because he hits all your opponents, but his vigilance is sometimes relevant. A solid beater attached to removal. The downside is hardly relevant in EDH.

Tutors

Be sure to check out the subsection "Tutor Targets" in the Strategy section below for common targets for these tutors


• Eladamri's Call: Very good tutor. Instant speed, low mana cost, which means it doesn't compete with many other cards in the deck. The only downside is that you have to reveal the creature you get, but by the time you know what you're tutoring for, it shouldn't much matter.


• Mystical Tutor: Another instant-speed tutor and a very low casting cost. Make sure to cast this at the end of the opponent's turn. This card is instrumental in allowing you to tutor for answers that are not creature-based (board wipes, removal, or a game-ending Cyclonic Rift or Rite of Replication).


• Survival of the Fittest: Amazing card, bonkers in most decks, and this one is no different.


• Birthing Pod: This is an extremely powerful card, and doubly so in this deck. Make sure to familiarize yourself with the creatures in your deck so that you know what creature you are going to pod for. It will be helpful to consider certain "pod chains" against certain types of decks; lists of creatures that you should pod into and pod out of in order to bury your opponents or answer their threats. A very common pod chain is Noble Hierarch-->Coiling Oracle-->Eternal Witness-->Solemn Simulacrum-->Reveillark-->Sun Titan-->Angel of Serenity. By doing this, you guarantee continued recursion (you will have gotten back Eternal Witness using Reveillark), you will have ramp, and removal.


• Green Sun's Zenith: Like the other tutors, make sure to familiarize yourself with the creatures in your deck before actually playing the deck, so that you know what creatures are available to you at any given time. This is especially important with Green Sun's Zenith, as it can only fetch green creatures. Most commonly used to get Dryad Arbor on turn 1 for ramp purposes, or Prophet of Kruphix at any other point in the game.

Card Draw/Filter

Cheap investment, easy card advantage.

• Sensei's Divining Top: This card is simply amazing. It filters draws, digs deep, and is very inexpensive. There's a reason it's on the 1v1 ("French") edh banned list. Try it out, love it, abuse it. Do not forget that if it gets destroyed, it is recurrable with Sun Titan.


• Sylvan Library: One of the best card filters ever made. Do not forget that you can draw up to 2 extra cards per turn, if it's worth the life. Be careful though, as this strategy can kill you quickly.


• Rhystic Study: After trying many different sources of card draw, I have settled on this one making my top 5. It's a cheap investment, and it generally nets me at least 3 cards. In addition, it's a good political tool, sometimes slowing down opponents' plays for fear of allowing me to draw cards. Either way (getting to draw or slowing down opponents), this card does a lot of work for 3 mana.


• Fact or Fiction: Instant speed, you choose the card(s) you get. This card is amazing for EDH, and it's great for when you are looking for a specific threat or answer. Make sure to use at the end of the opponent's turn, unless you desperately need to hit a land drop.7/8/16


• Mulldrifter: Straightforward card draw that can be blinked for more value. Can also be recurred with Reveillark. Makes a solid pod target as well.

Control

Amazing counter magic.

• Arcane Denial: I like my counter magic to have additional benefits, and this is the ideal case - a counter that allows me to draw an extra card. True, you're allowing your opponent to draw 2 cards, but make sure to save your counter magic for very important cards and you'll benefit a great deal from them.


• Disallow: A very strong, flexible piece of counter magic, and easier to cast than Voidslime.


• Dissipate: Counter magic with an upside - exiling cards means my opponent won't be bringing them back from the graveyard. Graveyard recursion is very prevalent in my EDH meta, and I'm sure it's prevalent in most EDH metas.



• Hinder: Counter magic with an upside - I generally save this spell for opposing commanders, unless I'm desperate.
Removed 5/29/15, replaced with Dissipate due to the tuck rule change


• Spell Crumple: One of the best counterspells in the game, this is great for tucking opposing generals, and has the added benefit of going back into your library.


• Voidslime: A new (12/10/14) addition, and a card I've been looking to pick up for quite some time. My meta is pretty cutthroat, and I'm losing to big plays (A big spell or a big trigger), not gradually over time. This is a versatile answer and I'm expecting it to perform well.10/28/16


• Glen Elendra Archmage: She's brutal in the late game, and can create a soft lock against most decks with you have a blink enabler out (lets you counter a spell, and then blink the persist counter off of her). Make sure to note that she's a wizard, so even without a blink enabler, you can still "reset" her persist using Riptide Laboratory on her and casting her again.


• Rewind: In the late game, this deck always has a use for mana. This is a counterspell that allows me to keep extra mana up for further shenanigans.


• Perplexing Chimera: This creature is responsible for more scoops than any other card in the deck, besides perhaps Acidic Slime. This chimera plus Prophet of Kruphix plus Roon of the Hidden Realm makes a boardstate where you can steal the first spell each player casts each turn (then blinking away the chimera once they control it). When tutoring, be cognizant of this interaction.

Utility

We have a ton of recursion to keep the juice flowing!

• Eternal Witness: A staple in any EDH deck with green in it, this girl has amazing interactions with most of the rest of the deck. Great in a Birthing Pod chain, recurrable with Sun Titan and Reveillark, and the only way to get spells back from our graveyard.


• Clever Impersonator: This guy is a meta call. Many deck in my area play some very big and scary cards, and I like to be able to turn that against them.


• Phyrexian Metamorph: An extremely versatile creature, he can copy either creatures or artifacts. If you copied a creature, you can blink him to allow him to enter as another target later in the game, if a more valuable target is put into play.


• Spike Weaver: I opted for this creature instead of Stonehorn Dignitary, though there are good arguments for to include either one (or both). His purpose is twofold: first, he's a political tool, making it more beneficial for your opponents to attack each other instead of you. Second, he's a great answer to a few decks that I have problems with in my meta - fast swarm (Krenko goblins) and voltron (Uril). This creature blanks both. Don't forget, his counters can be replaced simply by blinking him. Can also be recurred with Sun Titan.

One of the most powerful cards in the deck - protect her!



• Karmic Guide: An integral part of our recursion engine. Often used to get back an Eternal Witness, Reveillark, or Sun Titan. Keep this creature in mind when tutoring, as the protection from black clause can be very helpful in combat against certain decks.


• Privileged Position: Strict upgrade from the now-outdone Asceticism, this is a protection tool for mid/late game when you have your value engines going.7/8/16


• Prophet of Kruphix: The most popular tutor target in the deck, this card is insane in EDH. If I had one, I'd also add Seedborn Muse for the same reason. Allows us to get value out of our blink engines during every turn, not just our turn. Helps force board locks with a blink engine (ie Roon of the Hidden Realm) and a good value creature (like Perplexing Chimera, Glen Elendra Archmage, or Acidic Slime). Make sure to protect this card with either counter magic, or the ability to blink her in response to removal. Remember that she can be brought back to hand with Riptide Laboratory, and can be recurred with Reveillark.banned



• Reveillark: A key piece of our recursion engine, many cards' values are tested using by asking the question "Can it be recurred with Reveillark?". Be sure to remember that you get the cards back when he LEAVES the battlefield, not when he enters. So you'll need a way to kill him (Birthing Pod), blink him (Roon of the Hidden Realm, Mistmeadow Witch), or cast him for his evoke cost to get that value out of him.


• Seedborn Muse: I've witnessed over and over how powerful Prophet of Kruphix is in this deck, and she should perform similarly. Late game, she will allow me to keep counter/removal mana up, and keep mana to blink and EoT. A new addition (12/10/14) to the deck, I expect her to quickly become a vital part of this deck's end game.


• Panharmonicon: This card is an absolute powerhouse in this deck. In a deck built around enter-the-battlefield abilities, this doubles each ability that we want to abuse. This can end games quickly.


• Progenitor Mimic: Kind of a "win more" card, but fits very well with what this deck is trying to do. Additional benefit is that it's versatile - you can target opponents' creatures with it. Also recurrable with Reveillark. Goes completely bonkers with Perplexing Chimera if you're ahead on the board.7/8/16


• Sun Titan: The epitome of recursion, many of the cards in this deck are tested by asking "Can it be recurred with Sun Titan?". Remember that you get his ability when he enters the battlefield AND when he attacks. This is also one of the beefier cards in the deck, and is commonly used to close out games where opponents have not scooped yet.


• Rite of Replication: One of the only true "game enders" in the deck, this card exists in the deck to close out games. Except in fringe situations where you need to copy a creature for survival, this spell is used only with it's kicker cost in order to create an army that can knock out players in one combat step. If opponents do not have better targets, almost all of this deck's curve-toppers are good targets (Armada Wurm, Sun Titan, Angel of Serenity, Luminate Primordial), as they are not legendary and can attack for a lot of damage.

Lands

Fetchlands are very powerful.

• Arid Mesa: In this deck, the more fetchlands we use, the better. Although this is an "off-color" fetchland, it still can tutor up 4 different two-color lands (Tundra, Savannah, Temple Garden, Hallowed Fountain. If you have the ability to know what the top of your deck is (Sensei's Divining Top, for example), make sure you peek ahead to see if you like what's coming up. If not, crack your fetchland to also shuffle up your library!


• Breeding Pool: One of the three "shocklands", these are incredibly powerful lands that count as two different land types, making them very easy to fetch for using fetchlands or other tutors like Farseek.


• City of Brass: Comes into play untapped and provides any color you want. The lifeloss is negligible, this is a great addition to our mana base.


• Command Tower: One of the best lands we play, comes into play tapped and provides any color our deck case use.


• Dryad Arbor: Playing this creature is risky - it's a creature, so it has summoning sickness, meaning you cannot use it for mana the turn it comes into play. However, you can ramp quickly with it using Green Sun's Zenith where X=0, and he can also be tutored out later in the game easily. Also starts a Birthing Pod chain, if you have no other creatures.11/5/16


• Dust Bowl: This is a meta call. However, there are many extremely powerful nonbasic lands in the game, and this is a source of repeated removal for them.


• Faerie Conclave: This deck plays a control style of game, so there are a lot of times where there will be no creatures on the board. This creatures allows you to get in extra damage against opponents. This is also a meta call - if you have a slower meta or one with less flying, I might swap this out for a land that comes into play untapped, or swap out some control elements from some equipment (for example Sword of Fire and Ice), which this creature can hold in a pinch.



Scrylands help fix our draws.

• Flooded Strand: On-color fetchlands are very powerful and important to this deck. This land can fetch up any of your dual-color lands that have multiple land types, can let you shuffle the deck if you want (assuming you know what the top card(s) are, using something like Sensei's Divining Top). The life loss is of little importance in EDH.


• Glacial Fortress: One of the "checklands", this has a good chance of coming into play untapped because of our other lands.


• Halimar Depths: Topdeck manipulation in this deck is pretty important, and tacking that ability on a land that we can use is just gravy.


• Hallowed Fountain: See Breeding Pool.


• Hinterland Harbor: See Glacial Fortress.



Draw filtering is great on our lands.

• Krosan Verge: Incredibly powerful land. Although it is slow, when used it will likely net you two dual lands. Very powerful color fixing.


• Mana Confluence: See City of Brass.


• Marsh Flats: See Arid Mesa.


• Misty Rainforest: See Flooded Strand.


• Reliquary Tower: A utility land commonly found in EDH decks. Our deck is capable of drawing an incredible amount of cards (repeatedly blinking Prime Speaker Zegana, for example). Having this land out helps us utilize all that card draw to its maximum potential.


• Riptide Laboratory: Although only 6 of our creatures are wizards, two of them are exceedingly powerful and end games quickly for us: Glen Elendra Archmage and Prophet of Kruphix. This land can save these creatures from boardwipes, spot removal, or can reset persist for the Archmage.11/5/16


• Savannah: One of the original dual lands ("ABU"), there is no better land to include. Comes into play untapped, taps for either of two colors, and counts as both land types so they are easy to fetch.

Wizards are some of our most powerful creatures.

• Seaside Citadel: Although this land comes into play tapped, it is one of only a few lands in our deck that can tap for any color in our deck.


• Sunpetal Grove: See Glacial Fortress.


• Temple Garden: See Breeding Pool.


• Temple of Enlightenment: Scrylands come into play tapped, but help filter our draws. In EDH, and with this deck, it is important to keep drawing into answers for our opponents' threats, and this land helps us do that while also tapping for either of two colors.


• Temple of Mystery: See Temple of Enlightenment.


• Temple of Plenty: See Temple of Enlightenment.


• Treetop Village: See Faerie Conclave.


• Tropical Island: See Savannah.


• Tundra: See Savannah.


• Verdant Catacombs: See Arid Mesa.


• Windswept Heath: See Flooded Strand.


• Wooded Foothills: See Arid Mesa


• Forest: Green is our most prominent color. Comes into play untapped, taps for green, and easily tutored for with many cards in our deck.


• Island: Some say this is the most powerful card in the game. Maybe not in this deck, but I still like to run a few basic lands.


• Plains: I still like to run a few basic lands.

Notable Exclusions

Very powerful card...once I have a copy!

• Gilded Drake: Great card, would fit great in this deck, I just haven't picked up a copy yet. Will probably replace Farhaven Elf.


• Survival of the Fittest: This card will be very powerful in this list, but I haven't picked up a copy yet. Will probably replace Conjurer's Closet.


• Venser, Shaper Savant: Another card that I think will be very powerful in this deck, but I have yet to pick up a copy of it. Will probably replace one of my counterspells.


• Gaddock Teeg: I've gone back and forth of whether to include this guy or not. He'd turn off Rite of Replication, my board wipes, and some other spells, but he'd be a really hard-to-deal-with hatebear against a lot of decks that I play against. Still considering it, any comments on actually using it in EDH outside of it being a general would be appreciated.


• Palinchron: I know I could add him for a few infinite loops, but in this deck I'm not really looking to go infinite. Most of the people in my meta frown upon infinite combos, so I want to steer clear of this guy.


• Terastodon: A lot of builds like this as a curve-topper, but I prefer to recur my other removal targets that cost less, either Reclamation Sage or Duplicant, depending on the target that needs removing. There is now a better argument for him now that Sylvan Primordial is banned.

Strategy

Playing the Deck

Great early game ramp.

Mission Statement

This deck is not a fast deck, so be prepared to sit back and answer lethal threats and bide your time until you are in a position to control the board. Early game you will want to play small-value creatures and ramp spells, while keeping big threats off the board. Mid game you will want to start dropping bigger value creatures and protecting them with board control. Late game you want to drop a blink engine and repeatedly blink big value creatures to bury your opponents in card advantage and other etb triggers, or drop a big spell to blow out the game.

Early Game (turns 1-4)

In the early game, this deck wants to keep a low profile and ramp into big mana. The deck craves a lot of mana to keep its engines running, so drop mana rocks like Sol Ring and mana dudes like Wood Elves as quickly as possible. If you happen to have a value engine like Birthing Pod in your hand, feel free to drop it and start the pod chain, but always try to protect your value engines with counter magic if at all possible. Creatures like Coiling Oracle and Oracle of Mul Daya will speed up your game while providing you creatures to either chump block with or pod away later for more offensive creatures.

Save your removal and counter magic for only the most dangerous threats. Remember that the deck is chock full of removal, so there's nothing wrong with allowing small and mid-sized creatures to hit the board and attack as they wish. Specific cards you want to watch out for depend on your meta; however, there are certain cards that you should keep an eye out for. If you are familiar with the combos in your meta, do not hesitate to counter or remove a lethal combo piece (for example, counter Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker because he combos with Zealous Conscripts). Also remember that your counter magic that tucks things (Hinder and Spell Crumple) are best used on opponents' generals. Note: tucking commanders is no longer effective, since your opponent now has the option to return their commander to the command zone instead. Torpor Orb turns off most of this deck, so that card is a must-answer if you see it in your meta. Only remove or counter threats if you don't think you will live long enough to answer it later or if you think waiting will leave you unable to respond later.

If you have ramped quickly, you can cast your commander; however, if you do, keep in mind that you will want a way to protect him. His ability to blink other creatures can be used both offensively (blink one of your own creatures to trigger another etb effect), or defensively (blink an attacking creature), but he cannot blink himself. If you have another blink engine in your hand, you can play a bit more reckless with your general. This is also an option if an opponent is screwed on mana - since your general has vigilance, you can attack an unprotected opponent with virtually no downside and rack up commander damage.

Game saver or game ender.

Mid Game (turns 5-9)

At this point in the game, you should be ready to land a threat and protect it. You have kept the board relatively clear until now, and you are ready to go on the offensive. Keep in mind that these are the critical turns for this deck, and that lost tempo in these turns can spell your death. You will want to keep your hand full with your draw spells like Mulldrifter and you will always want to have an instant-speed answer on hand to combat any threat.

Cards that you should be looking for at this stage in the game are Acidic Slime, Spike Weaver, Prophet of Kruphix, Perplexing Chimera, Panharmonicon, and Duplicant. These creatures all put you in a very powerful position to protect yourself, and most of them will stop a deck in its tracks if you have a blink engine out. These are the turns where you should consider playing your general, Roon of the Hidden Realm. Be mindful to only cast vital cards like Prophet of Kruphix if you have a way to protect her, as keeping her alive usually ends games quickly.

As with the early game, you must always be aware of what your opponents are doing. If you have threats that must be answered, you can do that with your instant speed removal (for example, Swords to Plowshares) or you can tutor for creature answers like Ixidron or Duplicant. These creatures can typically answer any creature-based threat that you may face. However, always remember that you have removal for other types of cards like artifacts or enchantments in the form of Reclamation Sage.

Who needs friends.

Late Game (turns 10+)

In the late game, this deck wants to find a way to abuse ETB triggers to close out games. Common plays are to pair a Deadeye Navigator with Acidic Slime to blow up everyone else's lands, or to repeatedly blink an Angel of Serenity to remove opponents' creatures and to bring your own creatures from your graveyard to your hand.

Prophet of Kruphix allows you to keep the blinking going during every turn. With her out, you will get way more mileage out of Deadeye Navigator, you'll get extra blinks with Roon of the Hidden Realm, and you can keep mana up for counter spells. Also with the prophet out, having a blink engine and Perplexing Chimera is usually the end of the game, as you can use the chimera's ability on opponents' spells, then blink the chimera before the end of the turn so that it will come back under your control. Because you get to untap your creatures and lands, you can probably do this each turn, effectively preventing your opponents from playing spells because you can take them. Prophet of Kruphix - banned, but not forgotten!

Another card that keeps the juice flowing in the late game is Panharmonicon. Most of the game, up to this point, has been played with an eye towards creating a solid board state and being able to blink our creatures for massive value. This card doubles those effects - it amplifies what we're already trying to do!

Once the opponents have no creatures left, you can attack with whatever creatures you have to do lethal damage. If you are in a hurry, Armada Wurm will usually amass damage quickly, as will Rite of Replication cast on Armada Wurm, Angel of Serenity, Sun Titan, or Luminate Primordial.

Using your Commander

Knowing when and how to use your commander properly will make this deck more effective.

While Roon of the Hidden Realm is powerful, he is not necessary to winning with this deck. Ordinarily, you will want to cast him in the mid game, at a time where you can protect him with counter magic. The reason for this is that he becomes very expensive to cast as he dies and goes back to the command zone multiple times. Since he has vigilance, you will typically want to attack with him first, and use his ability before the end of your turn if you want the creature back that turn (like Acidic Slime), or before an opponent ends his or her turn, if you just want the etb trigger before you draw again (like Wood Elves).

It is important to note that Roon cannot blink himself away. Therefore, other blink enablers like Mistmeadow Witch can be helpful if you want to protect your commander from removal or a board wipe. However, when facing a board wipe, you will typically want to blink only the creature that will help you rebuild the most quickly - creatures like Sun Titan help recur creatures that have been lost, and creatures like Prophet of Kruphix are important to keep alive due to their explosive nature.

It is best to think of your commander as a very situational blink engine. He's got a decent-sized body, but you typically will not be winning with commander damage. He is best used when you have another creature on the field that you can blink and get far ahead of your opponents, or when you need to blink an opponent's attacking creature to protect yourself (or to protect another opponent, if it will help you win the game later on).

Important Synergies

Him plus a blink enabler is nasty.

In addition to learning how to use your general as a tool, it is important to look for certain synergies in this deck that keep it going in the mid-late game. Such synergies include:

• The Recursion Engine: This deck is effective because it is versatile, resilient, and can answer opponents' threats. While playing this deck, it is inevitable that your creatures will die. You will also often lose creatures that are important to winning. One strong trait of this deck is its ability to bounce back. The deck does this using a set of cards that can recur your threats to bring them back again and again. Eternal Witness, Karmic Guide, Reveillark, Sun Titan, and Angel of Serenity all have the ability to bring cards back to your hand or to the battlefield.

-With Eternal Witness, the important thing to remember is that this is the only card in your deck that you can recur any card from your graveyard to your hand.

-With Karmic Guide, you typically want to bring another recursion piece back to the battlefield, as the guide is one of the few cards that has no condition on the size or casting cost of the creature you recur, and remember that the creature you choose goes strait to the battlefield.

-With Reveillark, keep in mind that he recurs creatures only when he LEAVES the battlefield - so make sure you have a way to either kill him OR blink him.

-With Sun Titan, you will want to remember that he triggers both when he enters the battlefield AND when he attacks, but his recursion is restricted to cards with 3 CMC or less (but is not restricted to creatures!).

-With Angel of Serenity can be used to bring creatures back to your hand by exiling creatures from your graveyard, and then making him leave the battlefield (best done by blinking him). It is important to note that you can also use his trigger to exile opponents' creatures from the battlefield, but when he leaves play (like when you blink him), those creatures will return to their owners' hands.



• Mangara of Corondor: You can use this card with certain blink enablers to permanently exile any other permanent. This is done by first activating Mangara (targeting, for example, an opponent's Phyrexian Arena). While Mangara's ability is on the stack, you then blink Mangara away until the next end step (for example, using Roon of the Hidden Realm targeting Mangara). You then let the ablities resolve. First Roon's ability will resolve, which will exile Mangara. Then Mangara's ability will resolve, exiling Phyrexian Arena. Mangara will not be exiled with his own trigger because he is already in exile. Then you move to the end step, and Mangara comes back from Roon's delayed trigger.


• Locking out the board: This deck has multiple ways to effectively prevent opponents from being able to play spells. In order to do this every turn, Prophet of Kruphix must be in play. With her in play, having a blink engine like Roon of the Hidden Realm will allow you to blink one creature a turn. If you also have Perplexing Chimera out, that means you can use the chimera's ability on the first spell played by each opponent each turn, and then you can use Roon's ability on the chimera before the end of turn, and the chimera will return to the battlefield under your control (and you keep the spell you stole with the chimera). While having Prophet of Kruphix and Roon of the Hidden Realm in play, you can also use Glen Elendra Archmage once each turn, and then blink her away at the end of each turn so that she will return to the battlefield with no persist counters. In this way, you can prevent opponents from playing at least 1 non-creature spell per turn. Though the deck can still effectively lock players out of playing, it is more difficult without the now-banned Prophet of Kruphix.

Tutor Targets

Recursion on a big body.

This deck has a few tutors in the deck, and knowing when to tutor for certain cards in certain situations will enable you to pilot it to success. But it takes practice. Note that there are 3 tutor spells in the deck, and 2 of them only tutor a creature (and one of those restricts the creature to green). When considering the pointers below, the same targets apply for when you are tutoring using Birthing Pod.

Stops many combos.

• If you do not need any particular answer to a threat, by far the most common tutor target is Prophet of Kruphix. This card is absolutely nuts in this deck. Combining her with many other cards in the deck allows for very degenerate plays that few decks can bounce back from. As stated above, if you play this creature, make sure to have a way to protect her. However, otherpopular targets are Birthing Pod and Survival of the Fittest, as both of those cards can help you speed up how quickly you put threats on the board.


• For problematic artifacts or enchantments, the most common tutor target is Reclamation Sage or Aura Shards.


• For problematic creatures, you should look to tutor for Ixidron, Spike Weaver, Duplicant, or Angel of Serenity depending on the type of creature you want to remove and the type of tutor you are using.


• If you are low on cards, you will want to tutor for either Mulldrifter or Prime Speaker Zegana. Make sure you only choose the latter if you have a decent sized creature on the battlefield already.


• If your graveyard is full of things you want back, you should consider tutoring for a recursion engine. Options include Eternal Witness, Reveillark, Karmic Guide, Sun Titan, or Angel of Serenity, depending on the type of card(s) you want back from the graveyard and what you can afford to cast.


• If you are facing a combo deck, you might want to consider tutoring for Glen Elendra Archmage, as she is resilient and stops many combos.

Paths to Victory

Paths to victory: so in what ways does this deck win? Although limited in its finishers, this deck has a few ways to finish out games.

• Combat Damage: The most common win condition from this deck is combat damage, usually coming in the form of 10 or so damage per turn from various creatures. The reason for this is that the deck is geared to control the board, so the damage that the deck puts out isn't astronomical. Most often the deck wins after everyone else's creatures are dead, and you are attacking with creatures like Roon of the Hidden Realm and Sun Titan repeatedly.


• Commander Damage: Similar to the previous win condition, another way this deck commonly wins is through commander damage (Roon hitting one particular opponent for at least 21 combat damage). Because the deck plays a very control-oriented game, and because our commander has vigilance, this allows Roon to attack often.


• Board Control (scooping): Another common "win" for this deck is causing opposing players to "scoop", or to quit. Although this is not a very fun way to win, my meta has begun to recognize when my deck has conditions such that they cannot successfully cast a spell. Although they could drag the game out and make me attack for 10 damage a turn, my friends have now turned to scooping to me at that point. Cards such as Prophet of Kruphix+Roon of the Hidden Realm+(Acidic Slime, Perplexing Chimera, or Glen Elendra Archmage) generally force a scoop.

Deck Weaknesses

Turns off most of our deck.

You’ll need to know your deck’s weaknesses in order to be successful. This deck has a few:

• Torpor Orb and the newly-printed Hushwing Gryff will neuter this deck's strength. Be on the lookout for these cards, and be prepared to either counter them or have a way to destroy them if they resolve. For the orb, your options include Qasali Pridemage and Krosan Grip. For the gryff, your options include Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares. These are cards that will demand immediate answers.


• Quick token generation: although this deck packs a few sweepers, quick token generation decks have a tendency to outrace this deck, and one of our answers to many creatures that is easy to tutor for, Ixidron, does not affect tokens. In this situation, hope to draw into a sweeper or use Mystical Tutor for a sweeper.


• Mass Exile: Cards like Final Judgment and Merciless Eviction can do serious damage to this deck, as part of our resilience lies in being able to recur a large portion of our deck. Besides countering those spells, the only answer our deck has is to be sure not to overextend our resources, and keep mana open to blink our most valuable creatures, should one of these spells resolve.


• Dedicated Combo: Some decks dedicate all their resources to spitting out a combo and protecting it. Although this deck packs some counter magic and instant-speed recursion, it also uses a lot of mana once it gets going, and it's possible to not have an answer to a quick combo going off. The best way to combat this is the learn what card(s) signal that a combo is coming, and to keep answers ready when you see the signs (or general) that heralds an impending combo.


• Slow Kill Condition: One criticism of this deck is that it lacks a consistent win condition. This is more a complaint that I get from a select few friends who think that a deck should have a way to win *very* quickly. Personally I think this depends on your meta and the types of players you face, but it is a valid critique that many of this deck's wins come slowly over drawn-out turns rather that all-at-once on the heels of a flashy card. If your group really wants you to win quickly, you could swap out a few cards and put in Tooth and Nail, Craterhoof Behemoth, and Avenger of Zendikar, but in practice I found that win condition boring.

Sample Hands, Mulligans

Hand #1

Hand: Coiling Oracle, Reveillark, Birthing Pod, Arcane Denial, City of Brass, Flooded Strand, Forest
Keep or Mulligan?: Snap keep. This is a nearly-perfect hand.
Reasoning: This hand has it all: plenty of mana, including mana fixing in the form of a fetchland; control in the form of counter magic (which will help you draw); an early ramp creature, a recursion engine, and a tutor engine. I would not expect a game with this hand to last very long. Coiling Oracle into Pod, then beginning a pod chain depending on the opponents.

Hand #2

Hand: Noble Hierarch, Wood Elves, Ixidron, Island, Seaside Citadel, Krosan Verge, Temple of Mystery
Keep or Mulligan?: Probably mulligan, or partial-paris mulligan.
Reasoning: This is a close call. Unfortunately this deck has some "do nothing" hands due to the amount of ramp we use. This hand will give us great mana, and we have a creature answer in the form of Ixidron, but that's it. This hand depends on its draws to find some "juice", or some creature that has an offensive etb trigger. Fortunately for the hand, it also has a scryland, which might push this hand into keep territory. There are decent arguments to be had for keeping or mulligan-ing this hand.

Hand #3

Hand: Venser, the Sojourner, Luminate Primordial, Qasali Pridemage, Oracle of Mul Daya, Kodama's Reach, Faerie Conclave, Reliquary Tower
Keep or Mulligan?: Mulligan, or partial-paris mulligan.
Reasoning: This looks like a great hand, but in reality this hand will probably kill you. It's got a lot of great stuff, including ramp, but you only have access to 1 single blue mana. Keeping this hand would mean that you have to wait and pray you draw a green source of mana, which is a losing proposition. Remember that this deck is primarily green centered - the ramp is all green or colorless. Without access to a green mana source in the opening hand, I don't think I could keep any hand from this deck.

Personal Bio

My name is Dave. I’m 32 years old and live in Northwest Indiana. I started playing Magic in early 1995, but took a long break when I went away for college in 2003. I began playing EDH in 2011, when I came back to magic after an 8-year hiatus (for college and law school). Some friends and I dusted off our old cards and started hitting up the local gaming shops, where we quickly learned we’d fallen WAY behind in terms of rules, deck composition, and card pool knowledge. We went to work building many decks and testing against each other.

I play all formats, although my favorite is EDH. I am semi-competitive in standard and modern, and generally keep up with those formats. I have played legacy in the past, but that format is not popular in my area and so I do not play it often. I tend to prefer creature-based strategies, and avoid combo or control; however, I also like to build outside my comfort zone so I am willing to play any strategy.

Change Log

• 3/20/14:
+Wood Elves
-Courser of Kruphix
I wanted to try out a new card, seemed like it was popular in standard so I think it should work well in this deck.

• 3/24/14:
+Mangara of Corondor
-Man-o'-War
Finally got ahold of a copy of Mangara of Corondor, wanted to keep the number of creatures in the 3 CMC slot the same.

• 5/14/14:
+Privileged Position
+Oracle of Mul Daya
-Ghostway
-Asceticism
Privileged Position is an upgrade from Asceticism. I got ahold of an Oracle of Mul Daya, and I'd been uphappy with Ghostway - it's a cool card on paper, but in reality it felt clunky and slow.

• 5/21/14:
-Thassa, God of the Sea
I realized I had 1 too many cards in my deck. This had been decent, but I was winning without it and I wanted to use this copy in standard.

• 7/12/14:
-Harmonic Sliver
-Wrath of God
-Sejiri Refuge
-Azorius Guildgate
-Selesnya Guildgate
-Simic Guildgate
+Reclamation Sage
+Supreme Verdict
+Temple of Plenty
+Temple of Mystery
+Temple of Enlightenment
+Mana Confluence
In EDH, Supreme Verdict is a significant upgrade to Wrath of God, especially in my meta where counterspells are popular. Similarly, Reclamation Sage is a strict upgrade to Harmonic Sliver in this deck, both in terms of casting cost and going from mandatory to my choice to destroy something. Finally, the scrylands have been doing well for me in another EDH deck, and they are also strict upgrades to the guildgates for this deck. Put in Mana Confluence for less CIPT lands, and Sejiri Refuge wasn't impactful.

• 9/16/14:
+Sower of Temptation
- Control Magic
Sower is the better card, but I had not come across one that was available to me!

• 12/10/14:
+Voidslime
+Seedborn Muse
-Oracle of Mul Daya
-Conjurer's Closet
The Oracle and Closet were both decent cards, and performed okay, but nothing spectacular. The Closet is just too slow for what it does, and the Oracle is decent but as the deck becomes more powerful with more draw power, the need to filtering is reduced.

• 2/24/15:
+Survival of the Fittest
-Condemn
Finally picked up a copy of Survival of the Fittest, as expected it's performed very well. Condemn was "ok" but I have been happy with my other removal/control options.

• 3/5/15:
+Gilded Drake
-Bant Charm
I actually made this change some time ago, but just realized I forgot to add it to my list. Gilded Drake is extremely powerful in this deck. I wasn't wild about Bant Charm, with it's restrictive color requirements, and the rest of the deck has solid removal so I felt I could lose this one.

• Change Log 5/29/15:
+Dissipate, -Hinder
With the advent of the commander tuck rule (if your commander is tucked, you can instead put it back in the command zone) I feel the tuck counterspells became less effective. There are more times now that I'd rather exile an opponent's spell than tuck it, as the tuck was a way to combat certain commanders. I'll probably end up later cutting Spell Crumple to be replaced with Faerie Trickery, but I just haven't gotten my hands on one yet.

• Change Log 7/8/16: (some of these changes happened in January of 2016)
-Prophet of Kruphix
-Privileged Position
-Kodama's Reach
-Fact or Fiction
-Noble Hierarch
-Wood Elves
-Solemn Simulacrum
-Progenitor Mimic
+Mana Crypt
+Wrath of God
+Swan Song
+Academy Rector
+Clever Impersonator
+Venser, Shaper Savant
+Oblation
+Minamo, School at Water's Edge
Prophet of Kruphix was banned. Privileged Position was good but too reactive considering the rest of the deck is already very reactive. Kodama's Reach was out because I felt I already had enough ramp, and needed some more impact cards, took Wood Elves and Solemn Simulacrum out for the same reason, though the latter will probably go back in at some point. Fact or Fiction is good but I wanted to make room for Academy Rector due to the high-impact nature of the enchantments in the deck. Noble Hierarch was a dead late-game draw and I have not had trouble with my mana, the only downside is no 1-drop for Birthing Pod purposes. Progenitor Mimic is a strong card, and could go back in, but I picked up a Venser, Shaper Savant and my curve had gotten a little higher than I wanted. Swan Song, Oblation, and Wrath of God are all additions to combat particular decks I've been playing against a lot lately. Clever Impersonator seems really versatile and I haven't drawn him enough to comment. Minamo, School at Water's Edge was added partially because I was taking out some ramp and also because of his strong interaction with Roon.

• 10/28/16:
-Treetop Village
-Wood Elves
-Voidslime
+Panharmonicon
+Clever Impersonator
+Eldrazi Displacer
Panharmonicon is obviously a powerhouse in this deck, as is Eldrazi Displacer. I saw Clever Impersonator being played very effectively lately and I wanted to give it a try. I decided to risk going down to 37 lands because I knew I'd be addressing some mana fixing in a later update (see update dated 11/15/16), and for the same reason felt safe removing Wood Elves. Voidslime is a good card, but its mana requirements are harsh and I wanted to be a bit more proactive; this is a card that I will consider putting back in any time a card underperforms.

• 11/5/16:
-Riptide Laboratory
-Dryad Arbor
+Wooded Foothills
+Dust Bowl
Dryad Arbor is great when I can Green Sun's Zenith on turn 1 for it. It's much worse, and a liability, later in the game. Riptide Laboratory just wasn't being used much, so it was just a source of colorless mana. Dust Bowl provides some great nonbasic land removal, which this deck needed, and Wooded Foothills for some reason wasn't in the deck when it should have been.

• 11/15/16:
-Farseek
-Academy Rector
+Commander's Sphere
+Chromatic Lantern
Farseek is a solid card, but it was not very strong. Having played against Commander's Sphere more and more, I appreciate the card more. The sphere is also much better late-game, and has synergy with Sun Titan. Academy Rector is great, and can tutor some of our strongest cards in Survival of the Fittest and Aura Shards; however, I do not have a way to consistently kill him. Therefore, I swapped him for some more fixing, which I had a few struggles with. Chromatic Lantern is great fixing, can be brought back with Sun Titan, and will allow me to play more liberally with utility land without sacrificing my mana symbol needs.

• 1/20/17:
-Swan Song
+Disallow
Swan Song has been solid in helping compete in a competitive meta; however, it misses some key cards and cannot hit abilities. Disallow costs more, but what it loses in efficiency, it makes up for in flexibility.

Quote from spentbullets

One thing I've noticed about the list is that, barring Beast Within and Terastodon, it lacks answers for planeswalkers. What do you folks think of the detain creatures, like Lyev Skyknight and Lavinia of the Tenth? With Prophet of Kruphix or Seedborn Muse in play, being able to detain multiple planeswalkers seems fairly attractive--slowing down Karn Liberated or Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker with Skyknight, even for one turn at a time, sounds pretty decent. Lavinia turns off some of the best mana rocks in the game, not to mention combo engines like Food Chain.

Quote from spentbullets

I have a question: for those of you running Wargate, what are your preferred targets?

Quote from Dies_to_Doom_Blade

How has Ixidron been for those who are testing it?

Seems like a good board wipe that works great if you cast roon after/Ghostway