I was thinking about building a new EDH deck and I fell in love with Razz's Jarad. But he seems to have moved on to The Gitrog Monster.
Nevertheless I am still going to build it. This is what I want to play and this primer is an amazing source of inspiration. Thank you for all the work you've put into this deck and this primer, razzliox. May the Frog treat you well.
I don't think he moved on to Gitrog just cause he made a thread for it. That thread doesn't even have one full page worth of posts and Razz hasn't posted to it since January. I'm also in the Competitive EDH Discord server which he is a frequent user of, but I haven't seen him around there lately. My guess is that he's just been busy.
Anguished Unmaking is an easy pick. I also think Ancient Grudge deserves a slot because the more competitive decks tend to play a ton of artifacts. Comparing Bant Charm to Kolaghan's Command seems extremely favorable towards Bant Charm. They both destroy artifacts but countering an instant or removing nearly any creature (even indestructible) is way ahead of killing an X/2 or returning a creature from your graveyard to your hand. The discard mode on Kolaghan's Command basically doesn't even count because it's so useless in multiplayer EDH.
Because there are too many WB removal spells on this list. The multicolor cards are already pretty niche since you need to have that specific combo to run them, but when you get to the point of having Vindicate, Utter End, Anguished Unmaking, and Mortify on the list, I don't think I would even run all of those in a straight WB deck. Mortify is probably worse than Utter End now that you mention it though.
I would like to nominate Mirri's Guile to be added to the list. While it isn't card advantage, the draw fixing that it provides is nearly unique in green. It's basically a Sensei's Divining Top that you don't need to dump any mana into, but without the added utility of the draw a card ability.
Also, I can't remember how the process works, but am I allowed to nominate Traverse the Ulvenwald yet?
I don't actively look to choose my seat based on where other people are sitting, but I have definitely noticed its impact on games. For example, one game I was sitting directly to the left of the Maelstrom Wanderer player. Every time me or another would board wipe, everyone else at the table would have a chance to either leave open mana for removal or play creatures to block with. This meant that every time the Wanderer player would cast his general, I was the one getting smacked in the face. Even though I played more removal in that game than anyone else, I was the first one dead to being attacked over and over without being able to defend myself.
I don't really even understand the hate for Tooth and Nail into Avenger of Zendikar and Craterhoof Behemoth. Craterhoof doesn't grant Haste so all you do is get one decently sized guy who can attack right away, and the Plant tokens just go back to being 0/1s at end of turn. It can give you more damage if you already have a significant board presence, but then it's not much better than just casting an Overwhelming Stampede. I feel like this is one of the less broken Tooth and Nail combos that exist in EDH.
If you cannot have it consistently producing two or more mana on turn three, I would strongly consider removing it for a basic land.
The drawback of it not producing mana on turn 1, in my experience of playing with it for years, was considerably greater than the benefit of it producing more than 1.
There is also the consideration that sweeper effects tend to be very common in this format, and it does nothing after a sweeper. There are actually far fewer decks I would consider playing it in than decks I would not. Yes, it is amazing in Animar, Soul of Elements, Edric, Spymaster of Trest, or Ghave, Guru of Spores. It is terrible in many more.
Again, you need to have a deck with a high creature count, with a low CMC, for it to be worth including.
It may be worthwhile in The Gitrog Monster, even without those criteria, because you are likely running enough lands for it's inability to produce mana to be relevant early in the game, but even then only if you expect it to produce three or more mana by midgame.
By this logic, Tolarian Acadamy should be unbanned because the only way it produces U on Turn 1 is with subpar 0 mana artifacts, and it does nothing after an Austere Command or Shatterstorm.
Artifacts are usually easier to get out and harder to remove than creatures, but even then Academy would probably be fine to unban.
I missed a good chance for nomination I think ponder is just a card i would play when I'm in blue far more often than most of these cards. It's very good and honestly better and just more auto include than most the cards on this list not to mention the new mulligan system makes it even better. Curse of swine seems like the weakest card in this poll and time warp is pretty darn string in commander the rest are tough calls but I think ponder trumps all of them easily
This. Ponder is brilliant. Whenever I'm tuning my non blue decks I always wish I had access to more cheap and efficient draw filtering. Cards like this go a long way in improving the consistency of your deck and they're never bad to draw at any point in the game. I think a lot of people don't really give it a fair shot because it's not a "EDH card", but things like this are the glue that holds decks together.
Hey bob, just curious as to why you still have the Necrotic Ooze combo in the OP instead of switching it to the Dread Return -> Phyrexian Delver -> Mikaeus, the Unhallowed -> Flashback Cabal Therapy -> Triskelion line which both requires no mana to start it and uses a smaller number of slots in your deck.
I went 5-1-1 in my prerelease yesterday and won a box for top 8. My store doesn't pay out prizes until next week so I have to wait until next Friday to get ahold of it.
The combo I outlined never requires you to have Skirge Familiar in play specifically which means you don't have to run Necromancy, Reanimate, etc, which is why I think it's slightly better in a theoretical sense. Yours is obviously better in a practical sense because you can shortcut it. My use of "a lot" was incorrect there as this only requires you to add one extra card which isn't too big of a deal.
I'm not a fan of Mirri's Guile. Not long ago you weren't even running Sensei's Divining Top, which is a much stronger card in my opinion. We also already have Sylvan Library which puts this card to shame, albeit for one extra mana. The problem for me is that you only get to use it during your upkeep, and it can't really do anything to give you additional advantages like Library's ability to draw extra cards or Top's ability to draw something for you at instant speed.
That combo is definitely a lot easier to execute than the one I described on the last page, but it also constrains your win conditions a lot. It needs exactly Skirge Familiar as the discard outlet, which isn't ideal because it costs 5 mana, and it only really allows you to use something like Exsanguinate as the kill card. In theory I think the version that loops the entire library with Kozilek every iteration is the most compact and resilient, but it's not feasible to actually play because of the amount of time required to play out the combo. A version like this that loops a much smaller library makes it much more manageable to play out while still being more compact than a Necrotic Ooze or Mike + Trike combo.
I don't think he moved on to Gitrog just cause he made a thread for it. That thread doesn't even have one full page worth of posts and Razz hasn't posted to it since January. I'm also in the Competitive EDH Discord server which he is a frequent user of, but I haven't seen him around there lately. My guess is that he's just been busy.
I would like to nominate Mirri's Guile to be added to the list. While it isn't card advantage, the draw fixing that it provides is nearly unique in green. It's basically a Sensei's Divining Top that you don't need to dump any mana into, but without the added utility of the draw a card ability.
Also, I can't remember how the process works, but am I allowed to nominate Traverse the Ulvenwald yet?