GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED - Congrats to our winner u/Zarolyth! Take good care of this deck!

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---Original Post Below---

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Hey there denizens of r/EDH!

Here is the deck list and here is the primer for my newest deck and the one for this giveaway!

This is my personal build and will continue to be updated long after this giveaway has closed, so be sure to follow or bookmark it if you're interested to see how it evolves over time.

And here is an album showing the actual, physical cards you'll be receiving if you win the giveaway.

• Deckbox and sleeves will be included.
• Two versions of Axonil in clear sleeves for easy transforming.
• Relevant tokens & emblems as well. Sadly I had to improvise a bit since WotC did not give us Knight tokens to go with Court of Embereth. So you're just going to have to pretend this elemental is a knight. I mean come on - he's red, his stats are 3/1 and he's holding a sword. Just squint a little bit and he's basically a knight!
• The last image shows a suite of "backup" cards that will also be included (they are in addition to the 100-card deck, so you'll be getting 105 cards total). The primer below explains exactly why these are in here.

Speaking of primer, I've included it in this post and put a lot of effort into it. I hope that everyone who enters will at least take the time to read it, as I wanted you all to take something of value from this post even if you don't win the giveaway. I highly encourage you to give this awesome commander a try. He can be built on a budget if needed and he ends games insanely quickly. Give him a chance and you won't be disappointed!

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GIVEAWAY RULES & CHOOSING A WINNER

To be entered, all I ask is that you spread the word and leave a comment on this post. In at least one of your comments, you'll need the following phrase:

pickme!

One string, no spaces. Be sure to double check that you've typed it correctly and included the exclamation point.

DUPLICATES WILL BE FILTERED OUT. AND PLEASE DON'T MAKE MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS TO INCREASE YOUR CHANCES, I WILL ONLY AWARD THIS DECK TO AN ACCOUNT AT LEAST 1 MONTH OLD.

You may make a new comment or reply to another; so long as you've said the phrase at least once, you will have the same chance of winning as everyone else. 24 hours after this post goes live, I'll run the RNG to pick a winner.

Once a winner is picked, I will contact them via Reddit message and comment reply. If they do not respond to me and claim their prize within 24 hours, I will have to remove them from the pool and run the RNG again to pick a new winner. Once a winner is confirmed, I will announce them at the top of the post and close the giveaway.

You may enter no matter where you are in the world. However, if you live somewhere in which I cannot arrange reliable tracking, I'm afraid I'll have to pick a new winner. I'm very sorry but a lot of effort and nearly $300 went into this giveaway and it would feel pretty terrible if it were to get lost in transit.

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INTRODUCTION & GAMEPLAN

Our return to Ixalan brings with it one of the most metal creatures ever printed: Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might. Just look at this guy. He's got a dinosaur for an arm, a burning club in his other hand and a solar crown adorning a skull screaming what I can only assume are death threats to literally everyone and everything in a 50-mile radius.

Also, "Ojer" is actually a title, like "King". And "Axonil" is his name. So, throughout this primer I'll be referring to him shorthand as Axonil. By the way, here is a clip on how to correctly pronounce his name.

Let's take a minute to break down the main ability that dictates the rest of the build for this deck:

• "If a red source you control would deal an amount of noncombat damage less than Ojer Axonil's power to an opponent, that source deals damage equal to Ojer Axonil's power instead."

And just like that, we know what to do. Effects that deal direct burn damage to opponents such as Volcanic Spray suddenly become way more painful because they are now dealing damage equal to Axonil's power instead of the pathetic 1 damage they would normally do. At its absolute worst, we would only need to activate something like Lobber Crew 10 times with Axonil to incinerate our opponents, but we can do even better than that!

The bigger and angrier Axonil gets, the more painful the burn our opponents will feel. This is why we have a few ways to buff his power. Things like Commander's Plate and Thundering Raiju can give him a permanent stat buff. Things like Dragon Mantle can be used to buff his power temporarily and follow up with a devastating activation of Lobber Crew or a Firebrand Archer trigger.

Next up, Axonil has a self-recursion ability in the form of returning to the field on his flip side, Temple of Power, after he dies. We can then transform him back into his creature side but if and only if we've dealt at least 4 burn damage in a single turn. It's worth noting that this transformation is technically not optional, but because he's our commander we are allowed to send him back to the Command Zone if he would die, thus bypassing the mandatory transformation. This bit is important, because I (usually) found more success with this deck when I was just letting him go back to the Command Zone after death, since dealing 4 non-combat damage can be trickier than it sounds.

Obviously, if you have the setup to do so, then by all means let him come back to the field as Temple of Power. An example of this would be a pinger that can deal 1 damage to each opponent (for a total of 3) and then you'd need to deal 1 more damage from another source. A better example would be Spear Spewer who can deal 1 damage to everyone for a total of 4 so Spear Spewer alone can fulfill the requirements to transform the temple back into Axonil. Or if you're really desperate, you can float 4 mana while Manabarbs is out and deal the 4 required damage to yourself! But if you do not have the setup to deal that critical 4 damage, then I'd highly recommend sending Axonil back to the Command Zone so you can reliably re-cast him later.

With all of that in mind, here's the general gameplan:

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EARLY GAME

Setup is the name of the game. Axonil isn't providing value if you have nothing to fire at opponents.

Get some source of burn damage into play before casting Axonil, something like Brimstone Trebuchet, for example, so you have it ready to fire once you do get Axonil onto the board. This sounds obvious, but the reason I point this out is that we have a few mana rocks like Fire Diamond and Mind Stone. So it's possible to have 4 mana available by turn 3 and cast Axonil, but if you have a choice between him and something like Brimstone Trebuchet in hand, cast the Trebuchet first because that way it won't be summoning sick on the next turn when you cast Axonil.

You can also play it a bit slow and just hold off casting Axonil entirely until you've set up as much as possible. In some games, I hadn't put him on the field until turn 6 or 7, but by then I had some massive triggers and pings ready to go which resulted in 16+ damage on the turn he came into play and the game was over on the following turn.

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MID GAME

Begin leveraging repeatable tap-to-burn effects to consistently damage opponents each rotation; damage that will be amplified by Axonil.

Regarding these pingers, I advise that you keep them untapped until the last possible moment, namely the end step of your opponent's turn just before yours begins. The reason being that if you need an emergency blocker, you can use them for that purpose. But if a whole rotation goes by and they're still untapped, you should activate them at instant speed to deal some burn damage and they'll untap as soon as your turn begins anyway. The only exceptions to this line of play would be:

• you have enough pinger activations lined up to just take somebody out of the game; if that's the case then show no mercy!
• or if there is something on the stack that is about to remove Axonil; if that's the case then use your pingers and get as much damage out of them as you can before Axonil leaves!

Aside from pingers, you can set up future burn with things like Impact Tremors and Kessig Flamebreather if you have the cards to capitalize on their triggered abilities.

Apply even more pressure with stax effects, prioritizing ones that punish players taking basic game actions (Manabarbs) or for simply just existing (Roiling Vortex). These will be triggering A LOT and will be dealing damage equal to Axonil's power so the damage will be racking up VERY quickly.

If you find an equipment or aura that boosts Axonil's power, be sure to play it before using any of your burn effects that turn. But prioritize any equipment that provides Axonil with some form of protection like Commander's Plate or Mithril Coat. The more difficult he becomes for opponents to remove, the quicker the game will end. Axonil is essential to our gameplan so it's important that he sticks around.

And don't be afraid to swing with Axonil if the coast is clear! Damage is damage so get in for a cheeky attack whenever possible. The only exceptions would be:

• If you have one of your Chandras in play. These walkers are great ramp and card advantage engines and holding Axonil back to protect them from attackers would be in your best interest.
• Or if you're the Monarch (thanks to Court of Embereth). Leaving Axonil untapped could help you hold onto the crown.

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LATE GAME

Games with this deck are typically pretty short but if things aren't coming to a close, there are some big finishers available:

Dragon Mantle and Draconic Destiny are mana sinks that can pump Axonil's power. Spend as much as you can spare to boost his power to absurd levels and then hit your opponents with every damaging spell/ability you have available for devastating damage.

Fiery Confluence lets you choose the "Deal 2 damage to each opponent mode" three times. With Axonil, this is a minimum of 12 damage. If you have a way to boost his power, Fiery Confluence can easily end the game.

Pyrohemia plain and simple deals 1 damage for each (R) we spend. With Axonil on the field, this is boosted to 4 damage per activation, minimum. In the late game, you'll probably only need a few activations of this to end the game. Save this card in hand as a finisher; don't just play it and pass turn. You should be winning the game on the turn you cast Pyrohemia.

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GOLDFISH & PRACTICE

It's one thing to read a guide and look at a decklist, it's another entirely to go through the motions. I highly encourage you to use the Playtest feature on Moxfield and goldfish this deck a couple of times.You seriously need to feel just how fast it is and how quickly damage adds up with Axonil in play. You should be dealing 40+ damage to everybody in 8 turns or less.

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PROS, CONS & POWER LEVEL

✅ Pros

• This deck makes games go very fast. Thanks to stax effects that punish opponents for basic game actions (Manabarbs, Zo-Zu, Spellshock, etc.) combined with the damage amplification from Axonil, the burn damage will be racking up very quickly.
• As burn decks go, this one is a bit more unique thanks to Axonil's power-matters way of affecting burn damage, so there is a light sprinkling of Voltron going on.
• It has a very simple gameplan with simple decision-making so your turns will be short and sweet, as will the game itself.

❌ Cons

• This deck is highly dependent on Axonil staying on the field, so you have to dedicate some of your deck slots to protection pieces.
• It has a very aggressive playstyle, meaning you'll be taking some damage while dishing it out. If that's something that scares you, this isn't the deck for you. If, however, you're the type of person to sink the ship you're sailing on just to kill the captain, you'll have a blast with this deck.

☢️ Power Level

• This deck is high-power casual. There are no combos, but it is so efficient at dealing burn damage that games will rarely go past turn 8.
• Please don't ask me for a number. I believe using a 1-10 scale to gage power is pointless. Describing what the deck does and how it wants to win is much more useful info.

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PACKAGES

Ramp (14)

• Chandra, Dressed to Kill, Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Fire Diamond, Mind Stone, Fellwar Stone, The Irencrag and Heraldic Banner all produce mana on their own.
• Jeska's Will and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx can produce more mana than it costs to use them.
• Ruby Medallion and Hazoret's Monument reduce the cost of our spells.
• Defiler of Instinct lets us pay life instead of red mana when casting red permanents.

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Removal & Interaction (15)

• Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Chandra's Incinerator, Shatterskull Smashing, Fiery Confluence, Abrade, Embereth Blaze, Defiler of Instinct, Pyrohemia, Volcanic Spray, Blasphemous Act and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle can deal burn damage to creatures.
• Vandalblast, Fiery Confluence and Abrade can all destroy artifacts.
• Chaos Warp can get rid of any permanent.
• Deflecting Swat and Bolt Bend can redirect spells on the stack.

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Card Draw & Card Advantage (10)

• Mind Stone and War Room have activated abilities that can draw us cards.
• Court of Embereth gives us the Monarch when we play it, and having the Monarch will draw us a card at the end of our turn.
• Chandra, Dressed to Kill, Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Jeska's Will, Valakut Exploration, Tavern Brawler and Virtue of Courage don't explicitly draw us cards but they do exile them from the top of our library and allow us to play/cast them if we want to, functionally serving as card advantage.
• Dragon Mantle replaces itself by drawing us a card upon ETB.

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Feel the Burn (34)

This section points out all of the sources that can deal direct damage to opponents, which are the main effects that will be amplified by Ojer Axonil's ability.

• Blisterspit Gremlin, Spear Spewer, Thermo-Alchemist, Brimstone Trebuchet, Lightning-Rig Crew, Lobber Crew and Unruly Catapult all have activated abilities that can deal 1 damage to everyone, making them fantastic repeatable ways of dealing massive damage if Axonil is in play. Note that some of these have useless secondary effects (i.e. Lobber Crew) but we don't care about those, we're running them because of their repeatable tap-to-burn ability.
• Sunshot Militia has an activated ability that requires tapping any two creatures/artifacts to deal 1 damage to opponents (one of them can be Sunshot Militia themselves). The nice thing is that it's repeatable so in the late game when we have more ammo, we can put some serious hurt on our opponents.
• Kessig Flamebreather and Firebrand Archer deal 1 damage to our opponents whenever we cast a non-creature spell. Note that they're not limited to instants and sorceries (like Guttersnipe) and can trigger off of our large number of artifacts and enchantments we're running in this build.
• Pyrohemia has an activated ability that we can use repeatedly. With Axonil on the field, this can straight up end games if we have enough mana to sink into it.
• Tunneling Geopede deals 1 damage to opponents whenever we play a land.
• Witty Roastmaster, Purphoros, God of the Forge and Impact Tremors deal damage to opponents whenever we play a creature and Rampaging Ferocidon deals damage to any player who plays a creature.
• Court of Embereth deals damage to opponents equal the number of creatures we control and it makes an elemental token on our upkeep which combos nicely with the burn effects mentioned just above.
• Defiler of Instinct deals 1 damage to any target whenver we cast a red permanent, easily turned into 4 if aimed directly at an opponent.
• Valakut Exploration can deal damage to opponents on our end step if there are any cards exiled with it that we chose not to play.
• Thundering Raiju deals damage to opponents whenever it attacks equal to the number of other modified creatures we control, and it can put a +1/+1 counter on one of our creatures each time it attacks so it's self-sufficient at triggering this effect.
• Eidolon of the Great Revel, Harsh Mentor, Immolation Shaman, Zo-Zu the Punisher, Roiling Vortex, Sulfuric Vortex, Spellshock, Burning Earth and Manabarbs are all stax pieces that deal damage to opponents for taking certain game actions.
• Fiery Confluence, Spikefield Hazard and Embereth Blaze are all one-time effects that can deal damage to opponents.
• Volcanic Spray is a simple burn spell that can be cast twice thanks to Flashback.
• Chandra, Torch of Defiance's first ability lets us exile a card off the top of our library and if we choose not to play it, she'll deal 2 damage to each opponent (4 if Axonil is in play).

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Turn Up the Heat (13)

This section points out cards that increase Axonil's power, which is important because that's how much damage our other burn effects will be doing.

• Tyrite Sanctum's middle ability can buff Axonil with a +1/+1 counter. Yes, we can use this ability even though he is already a God, he just simply receives the +1/+1 counter.
• Thundering Raiju can also buff Axonil with +1/+1 counters.
• The Irencrag, Shadowspear, Commander's Plate, Champion's Helm and Hammer of Nazahn all increase Axonil's power while equipped.
• Draconic Destiny while attached gives Axonil a flat +1/+1 buff.
• Heraldic Banner while on the field gives all of our red creatures including Axonil a +1/+0 buff.
• Purphoros, God of the Forge, Castle Embereth, Dragon Mantle and Draconic Destiny let us pay mana to temporarily increase Axonil's power.
• Tavern Brawler can also temporarily increase Axonil's power.

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Protection (10)

Axonil is important to our gameplan, so protecting him is important. This section highlights the cards that can do just that.

• Deflecting Swat and Bolt Bend can redirect a spell/ability aimed at Axonil.
• Commander's Plate, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots and Champion's Helm all give Axonil some form of protection and/or non-targetability while equipped.
• Darksteel Plate, Mithril Coat, Hammer of Nazahn and Tyrite Sanctum can make Axonil indestructible, making him much more difficult to remove.

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NOTABLE INCLUDES

Brimstone Trebuchet + Court of Embereth

• Wanted to break down this pair so you can understand how to maximize on the potential burn damage.
• Let's say you have Trebuchet and Court of Embereth on the field. The turn gets passed to you. A couple of things happen during this crucial beginning phase.
• First up on the Untap Step, you untap everything, notably the Brimstone Trebuchet.
• Next, move to Upkeep. Court of Embereth triggers. In response, go ahead and activate the Trebuchet to deal damage to everyone. Now let the Court trigger resolve and create a 3/1 Knight token. If you're the Monarch, you get to do some more burn damage here.
• More importantly, however, because a Knight just ETB'd, you get to untap your Trebuchet so it's ready to fire off again.
• Remember this sequence if you happen to get these two on the field together. It's easy to be on auto-pilot and just go through the "Untap, Upkeep, Draw" phases without thinking too much. I know we mono-red players have a reputation of drooling all over ourselves but if my dumbass can write a post full of complete sentences and punctuation then you can certainly remember to take advantage of the Trebuchet/Court pairing for some extra burn damage! If Axonil is on board, that's 8 damage from this interaction!

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Shadowspear

• Looks a bit random but this is our only source of Lifegain. We're playing a lot of effects that punish and burn all players, ourselves included, so an equipment that grants Lifelink is a great way for us to outgrind our opponents.
• The best candidate to put this on is a pinger like Lobber Crew. The stat boosts don't really matter because we're not attacking with it. However, non-combat damage can also trigger Lifelink, so tapping Lobber Crew to deal damage to all opponents will result in +3 life for us, or +12 if Axonil is in play.
• Also, if we have the mana to spare and multiple sources of damage lined up, we can gain a ton of life. Let's say for example we've got Axonil on the field along with Lobber Crew and Unruly Catapult. We can pay (2) to slap the Shadowspear on our first pinger, activate it to deal 4 damage to each opponent and gain 12 life. Then we can pay another (2) to move the Shadowspear over to our next pinger and activate that one as well, gaining another 12 life. We're not limited to pingers either; we can put the Shadowspear on something like Firebrand Archer if we've got a way to trigger it, then move the Shadowspear to the next candidate, and so on.
• Note that I didn't go too far down the lifelink rabbit hole since the deck is running a few effects that straight up prevent lifegain (such as Sulfuric Vortex).

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Spellshock

• One of the best cards in the deck since casting spells is kind of essential to playing Magic. We, however, can play around it a bit since we have so many pingers whose damage comes from activated abilities already on the field, so we can still burn our opponents without having to cast spells.
• Keep in mind, that Spellshock actually triggers whenever a spell is cast; that spell doesn't actually have to resolve. I say this because this card only has one printing in paper and its text is outdated.
• It says "Whenever a player successfully casts a spell, Spellshock deals 2 damage to him or her." You'd be forgiven for thinking the word "successfully" implies that the spell must resolve but that's not the case. Take a look at the oracle text and you'll see that it triggers on spell cast.

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Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

• Keep in mind that lands are colorless, therefore Valakut's burn ability will NOT be amplified by Axonil's ability.
• But I mean, come on, we're playing a mono-red deck with 29 mountains. There's very little opportunity cost for throwing Valakut in here.

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Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance

• Mainly in here in case we have Witty Roastmaster, Impact Tremors or Purphoros, God of the Forge on the field and don't need the land drop, so we can Channel Sokenzan and make two tokens for some easy burn damage.

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ALTERNATE OPTIONS

⬆️ Powering Up ⬆️

I already have a fairly expensive mono-red deck (Chiss-Goria Affinity) so I didn't want to spend too much on this one and keep it more on the casual side. However, you can certainly speed things up with stuff like Jeweled Lotus and Mana Crypt which help get Axonil onto the field ASAP.

You could also consider running Snow-Covered Mountains and Extraplanar Lens for additional ramp. The Lens is usually run alongside snow-covered basic lands because typically opponents won't have snow lands to benefit from it but the user does.

You can be even more mean with things like Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon, Ruination and Stranglehold. Don't be afraid of harsh stax if you're playing this deck at high-power or borderline cEDH! If your playgroup or meta is heavy with Blue decks, Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast are also good options.

After that, you can lean a little harder into lifelink equipment to help you outgrind your opponents with all of the punishment burn effects. Things like Loxodon Warhammer, Batterskull and Basilisk Collar all come to mind.

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⬇️ Powering Down ⬇️

If your playgroup doesn't appreciate mean stax, you can remove the following: Zo-Zu the Punisher, Spellshock, Burning Earth and Manabarbs. Personally, I haven't encountered anyone who throws a fit over these cards but not every player out there has the same level of tolerance so those four are the most likely to be complained about. In terms of replacements, I would pick any four from among Cemetery Gatekeeper, Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh, Zariel, Archduke of Avernus, Invasion of Karsus and Tectonic Giant. These five are the backup cards I included in the giveaway, in case you win the deck but your playgroup is not a fan of the aforementioned stax cards.

Other than that, the deck is pretty fair. I can't really find an issue with the rest of the list. It's just a burn deck at the end of the day.

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⬅️ Other Directions ➡️

This particular build leaned heavily into permanents. This is why I didn't include things like Guttersnipe and Electrostatic Field, since they want a critical mass of instant and sorcery spells. I chose not to go this route because I already have a Ghyrson Starn deck with a spellslinger theme and I typically don't like overlapping with my builds. But you can certainly go in that direction with your Ojer Axonil build.

In terms of cuts, the immediate ones would be Defiler of Instinct, Witty Roastmaster, Purphoros, God of the Forge and Impact Tremors. Immediate additions would be Erebor Flamesmith, Electrostatic Field, Fiery Inscription and Guttersnipe. From there, start swapping other permanents with instants and sorceries that deal direct burn damage to opponents.

I also considered things like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Mirage Phalanx and other such effects that make copies of creatures and gives them haste - the idea being that we can take advantage of stuff like Impact Tremors while copying a pinger and it can activate right away thanks to haste. Sounded good in theory but unfortunately there just aren't quite enough pingers in my opinion to dedicate valuable deck slots to these copy-maker cards. Could be worth exploring though, if you'd like to take a crack at it.

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BUDGET OPTIONS

This section points out every card in the deck that costs more than $5 USD and provides a much more budget-friendly substitute. They won't all be functional replacements but will have similar mana costs and serve the main gameplan as much as possible.

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Lands

• Valakut, Sokenzan and Nykthos can all be replaced with basic Mountains.

Enchantments

• Pyrohemia → Leyline of Lightning, Invasion of Karsus or Spitfire Lagac.

Artifacts

• Commander's Plate → Mask of Avacyn.
• Shadowspear → Basilisk Collar.
• Ruby Medallion → Cemetery Gatekeeper.
• Mithril Coat → Claws of Valakut or Blackblade Reforged.

Instants

• Deflecting Swat → End the Festivities or Unleash Fury.

Sorcery Spells

• Shatterskull Smashing → basic Mountain.
• Jeska's Will → Seething Song.

Creatures

• Purphoros, God of the Forge → Zariel, Archduke of Avernus or Tectonic Giant.

Planeswalkers

• Chandra, Dressed to Kill → Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh.

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WRAPPING UP

Alright, if you made it this far, I appreciate you taking the time to read and enter the giveaway. While it is not required by any means, you're welcome to check out and follow my Moxfield page. I've put together quite a few lists and primers for each. A lot of work goes into these and I keep my decks up to date as often as possible. If you'd like to see what I'm working on, be sure to give that page a follow.

And with that, we've concluded. 24 hours after this post goes live, I'll be running the program to pick a winner.

Best of luck to you all!

Hi there.

You may have seen my previous post. In which my LGS banned my Red Deck for being "oppresive" in a casually competitive environment. Naturally when left with confusion about why, I turned to Reddit.

Long story short. I learned the following: My Red Deck isn't oppressive. Its a 7 on a good day after a few drinks. My deck appeals to other who enjoy burn strats. My LGS is Salty.

I also got some amazing feedback from the community about how to improve the deck. Including some hidden tech that's changed the deck entirely. It's winning consistently on turn 6-7. So thank you r/EDH.

Now

Reddit advised instead of burning the table down in a matter of turns, I play control or something. But I wanted to meet the conditions of an "acceptable" win. Which in my LGS is combat damage, not burn or combo or mill or sudden win cards. Very much green mana single braincell timmy DUH-meta in the LGS. So if I was going to build something to control the board it needed to be green and it needed to win via combat damage. Cool. And I wanted to brew something new. I saw [[Ellivere of the Wild Court]] precon and thought "wait that's a great idea just upgrade a precon and swap out the land base and artifacts" lands and artifacts I have simply because I've been playing since 2016 and I have these cards scatters among various decks. So I pulled apart a few decks, bought the precon and started swapping cards out.

What I ended up with was shockingly powerful. As in... it felt like I was the arch enemy. I introduce to you: Salesnya Staxs. The deck list is fairly simple. And without the fancy over the top land base and fast mana its a fair easy and average deck of hatebears. I built it, took it to the "Competitive EDH Event" and made a lot of people upset. So much so that I won the event after 8 grueling games and walked home with a LOTR bundle and a collectors box for Eldraine. Yes there was a entry fee of about 15€ and deck submission via a document. Basically they knew for 2 weeks what I was playing but no one said a damn thing or contacted me. It was wild.

After the win, as I'm packing my bag and a few spectators wete asking me about the deck etc the LGS owner asked to speak to me. Pulled me aside and told me that I was not welcome in the LGS anymore because I play to upset other players and that's not the culture of EDH?

So tonight I have my first EDH night at a new LGS that's bigger although a little more of a drive for me... but I just wanna play some paper magic with my friends... so I'm excited Bringing [[Ghalta, Primal Hunger]] Vehicles, [[Solphim]] Dragon's Approach, [[Yuriko]] extra turns and [[Ellivere of the Wild Court]].

Am I making a mistake?

Hello all

Ad the tittle suggest a few days ago I went to an lgs that I dint frequent to often as I usually have issues with the owner or playerbase but they're the only place within a drivable distance of me that offers sealed events like limited.

After the rounds I saw a few people trying to start off a pod of edh, and knowing this place the pods are usually higher power so I get a chance to play my 5c Gath one eye landfall deck that's more tuned and to powerful for casual places so I decided to hop in. I didn't know any of the players so I figured it would be fine.

Fast forward to the game as we shuffle up someone asked to read my commander, a little about me I'm a huge apex legends fanboy right now and use the following tokens and alt art for garth, his copy spells and the tokens made by the deck: as seen here. The godzila altar for garth sits above the physical card in the command zone, the others are just alternate art of tokens like zombies , elementals or garth spells so I never figured it would be an issue, however I was wrong.

https://ibb.co/j68XVbp https://ibb.co/VwL4DR0 https://ibb.co/dMNpVP1

As soon as they saw everything 2 individuals starting to whine which lead to a louder voice (not quite yelling but the lgs clearly heard the 2 players dismay) about how I wasn't using offcial Wotc printed cards or tokens and I was no better then using counterfeits in a sanctioned event. The owner came and asked what was up, they explain the situation and simply asked me to swap decks or politely leave the store, which I did as I dislike awkward situations and I was in morbid shock. Currently trying to find another store to do limited events as that particular store I'm never going to go to again after this.

Edit: the pod game wasn't for a league or prizes, it was for fun*

Edit 2: so Garth One eye has a tap ability to make token copy spells that you have to cast like a token black lotus, shivan dragon and others etc.

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED - congratulations to u/carebearninja! Take good care of this deck!

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-----Original Post Below-----

Hey there denizens of r/EDH

This community has been pretty awesome and I wanted to give something back, so I've put together a deck with one of my favorite commanders at the helm, [[Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant]], a creature so terrifying that even the Phyrexians decided "You know what? Perhaps not ALL will be one..."

The list is here and will remain public along with the primer. Even after this giveaway has closed, you can still playtest the deck and read the primer as much as you like.

And here is an album showing the actual, physical cards you will be receiving if you win. Deck box and sleeves will be included.

I can also swap all of the basic mountains to the Phyrexia All Will Be One full art mountains at the winner's request.

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RULES

To be entered, you must have the phrase pickme! somewhere in your comment. Please include the exclamation and no space between "pick" and "me". I know it's very specific but I need a specific string of characters for the picker program to look for. Uppercase/lowercase in the phrase doesn't matter.

Please double and triple check to make sure you've typed it correctly. If you're on your phone, it may autocorrect and add a space.

You may absolutely comment on the deck, discuss as usual or just wish others good luck, but in order to be entered you must have the phrase pickme! somewhere in your comment.

Please do not use the phrase in multiple comments or use the phrase multiple times in a single comment, as duplicates will be filtered out. Saying it once is enough to get you entered! Then you can continue discussions as normal in this thread.

In order to avoid picking bots or people just trying to make fresh accounts to increase their chances, please only comment from accounts that are at least 2 weeks old. Let's not spam the thread because I will not award this deck to a fresh account.

You can enter no matter where you are in the world. I will work with you and do my best to figure out shipping logistics and will cover any shipping expenses myself.

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CHOOSING A WINNER

Exactly 24 hours after this post goes live, I will run the program to select a winner. I will then reply to that commenter, send them a message via Reddit and finally a Reddit chat.

That's 3 different ways of getting in touch. If you do not respond within 24 hours to claim the deck, then I will re-run the program and select a new winner, and attempt the same methods of communication until a winner replies and claims their prize. After which I will update the post and close the giveaway.

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Alright, now onto the primer for this deck! Even if you don't win it, I highly encourage you to give Chiss-Goria a try. This particular build was on a $125 budget and it can go toe-to-toe with considerably more expensive decks. It's fast, it's explosive and it has a pretty big ceiling to upgrade. Let's get into it.

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INTRODUCTION

Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant is one of the oldest and most ferocious dragons from the original plane of Mirrodin. It has not taken kindly to the New Phyrexian invaders and does not discriminate in scorching flesh and metal alike. It has avoided phyresis by simply annihilating any Phyrexian that dares to have the audacity to exist in its general vicinity. While not explicitly an ally to the Mirran resistance, the rebels give it a wide berth as it cuts a fiery swathe through the Phyrexian forces and use its discarded scales and teeth to create nigh-indestructible weapons.

Chiss-Goria's penchant for all things metal is represented by its Affinity for artifacts, which this deck is built to take advantage of.

We're playing lots of cheap artifact mana that serves dual purpose of reducing Chiss's casting cost AND providing the remaining mana needed to get the big dragon into play. Once it's on the field, it can swing immediately thanks to Haste and when it does, it can exile the top 5 cards of our library and we have until the end of turn to cast an artifact from among them. The neat part is that it too gains Affinity for artifacts. If we have enough mana or just enough artifacts on the field, we can cast some absolute bombs for dirt cheap or even for free.

This built-in cost reduction also helps offset commander tax in case our fiery forge tyrant gets removed, so getting it back onto the field to terrorize our opponents becomes a trivial matter.

You'll notice we're running a lower amount of interaction than most decks would, but once you start playing the deck you'll realize very quickly that we do not care what our opponents are doing once we've cheated into play some of the strongest, most devastating artifacts in the game. We don't want to compromise our gameplan with burn spells that may or may not be useful. No, we're looking to get Chiss-Goria into play ASAP and then get those big bomb artifacts into play not long after.

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PROS, CONS & POWER LEVEL

Pros

• This is one of the fastest decks I've ever built and the sheer card advantage that Chiss-Goria generates is insane, since each attack essentially gives us a mini hand of 5 cards to choose from.
• Chiss's ability triggers upon attack. Not dealing damage, not an activation cost, just an attack. With Haste, this is incredibly simple to pull off and get the advantage train rolling.
• Being mono-color and having very few search effects, we won't have to shuffle very much and our turns will be fairly quick.
• Chiss getting removed barely affects us, since Affinity will basically cancel out any commander tax if we have a bunch of artifacts in play.

Cons

• We may become archenemy very quickly, especially if we drop a scary artifact early, such as on turn 5. Don't get salty when targeted for attacks.
• This deck gets severely slowed down by things like Collector Ouphe. It's not completely dead in the water since Chiss doesn't care about those effects and we can still cast artifacts, we just can't activate their abilities. However static abilities still work despite Ouphe.
• This deck runs a low number of creatures and most of them are dorks so we may not have blockers in the early game. After turn 6 or so, we should have enough artifacts that Affinity will be all the cost reduction we need to cast spells with Chiss-Goria's trigger so we can start leaving our mana dorks untapped to block with. And eventually when we find Wurmcoil Engine, it will help us stabilize with Lifelink.

Power Level

• This is a high-power casual deck. Basically on the strong side of non-cEDH decks.
• It starts "doing its thing" by around turn 5 or 6 and can be in a "I will pretty much win" position by turn 8.
• It does not have combos. It is more voltron-focused than general artifacts so once Chiss has been suited up with enough equipment, we can take out a player pretty much every turn.

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THE GAMEPLAN

In your opening hand, you want to look for mana rocks and mana dorks. If you don't have anything to cast by turn 3 at the latest, mulligan that hand. We can't afford to be slow out of the gate.

Ramp as fast as possible. This deck is packed full of mana dorks and mana rocks, all of which are artifacts. These not only make Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant cheaper to cast out of the command zone, but can also provide the mana needed to pay for the rest of its cost.

If you have any protection pieces like Swiftfoot Boots, get those into play before casting the big dragon so you can equip them right away. Keeping Chiss on the field is essential to pushing your advantage with this deck.

Once Chiss-Goria is in play, it can swing immediately thanks to haste. Consider how many artifacts you have in play and how much mana you have available and ask yourself if you can feasibly cast an artifact if you exile one off the top 5 cards. Maybe the first time you cast Chiss-Goria, the answer might be "no" but every time afterwards you should just go for it. This is a red deck built around chaos, it pays to be chaotic.

On the turn you cast Chiss-Goria you'll likely have tapped out to do so, but when you next untap with the Mirran dragon, I would recommend you hold up all available mana in your pre-combat main phase so you can spend it on an absolute bomb artifact from the top 5 cards exiled with Chiss-Goria's attack trigger. I pretty much do this every turn I have Chiss ready to attack. The only exception would be if you have a valuable protection piece in-hand like Hammer of Nazahn or Mask of Avacyn and the mana to hard cast and equip it. Otherwise, save your mana until after Chiss has attacked.

Begin cheating massive, powerful artifacts into play and start oppressing opponents. Strionic Resonator and Lithoform Engine can copy Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant's ability when it attacks so we can get another group of 5 cards exiled and choose another artifact from among them to cast with Affinity.

Focus down the most threatening player first and foremost. Don't be nice! You're going to be archenemy so even the odds as quickly as possible. If Chiss-Goria is suited up with enough equipment, it can threaten a K.O. from Commander Damage easily. Embercleave is particularly terrifying, as it can be attached to Chiss-Goria before it deals damage, making it a 6/5 with double strike so connecting once will deal 12 commander damage to that opponent, meaning another attack will take them out of the game.

I would also highly recommend that you use the Playtest feature on Moxfield to goldfish the deck. It's one thing to read a guide but another entirely to actually go through the motions. You seriously need to feel just how fast it is and how quickly things get out of hand when you swing with Chiss.

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AFFINITY, KICKER & TREASURE RULINGS

This is very important to know for piloting this deck effectively:

When casting a spell with Affinity for Artifacts, you count the number of artifacts you control (including treasures), do the math and then declare the cost of the spell on the stack.

At this point, you can now sacrifice treasures, tap rocks, dorks and lands to generate mana and use it to pay the DISCOUNTED cost that you declared beforehand. In other words, you get to have your cake and eat it too. The mana cost is determined before the treasures need to be sacrificed, but once it is determined, you can can pay however you like and the cost of the spell will not change (even as you sac your treasures).

Remember this when you have treasures and want to cast Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant or any artifacts exiled by its ability.

Along these lines, Kicker costs such as the one in Skyclave Relic can be added onto the original spell cost BEFORE taking Affinity into account, so if we want to cast Skyclave Relic with Affinity from Chiss-Goria's ability, we can take into account any 6 artifacts on our field and cast the Skyclave Relic for free AND with its Kicker cost fully paid!

Let's run through a quick example to make sure you're understanding the sequence of cost determination and payment:

• You have Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant, Foundry Inspector, Mind Stone and Sol Ring in play untapped. All of your other mana sources are tapped/unavailable.
• An opponent has Thalia, Guardian of Thraben in play.
• You attack with Chiss-Goria and exile your top 5 cards. One of them is Skyclave Relic.

Question:

• Can you cast Skyclave Relic kicked? If so, how much mana do you spend?

Answer:

Yes you can. Skyclave Relic would normally cost 6 to cast kicked, but it has Affinity. We have 3 artifacts in play, another 1 discount from Foundry Inspector but another 1 tax from Thalia, so 6 - 3 - 1 + 1 = 3 (this is the final cost locked in). We can tap Sol Ring and Mind Stone to pay for it.

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PACKAGES

Ramp & Cost Reduction (31)

• Hedron Crawler, Iron Myr, Manakin, Ornithopter of Paradise, Plague Myr, Alloy Myr, Palladium Myr, Everflowing Chalice, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Fire Diamond, Liquimetal Torque, Mind Stone, Prismatic Lens, Skyclave Relic, Fractured Powerstone and Worn Powerstone all produce mana on their own. Some of these, such as Thought Vessel and Fractured Powerstone have pointless secondary effects which we don't care about. We're running them because they are the most efficient, low-cost mana rocks on a budget.
• Caged Sun increases the red mana produced by our lands.
• Burnished Hart and Solemn Simulacrum get lands out of our deck and onto the field.
• Foundry Inspector, Jhoira's Familiar, Cloud Key and Semblance Anvil all reduce the cost of our spells. It should be noted that the ideal card to exile with Semblance Anvil would be an Artifact Creature; this way both our creature cards AND artifact cards benefit from the cost reduction.
• Strike it Rich, Seize the Spoils, Big Score, Unexpected Windfall and Prized Statue all create Treasure tokens which reduce the cost of Chiss-Goria and can be sacrificed for mana.
• Cityscape Leveler can be used to destroy one of our own permanents if we're desperate for some Powerstone mana.

While the above cards explicitly function as ramp, it should be noted that any artifact sitting on our field technically counts as ramp in this deck due to Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant having Affinity, therefore all of our artifacts do indeed reduce its casting cost even if they don't actually make mana on their own.

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Removal & Interaction (9)

• Duplicant can exile a creature when it ETBs.
• Meteor Golem can destroy any permanent when it ETBs.
• Steel Hellkite can destroy certain permanents depending on how much mana we sink into its ability.
• Cityscape Leveler can destroy a permanent when we cast it and whenever it attacks.
• Chaos Warp can get rid of any permanent.
• Abrade and Galvanic Blast can deal damage to creatures.
• Bolt Bend can redirect a spell on the stack.
• Soul of New Phyrexia has an ability that can grant our board indestructible at instant-speed.

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Card Draw & Card Advantage (7)

• Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant is our main source of card advantage since it can essentially let us cast an artifact from among the top 5 cards of our deck for cheap or even free. We'll be triggering this a lot while playing this deck.
• Solemn Simulacrum can draw us a card when it dies.
• Endless Atlas can draw us a card if we have at least 3 Mountains.
• Mind Stone can be sacrificed to draw a card.
• Mystic Forge lets us cast artifacts from the top of our library which functionally serves as card advantage. We can also use this at instant speed to get rid of the top card if we don't want to draw it or don't want it in our pile of 5 when we attack with Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant.
• Breya's Apprentice lets us sac an artifact on our field to exile the top card of our library and cast it if we want to, functionally serving as card advantage. This is also a useful way to get artifacts into the graveyard such as Prized Statue or Hangarback Walker and reap their respective benefits.
• Daretti, Scrap Savant can draw us cards but also makes us discard the same amount so it's not card advantage but it does help us dig through our deck if we have too many dead cards in hand.

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Recursion (5)

• Daretti, Scrap Savant, Goblin Engineer and Trash for Treasure let us exchange artifacts on the field to return artifacts from our graveyard.
• Myr Retriever and Scrap Trawler can retrieve artifacts when they die.

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Equipment

Wanted to quickly go over the equipment in this deck since we're leaning slightly into a voltron-esque build.

• Hammer of Nazahn is arguably our best equipment and the only truly expensive card in the deck. I set aside almost a quarter of the deck's budget because it really is that good. It attaches itself to Chiss-Goria immediately upon entering the field and then can immediately equip any other equipment when it enters as well. An indestructible Chiss is a happy Chiss.
• Mask of Avacyn, just a quick and easy way to grant Chiss-Goria Hexproof so it can no longer be targeted by opponents' cards.
• Swiftfoot Boots, a backup Mask of Avacyn for all intents and purposes. If we already have the mask on Chiss, we can put the Boots on another creature, no big deal.
• Nettlecyst is incredible in this deck since it provides +1/+1 for each artifact we control, and I don't know if you've noticed but we have quite a few of those. This can easily boost Chiss to over 10 power, meaning two attacks are enough to take a player out of the game with commander damage (or just one attack with double strike).
• Hexplate Wallbreaker allows the wielder to force another combat phase, which is insanely good for Chiss-Goria since it exiles 5 cards upon attacking, meaning a second combat lets us get another group of 5 to choose from, similar to why we're running Strionic Resonator and Lithoform Engine.
• Embercleave is amazing in this deck. If we exile it with Chiss's trigger, we can cast it with Flash and attach it to Chiss before it even deals damage. It'll become a 6/5 with double strike so it deals 12 damage to the opponent, meaning a second attack will take them out of the game.
• Lizard Blades is normally a creature but can reconfigure and attach itself to Chiss and grant it Double Strike.

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UPGRADE PATH

If you'd like to see my take on a powered up list, I have it here. It's my current Chiss build and I'm loving it. It's a good list to aim for if you decide to build the budget version here and upgrade over time.

The nice thing about Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant is that it is incredibly customizable. The only truly essential cards I would say are the cheap, early-game mana dorks and mana rocks (things like Iron Myr, Mind Stone, etc.). You need a critical mass of those so you have something to do in the early game while reducing Chiss's formidable 9-mana cost down to reasonable amount.

Keep those cards in the deck and you'll consistently get Chiss on board around turn 4 or 5 at the latest.

The rest of the "big, fun artifacts" package is entirely up to you. As you upgrade over time and your budget expands, test and see what you like before buying. Darksteel Forge, Mycosynth Lattice, Portal to Phyrexia and Blightsteel Colossus are all fun options. If your budget really expands or if you don't mind proxies, then things like Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, Mox Opal, etc. will really speed this deck up.

I would also highly recommend replacing Mask of Avacyn at some point with any one of Lightning Greaves, Champion's Helm or Commander's Plate. While they are not necessarily better protection equipment, they are cheaper to equip which does make a difference.

You could even lean more heavily into Voltron if you'd like and include some of the dual swords like Sword of Feast and Famine. Just be careful if you choose to include swords that provide protection from red (such as Sword of War and Peace) because these will force your red equipment like Embercleave to fall off.

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WRAPPING UP

If you made it this far, I appreciate you taking the time to read. Good luck to everyone who enters! And just a heads up, I'll be teaming up with Commander Spellbook to do another giveaway in the coming weeks. Looking forward to it!

And as always if you enjoyed this primer and would like to check out more, I have a few others on my Moxfield page.

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EDIT: Good lord I did not expect this much traffic. I've been doing my best to monitor each reply and remind anyone who didn't type the entry phrase correctly, but 2.5k comments in and I'm only human so I may miss some. If you're reading this, please double check your comment to make sure you've typed it correctly. I'll be running the randomizer and picking a winner at exactly 5:20PM Eastern Standard Time. Best of luck to you all!

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EDIT 2: Alright, I've run the randomizer several times on a sample post to make sure it's working properly and it looks like it is. Exactly 4 hours from this edit, I will run it to choose a winner! Last call to make sure you've typed the phrase correctly!

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EDIT 3:

I've spent the last ~2 hours reading as many comments as I can. I see your stories.

I see those of you who are new to Magic and are excited to play this game and discover commanders and strategies that resonate with you.

I see those of you who would gift this deck to a friend, sibling, partner or student if you were to win.

I see those of you who are returning to the game after a hiatus and are looking forward to trying new cards and seeing what's possible now.

I see those of you who chose not to enter the giveaway but still left a kind comment to encourage everyone else.

It's people like you who make this game amazing. Sure, the cards and the lore are one thing, but Magic would be nothing without its players. Magic would be nothing without all of you.

The hardest part of doing this is knowing only one person will be selected out of roughly 6,000. If I could put together a copy of this deck and give it each and every one of you, I would.

If you don't win, please don't be discouraged. I hope you continue to explore Magic, I hope you continue to brew decks, I hope you continue to meet up with friends to play some games or attend events at your LGS because you deserve to have fun with this game and I hope you come to love it as much as I do.

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GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED - I announced the winner at the very top of this post.

Hi all.

I have been moving around for work and basically unable to play since 2020 between COVID and life. I have moderately kept up with the state of the game, but had no play group or time to figure out webcam/travel to play.

I have finally found myself in a city with an LGS. Just one, but an LGS!!! I was excited.

I went to their "commander night" hoping that by signing up and being put with a pod I would avoid some of the awkwardness of walking into a new LGS blind and trying to find games.

When I got there they announced that the winner at each table would get 2 LoTR packs. Entry fee was $5. I'm sure this is why I "got in trouble", because people wanted to win and had expectations of what was normal/allowed. I'm not necessarily mad at the people there...

At the door I was told they "rate decks to make sure they aren't cEDH". I was like "sure no problem" and gave them my mono red Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion deck. I like mono colored decks and figured playing a straight forward combat deck would be a safe way to not burden the table too much with remembering rules, etc. -- again I haven't actually sat down and shuffled cards for a few years. Anyway, the owner or organizer(not 100% sure) looked at my deck for maybe 10 seconds and said "it's mono red, you're good".

Fast forward 20 minutes -- I'm assigned a pod, paid my fee, etc. and I got a magical Christmas land opener. Turn 1 sol ring/Containment Construct, turn 2 Generator Servant+Lizard Blades, turn 3 commander(haste from Generator)->combat-> used mana to equip Lizard Blades, drew into Seize the Day and killed someone from 3x overall combats. The game ended before I even played through my commander activation to know if I would have been able to continue or if I would fizzle.

The person I killed actually screamed. They said "He's playing F**** CEDH!". They pointed to a rules sign which stated "do not kill anyone before turn 5". I did not know that rule and it was one piece of paper in a big room.

The organizer/owner came over and basically told me I could finish my game but would not get the packs and "needed to rethink why I am playing the game".

Is this within the realm of normal? Did I break contemporary social expectations of EDH by having a good opener with an aggressive deck and killing someone turn 3 with no one putting up any interaction whatsoever? My pod just quit playing after I killed that person, but frankly I suspect they could have stopped me from winning with moderate interaction on the following turn(s). I had no protection. If they removed my commander I probably lost. I feel like this is normal mono red stuff. For the nearly decade I played the format across a few cities I do not remember this kind of attitude towards the game. I really do not mind changing my expectations of the format but I am pretty baffled.

Just looking for a reality check. Was I a jerk? What kind of decks do "do not kill before turn 5" players expect?

I guess I need to try webcam EDH...

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Is there a commander or strategy that you ALWAYS feel obliged to focus down, even when they clearly aren't the biggest threat at the table?

I had a recent game where a guy sat down at our pod and pulled out a [[Braids, Arisen Nightmare]] deck. Now, there's nothing particularly wrong with Braids, but this guy was known for building low-budget CEDH decks. It was pretty obvious this wasn't some chill sacrifice-themed deck -- Braids was here to be used as a generic goodstuff card draw engine, while the player dug for stax pieces and infinite combos.

For reference, the other players are me, some other dude, and a middle school kid who's running [[Etali, Primal Storm]].

On turn 2, my suspicions are confirmed when the Braids player [[Dark Ritual]]s out a [[Painful Quandary]] and starts the pain train rolling. One of us draws a removal spell for it, but next turn he casts his commander, sacs an artifact and draws three cards.

(The middle school kid plays a [[sol ring]] into a [[skyshroud claim]] into [[Etali]], summons an Eldrazi titan or something, I'm not really paying attention.)

The Braids player plays a land, sacs it for more card draw, and passes with mana open. I'm watching him like a hawk. I'm not sure what three-mana combos there are in mono-black, but I've got to be ready to stop them. I pass with removal up.

(The middle schooler blinks Etali a couple times, summons a [[Cityscape Leveler]] and a [[Wurmcoil Engine]], whatevs, I don't really care, I've got to be ready for whatever the Braids player is about to do.)

Braids player sacs another land, looks at his hand, and scoops. Next turn the middle schooler swings and kills us with like 200 damage.

Long story short: I correctly identify the Braids player as the #1 threat at the table, and successfully prevent him from winning. /s

Anything like this ever happen to you?

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Just left lgs, pretty annoyed. Joined a pod of 4. One player said "my decks are both precons out of the box". I said okay, played [[tahngarth]]. Another played [[multani]], last played [[najeela]]. I made a joke that najeela would go infinite. The player said "okay I won't go infinite then". 6 turns in he wins with thassas oracle. Okay cool. Def the table for that I guess. I just said "that seems more like a deck for the cedh tournament last week" they said "yea it's what I used" and then did the bull shit "thanks for letting me use it"

Next game, the multnai player pulls out [[daretti scrap savant]]. Okay, maybe a more chill game. I stick with tahngarth, precon player uses a 40k deck, cedh player uses the eldrazi precon that is upgraded with Mox's. Daretti player then uses [[metalworker]] and turn 5 gets [[darksteel forge]] with [[nevinyrral's disk]] and [[mycosynth lattice]] so the game is over

They then both ask about game 3. I've got a changeling deck, [[council of four]], [[gonti]], and the tahngarth deck

Both games were less than 20 minutes each. I just said "nope, I think I'm done. I didn't bring anything like that, I thought this was casual night" and left

Mostly just annoyed. The other player was very clearly rocking a precon, I tried to match it, and then he and I were just there to watch the other two win. Overall the most lame experience I've had at that lgs so far, pretty dissappinted

Edit: the najeela player only had the tuned eldrazi deck and najeela. The daretti player said that the daretti deck was their weakest deck and blew up all of our lands turn 4. What do I ask them to change their decks to if that's the weakest they brought? After game 2 I realized I didn't not bring decks strong enough to play with so I left

Edit 2: why is leaving a situation I don't want to be in considered rude or bad? I don't want to have to explain social etiquette to every single person I interact with. I just want to play some games. I didn't enjoy the games I was playing. Instead of asking everyone to change how they were playing for my benefit I chose to leave. Am I not allowed to leave? I played 2 games, I feel like if you are not enjoying yourself after 2 games you have given people plenty of chances and can leave if you want. So I did

Edit 3: it's wild seeing the diversity in responses. From a lot of the comments I was supposed A) keep playing and use a better deck (that I didn't uave on me) B) leave after the first game C) give them another chance D) just build better decks E) lecture the players on using inappropriate decks F) always have a cedh deck on hand

I do appreciate those that are also fine with just walking away from a situation if you don't want to be a part of it. Idk why so many people are against just leaving

My friend and I were playing some casual Commander last night, and we agreed with the other people at the table that we all wanted to play a mid-high power game with the exception of no infinites only because we all prefer lengthier games. If a combo is stumbled into in the middle of a game, our feelings don’t get hurt, but everyone at the table was in agreement that we won’t play them if possible.

One of the guys immediately had a problem with two of the commanders at the table and asked us to play different decks. We were understanding and pulled out different decks - no issues. He also reiterated that he hates playing against infinite combo decks - again, we already agreed to no infinites, so no problem.

Fast forward to a few turns into the game, and the guy who whined about our Commanders and was adamant that he “didn’t like to play against infinite combos at all” wins through generating infinite mana and dumping it into Walking Ballista for game.

My friend and I weren’t salty at all, but we thought it was hilarious how the guy basically just wanted everyone to play weak decks so he could stomp the table. Why are people like this? What do you get out of forcing others to play weaker decks so you can pubstomp? This is honestly the type of behavior that is driving me toward wanting to play cEDH because at least nobody is there to pubstomp and complain about interaction.

My friend invited me to join his playgroup one night at an LGS. There were only 4 or so tables/groups going and there were a small handful of players not already in a game.

We took two of them at our table for a 6 person game, but the addition of these two makes it a very funny memory for me.

One player was maybe in his late 20s, and I'll refer to him as Richard. The other player was probably only 13 or so. His parents were added into the other existing groups. I'll refer to him as Kiddo.

So the game starts. I don't remember what we were all playing, but it's not the funny part. On my turn 2 or 3, I declare an attack on Richard, which he responds with some form of removal, and then Kiddo decides to [[counterspell]] his removal spell.

Richard starts to explain to the kid, "Hey, you probably don't wanna do that, because this doesn't affect you in any way."

The kid pauses for a second, and then says something along the lines of, "Nope, I've said it, so I'm going to stick with it."

Richard gas a minor meltdown, and just immediately scoops and says he's not going to sit and play with a group who makes decisions like that.

After he leaves, we were all just sitting in silence for a minute where one of the guys in my friend's groups says, "Man, 2 mana to remove a player from the game. That card is broken."

We all had a good laugh, and so concludes one of the funniest moments I've had in EDH.

Last night, I was at a table where three of us were playing casual decks (no fast mana other than Sol Ring, no infinites, no heavy stax, etc.), and one guy was even playing an extreme jank deck that I didn’t understand (think chair tribal level). The last guy, AKA the jerk in this story, heard my friend make a comment on his commander because he thought it was cool. The guy very abrasively said “don’t look at my commander, just play what you were going to play”… my friend and I looked at each other and just kinda shrugged it off. Weirdly aggressive, but maybe we just misinterpreted him so we let it go.

Game 1: The guy opened Sol Ring + Arcane Signet and absolutely stomped the table by dropping an early [[Avenger of Zendikar]] and winning by turn 6. Everyone’s deck can go off and win fast sometimes, so we thought nothing of it. He made a brief remark about us not playing interaction against him, but again, my friend and I didn’t comment because we play plenty of interaction but just didn’t know how quickly his deck was capable of winning. All good so far.

Game 2: The same guy had an absolutely nuts hand, dropping an early Ancient Tomb, Sol Ring, and Mana Crypt all within the first few turns. My friend boardwiped while I had tokens from [[Reef Worm]] on the battlefield, and the guy tried to gaslight us into thinking I wouldn’t get the next stage of tokens because of “the way the stack works” with the boardwipe. We swiftly and confidently corrected him after some disagreement and then moved forward. The guy drops another early Avenger of Zendikar and makes an insane amount of tokens through token doublers he has out, so on my turn, I immediately casted [[Cyclonic Rift]] as I had enough mana to hold up for a counter spell as well, and I could send a ton of damage at him if I cleared the board.

This was where the A-hole behavior kicked in; the guy immediately said “you misplayed! You should have played in the previous player’s end step!” despite me not having the available mana at that time. I think he was just upset that I sent him down to 8 health. On his turn, he dropped Avenger of Zendikar again, and I countered it. He went into a mini salt fit in response, and I ended up winning on my following turn with combat damage.

At the end of the game, he said something like “you misplayed but still won, it happens I guess”. I was surprised to see someone so salty, so I thanked him for the “coaching” and when he left the table, I said “see you later, Coach!”. Definitely a petty comment on my part, but I was shocked that someone could be such a jerk!

So my son and I went out to play some casual tonight at a new shop as we were on a bit of a road trip. This shop has three tiers for EDH FNM; Casual, Mid, and Competitive. He chooses to play in mid because, well, he's playing [[Kaalia of the Vast]] and I go casual as I've just thrown together a garbage deck like I like to most weeks. He gets seated with three people and introduces himself to the table and one guy just says, "AJR sucks." My son is twelve and absolutely obsessed with AJR and he's wearing one of their concert tees. The guy continues "They're just way too poppy." My kid ignores this but it's definitely drawn my attention more than the pile of cards I haphazardly tossed under Mishra, Artificer Prodigy.

The table shuffles up and the asshole leans in to the person sitting to his left and says, "They shouldn't pair adults with kids. They should get their own table." My son is twelve and genuinely the most well-mannered kid ever plus he's a little timid so he remains quiet. They roll up and asshole goes first he's playing [[Koma, Cosmos Serpent]] like most assholes do. Turn one, Forest, Sol Ring, pass. My kid, I'm just going to transition to calling him D. D puts out his triome and passes. The other two players have effective early turns. A [[Bruvac]] player and an [[Omnath, Locus of Rage]] landfall deck. Turn 2, more of the same for everyone except for asshole who apparently kept a 1 lander. He begrudgingly passes. D drops either a Talisman or a signet, couldn't say which. Turn 3, Omnath hits the board and Bruvac mills away D's [[Avacyn, Angel of Hope]] much to his dismay. He drops another rock instead of opting to play Kaalia. The asshole hasn't drawn another land and is getting visibly angry. D [[Vampiric Tutor]]s for his greaves on someone else's turn.

Turn 4, mill is building up way too well, Omnom is pooping out kids nonstop, Asshole has still not drawn his land as he declares that, "This is stupid. I run 41 lands in this deck." D gets to his turn during which he got his greaves. He drops the greaves... No responses. He plays the Kaalia... No responses. He equips the Kaalia. Do... Do these people not know what Kaalia does? Attack phase it is, I guess. D has one more trick up his sleeve though and that comes in the form of a [[Master of Cruelties]], the only reason he had kept an otherwise alarmingly creature-light hand. D has three choices here, all of whom are effectively wide open to him. The world is his oyster. I mean obviously he could go for the person who cost him his beloved Avacyn. Hell, maybe the person direct damaging him with Omnath and amassing an army is the play? Certainly not the guy sitting on one paltry forest and a rock that he apparently can't use despite it being arguably the best in the format.

Well, this story wouldn't be worth telling if he had elected to dick punch Bruvac. He decided payback was the play and he was in to win. He attacked the asshole and dropped his Master of Cruelties in perhaps the most passive manner imaginable. Asshole had made it apparent early on that he had brought his best deck and he intended to win prize packs. He definitely didn't want to get paired down to the loser table. He starts by saying, "You could take out one of the people who have actually attacked you and are actually a threat." This quickly transitioned to, "I haven't even gotten to start playing my deck yet. You should pick one of them instead." To, "Please. Can I see if my next card is a land and if so can you choose someone else? I'll target you last." to, "This is stupid. You don't even know how to play the game. You're going to lose because of this play."

D, the whole time, was just saying, "I already declared my attacks." After the guy finally said, "Fine, whatever!" and started packing up, D told him, "It says in the Magic rulebook to be respectful to other players and I like playing by the rules."

I don't know if it was just the humanity of it or the fact that he just got intellectually devastated by a kid who was probably 1/2 his age if that but you could see this guy go through the seven stages of grief right before your eyes over this little exchange and he immediately started haphazardly packing up and mumbling to himself as he told the TO that he had to leave early. He would not even make eye contact with my son after that and while the Bruvac player pulled the game off, I think that D was the real winner... Just not of the packs because, well, you know.

So I was in an edh pod at my LGS last friday, and I (player 1) was the main threat for most of the game. As a result, Skullbriar (player 3) was sending his commander after me repeatedly. I was one attack away from losing to Skullbriar commander damage, and I ended my turn with not enough toughness to block trample lethal, but I did have exactly 2 mana up for a top-decked Terminate as my only defense against Skullbriar.

I pass the turn to player 2, and after untapping, he attempts to win the game with Zealous Conscripts + Splinter Twin. Player 3 has no response, player 4 has no response. I look at my 2 mana + Terminate, and show the card to the table. I tell player 3 I was saving it for his Skullbriar, but if he promises not to attack me with Skullbriar on this turn cycle, I will use it to kill the Conscripts instead. He responds that he never makes any agreements or deals in edh, and he will simply do whatever he thinks is right on his turn. Fair enough, I don't push him further on that topic since he did give the warning about him not making deals at the beginning of the game.

So I say "no response, splinter twin resolves". All three opponents, including the splinter twin guy, begin questioning why I wouldn't use my Terminate. I respond that I don't think it matters to me, since I'm going to lose either way. Player 3 has attacked me with Skullbriar for the last 3 turns, and I see no reason why he wouldn't do it again, especially since I'll be completely tapped out. Player 3 says if I'm going to lose anyways and I don't think it matters, I should at least not play in a way that ruins the game for 2 other people. I respond that "ruining the game" is a bit of stretch, and that I don't think I actually have any such obligation in this scenario here.

Player 4 argues that player 3 might not attack me if I save him, so I ask player 3 again if he's willing to commit to not attacking me with Skullbriar for one turn if I Terminate the Conscripts. He reaffirms his position about not making deals or discussing what he will/won't do on his turn. I reaffirm my decision to not intervene then, since I am dead either way.

Even Player 2 now jumps in and says I'm playing suboptimally, that I should prevent the guaranteed loss right in front of me and then worry about Skullbriar later, to which I point out there is no "later" because I am completely tapped out and will die to Skullbriar as soon as Player 2 passes to Player 3. I stand my ground about not Terminating the Conscripts. The game ends, and it seems like they're all pretty upset at me, because our pod disbands and everyone goes to try to find new pods.

I've been thinking about it over the weekend, and I still don't think I made such a poor or rude play that it warranted such a strong response. That said, I do recognize that 3 people, including the player that benefitted from my inaction the most, were all upset at me, so I can't help but wonder if I'm in the wrong here. How do you guys feel about this?

(I am a longtime collector but new to the competitive scene)

In a recent local tournament, the second I've ever attended, my opponent suddenly took my card out of the sleeve and flicked it a few times because he wanted to see if it was real. I was quite unhappy with this, as he had removed a foiled Jeweled Lotus from the sleeve and flicked it repeatedly.

He did say he was satisfied it was real, but he also said it's normal to just quickly check cards this way. Is this in fact a routine thing, and am I being picky, or is it actually a breach of etiquette?

Just heard a cedh podcast discussion about how [[seedborn muse]] wasn't fun to play against, specifically because the controlling player does the same thing every turn, at least in every [[thrasios]] deck. They said they thought it made the game not fun for everyone else, but it feels good to use.

There's an opportunity here. An opportunity for whiners to wake up.

Not counting grouphug, I don't think there are any strategies that are outight enjoyable to fall behind against. Edit 2: Alright fine we can count grouphug, sheesh.

If you enjoy/aren't bothered by losing, don't care about winning, or are a patient, even-tempered person, good for you, this PSA doesn't apply to you.

I think people should recognize that anything they enjoy doing in magic, whether that's hard control, infect, infinite combos, stax, fast aggro, grindy midrange, or using excessive mana to play on everyone's turns, doesn't feel good to be on the receiving end of (EDIT: for someone else out there).

If you want to play powerful strategies, it would be nicer for everyone around you --and your own emotional health-- if you realized that this game isn't fair, losing doesn't have to be a traumatic event, and the only time everyponybody wins without [[twilight sparkle]], is when joy can be obtained through the game rather than the result.

Play what you want and lose with grace ya nerds.

I don't know the guy, and neither does anyone in the group he was playing with. But he had a massive RAGEQUIT moment, yelled "YOU F*&^" really loud, and threw his deck where most of the cards landed near my right foot.

And he's stormed out and isn't in the McDonald's downstairs. We've checked.

I've picked up all the cards. Everyone thinks I should wait for him to come back, but I really gotta go. And the store owner isn't willing to accept responsibility for them.

I'm just...gonna leave a note for him to call me. This is a first. I wish I hadn't shown the initiative in collecting them.

There's a Misty Rainforest and a Mox Opal!

UPDATE:

Yes, he came back finally (about a week ago). He said he'd "left his deck behind" and I didn't bother to question it. Good thing I didn't take out any cards or anything.

recently me and my my brother have been going to the only LGS around me that has commander night's that has about 4-7 players, but i really don't know if i should continue going after my last visit. two of the regular players only play very oppressive decks every week way more powerful then anyone else's (going infinite turn 3/4 with stax pieces etc or walking ballista infinite's), which i did not mind as we could always start a new game or after they had gone infinite and won or the table would keep playing for second place. but knowing what kind of strength decks they have been bringing to the table, so i put a farewell and austere command into my grouphug Eriette of the charmed apple deck. and in one of the game's on turn 4 one of the players had a massive board state and was about to combo off i played farewell to clear artifacts and creatures. which resulted in both of the regular's playing and one of the LGS staff claiming i was "ruining the game for other people and making games way longer" by using board wipes and i should "remove them if i wanted people to play with me here", to which i replied "was i just here to lose to both of them every week in 10 minutes and not try to actively win game's." and that there decks were so past the median power of everyone else's that in itself ruins the game for other players, and to expect people to play cards to try and win. i don't see the problem with wanting to play a strong deck if people agree to play with you but getting salty people wont let you do whatever you want in the game with no response baffle's me and the staff also agreeing with them sour's me to the whole store but my brother think's i should acquiesce and take out the removal just so we have a place to play.

Went to go play my first 60 constructed(pioneer) yesterday. The environment didn’t feel very welcoming, I had people breathing down my back complaining about every play I made. Got Thoughtseized every what felt like second turn. Feeling discouraged I went home and made some modifications on arena and posted on my local group if anyone had surge of salvation for sale to counter the rakdos bs.

One of the guys from the event tagged his buddy on my post with a winky face gif.

I don’t know, I felt fine going home not winning much, that’s just part of learning. That post just made me feel like a joke. The pioneer group in my area is only like 5 people, commander is full every Sunday, I can kind of see why.

I won a game today and the other players got made because they didn't win the game. They felt that it was toxic and not in the spirit of the format for someone besides them to win and said that I should reconsider ever doing this to them again. I think I was in the right. I played the right cards when I was supposed to and that resulted in my win. Should I just have done nothing instead and let someone else win because that would be the less toxic option?

I have tried talking to them about it but they insisted that it was far, far more effective if I posted to reddit instead and got the opinion of strangers online who clearly know our pod dynamic more than anyone else. So please tell me, am I the asshole for winning?

I've run into this scenario quite a lot recently. I plan to cast a destroy or exile spell on a key permanent of theirs and they threaten to concede. In the past I've been trying to keep everyone happy and usually just change targets but it's getting ridiculous. I don't exactly want to make any enemies but conceding because something of yours was interacted with is childish.

Not sure what to do that won't make enemies. These people aren't terrible people they just get a little emotional about their boardstate.

Last night other players at my table were hating me cause they ain't me and I'm an absolute baller with my blinged out deck and my sick turn 1 play of land, mana crypt, mana vault, lion's eye diamond, Worldfire, pass.

When have the haters at your LGS got you down?

Last week I played a few games with randoms at my LGS. Overall the games were really fun and the people I was playing with were cool dudes. There was one game that made me wonder if I was being a jerk, just curious on others' opinions.

On game one, we pull out our commanders and one of my opponents is playing [[The Beamtown Bullies]] . I also own a version of this deck (I only pull it out with friends on special occasions because it is so oppressive and mean that it can reliably kill at least one opponent on turn 4).

I ask my opponent if it is *that* Beamtown deck (I asked if it included [[Leveler]] , [[Eater of Days]] , etc.) and they were honest and said yes. I said cool, that deck is super strong. The rest of the table agreed to play a "high powered casual" game where we all had a bit of fast mana pieces, cheap interaction, and some tutors. I was playing my [[Obeka, Brute Chronologist]] deck.

Turns 1 and 2 go normally, people dropping lands and a couple mana rocks. Turn 3, the Beamtown player drops a swamp, plays [[Entomb]] , and throws a [[Leveler]] into the graveyard. I take a moment to explain to the other 2 players what is about to happen if we don't do something about it. I explain that the Beamtown player, if left un-hindered, will cast their commander, activate the ability that same turn (Beamtown Bullies has haste), and exile one of our libraries entirely next turn. They seemed a bit shocked about how quickly it could happen.

Anyways, next turn...Beamtown player attempts to cast their commander, player to my left hits it with a good ol' fashioned [[Counterspell]]. Good move, we are safe for another round. We continue along, and the turn after that they attempt to cast Beamtown Bullies again, and this time I hit it with a [[Mana Drain]].

At this point I could tell the Beamtown player was a little bit sad (understandably). They had the wind taken out of their sails twice in a row. I will say for the rest of the game they were pleasant and didn't show any overt levels of salt.

I always feel bad when someone essentially gets shut out of doing anything in a game. It sucks to sit there while the other 3 people get to "do the thing" and you sit there and look at your mana rocks and lands that are doing nothing. So on one hand I feel bad that we shut the Beamtown player down (mostly my fault I would say because I explained to the table what their line of play probably would have been). On the other hand I still feel right about my decision to do so because seriously that deck can just snipe people out of thin air and delete them from the game.

TLDR: Is there such thing as a deck where the commander is so oppressive and mean that countering them every single time they get cast is the right decision? Is it OK to prevent an opponent from casting essentially everything, if them resolving a spell would spell instant death for another player?

Hi everyone! Long time lurker and Magic player, and I have had the good fortune this year of being able to make 8 new decks to play. I found that one of them, while fun and very synergistic, just isn't quite for me, so I thought I'd do a giveaway!

The deck is a [[Kadena, Slinging Sorceror]] list that relies heavily on morph creatures that are pretty good at handling a lot of situations. Some relevant cards that are in it include [[Leyline of Sanctity]], [[Vedalken Orrery]], [[Ugin, the Ineffable]], as well as the [[Vesuvan Shapeshifter]] and [[Brine Elemental]] lock as the primary win condition.

Power level wise, I'd say it's a 6 or 7, somewhere above a precon with good synergy and decent enough mana. I was hoping for the deck to find a home with someone who only has a deck or two, has a pod slightly above the casual level, or someone who can't afford to build many decks and would like a new one! Or maybe even someone who has been looking to make Kadena, who knows.

Anyways, if you just comment below, at around 8pm eastern tomorrow I'll randomly select the winner through a random number generator that will select a number, and I will use the number to decide the winner by sorting by new and counting up from the oldest comment.

Relevant links:

The decklist

The deck itself

It will also come with a 100 card deckbox, it will come double sleeved in purple matte Dragon Shields and Dragon Shield perfect fits, and comes with all the relevant tokens, including Morphs and Manifests. I'll pm the winner and I'll cover shipping and the like. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!!

Edit: Thanks so much everyone for the outpouring of love and appreciation and holiday wishes! The winner is u/kotsevarg but it's been awesome seeing all the comments and little stories from everyone! Thanks for participating! Happy New Year!

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED - Congrats to our lucky winners u/Bermersher and u/stressedinsocal

Thank you to everyone who participated. I'll be doing more of these in the coming months!

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----Original Post Below----

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Link to Ezuri giveaway decklist here.

Hey there EDH players! Some of you may remember the Chiss-Goria giveaway from a few months ago. Due to how well that went, the good folks over at Commander Spellbook offered to do another giveaway with me, this time with the [[Ezuri, Claw of Progress]] deck linked above, except they have very kindly put together not one, but TWO of them.

That's right! We'll be giving away both of these beautiful decks seen here, compleat with Dragon Shield sleeves, Ezuri's very own deck box and two different printings of the big man himself so the winners can play with whichever art they prefer!

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RULES FOR ENTRY

We are unfortunately limiting this giveaway to United States and Canada residents only, due to the complicated logistics of shipping outside of North America.

To be entered, all you have to do is comment on this thread, but you must have the following phrase somewhere in your comment:

pickme!

Please include the exclamation and no space between "pick" and "me". I know it's very specific but I need a specific string of characters for the picker program to look for. Uppercase/lowercase in the phrase doesn't matter.

Please double and triple check to make sure you've typed it correctly! If you're on your phone, it may autocorrect and add a space, so be sure to fix that and make it all one string of characters.

You may absolutely comment on the deck, discuss as usual or just wish others good luck, but in order to be entered you must have the phrase pickme! somewhere in your comment.

Saying it once is enough to get you entered! Duplicates will be filtered out so everyone has an equal shot of winning.

In order to avoid picking bots or people just trying to make fresh accounts to increase their chances, please only comment from accounts that are at least 2 weeks old. Let's not spam the thread because I will not award this deck to fresh accounts.

CHOOSING THE WINNERS

Exactly 24 hours after this post goes live, I will run the program to select two winners. I will then reply to those commenters, send them a message via Reddit and finally a Reddit chat.

That's 3 different ways of getting in touch. If any of them do not respond within 24 hours, I will have to rerun the program and select a replacement winner.

Once confirmed, I'll hand things over to u/CommanderSpellbook to coordinate shipping and logistics. I'll also edit this post and announce the winners at the very top.

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ABOUT COMMANDER SPELLBOOK

For those of you unfamiliar with Commander Spellbook, it is the combo database that EDHREC pulls its combos from. Here is an example using Ezuri's very own combo page to show what I'm talking about. Commander Spellbook not only shows popular combos for any given commander, but their Find My Combo Page is a very useful tool in which you can input any number of cards or an entire decklist and see which combos are available to you.

Furthermore, if you're one or two cards away from having a combo, it will point out those missing cards for your consideration!

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Now, let's get into the deck!

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INTRODUCTION

Ezuri, once the hope of the Elf faction on Mirrodin, is now the engine of New Phyrexia's unnatural evolution. With his mutagenic abilities, every living being on the plane will be compleat. This deck focuses on Ezuri's ability to generate Experience Counters whenever we play a creature with power 2 or less, so nearly our entire creature line-up features 2-or-less power critters. That restriction removes a lot of the generic Simic "goodstuff" and encourages us to use a lot of fun creatures not usually found in a lot of Simic EDH decks. Ezuri uses his Experience counters to buff one of our creatures every combat and this deck is designed to take advantage of that in every way possible.

Ezuri is one of the best budget commanders out there, simply because he is so modular. By this I mean that you can swap out several pieces of the deck for things you personally prefer and it won't change or hurt the overall gameplan. For example, if you don't like some of the creatures in this list, feel free to run whatever you do like. All Ezuri cares about is creatures with power 2 or less, if they fit the bill, your deck will run just fine.

Furthermore, this flexibility makes it very easy and organic to upgrade Ezuri over time as your budget expands. For example: Gudul Lurker can become Mausoleum Wanderer, Miscast can become Fierce Guardianship, etc. You don't have to make mass changes. Just one swap at a time as your collection grows and this deck will continue to perform!

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PROS, CONS & POWER LEVEL

Pros ✅

• Very easy to pilot, most of your turns will be very short and sweet.
• This deck avoids a lot of the generic Simic goodstuff and common finishers like Craterhoof Behemoth in favor of more niche, low-power creatures and evasion to deal big damage.
• It's very customizable. Ezuri only cares about 2 or less power. Very few of the creatures in this particular list would be considered "must-have", you can play what you like for the most part and still have a good time.

Cons ❌

• Being creature focused, board wipes will hurt. We have some counterspells to answer these, but the point stands that getting wiped feels bad.
• With a less-than-ideal opening hand, this deck may take a while to build up steam. Ezuri also needs to be on the field to generate experience counters.

Power Level ☢️

• I would consider this particular build casual but not quite high-power. That's simply due to its budget restriction and unoptimized mana base.
• You can win fairly quickly if you get enough experience and find Sage of Hours. For that reason I try not go for the combo and save it as a last resort. Combat damage is the main win-con.

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THE GAMEPLAN

We want to get Ezuri, Claw of Progress onto the board as soon as possible, then start playing our 2-or-less power creatures so start gaining experience counters. However, do not fall into the trap of doing nothing for the first couple of turns while you wait to play Ezuri. If you have things you can cast during the early turns, go for it. Don't greed hold that Elvish Mystic in hand because it could generate an Exp Counter later. Get it on the board so you can ramp into Ezuri ASAP! Obviously, however, prioritize spell-based ramp such as Farseek over creature-based ramp if Ezuri is not on the board. If he is, then the little guys will be the better play, since they ramp AND grant experience counters.

Our goal is to slowly build our Experience Counters and buff our creatures while staying under the radar. By this, I mean do not go stacking +1/+1 counters on the same creature every turn (at least in the early game). The last thing you want to do is draw attention to yourself, so if you make just one creature bigger and bigger every turn, your opponents are going to notice and start targeting you. However, if you put counters on one creature, then on the next turn put them on another creature, you'll be less likely to draw attention to yourself. This also makes your board a little more resilient to targeted removal. Having that one super-powerful creature blown up is going to feel a lot worse than if you had distributed those counters to two or three different creatures.

By the time opponents begin to notice how many Experience Counters you've gained, it'll be too late. By then it won't matter what you're buffing because anything you choose will be huge.

If you can't find Sage of Hours and go infinite, just be patient until you find a finisher like Wild Beastmaster, Cultivator of Blades or Tanazir Quandrix. Alternatively, Herald of Secret Streams, Skatewing Spy and Champion of Lambholt can essentially be finishers if you have enough creatures on board that have been buffed with +1/+1 counters.

So to break things down in their simplest form:

1. Get Ezuri on board
2. Start building Experience Counters and buffing several creatures you control rather than just one of them
3. Stay out of everyone's crosshairs while you build your Experience
4. Eventually resolve a finisher mentioned above, then start going aggressive

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COMBOS

Requirements:

• Sage of Hours and Ezuri, Claw of Progress on the field
• At least 5 Experience counters by the time we move to combat

Steps:

1. Move to combat, Ezuri triggers and we put 5 +1/+1 counters on Sage of Hours.
2. We don't have to attack with it, no need to put it at risk.
3. At any point after that, we can remove all +1/+1 counters from Sage of Hours and take an extra turn.

Notes:

• On that extra turn, we draw a card and have another option to advance our board state or deal more combat damage. We move to combat, Ezuri triggers and we put 5 (or more) +1/+1 counters on Sage of Hours again.
• Then we can remove them again and take another extra turn. See where this is going? It's pretty straightforward. We just take infinite turns and eventually just beat everyone down. Just make sure Sage of Hours is never put in danger by attacking. Eventually we will find a Herald of Secret Streams or Skatewing Spy to ensure that Sage of Hours can push damage through. Or we'll eventually draw Simic Ascendancy and easily put 20 growth counters on it before we deck out.
• This is best attempted while our opponents are tapped out or we know for sure that there is no instant-speed interaction available to them.

If combos aren't your jam or if your playgroup doesn't allow them, this is a super easy fix. Just replace Sage of Hours with any 1 or 2-drop evasive creature such as Mausoleum Wanderer or Ornithopter of Paradise.

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PACKAGES

Ramp (20)

• Farseek, Rampant Growth, Nature's Lore, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Farhaven Elf and Wood Elves all get lands out of our deck and onto the field.
• Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Simic Signet, Talisman of Curiosity, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Llanowar Elves, Gyre Sage, Incubation Druid, Maraleaf Pixie, Marwyn, the Nurturer, Heronblade Elite, Kami of Whispered Hopes and Rishkar, Peema Renegade all generate mana on their own.

Card Draw & Card Advantage (9)

• Inspiring Call is a one-time card draw effect. We'll usually want to hold up mana for this and fire it off right at the end of our opponent's turn just before ours begins.
• Primal Empathy draws us a card if we control a big enough creature.
• Bred for the Hunt and Cold-Eyed Selkie can draw us a card when we deal combat damage.
• Beast Whisperer draws us a card when we cast a creature.
• Fathom Mage draws us cards when counters are placed on it.
• Ranger Class when upgraded to its final level allows us to cast creatures off the top of our library, effectively serving as card advantage.
• Coiling Oracle and Kenrith's Transformation essentially replace themselves when we cast them.

Removal & Interaction (11)

• Pongify and Rapid Hybridization can get rid of enemy creatures.
• Ulvenwald Tracker and Tail Swipe can force a fight between our creatures and our opponents, allowing us to kill an enemy creature if it's weaker than ours.
• Beast Within gets rid of any permanent.
• Foundation Breaker and Trygon Predator deal with artifacts and enchantments.
• Kenrith's Transformation does not remove a creature but it does turn it into a vanilla 3/3 with no abilities.
• Siren Stormtamer, An Offer You Can't Refuse and Miscast let us interact with spells on the stack.

Finishers (7)

• Wild Beastmaster, Cultivator of Blades and Tanazir Quandrix can make our whole team massive if they themselves have been buffed with a lot of +1/+1 counters.
• Sage of Hours lets us take infinite turns if we can keep putting at least 5 +1/+1 counters on it each turn, so all we really need is Ezuri, Claw of Progress and at least 5 experience counters.
• Champion of Lambholt, Herald of Secret Streams and Skatewing Spy can all make our team difficult or impossible to block, allowing us to swing for easy damage.

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UPRGRADES

If you'd like to see my take on a higher-budget version of Ezuri, you can find that list here. It's one of my oldest decks but still one of my favorites.

The great thing about Ezuri is that he doesn't really need massive overhauls, meaning you can incrementally swap out weaker cards for better ones little by little as your budget expands and the deck will function just fine every step of the way.

My advice would be to prioritize picking up better stack interaction such as Mausoleum Wanderer, Glen Elendra Archmage, Swan Song, Muddle the Mixture and Fierce Guardianship. All of these help protect your board and Muddle the Mixture is particularly good because it can Transmute and tutor for Sage of Hours when you're ready to combo off!

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WRAPPING UP

If you made it this far, I appreciate you taking the time to read. If you enjoyed this little write-up and would be interested in reading some of my other primers, you can find them on my Moxfield page. I'm not a content creator or anything like that, I just enjoy EDH and writing about my decks!

Again, huge thank you to Commander Spellbook for making this happen! Best of luck to all who enter! And I hope to continue doing giveaways every couple of months!

Hello r/EDH!

My name is Emilio and I'm the owner of LaserNature, an Idaho-based small business that sells board game accessories. After vending at numerous conventions and meet-ups for MTG, I was convinced I needed to make a specific item for the EDH scene.

I designed a product that helps keep track of different systems in EDH and looks good while doing it! The Command Tray is made out of smooth acrylic (plastic) so it's also really easy to clean. You can personalize these command trays by choosing the base color of your faceplate/command zone/dials as well as the detail paint. Switching out pieces with different colors is really easy because it's held together by strong magnets and flat-top rivet screws.

I primarily vend on Etsy and have been selling for a couple of months. Thanks to the EDH community, I have reached 200 online purchases! This has stoked my passion to keep selling and double down.

To thank the community that got me here, I wanted to do a giveaway for my top-selling product the Command Tray.

THE GIVEAWAY

Will be open from 12/16/22 to 12/19/22

TO ENTER

1. upvote the post
2. Comment what your favorite commander is

that's it! I will be using a random comment picker to choose 3 winners...

1st chosen: Command Tray

2nd chosen: Personalized 0-99 Counter

3rd chosen: 0-99 Counter color of their choosing

*** If you want to buy a Command Tray or Health Counter from my Etsy shop you can use this code: EDHGIVEAWAY to get 20% off your purchase! ( Valid through 12/23/22) ***

Special thanks to the r/EDH mods for this amazing opportunity!

EDIT: International contestants welcome!

UPDATE: The comments will be selected on the 19th at 12 AM MST and posted here.

I'll also message the winners and let them know what they won!

FYI: Contestants with multiple comments still only get counted once!

WINNERS

Command Tray Winner :

/u/Chronochinaski "Kruphix! And phenax!"

Personalized 0-99 Counter Winner:

/u/vastcuriosity [[Sefris]] because unlimited dungeon works and I like to suffer apparently"

Colored Counter

/u/PieceofBananaCream "Yarok, the Desecrated! 😈"

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THANK YOU ALL FOR PARTICIPATING!!!

The code: EDHGIVEAWAY will still be valid up until the 23rd if you wanna pick anything up. See you guys at the next giveaway!

Story time:

I've been going to this lgs for the past 3 months, but today was the first time I bumped into a real-life anime villain

Sat at his pod with one of his mates. He started off by lining up his decks, debating "how mean he should be" lol

He picks an Aurelia deck. Every time he drew a good card / had a good hand / interaction, he'd start putting on airs and overacting while tapping lands in the most dramatic way possible

On top of that, he'd show his hand to his mate sitting next to him, bragging about his cards wtf???

Anyway, he loses that game. He's not happy and he starts repeating "GLOVES ARE OFF!! GLOVES ARE OFF!!"

He pulls off a [[Tergrid]] deck, everyone else picks very casual commanders like [[Kros]]. NOTE: No one apart from me was familiar with Tergrid... I go for my pet deck, Kwain pillowfort-group hug.

I counter his shit, set up my pillowfort and combo off. Winning against such a Game Knights-wannabe drama queen felt soo good

EDIT: to clarify, the cringe bit was his need to be at the center of attention the whole time, while acting superior and showing his hand to his mate, turning the game into an awkward 2v2

Has anyone else ever bumped into such borderline patronising, overly dramatic characters?