Riding Horses

Commander / EDH Mono-Blue Theme/Gimmick

Tokaido

Creature (25)

• 1x Blightsteel Colossus
• 1x Cephalid Constable
• 1x Chasm Skulker
• 1x Elgaud Shieldmate
• 1x Keiga, the Tide Star
• 1x Lorthos, the Tidemaker
• 1x Lu Xun, Scholar General
• 1x Marchesa's Infiltrator
• 1x Mistblade Shinobi
• 1x Neurok Commando
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Quicksilver Dragon
• 1x Riptide Entrancer
• 1x Riptide Pilferer
• 1x Scourge of Fleets
• 1x Slith Strider
• 1x Sower of Temptation
• 1x Sphinx Ambassador
• 1x Stealer of Secrets
• 1x Sturmgeist
• 1x Surrakar Spellblade
• 1x Thada Adel, Acquisitor
• 1x Thassa's Emissary
• 1x Thieving Magpie
• 1x Wonder

Artifact (13)

• 1x Bident of Thassa
• 1x Library of Leng
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Quicksilver Fountain
• 1x Quietus Spike
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1x Sword of War and Peace
• 1x Umezawa's Jitte
• 1x Venser's Journal
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Land (36)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Halimar Depths
• 1x Ice Floe
• 27x Island
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Tolaria West

Instant (7)

• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Evacuation
• 1x Fated Infatuation
• 1x High Tide
• 1x Mana Short
• 1x Mystic Confluence

Commander (1)

Enchantment (12)

• 1x Back to Basics
• 1x Coastal Piracy
• 1x Control Magic
• 1x Curiosity
• 1x Diplomatic Immunity
• 1x Invoke Prejudice
• 1x Levitation
• 1x Ophidian Eye
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Sigil of Sleep
• 1x Telepathy
• 1x Treachery

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Hands of Binding
• 1x Last Thoughts
• 1x Omen
• 1x Rite of Replication
• 1x Treasure Cruise
• 1x Voidwalk

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Maybeboard

Creature (9)

• 1x Blighted Agent
• 1x Broodbirth Viper
• 1x Deepchannel Mentor
• 1x Deepfathom Skulker
• 1x Jhessian Thief
• 1x Nine-Tail White Fox
• 1x Ninja of the Deep Hours
• 1x Scroll Thief
• 1x Somnophore

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Stolen Identity
• 1x Wash Out

Artifact (1)

• 1x Rogue's Gloves

Land (1)

• 1x Oboro, Palace in the Clouds

Instant (1)

• 1x Cyclonic Rift

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If only there was a way to give all creatures you control unblockable all the time... Welp, I guess riding horses will just have to do!

What's the Big Idea?

The goal is to get all of our creatures to learn how to ride a horse. Luckily, Sun Quan is the ultimate equestrian instructor.
What we want to do is get lots of saboteur creatures in play (ones that say "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, do X"), give them all horsemanship so that they don't have a problem sneaking in and smacking our opponents in the face. Many of our cards have ways to generate massive card advantage when, which allow us to dig for our finishers, and then our finishers get to swing in unblocked because our Blightsteel Colossus is riding a horse and none of their guys are.

The Early Game

This deck deck contains tons of card draw. Most creatures in the deck allow us to draw some cards, like Neurok Commando, but we've also got classic card draw engines such asRhystic Study. Because we can usually turn our creatures sideways without worrying about blockers Bident of Thassa type effects are especially powerful and allow us to draw truly silly amounts of cards. If all else fails, we ARE mono blue, so we have access to the ridiculous Blue Sun's Zenith. To compliment all that, there are many ways to keep all those cards in hand with things like Library of Leng, and additional payoffs like Sturmgeist.

The Setup

The commander is key to the entire deck, so it comes with a handful of cards dedicated to keeping him safe, comfortable, and providing equestrian support for our army. Between cards like Swiftfoot Boots, Diplomatic Immunity and even Counterspell, our commander should be difficult to remove.

"Boy howdy," I hear you say, "6 mana is a lot for a commander! How can we ever hope to live that long with such piddly creatures to defend us?" Well luckily we can include lots of blue early-game control to keep those pesky opponents in line. Shut-up and sit-down effects like Mana Short are quite good at stopping those other spell casters. Stealing opponent's big nasty creatures with Control Magic effects help slow down more aggressive builds. And of course Counterspell is always an effective option against any strategy. But we can control the early game rather uniquely since we're a mono blue deck with effects that screw over our multicolored opponents' game plan. Cards such as Quicksilver Fountain and Invoke Prejudice are absolutely brutal against many of decks in the meta.

The Knockdown

Once Sun Quan has our team all horsed up, we can start digging through our deck with reckless abandon until we hit a juicy threat. Sword of Feast and Famine along with many of the other equipments in the deck can be absolutely back breaking when they're equipped to an unblockable body. Blightsteel Colossus doesn't need any help to be an absolute terror on the battlefield though, he's scary on his own. At a cool 12 mana he's pretty costly, but we can often cheat him out using High Tide or Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx much earlier than turn 12. Heck, Sphynx Ambassador can use our opponent's threats against them, which would be the most poetic victory possible.

Plan B

If all that fails and our commander can't make it to (or stick on) the battlefield, there are other ways to get our creatures through to hit face just in case. Granting mass flight through things like Levitation is a surprisingly effective strategy as most opponents can't handle that many fliers at once. But sometimes even just getting one man through with a Rogue's Passage is enough to seal the deal.

Combos of Note

Putting Quietus Spike on anything that has horsemanship is just evil. Pure, unabashed, delicious evil.
Keeping that Quicksilver Fountain pumping can really lock out your opponents, so flicker some of your own nonbasic lands out to keep it going with Voidwalk.
Cephalid Constable + any power pumping equipment can absolutely lock down a few opponents if we get it early game.

Special thanks to my dear friends Alicia, Marcel, Micah, and Nathan for helping me put this deck together. This deck wouldn't have ever began to exist without you guys <3

Suggestions welcome!

Date added	9 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 32 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.58
Tokens	Copy Clone, Morph 2/2 C, Squid 1/1 U