This is an adapted version of my Opus Thief list, excluding the color white. Link to that list and Primer here: Opus Thief [CEDH Primer]

This deck has been fine-tuned to compete within my personal meta, as well as the macro-meta of CEDH.

If you gotta go fast and you love playing the Ad Nauseam meta, this deck is for you. This deck mixes the reliability of an Opus Thief wheels deck with some of the lightning speeds only colors can provide.

This deck is a proactive/adaptive deck that seeks to crank out its commander Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools and abuse his abilities to gain repeated card advantage, then exploit this massive card advantage to piece together a winning combo.

This deck also features disruptive wheel-lock strategies to disrupt opponents' hands and fish out pieces to assemble one of the proactive lines.

FAIR WARNING: This deck requires lots of practice, proper threat assessment, and general skill to play. You will need to be able to think outside the box quickly, and have a general memorization of your deck to pilot this deck efficiently. You must be able to piece together combos, advantage, and value quickly, and be prepared to execute a pivot in strategy at a moment's notice.

Typically in a game, the first thing you will want to do is slap down your Tevesh as soon as possible. There is a ton of fast mana and rituals that you can mulligan into to assure that Tevesh lands on turn 2 or even turn 1. The goal here is to use his +2 ability to make some blockers, then use his +1 ability to gain card draw. Of course, you will need to be able to determine which abilities will be best to utilize during your turn because the other players are likely to see his -10 and target him for attacks indefinitely.

Speaking of his -10, this is a great way to start digging even further, depending on your opponents' commanders. In relatively competitive games, you can gain quite a bit of extra value from this ability due to the nature of strong commanders. Otherwise, at least start spending them to Tevesh's +1.

Tips: Skullclamp is too good in this deck. Cast your other commander for a flying blocker and more card advantage. Blockers are sometimes more important than the card draw. Time your +1 at the appropriate time during your turn (i.e. use a tutor that puts the card on top, then draw).

BIG Tip: Tevesh's ult ability puts all commanders from the command zone into play under your control, meaning that if you have exactly 10 loyalty on him when you use his ult, he will die and go back to the command zone before his ability resolves. This means that he comes back using his own ability and counts as a fresh planeswalker that can activate abilities once this turn. When you look up the definition of "value" in the dictionary, you might see a picture describing this interaction.

This section will go over the combo lines featured in the deck.

Combo Assembler 1: Ad Naus and Peer

The cards you want to find the most in the deck are Ad Nauseam and Peer into the Abyss because they are known as "1-card combos", meaning that one of these cards alone will assemble another combo and win the game. If you have a nice healthy life total above 25, Ad Nauseam is likely the better route to take. If your life total is not so great, then Peer is much better because you will only lose half of your life at most. Just remember to stop digging with enough life to safely play some other cards that may need life as a secondary cost.

Combo Assembler 2: Breach

This is a short combo that can assemble the winning combo just as quickly as an Ad Naus, but requires 3 cards instead. This line uses Underworld Breach + Lion's Eye Diamond + Brain Freeze / Wheel of Fortune to put the whole library into the graveyard so that you can cast out the pieces of the combo below. Essentially, you want to use the Underworld Breach to repeatedly cast cards that mill you more so that your graveyard becomes a second hand for a turn. You will want to find a way to win during this time frame, or it will become almost impossible to do so after the fact.

Main Combo: Consultation

The least mana-intensive combo to use after a big "Ad Naus" play is a combo that uses Thassa's Oracle / Jace, Wielder of Mysteries + Demonic Consultation / Tainted Pact to draw from an empty library and win instead of losing. You will always want to cast the Consultation/Pact in response to the Oracle/Jace's ability going off. This combo is ultimately how this deck wins the game 99% of the time, assembled in any way.

Bonus Combo: Wizard Extortion

This combo uses the token-making property of Dockside Extortionist with the flicker capability of Barrin, Master Wizard . This combo requires that Dockside Extortionist makes at least 6 treasures when he ETB's. Any less and the combo will fail. You need 2 treasures to re-cast Dockside, 2 more treasures to activate Barrin's ability, and a last treasure to sacrifice to Barrin's ability, totaling 5 treasures required to only net even.

If you can manage 6 treasures, you can make infinite treasure tokens, cast Tevesh, +2 him, then sacrifice Tevesh to Barrin's ability to bounce Dockside. Do this to make infinite 0/1 Thrulls, then keep looping Tevesh using his +1 to draw cards, then win using the Consultation combo detailed above.

This section comes directly from my other primer, slightly modified for this list. If you have a bit more patience and want to play a version of this deck that's just as powerful but focuses on this theme, check it out at Opus Thief [CEDH Primer].

"This section will explain how to rob your opponents of hope and capability to play the game in three easy steps.

Step 1: Find a Wheel

The term "Wheel" refers to cards that discard everyone's hands and replaces them by drawing cards, and is derived from the card Wheel of Fortune . Other wheel cards in this list are Burning Inquiry , Winds of Change , Windfall , and Whispering Madness . The more cards you can wheel, the better.

Step 2: Find a Payoff

"Payoff" cards are cards that benefit you in some way after you wheel an opponent's hand. This benefit can be as simple as your opponents not drawing more than one card when they should draw more, like from Narset, Parter of Veils , or as disgusting as a Notion Thief or a Hullbreacher . The point is to rob your opponents of resources to create a disparity that you can try to win from. Usually, you will have to find one of these before you need to find a wheel due to the ratio of payoffs to wheels. Either way, get one of these and a wheel in your hand.

Step 3: Spin the Wheel, and Payoff!

This step is simple, but may take some time to assemble. In essence, wheel after your payoff is in play. If you can flash in a payoff, hold priority on the wheel and flash in that card."

This theme is rather tertiary in this deck, but it is still very synergistic for the TurboGrixis archetype. The goal is to draw cards, and the only thing better than incremental draws is mass draws.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading this Primer and checking out the deck! If you have any comments or questions, let me know in the comments below.

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Casual

91% Competitive

Date added 3 years
Last updated 3 years
Exclude colors WG
Splash colors UBR
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

15 - 0 Mythic Rares

50 - 0 Rares

14 - 0 Uncommons

15 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.11
Tokens Spirit 1/1 C, Thrull 0/1 B, Treasure
Folders CEDH Grixis
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