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[5c] Wild Pair "Gotcha!" tribal

Commander / EDH Battlecruiser Budget Five Color Jank Theme/Gimmick

Zérodaim

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Playtest v1
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ETB (30)

Ramp (13)

Recursion (10)

Tokens (8)

Hand Disruption (4)

Utility (3)

Counters (2)

Pair 4 (28)

Other (23)

Wizards (10)

Gotcha! (6)

Protection (5)

Finisher (3)

Enablers (2)

Commander (1)

Commander: Ramos, Dragon Engine

Pair 2 (20)

Draw (11)

Removal (11)

Flash (9)

Buff (3)

Tutors (3)

Fogs (2)

Maybeboard

Other (17)

This isn't my first Wild Pair deck and, while this deck is similar to my first one, it focuses more on being versatile than going really wide with tons of tokens. Here, you'll have a lot of narrow cards that are somehow always available when you need them.

This deck wins through combat damage. Yup, good old battlecruiser Magic. Go wide and use Cathars' Crusade to make your board big, with Flame-Kin Zealot to haste it up, or use one big beater like Ramos, Draining Whelk or Selfless Squire. If you need, you can slowly but surely get rid of your opponents' resources: their permanents, their cards in hand, their graveyard... And when all else failed, Rally the Ancestors will pack quite a punch.
Although there are only two tutors for it, Wild Pair really enables the deck. Once it's on the board, most of your situational creatures are available on the spot as long as you have one creature in hand.

As you may have noticed already, every single creature in the deck fits in either of two categories:

  • Power + Toughness = 2 (1/1 and 0/2 creatures)
  • Power + Toughness = 4 (1/3, 2/2 and 3/1 creatures, no 0/4 here)

Tishana, Voice of Thunder is a bit different as her stats are dynamic, but if you can tutor her it means you have few cards in hand... a problem she will deal with perfectly.

Wild Pair only checks for stats when it resolves, if you buff your 1/1 with a +1/+1 counter before the search, you'll get to search for any 2/2 instead ! Works even better with Fathom Mage because you also get to draw a card in the process!

With Wild Pair giving you access to pretty much everything, you can get your situational cards whenever you need them.
  • Many are pretty generic (artifact/enchantment/creature removal), but some are more specialized.
  • Graveyard shenanigans? Agent of Erebos shuts you down.
  • Lots of tokens? Crafty Cutpurse to the rescue!
  • Wheel.dek? Notion Thief for a billion cards!
  • According to the Order of the Sacred Torch, thy shalt not use black magic.
  • Using big lands like Cabal Coffers/Urborg to get absurd amounts of mana? Monkey time!
  • You might exile some of my key cards, and I shall sweep them back from the rift.
  • Alpha strike? Fog on a stick is life.
  • You see Planeswalkers, I see food for Thief of Blood.
  • You like to tutor stuff? How about I make you discard a bit, or better cast your own Time Stretch for free?

And while this gives a lot of versatility, nothing says "Gotcha!" better than using those at instand speed.For that reason, a few of the creatures have it by default (2 at dork-size, 5 at bear-size) and two lands give it to the others.

While most creatures are Humans, one card gives Wizards a bit extra value: Azami, Lady of Scrolls. She gives all 8 other wizards the ability to turn into card draw at instant speed without summoning sickness, when only two of them have tap abilities and the others are more or less duds once in play.Might as well throw in the lab to bounce them, it's nice value for cheap.
  • Until you have Cathars' Crusade out, Dusk/Dawn will be a single-sided board wipe, and the aftermath will get you back all but 3 or 4 of your dead creatures... but Karmic Guide and Entomber Exarch will get them.
  • Agent of Erebos negates Skullwinder's drawback.
  • If someone casts a nasty spell like an overloaded Cyclonic Rift, you can respond with Dualcaster Mage, copy it, and use Wild Pair to grab Mystic Snake and counter it.
  • Ghostway and Eerie Interlude are good protection for your board, and if you have Skullwinder or Izzet Chronarch you can keep blinking your board every turn.
  • Selfless Squire gets bigger when you fog. Knight-Captain of Eos gives you fogs. Evangel of Heliod gives you Soldiers to fuel the fogs.
  • Fathom Mage can tutor Azami, Zegana, Thief of Blood and Trostani's Summoner, all of which trigger Evolve
  • Shrieking Drake can bounce itself, tutoring every 1/1 for . With Cathars' Crusade out, you can also tutor any 2/2 instead.
  • If Rally the Ancestors brings back Riftsweeper, Riftsweeper can shuffle Rally the Ancestors into your deck so you can try over and over.
  • Terminus, Mistveil Plains and Vendilion Clique can put your creatures back into your deck so you can cheat them out again.
  • You can evoke Mulldrifter, sacrifice it before searching, get Karmic Guide and get another 2 cards.
  • If someone just tutored for a big instant or sorcery with a topdeck tutor, you can use Vendilion Clique to force them to draw it and immediatly tutor Mindclaw Shaman to use it yourself.
I have to be honest, I haven't played this version yet. It probably needs more draw/tutors, and maybe some ramp and a couple more lands too, but I really want to play all those weird cards so it's hard to find room for it.

Serious considerations include (there are more, but listing them all would be long):

  • Laboratory Maniac: The deck has the potential to draw massively, also it's a Wizard so it draws cards with Azami
  • Oracle of Mul Daya: it's a mix of draw and ramp
  • Trinket Mage + Sensei's Divning Top: The 1 drop artifacts are all good to get, it's a Wizard and the top gets so good with the previously mentionned Oracle. Bonus points: with Wild Pair out, either can find the other to guarantee the synergy
  • Portal Mage: It's a Wizard, it has flash and it does something situationally great. It's just not available on MTGO where I'll play this first.
  • Bow of Nylea: Gives +1/+1 counters (search 2/2s with 1/1s) and lets you shuffle back creatures to tutor them again. The other two effects can also be relevant.
  • Dwarven Blastminer: More non-basic land have, this is a 1/1 but morph is a 2/2, so it can tutor any creature.
  • Glen Elendra Archmage: More counterspells on a stick, it's a Wizard and it can go on forever with Cathars' Crusade out. It gets targeted so much though it often only hits the removal killing her anyway.
  • Purphoros: Even without being a creature, we still make a bunch of ETBs, but I went against it for flavor.
  • Solemn Simulacrum: I love that card, but 4 mana to ramp once is a bit slow.
  • Sower of Temptation: Again a Wizard, that steals your stuff. It's only temporary though...
  • Sunbird's Invocation: With a big curve like that, there is some value you can get there.
  • Venser, Shaper Savant / Aether Adept / Whitemane Lion: Reusable tutors for 2/2s, with flexibility if you put the mana. Two of them are Wizards too.
  • Aluren: Combined with Wild Pair, any creature means you can fetch a self-bouncer under 4 mana and put your whole deck on the table. I'm aiming for casual fun, and this wouldn't be fun imo.
  • Timestream Navigator: Shrieking Drake can tutor for it every turn, meaning that it goes infinite if it lives. And without Wild Pair, Kiki-Jiki lets you go infinite as well. Too bad, it's a Wizard too.

As far as budget goes, the deck is pretty cheap. Savannah, Doubling Season and Vendilion Clique are the most expensive cards and while they're nice additions they aren't needed. Remove them and the deck only costs 60! For US players, it's still a bit over $200 but you can still cut some expensive jank like Sakashima and Galina to cut the price quite a lot, or get it on MTGO for roughly 50 tix.Due to the flexible nature of the deck, you can really customize it to fit your meta and your budget. I decided to stay casual (light on tutors, no infinite), but you can easily turn this into a more combo oriented deck as well !

Feel free to ask any question or to make some suggestions about what you would put in there to spice things up!

If you like the deck, a little +1 is always appreciated !

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Date added 6 years
Last updated 6 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

10 - 0 Mythic Rares

39 - 0 Rares

29 - 0 Uncommons

9 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.88
Tokens Centaur 3/3 G, City's Blessing, Copy Clone, Insect 1/1 G w/ Flying, Deathtouch, Knight 2/2 W w/ Vigilance, Rhino 4/4 G, Soldier 1/1 W, Squid 1/1 U, Vampire 1/1 W
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