Around Ooze You Looze *Primer*

Commander / EDH Combo Control GU (Simic) Infinite Combo Midrange Toolbox

zigkid3

Creature (40)

• 1x Acidic Slime
• 1x Artisan of Kozilek
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Body Double
• 1x Breaching Hippocamp
• 1x Caustic Caterpillar
• 1x Chakram Retriever
• 1x Clever Impersonator
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Deceiver Exarch
• 1x Diligent Farmhand
• 1x Drift of Phantasms
• 1x Duplicant
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
• 1x Kiora's Follower
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Loaming Shaman
• 1x Myr Battlesphere
• 1x Mystic Snake
• 1x Peregrine Drake
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Prime Speaker Zegana
• 1x Progenitor Mimic
• 1x Protean Hulk
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Scryb Ranger
• 1x Seedborn Muse
• 1x Siren Stormtamer
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Terastodon
• 1x Void Winnower
• 1x Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
• 1x Wood Elves
• 1x Woodland Bellower
• 1x Wurmcoil Engine

Land (36)

• 1x Botanical Sanctum
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 14x Forest
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 13x Island
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

Artifact (7)

• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Simic Signet
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Thornbite Staff
• 1x Thought Vessel

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Curse of the Swine
• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Rampant Growth

Commander (1)

Instant (7)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Long-Term Plans
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Reality Shift

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Greater Good
• 1x Intruder Alarm
• 1x Pattern of Rebirth
• 1x Rhystic Study

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Maybeboard

Creature (23)

• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Bounding Krasis
• 1x Coiling Oracle
• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1x Elvish Visionary
• 1x Grand Architect
• 1x Great Oak Guardian
• 1x Hyrax Tower Scout
• 1x Keiga, the Tide Star
• 1x Keruga, the Macrosage
• 1x Merrow Witsniper
• 1x Mnemonic Wall
• 1x Nyxbloom Ancient
• 1x Ornithopter
• 1x Pili-Pala
• 1x Sakashima of a Thousand Faces
• 1x Sakashima the Impostor
• 1x Shrieking Drake
• 1x Sower of Temptation
• 1x Spark Double
• 1x Tidespout Tyrant
• 1x Walking Ballista

Land (8)

• 1x Alchemist's Refuge
• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Riptide Laboratory
• 1x Winding Canyons
• 1x Wirewood Lodge

Artifact (3)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Natural Order
• 1x Rishkar's Expertise

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Deck Philosophy

The deck is made with two things in mind.

1) Comboing off with Intruder Alarm or Thornbite Staff as a combo style deck.

2) Or work as a Toolbox/Value/Tempo deck.

Both strategies can fit into the deck together and synergize very well without taking away much from the other. As you read through the description of the deck you'll see that toolbox is the main route I've decided to take, but it can easily still combo off if needed. I've included suggestions throughout if you decide you'd like to make something similar but to be more combo oriented instead.

"A better Ravnica begins with a better Simic." -Vannifar

Creature Chains Show

"one beginning, many paths." -Vannifar

: Wurmcoil Engine tokens or Myr Battlesphere tokens

:Diligent Farmhand, Birds of Paradise, Caustic Caterpillar, Siren Stormtamer

:Scavenging Ooze, Scryb Ranger, Kiora's Follower, Sakura-Tribe Elder

:Reclamation Sage, Eternal Witness, Wood Elves, Deceiver Exarch, Loaming Shaman, Drift of Phantasms

:Phyrexian Metamorph, Solemn Simulacrum, Breaching Hippocamp, Mystic Snake, Clever Impersonator

:Peregrine Drake, Acidic Slime, Body Double, Chakram Retriever, Seedborn Muse

:Wurmcoil Engine, Prime Speaker Zegana, Progenitor Mimic, Woodland Bellower, Bane of Progress, Consecrated Sphinx, Duplicant, Deadeye Navigator

:Myr Battlesphere, Protean Hulk

:Terastodon, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger

: Artisan of Kozilek, Void Winnower

:Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur

Ideally, you should be moving up the chain from certain starting points depending on your field in order to find whatever it is you need, whether it's ramp, draw, answers to an artifact/enchantment/creature, etc...

I designed the creature curve to have a few creatures in each CMC category to give a maximum chance on being able to tutor something without the combo chain breaking (i.e. all your 5 costing creatures are out on the field, in your hand, graveyard, exiled, etc...but missing a target CMC creature in the library). Usually you'll be somewhere int he middle of the curve, hence why most of it are 4-6 drop creatures.

Once you get to 7 drop creatures I only have two for each category. This is because you ideally don't want to ever draw into the bigger costing creatures as they are too mana intensive. The reason there is two of each in the 7+ cmc creatures is in case you have one on the field, in hand, graveyard, etc... that way you have a backup option to choose to continue going up the chain.

How to move up the chain to 5 cmc: 1 cmc creature>Scryb Ranger or Kiora's Follower (perfect if swiftfoot boots is out)>Deceiver Exarch>Breaching Hippocamp This combo will get you up to a 5 cmc creature.

Unfortunately there are no 5 cmc creatures I can find that untaps a creature upon entering. Even if you grab Body Double to copy one of the untap creatures in the grave, it'll copy the cmc of that creature unfortunately so you can't sac it to go to 6. Your best bet here is to use something like Kiora's Follower, Scryb Ranger, Chakram Retriever, Paradox Engine (Now Banned), Minamo, School at Water's Edge, etc... to get past this point.

Once you get to 6 cmc if you so choose to run Bounding Krasis for redundancy ontop of the Deceiver Exarch then you can grab Woodland Bellower to grab one of those 3 drops (since the other is in your graveyard) to chain up to a 7 cmc creature. Great Oak Guardian can also achieve this. Typically I'd stop by getting up to 6 myself to get whatever tool in my toolbox I need.

Intruder Alarm/Thornbite Staff/Protean Hulk Combo Show

Intruder Alarm will allow us to untap and retap Prime Speaker Vannifar each time a creature enters the battlefield. Alternatively, Thornbite Staff will do the same when a creature dies.

Ways to tutor for Intruder Alarm: Drift of Phantasms, Mystical Tutor>Long-Term Plans

Currently no ways to tutor for Thornbite Staff in this deck as it's main focus isn't a combo deck per say. But if you would like to though Fabricate, Reshape, Tezzeret the Seeker, Transmute Artifact, Whir of Invention are all great options.

Once Intruder Alarm or Thornbite Staff is out with Vannifar plus another creature, sac it to get a creature, then again and again. Once you get up to Protean Hulk you can sac him to get an 8 drop, but you'll also get to reset your chain! Grab Loaming Shaman with the hulk to reshuffle your graveyard into the library. Then any combination of a 1, 2, 3 drop as well. Now you can spit out and start netting more than -1 and +1 creature and get everything else, kill them, reshuffle and reuse everything as many times as you want.

Want to grab all the basic lands out of your deck? Sure. Destroy all of your opponents artifacts/enchantments/lands? Sure. Exile all of their creatures? Yup. Draw up your deck? Yup. Infinite wurm and myr tokens? Yup. Etc...

Don't forget each time you kill Protean Hulk you get an 8 drop too. So you can pull out all of your creatures that 8-10 cmc as well.

Mill Out Combo (not included) Show

This combo is not in this particular deck as it uses other cards, but something for you to consider if you want the deck to be more combo oriented rather than utility/toolbox style:

Once you grab Protean Hulk to search for your 8 drop and a combination of 6 cmc creatures grab the following: Tidespout Tyrant,Grand Architect, Pili-Pala, Phyrexian Walker and/or Ornithopter, Merrow Witsniper or Shrieking Drake.

Grand Architect+Pili-Pala will create infinite mana.

If you have a card in hand to cast then grab Merrow Witsniper and it will mill someone for 1. Then cast any spell to trigger Tidespout Tyrant to bounce Merrow Witsniper back to hand, recast it and bounce Ornithopter to hand, cast Ornithopter to bounce the sniper, then cast the sniper bouncing the thopter, and repeat to mill everyone out.

If you do not have any cards in hand to cast then grab Shrieking Drake and have it bounce itself to your hand. Recast the drake to trigger Tidespout Tyrant to bounce one of your opponents permanents and have the drake bounce itself. Do this repeatedly to bounce everything back to your opponents hands including their lands to lock them out. It won't win you the game immediately but its pretty close.

Or just use the infinite mana on a Walking Ballista I guess but that's less fun.

If any of these cards happen to be in your hand you may need to add top deck manipulation cards as well to put them into your library.

This isn't included in the deck as I feel one combo is good enough, and I don't see these creatures being useful outside of this scenario. If you want to be more combo oriented and have another way to combo off go for it. But I feel the Intruder Alarm combo gets the job done just as well while also allowing you to have creatures that are useful outside of the combo for a more sturdy and flexible deck.

Other Combos & Synergies Show

Deadeye Navigator+Peregrine Drake= Infinite mana If there's something else to flicker on board then you can flicker that infinite times as well.

Sac Protean Hulk >Terastodon+Deadeye Navigator=Blow up a ton of shit

Deadeye Navigator+Mystic Snake=Counters for days

Deck Flexibility & Utility Show

"To survive exceptional times we must adapt by exceptional means." -Vannifar

What I like most about Prime Speaker Vannifar is that she is an amazing toolbox commander, being able to tutor up almost anything you need for the situation. Unlike Karador, Meren, or Muldrotha which I've all played as toolbox commanders each of those commander have options to cards that can tutor sure, but it's not on the commander themselves. When it came to Karador trying to do the Boonweaver Combo, his toolbox back up plan just kind of durddled while the deck's power was cut signficantly.

However, Vannifar is not completely reliant on just trying to combo off, and she can seamlessly transition to a back playstyle between setup or if the combo piece gets exiled without her power being sacrificed in the least bit.

Lets explore the versatility that Vannifar has to offer...

Ramp: Birds of Paradise, Diligent Farmhand, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Wood Elves, Solemn Simulacrum, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, Rampant Growth, Farseek, Nature's Lore, Simic Signet, Thought Vessel, Sol Ring I may swap out Wood Elves for Farhaven Elf as it can grab me islands, but at least wood elves can grab me the shock land.

Draw: Solemn Simulacrum, Prime Speaker Zegana, Consecrated Sphinx, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, Rhystic Study, Greater Good, Skullclamp

Counters: Siren Stormtamer, Mystic Snake, Counterspell, Arcane Denial

Control: Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, Void Winnower, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur

Artifact/Enchantment Removal: Caustic Caterpillar, Reclamation Sage, Acidic Slime, Bane of Progress

General Permanent Removal: Terastodon, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Artisan of Kozilek, Cyclonic Rift

Creature Removal: Duplicant, Curse of the Swine, Pongify, Reality Shift

Top Deck Removal: Reality Shift

Graveyard Exile: Scavenging Ooze

Recursion: Eternal Witness

Shuffle Graveyard into Library: Loaming Shaman, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth

Tutors: Drift of Phantasms, Woodland Bellower, Protean Hulk, Pattern of Rebirth, Eldritch Evolution, Birthing Pod, Long-Term Plans, Mystical Tutor

Flexible Utility: Phyrexian Metamorph, Clever Impersonator, Body Double, Progenitor Mimic, Deadeye Navigator

Possible Improvements and/or Flavor Changes Show

"It's not enough to defeat our foes. We must learn from them too." -Vannifar

I realize some people's play-styles are a bit different from my own so here is a list of possible changes I've considered and for you to consider as well:

1) Swapping Wood Elves for Farhaven Elf to get islands but they'll come in tapped.

2) Adding Bounding Krasis as mentioned before to grab with Woodland Bellower if you need to chain up to 7 cmc fast, or Great Oak Guardian

3) Putting in Avenger of Zendikar then next turn putting in Craterhoof Behemoth. Nice way to end games, I just feel this is overused so I typically don't run these two.

4) Want more clones? Sakashima the Impostor. I've been trying to fit her in but just can't It's nice that she can copy legendaries which is really helpful at times I wish I was able to. But I like the flexibility on Phyrexian Metamorph to be an artifact and Clever Impersonator to be any permanent. Progenitor Mimic slowly builds up overtime to something ridiculous. Note: I've seen a few Vannifar decks run Phantasmal Image, I personally love phantasmal image in most blue decks but for Vannifar unfortunately you can't sac it to grab something because it will immediately go poof and die :( Note 2: Clones are great if you copy a bigger cmc creature as Vannifar will see the clones' cmc of what it is cloning.

5) Walking Ballista can help kill stuff and be an end game finisher that I see some people like in Vannifar. However I feel it's unnecessary if you're already at the point you're producing infinite mana to pump into it, you should already be winning another way, thus making it a dead card.

6) May swap Lightning Greaves for Swiftfoot Boots. The 0 eqip is nice but sometimes problematic when I need to target Vannifar to untap her. UPDATE: I did swap them.

7) See the maybe board for other notable cards.

Updates Show

4/15/20: Updated the deck with new cards that came out since my last update. Arcane Signet, Hyrax Tower Scout (an alternative to Deceiver Exarch), Nyxbloom Ancient, Keruga, the Macrosage added to maybe board.

1/30/21: Added Sakashima of a Thousand Faces to the maybeboard. It's not a direct replacement for phyrexian metamorph or clever impersonator, but it may be an alternative option if you would like to copy more legendary creatures.

Paradox Engine (Now Banned) I removed paradox engine due to the new ban. replaced it with an island to go from 35 lands to 36.

Top Ranked	Achieved #30 position overall 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Toolbox 5 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 30 - 0 Rares 24 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.86
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Boar 2/2 G, Copy Clone, Elephant 3-3 G, Manifest 2/2 C, Myr 1/1 C, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Deathtouch, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Lifelink
Folders	Fun Decks to Build IRL, Commander 2019, Future Decks?, EDH, inspiration