Ceaseless Watcher [Raffine]

Commander / EDH Connive Flying Reanimator WUB (Esper)

DayjobDracula

Creature (39)

• 1x Archfiend of Ifnir
• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Big Game Hunter
• 1x Breena, the Demagogue
• 1x Cartographer's Hawk
• 1x Containment Construct
• 1x Dimir Infiltrator
• 1x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
• 1x Dream Trawler
• 1x Duelist of the Mind
• 1x Elenda and Azor
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Faerie Mastermind
• 1x Felisa, Fang of Silverquill
• 1x Foul Watcher
• 1x Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar
• 1x Grim Hireling
• 1x Guardian Scalelord
• 1x Inquisitor Greyfax
• 1x Kamiz, Obscura Oculus
• 1x Ledger Shredder
• 1x Likeness Looter
• 1x Mausoleum Wanderer
• 1x Mirko, Obsessive Theorist
• 1x Priest of Fell Rites
• 1x Queza, Augur of Agonies
• 1x Ruin-Lurker Bat
• 1x Selfless Spirit
• 1x Serra Paragon
• 1x Shadowgrange Archfiend
• 1x Shadowstorm Vizier
• 1x Stormscape Familiar
• 1x Thrummingbird
• 1x Tymna the Weaver
• 1x Vengeful Pharaoh
• 1x Watcher of the Spheres
• 1x Welcoming Vampire
• 1x Windreader Sphinx

Land (33)

• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Agadeem, the Undercrypt  ^Flip
• 1x Arcane Sanctum
• 1x Brightclimb Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Clearwater Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Deserted Beach
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Hengegate Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Hydroelectric Laboratory  ^Flip
• 3x Island
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Meticulous Archive
• 1x Otawara, Soaring City
• 4x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Raffine's Tower
• 1x Shattered Sanctum
• 1x Shipwreck Marsh
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Deep Analysis
• 1x Echo of Eons
• 1x Persist
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Sevinne's Reclamation

Commander (1)

Instant (9)

• 1x An Offer You Can't Refuse
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Delay
• 1x Dig Through Time
• 1x Fracture
• 1x Get Lost
• 1x Lofty Denial
• 1x Otherworldly Gaze
• 1x Path to Exile

Artifact (7)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Currency Converter
• 1x Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Drake Haven
• 1x Knowledge is Power
• 1x Legion's Landing  ^Flip
• 1x Retribution of the Ancients
• 1x Teferi's Ageless Insight
• 1x The Raven's Warning

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Maybeboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Concealing Curtains  ^Flip
• 1x Doorkeeper Thrull

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Call to the Netherworld
• 1x Psychotic Episode

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Eyes Everywhere
• 1x Feast of Sanity

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Kaito Shizuki

Instant (2)

• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Memory Deluge

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Ceaseless Watcher, Turn your gaze upon this wretched thing...

Welcome to the next Magnus Archives Deck Tech. Obviously I had a lot of fun with this deck, inspired by the Beholding and the Magnus Institute. Raffine, Scheming Seer is our Jonah Magnus for this here game.

Raffine is a powerful enough commander with a reliable mechanic so I was able to give myself a bit more leeway in terms of flavor. This deck is designed to win mainly through combat damage (i.e. turning your little flyers and archival assistants into big and terrifying monsters) or commander damage (the true Beholding).

Archival Assistants

These are our low-CMC creatures who provide card advantage and are (for one reason or another) difficult to block. The biggest ones to look out for are Ledger Shredder who connives himself, unblockables like Dimir Infiltrator, and defensive but hard-to-block flyers like Selfless Spirit. There are many, and they have faced a myriad of awful fates. The idea is to flood the board with as many of them as possible.

Token generators like Drake Haven and Currency Converter are designed to synergize with this strategy and make more bodies to get as many connive triggers off Raffine as possible.

Discard Synergy and Recursion

Some of our warm bodies are designed to be discarded and played. The most important are Big Game Hunter and Shadowgrange Archfiend, both of which have a convenient Madness cost. We also have some card draw that can be discarded and played for flashback cost. Deep Analysis is both flavorful and re-usable.

Payoffs for discard include Currency Converter and Archfiend of Ifnir, both of whom will reward you for your conniving and punish your opponents. Recursion/Insurance such as Mirko, Obsessive Theorist and Serra Paragon to help you fetch from graveyard.

Flavor Wins

Featuring

1. Likeness Looter as Not-Sasha.
2. Inquisitor Greyfax and Mirko, Obsessive Theorist as our neurotic, paranoid Archivist.
3. The Raven's Warning, Foul Watcher and Otherworldly Gaze as the touch of our voyeuristic patron.
4. Knowledge is Power as our maxim and win-con.
5. Cyclonic Rift as the unstoppable apocalypse
6. and Meticulous Archive as my favorite thing to come out of Karlov Manor.

Notable Exclusions

I haven't included several staple reanimators, and that's because I wanted every card in this deck to be as flexible as possible, always serving a function whether it appears early or late game. For example, Lurrus of the Dream-Den is probably better and more consistent than Mirko. But Mirko flies, and putting recursion on a body in the air means that I can use Mirko to attack more effectively. This deck, like the Magnus Institute, focuses on staying power and the ability to consistently rebuild its threats, so I value the utility.

For the same reason, I've excluded many of the more explosive token generators, such as Adeline, Resplendent Cathar and Chasm Skulker. They draw a lot of attention at deck's the most fragile point, right as the engine gets going, and my meta has a lot of exile removal. My personal playstyle is more effective with evasive utility creatures that draw less attention and make it difficult for my opponents to shut me down with single-target removal. I think that also jives with a Jonah Magnus deck.

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Date added	8 months
Last updated	5 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 55 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.90
Tokens	Bird 1/1 U, Clue, Drake 2/2 U, Inkling 2/1 WB, Map, Plant 0/2 G, Rogue 2/2 B, Treasure, Vampire 1/1 W, Vampire Knight 1/1 B