Deck Introduction
Ever since I started building EDH decks in 2015, there was one particular legendary creature that intrigued me, not with just it's mechanics but also flavor and story. Enter
Feldon of the Third Path
with his very unique abilities for the color he is in and somber persona. He helms a strategy that can be as straightforward or as complex as you want it to be. His card oozes flavor and has remained my favorite EDH deck ever since I built him. His shell has changed over the years but after many games with him I've finally settled on a deck that I'm very happy with and have a blast playing every time.
You Might Like This Deck if:
-You like reanimator strategies, especially in non-traditional graveyard colors.
-You like taking complex turns and managing a board of many moving pieces.
-You prefer a slower road to victory, while also having the potential to make explosive game ending plays in the mid to late game.
-You enjoy a deck that plays out differently each game.
You May Not Like This Deck If:
-You prefer aggro strategies.
-You prefer your decks to be combo free.
-You'd rather your deck not rely on the commander too much.
-Your meta packs a lot of graveyard hate.
How the Deck Plays
Early game is nothing special. Mainly making land drops, playing some mana rocks/creatures, and hopefully playing some looting effects to start filling up our graveyard. I'm usually not very aggressive on how early I play Feldon, as I like to have some protection for him available like
Swiftfoot Boots
when he comes into play along with having some targets for him to reanimate. Mid-game is all about board assessment. Ideally we've played some wheel effects by this point to really give us some good creature options to bring back. Also setting up sac outlets such as
Trading Post
as well. It's important to be political during this phase and making your intentions well know. Don't be afraid to team up with others to help remove current threats in exchange for favors. The removal package is pretty well rounded and has at least a couple answers for permanents that red has a hard time dealing with. Hopefully by the mid-late game, your graveyard is well-stocked and you're able to start hard-casting your bigger threats with the knowledge that even if the board is wiped you'll be able to bring them back with Feldon. Also in your artifact creatures cases, cards like
Goblin Engineer
or
Goblin Welder
also work very nicely. Once you've been able to clear a path, you can start beating down with your bigger creatures, abusing ETB triggers with cards like
Warstorm Surge
, or possibly assemble one of the two combos present in the deck.
Card Choices
Creatures
Goblin Chirurgeon
: A fairly recent addition that I've been very happy with. Most time's he will sac himself to save a key creature (usually Feldon) from a kill spell or wrath, but I do run 6 other Goblin cards so he does carry potential for repeatable regeneration activations. Even when he's dead, he's handy. Most people forget he's in your graveyard until they try to kill something and you bring back a copy of him at instant speed to save a creature. This doctor is great, 10/10 would recommend.
Goblin Welder
: This gobbo is so modular it's ridiculous. Most times I'm using him to get that extra value out of the Feldon token, sacking it to get back some juicy artifact that happens to be chilling in my graveyard. Also can be used on opponents stuff, swapping their giant
Steel Hellkite
for their mana rock is never a bad call. Throw in
Liquimetal Coating
for extra silliness.
Goblin Engineer
: The newest addition, fresh from Modern Horizons. I about squealed when this card was revealed. He's so good! Grabs ANY artifact and puts it in my graveyard. His own activated ability does limit how big of an artifact you can bring back, if only there was a color that is strong in artifact reanimation, oh wait. Grabs ramp, threats, utility, and removal options. Super nuts, his ETB is worth his inclusion alone and his ability is just straight icing.
Mogg Maniac
: Another gobbo (there's other creature types in the deck I promise)! This guy is bit of a less optimal choice and there are definitely other better two drop creatures that could replace him, but he's a pet card of mine and I've seen him do some silly things so he's earned his spot. He's a great deterrent against your opponent's giant non-trample creatures. And he can make for a great surprise when someone swings at you and you reanimate him at instant speed. Bonus points if he's out when a
Blasphemous Act
goes off.
Burnished Hart
: Classic non-green ramp option. Becomes slightly bonkers when you're able to reanimate it again and again. Two or three uses of this guy can shoot you pretty far ahead on land count. It being an artifact creature makes it best friends with all our deck synergies.
Dualcaster Mage
: Clutch creature. This guy has saved me so many times all while being a really fun card to play. Whenever I play red, I like to include at least one
Reverberate
effect just for fun. This mage fits the bill nicely since I can reanimate him to reuse his ETB. Most times he will copy a counter spell to stop someone from interrupting what I'm doing. But he's super modular. I've copied everything from someone's giant
Genesis Wave
where X was around 20, to a
Decree of Pain
so I got to draw all the cards and not the original caster. Also can go infinite with
Twinflame
but that'll be discussed in a later section.
Magus of the Wheel
:
Wheel of Fortune
on a stick. Even better in this deck since he's recurable. Your graveyard will fill up quickly if he sticks around. Also can serve as great hand disruption for your opponents, especially if they've been tutoring for specific pieces.
Scrap Trawler
: My favorite tinker bot. A pseudo
Myr Retriever
effect that applies to all of my artifacts! Great with Feldon's tokens since they are a direct copy of the original which includes the CMC except they are an artifact as well so Scrap Trawler will apply to them when they die. Great value and a solid engine piece.
Squee, Goblin Nabob
: Squee! Granted he's mainly here for discard value for looting/wheel effects, but he pulls some serious work in that regard so well worth the inclusion.
Anger
: My only mass haste anthem in the deck. I like him a bunch and usually will surprise opponents when you develop a big board state late in the game and are able to swing immediately.
Flametongue Kavu
: He serves as some nice utility creature removal and packs a sizeable body for his mana cost. If a better early/mid game removal option on a creature comes out I'll probably consider swapping him out for it.
Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion
: New Neheb! Originally ran
Neheb, the Eternal
in this slot, but this new guy was made for Feldon. Select hand wheeling with a mana bonus to boot and aggressive stats. What's not to like. Been loving this guy in my first preliminary games with him.
Solemn Simulacrum
: Another non-green ramp staple. Got a great ETB and death trigger. The Wowlue. Obviously could sing it's praises for much longer but it's reputation speaks for itself.
Goblin Dark-Dwellers
: Boros decks get
Sunforger
, Feldon gets these guys. Ok they're not that crazy but they're still one of my favorite Feldon additions over the last year. Getting additional value out of my instant or sorceries is just gravy. It hits 10 of the 13 instant and sorceries in this deck along with being a hard to block threat. Most importantly, it can recast
Twinflame
for the combo win in the event it was countered or prevented the first time.
Ingot Chewer
: I don't think I've ever hardcast this guy. He kills an artifact for one mana and is recurable. Hard to ask for much more.
Siege-Gang Commander
: A great way to develop a board quickly. Four bodies for five mana is a hard rate to pass up. And has a built in damage ability that's useful in a pinch.
Zealous Conscripts
: Wait don't leave! I promise there's no Kiki-Jiki, Mirrorbreaker in this deck. I like to pack at least one threaten effect in my red decks. ZC is one of the best since it grabs any permanent. Worst case, it can untap Feldon for an additional activation.
Combustible Gearhulk
: I'm never disappointed when I cast this guy. It always seems like such a lose/lose for my opponents. Either I get 3 extra cards or they take a chunk of damage to let the cards go to the graveyard (which odds are I can reuse). The gearhulk cycle was super awesome and this guy is an all-star.
Duplicant
: Premium creature removal in this deck. Having an exile option available comes in handy.
Etali, Primal Storm
: Oh be still my beating heart. As if Magic wasn't awesome enough, they gave us dinosaurs. This card is about as Christmasland as you could wish for. Half the time I probably flip lands off the top of everyone's decks but the allure of potentially flipping something crazy is too fun to ignore.
Godo, Bandit Warlord
. A card I had been sleeping on for a while but makes for a great addition to Feldon I feel. I run a fairly diverse suite of equipment in this deck so being able to pull one straight to the battlefield on ETB offers some great utility. And of course, he can grab
Helm of the Host
for the by now famous infinite combat combo. But more on that later.
Inferno Titan
: The titans are too nuts not to include if you get the chance. Flinging damage around and being a big butt. Built in firebreathing never hurt either.
Wurmcoil Engine
: Feldon's got wurms, but the good kind. Great value body with incidental lifegain. And leaves behind 2 more buddies when it dies. An all-star artifact creature.
Chancellor of the Forge
: New addition! Posted this primer on reddit and someone had the excellent suggestion for this guy. I ran chancellor for years in my Krenko deck but totally forgot that he only cared about how many creatures you had and not how many goblins. I do think the deck needs more ways to develop a board presence faster so I'm excited to test this guy out.
Dragon Mage
: Finally we've reached dragons! First on the list is a fairly sized flyer but more importantly is included for his wheel effect upon combat damage. Great way to keep your engine greased.
Meteor Golem
: One of my answers to enchantments/troublesome creatures, and planeswalkers. Used to run
Spine of Ish Sah
which was a great card, especially being able to hit lands, but trading that effect for a recurable creature is well worth it.
Molten Primordial
: A mass threaten that grabs all your opponent's scariest things. Bonus points if you can sack their creatures after you smack them with it.
Bogardan Hellkite
: Flash drago with very nice damage selection when it enters. Most people don't see this guy coming.
Bosh, Iron Golem
: Big guy that can sac your artifacts for direct damage. A great way to close out games when attacking won't work or isn't ideal. My favorite way to use Feldon's tokens. One of my favorite games ever ended with me sacking Bosh to himself and doming my friend for the last chunk of damage.
Utvara Hellkite
: The biggest and baddest of dragons. Triggers off of any dragons attacking, including the tokens he makes. Quickly takes over the game in a turn or two.
Kozilek, the Great Distortion
: A recent addition but has already proved to be a hoser. I've only hard cast him so far so the card draw has been nice. But the counter effect catches so many people by surprise. Since the deck is more mid-curve, odds are you will have the right cmc card to discard when someone tries to do something to you. I imagine reanimating Kozilek at instant speed for the counter ability will be equally surprising. Plus he's a hard to block giant.
Spells
Faithless Looting
: Great card filtering in red. Can dump a big target to reanimate early in the game also. And flashback guarantees we get at least one use of it, even if we have to discard at some point.
Gamble
: The grab all red tutor. I'm normally not a huge fan of lots of tutors but I like the random aspect of Gamble (especially since most likely we'll still get to play with the card we end up discarding). Plus if you cast it with an empty hand it turns into a mini buried alive.
Vandalblast
: A buddy of mine used to run this in his decks back when I started get into EDH and it left quite the impression on me. Paying 5 to destroy everyone else's artifacts is a tough rate to beat. Even in non-heavy artifact metas, it's still well worth the include in my opinion.
Impact Resonance
: Truth time, I haven't cast this card during a game yet. I wanted to include some more instant speed damage tricks and I've see this card do work in other games so thought I'd give it a try. In theory it seems really good. Casting it after someone/something has gotten hit with something big to either nuke the board or snipe some specific creatures for two mana seems like a great surprise spell. I do feel like it is a bit of a trap card in my hand sometimes. Like I have to hold it up for something big to happen. Might work on finding another instant speed spell to take it's place. (EDIT: Swapped this card out for
Chancellor of the Forge
upon a reddit users recommendation.)
Mizzium Mortars
: Mainly in here to round out my board wipe options. And is a meta call since I have several friends that run token decks.
Tormenting Voice
: More good card filtering. Let's me dump good Feldon targets in the graveyard for cheap.
Twinflame
: Granted this is in here mainly for the combo with
Dualcaster Mage
but there have been times where I've just copied some of my bigger creatures with it to get in for a bunch of damage. And being able to cast it again with
Goblin Dark-Dwellers
justifies its inclusion.
Warping Wail
: I love modular spells, and this one is no exception. I only recall using the exile and counter mode but sometimes you need that surprise blocker. Since many game-ending plays in EDH come in the form of some giant sorcery, having a way to stop it is always nice.
Wild Guess
: Another
Tormenting Voice
effect.
Chaos Warp
: The all-star red removal spell. Never leave home without it.
Reforge the Soul
: Because I can't afford a
Wheel of Fortune
. It does well in this deck though. And I do get the chance to miracle cast it more often than you would think.
All Is Dust
: One of the premiere boardwipes in this deck. Forcing sacrifice gets around lots of troublesome permanents (ie. the Theros Gods, indestructible creatures). Our deck leaning more heavily into artifacts means that we very often come out ahead.
Blasphemous Act
: Another red staple. Deals with most boardstates.
Artifacts
Skullclamp
: Great in decks that love creatures dying, and Feldon is no exception.
Sol Ring
: No reason not to run this.
Illusionist's Bracers
: Sometimes I wonder if I should keep running this, but then I'll have a game where Feldon gets to wear them for a turn or two and I'm always reminded of how good they are.
Lightning Greaves
: They're mainly to protect Feldon but it is nice having the option to protect key creatures/let them attack right away for no additional mana cost.
Liquimetal Coating
: The ultimate hijinks card. Look innocuous on it's own but is a powerhouse in any combination with artifact removal or welder effects. A great political tool as well.
Mind Stone
: I like when mana rocks are 2 mana or under and the tacked on cycling option makes this a nice pick.
Sundial of the Infinite
: A fun way to make your Feldon tokens stick around permanently. I've also used it to stop people from messing with my board during my turn.
Swiftfoot Boots
: More protection options for your creatures.
Sword of the Animist
: Quality piece of equipment. Since I don't care if my creatures die, I'm not opposed to swinging with this thing equipped to them. This deck likes lots of mana toward the late game, so consistent land drops is important.
Oblivion Stone
: Most times I crack this the turn it comes down but it can be used as a rattlesnake card to slow everyone down a bit. Being an artifact means we have ways of recurring it for additional value as well.
Rings of Brighthearth
: I used to run a few planeswalkers with Feldon but even without them, I still think Rings is worth the inclusion. The deck really sings once you start activating Feldon 2-3 times a turn. Also works nice with several of our creatures and artifacts.
Thousand-Year Elixir
: Psuedo haste for Feldon's ability and enables multiple activations.
Worn Powerstone
: Not great but the mana you net for what you pay into it isn't terrible.
Helm of the Host
: Expensive to cast and equip in the same turn but very strong if you can get it to stick around. Can end the game with the help of Godo.
Trading Post
: The honorary planeswalker of the deck. All of its modes are relevant and makes for a flexible tool to smooth out your deck strategy.
Caged Sun
: Doubling your mana always leads to busted things in EDH and Feldon is no exception. The anthem to our red creatures is a nice bonus.
Enchantments
Goblin Bombardment
: My favorite sac outlet in red. Cheap to cast and free to activate. Great for squeezing out that last value out of your Feldon tokens, sacking borrowed creatures from your opponents, or protecting your board from mass exile.
Sneak Attack
: Been on my wish list for a while now and I finally own one! Really great if you want to take the aggro route early and dump some big threats onto the battlefield to recur with Feldon the next turn. Also is great for some surprise ETB effects on your opponents' turns. Love what this card does.
Warstorm Surge
: The big daddy of damage dealers. Really crazy and easy to control the board if you're training a string of big creatures constantly. There are not any ways to recur enchantments in this deck so only play this when you're ready to start flinging damage at things.
Lands
Arcane Lighthouse
: Many players assume their creatures are safe when they're able to give them hexproof or shroud (barring a boardwipe) so it's nice packing the option to prove them wrong.
Forgotten Cave
: The cycle lands are all-stars in the lategame if you're flooding out and need to dig a bit deeper.
Geier Reach Sanitarium
: Crazy good in this deck. Being able to instant speed dump an answer into your graveyard and reanimate it with Feldon can be such a surprise.
Ghost Quarter
: Great for sniping those utility lands or anything busted.
Great Furnace
: Artifact lands tie in nicely with the deck synergies.
Hanweir Battlements
: No I don't run
Hanweir Garrison
(living that meld dream), but the haste granting is too good not to include.
High Market
: One time a turn cycle free sac outlet.
Isolated Watchtower
: Can help you catch up on lands when you're behind.
Kher Keep
: Makes a body each turn for blocking/sacrifice.
Myriad Landscape
: Great option for mono-color decks.
Terrain Generator
: Helps boost your deck speed a bit while clearing some lands from your hand.
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
: No crazy mass land fetch present in the deck but really earns its place by bolting something every time I play a land in the mid to late game. That damage can quickly add up.
Infinite Combos
A quick note before the combos. I'm not a huge advocate for decks focused just on combos. I'm not personally opposed to them but I can see why they can feel irksome to EDH players. I do think combos have their place in EDH though. Mainly I see them as a good way to close out a long game. Where everything is at a stalemate, boardstates are a pain to keep track of, or people aren't being very aggressive and all you want to do is wrap it up and get to the next game. That's why I like to include one or two ways to insta-end a game. It's not what this deck's main focus is mind you but the pieces are there for that reason. Often I'll have the cards I need to combo but I'll decline using them both since I'd rather let the game play out and let people have fun. Plus the pieces are pretty good even by themselves so I don't feel like I'm going out of my way to include them.
Dualcaster Mage + Twinflame
: A classic red combo landing you with a bunch of hasty 2/2's. If you have
Warstorm Surge
or
Goblin Bombardment
out, you won't even have to swing.
Godo, Bandit Warlord + Helm of the Host
: The more fragile of the two combos. Crumbles to artifact removal and is mana intensive to initiate. But if you can pull it off you're looking at infinite combats with a free 3/3 each attack. This one requires the most planning for since it's best when the board is relatively clear and your opponents have used most of their answers.
Noteable Exclusions
Daretti, Scrap Savant
: I ran him for a long time in Feldon since all his modes work very well. I would just never get enough utility out of him. Most times I'd cast him and tick him up once and then someone had a big enough creature to kill him. This deck generally doesn't have a big enough board presence for when Daretti wants to come down, so I cut him for more useful cards.
Sunbird's Invocation
: One of my favorite red cards and definitely great value, but I wanted the deck to be more focused and reliant on the graveyard rather than be just red good-stuff.
Closing
In conclusion, this deck has long been my labor of love. I plan to continue to tinker and upgrade it for many more years. It's always a blast to play and am happy to name this my undisputed pet deck. I hope my deck building choices were educational to other Feldon enthusiasts out there and if you have any suggestions I'd be happy to hear them!
