Prime Speaker Combo (Commander / EDH MTG Deck)

Prime Speaker Combo

Commander / EDH GU (Simic)

Chowwder

Land (40)

Artifact (9)

Creature (21)

Sorcery (10)

Commander (1)

Instant (13)

Enchantment (5)

Planeswalker (1)

1x Oko, Thief of Crowns

Maybeboard

Land (1)

1x Maze of Ith

Sorcery (1)

1x Natural Order

UG Combo Primer

This list is a higher-powered, multiplayer EDH list that has many different avenues to win the game. This list is focused on the combo element, and is able to shift gears and find back-door avenues to win the game. This is a list that heavily rewards experience, so the more hours logged you have, the better this list will perform for you. Many of the paths to win multiplayer EDH games will take you much deeper than the surface level, generic combos (e.g., Palinchron + Phantasmal Image) that you see at many tables, so having an in-depth understanding of which pieces are important in certain board states is vital to winning with this list. Nevertheless, the generic combos are powerful and will lead to an amount of free wins, just because opponents do not have interaction. This primer will explain various different combo lines, many of which opponents do not anticipate.

Remember, not all combo lines result in an immediate win. Some aim to present a board state that must be dealt with, or it will snowball into a win in a turn or two. These are important to this list because they put your opponents in check. Opponents are forced to use their interaction, and this often leads to a turn where you can go all-in with a game winning combo line.

Combo Pieces

Before we delve into the different combo suites that this list has access to, the combo pieces will be listed for your reference in alphabetical order. Some combo pieces are important, but are not unique enough to warrant their own section. Those pieces will be denoted with an asterisk.

*Body Double: Body Double is a an important back-up combo piece. Body Double will often be utilized in back-door combo lines when your Palinchron or Deadeye Navigator is in your graveyard. By having access to Body Double, creature combo pieces can be discarded to Survival of the Fittest for more impactful creatures based on the game-state without forcing us to find Regrowth or Eternal Witness to initiate our combo when the time comes. The floor for Body Double is discarding a Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger to Survival of the Fittest to find Body Double, which cheats a mana-doubling effect into play that must be addressed. The ceiling is copying a Palinchron or Deadeye Navigator in your graveyard to win the game.

Deadeye Navigator: Deadeye Navigator doesn't need much of an introduction. Deadeye Navigator produces infinite mana when paired with Palinchron or Peregrine Drake, which wins the game as long as Prime Speaker Zegana is in the Command Zone and able to be cast. The floor on Deadeye Navigator is pairing with a creature with a generic enters the battlefield effect, and the ceiling is winning the game on-the-spot.

*Eternal Witness: Eternal Witness is a staple in green EDH lists. Eternal Witness can prevent opponents from generating a board of problematic creatures when paired with Evacuation, which can be looped to routinely reset the board state until you find something better to do with eight mana. The floor on Eternal Witness is returning a piece of interaction or combo piece from your graveyard to your hand, and the ceiling is looping with Deadeye Navigator and Temporal Manipulation/Time Stretch to take infinite turns, which is a backup avenue to victory if infinite mana can be produced but Prime Speaker Zegana is unavailable to be cast (e.g., Drannith Magistrate).

*Evacuation: Evacuation only truly pairs with Eternal Witness to form a loop of resetting the battlefield. However, Evacuation is an excellent tool to incentivize our opponents to use their interaction on their end step to keep their creatures, allowing us to untap and apply pressure through more impactful cards. Additionally, Evacuation allows for our own creatures with enters the battlefield effects to be reused for incremental advantage. Do not be afraid to cast Evacuation to return a handful of your own creatures to generate more value, even if your opponents do not have any creatures.

Food Chain: Food Chain is a unique combo piece that must be answered or it will generally snowball out of control in a turn or two. On the surface, Food Chain pairs with Misthollow Griffin to generate infinite mana for creature spells, which wins the game on the spot. Infinite mana allows us to cast Prime Speaker Zegana, draw cards, and then send her back to the command zone with Food Chain's effect. Eventually, Palinchron will be drawn and can be cast for free, untapping our lands and enabling us to generate mana that can be used to cast any spell, not just creature spells. As long as you have five mana producing lands in play, (Dual land + UU2), you can pick up Palinchron, float one colored mana, and re-cast Palinchron with the infinite mana for creatures that you have. However, even without Misthollow Griffin, Food Chain allows this list to take some fairly broken actions. Since the commander tax adds two mana to each additional cast of Prime Speaker Zegana, Food Chain allows us to re-cast our commander for one additonal mana, three additional mana, etc., abusing her enters the battlefield effect to draw cards and hopefully find another combo to end the game. By exiling Prime Speaker Zegana with Food Chain, you generate seven mana of a single color, which can be used to re-cast her for eight mana. That is, with eight mana in play along with a Food Chain, Prime Speaker Zegana can be cast twice, refilling our hand and leaving one mana that can be used for creature spells, or eight mana that can be used for creature spells if we exile Prime Speaker Zegana again. The available mana through this sequence is 8 --> 2 --> 9 --> 1 --> 8. This generates two Prime Speaker Zegana enters the battlefield triggers, refills our hand, and leaves us with eight mana to cast the creatures in our hand. Prime Speaker Zegana now costs ten mana, and can be cast again if we have more fodder in our hands. Each creature can be seen as a +1 ritual, so only two creatures need to be cast to generate another Prime Speaker Zegana enters the battlefield trigger. The floor on this card is the interaction with Prime Speaker Zegana, and the ceiling is winning the game on the spot with Misthollow Griffin.

*Gaea's Cradle: Gaea's Cradle pairs with The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale to force opponents to commit resources to keep their creatures alive, while allowing us to only have to tap our Gaea's Cradle to keep our creatures. This combo can be found through spells like Sylvan Scrying. Generally speaking, this list won't have more than two or three creatures on the battlefield at a given time, so Gaea's Cradle will routinely be a Sol Land. It's not the best, but has its moments. With UUU on board, Gaea's Cradle can accelerate us into a Palinchron combo win, as you only need twelve mana produced by seven lands to loop Palinchron. In order to achieve this with a Gaea's Cradle in play, we would need a combination of 12 creatures and mana-producing lands, of which, UUU can be produced. If only UU can be produced, we can generate infinite green mana, but with UUU, we will net one additional blue mana each loop, resulting in infinite colored mana with enough loops. The sequence looks like this: 12 --> 5 --> (float and untap) --> 17 --> 13 (return Palinchron to hand). Twelve mana turns to thirteen turns to fourteen, etc. The floor is producing one green mana in hands that don't have many creatures, and the upside is being a back-up combo piece with Palinchron, or accelerating us to an early Tooth and Nail.

*Grim Monolith: Grim Monolith pairs with Mana Reflection to generate infinite colorless mana, wich will allow us to cast Prime Speaker Zegana for UUGG, as we get to ignore the commander tax with our infinite colorless mana. This combo pair removes the non-colored mana costs from our spells, allowing us to cast the cards that we draw off of our Prime Speaker Zegana enters the battlefield triggers for just the colored symbols in their mana cost. The floor of this card is accelerating us to an early Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger or Tooth and Nail, and the ceiling is producing infinite colorless mana with Mana Reflection.

Mana Reflection: Mana Reflection, along with our other mana-doubling effects, pairs with Palinchron to generate infinite mana. Mana Reflection, unlike Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, also pairs with Grim Monolith to generate infinite colorless mana. Mana reflection is a piece that demands an answer, as it is incredibly powerful to untap with during your next turn. If unanswered, we will likely be able to cast everything in our hand, which will generally lock up the game (if not win on the spot). The floor is baiting out an answer from our opponents when threatening to dump our hand next turn, and the ceiling is producing infinite mana with Palinchron. It should be noted, however, that unlike our other infinite mana combinations with Palinchron, Mana Reflection + Palinchron will need an additional piece to win the game on-the-spot, as it doesn't inherently have a way to loop Prime Speaker Zegana and her enters the battlefield triggers.

TIP: Mana Reflection doubles mana from permanents we control. Simic Signet produces four mana for the cost of one, and Gaea's Cradle produces mana equal to twice the amount of creatures that we control. Keep this in mind, as it often allows us to make more mana than we think.

*Misthollow Griffin: Misthollow Griffin only pairs with Food Chain, but is our only combo piece that threatens to win the game on the first or second turn of the game. While Food Chain can only be found through Intuition, Misthollow Griffin can be found through Worldly Tutor and Survival of the Fittest as well. As a standalone card, Misthollow Griffen is among the worst in the list, but has incredible upside in that it is part of a combination to win the game that is outside of the traditional Palinchron/Deadeye Navigator sphere.

Palinchron: Palinchron, like Deadeye Navigator, doesn't need much of an introduction. This card pairs with many different pieces to generate infinite mana, such as Phantasmal Image, Deadeye Navigator, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, Mana Reflection, Panharmonicon, and Gaea's Cradle. Pairs with Phantasmal Image and Deadeye Navigator win the game without the need for another piece, while pairs with Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, Mana Reflection, and Panharmonicon almost always result in drawing into a piece that can win the game. The floor on this card is baiting out interaction from our opponents, and the ceiling is winning the game on-the-spot. This card is an automatic inclusion in all serious blue-based combo lists.

*Panharmonicon: Panharmonicon only pairs with Palinchron to generate infinite mana, but is similar to Mana Reflection in its role in this list. Panharmonicon threatens to generate an insurmountable value if we untap with it, and can even lock opponents out of casting spells wheh paired with Venser, Shaper Savant and enough mana in play. Venser, Shaper Savant will have two enters the battlefield triggers, one of which can target himself to return him to your hand, while simultaneously returning an opponent's spell to their hand with the second enters the battlefield trigger. Panharmonicon's floor is providing value with creatures such as Spellseeker and Venser, Shaper Savant, and it's ceiling is acting as a back-door infinite mana combo piece with Palinchron.

*Peregrine Drake: Peregrine Drake only pairs with Deadeye Navigator to win the game, but often is used as a pseudo-combo piece with cards like Panharmonicon and Mana Reflection. While infinite mana would be ideal, generating an additional five or ten mana in combination with these combo pieces is often good enough to lead to an explosive turn. Additionally, with lands like Gaea's Cradle or Ancient Tomb, you can generate additional mana to cast Prime Speaker Zegana a turn early and refill your hand. The floor is acting as a pseudo-accelerant to cast Prime Speaker Zegana and draw three cards, and the ceiling is winning the game on-the-spot with Deadeye Navigator.

*Phantasmal Image: Phantasmal Image pairs with Palinchron to win the game on-the-spot. After generating infinite mana with Palinchron, you can return Phantasmal Image to your hand, cast Prime Speaker Zegana, and then cast Phantasmal Image to copy Prime Speaker Zegana. Phantasmal Image will enter as a copy of Prime Speaker Zegana with a number of +1/+1 counters equal to Prime Speaker Zegana's power, and before the Phantasmal Image's trigger is put on the stack, the real Prime Speaker Zegana will be sacrificed to the Legend Rule. From this position, we can re-cast Prime Speaker Zegana from the command zone and sacrifice her to the Legend Rule to use her enters the battlefield trigger as many times as we would like. Outside of explicit combo lines, Phantasmal Image is very versatile, offering backoor wins by copying a Craterhoof Behemoth or generic value by copying a different creature on the board. The floor of this card is very high, but is reliant on the quality of creatures on the board. The ceiling is winning the game on-the-spot with Palinchron.

*Prime Speaker Zegana: Prime Speaker Zegana is our combo piece that sits in the command zone until we generate infinite mana. Through infinite mana combo lines that involve Deadeye Navigator or a clone effect (e.g., Phantasmal Image, we can use her enters the battlefield trigger repeatedly to draw our library until we find Blue Sun's Zenith. From there, we can draw the rest of our library, leaving Blue Sun's Zenith as our only card in our library. Using any effect to move it to our hand, we can then kill our opponents by forcing them to draw more cards than they have in their library. She also functions as a way to refill our hand if we happened to have a hand full of ramp spells. Even if her enters the battlefield effect only draws three or so cards, that is often enough to find some high-impact spells.

*The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale: The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale is an incredibly expensive, incredibly unique piece in this list. At the surface, this card single handedly handcuffs go-wide strategies, such as Edgar Markov or Elfball. This card doesn't affect us much, as we rarely have a critical mass of creatures in play, and we often don't care about keeping our creatures around outside of our combo turns anyway. However, it can also benefit us by destroying a Prime Speaker Zegana that we've cast to refill our hand. By allowing her to be destroyed by The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, we can re-cast her to draw more cards if we do not have any action in our hand.

WARNING: It should be noted that triggers from The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale occur in the upkeep step, so opponents will have to decide which creatures they would like to keep before they see what they draw. This is significant because the information provided from the card that our opponents draw can influence their decision on which creatures to keep, so we want to ensure that we avoid scenarios where opponents draw their card and then go back to pay for their creatures. It is implied that if an opponent draws a card without paying for any of the triggers, they voluntarily declined and all of their creatures are destroyed by the effect of The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale. Angle-shooting this line will result in the souring of the table, and my best advice is to remind players as soon as they untap about their triggers from The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, even though the triggers are technically our opponents' responsibilities to remember. (The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale gives the ability to each creature on the battlefield, and since our opponents own their creatures, the triggers come from their own permanents and are therefore their responsibility to remember)

Tooth and Nail: Tooth and Nail is a one card combo-initiator. When entwined, this card can find any of our creature-based combo pairs. When we are fairly sure opponents do not have any way to interact with our combo pieces, we can attempt to end the game through finding a creature-based combo. However, my advice would be to find the pair of creatures that, if things went wrong, would still leave us with a threatening board state. For example, if we have an opponent that is threatening a removal spell, it may be best to find a Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and Seedborn Muse to put immense pressure on the board. With this line of play, we then can immediately pass the turn and cast Prime Speaker Zegana in response to our next opponent's removal spell, or on their end step if they don't have any answers for our board. The value generated from this line asks a lot of our opponents, and will most likely win the game if we untap with this board state.

TIP: With Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir in play, we can win the game at instant-speed on our opponent's upkeep step, while protecting ourselves from any interaction our opponents may have. Often times, opponents will allow a Tooth and Nail to resolve and plan to answer the creatures that are put into play, but being able to put Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir stops that plan entirely. There is no window between resolving a Tooth and Nail and putting the creatures into play where our opponents can respond, so putting a Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir can only be addressed by interacting with the Tooth and Nail before it resolves. There have been many games where I have had a Panharmonicon or Mana Reflection in play and a Tooth and Nail in hand, where resolving the Tooth and Nail put Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and Palinchron into play to generate infinite mana while preventing any interaction from our opponents from occuring. Opponents are not usually expecting protection pieces out of an entwined Tooth and Nail, so you can generate some free wins from our opponents not guessing correctly.

Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger: Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger is one of our mana-doubling effects, but is unique in that he is a creature. We can find Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger with our Tooth and Nail and Worldly Tutor, which warrants inclusion on those strengths alone. While only producing infinite mana with Palinchron, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger often acts as a check to the table to see if the coast is clear to attempt to combo. If the turn round ends with Vorinclex still in play, chances are that you've bought a lot* of time and will have free rein for awhile.

Combo Suites

Palinchron Suite:

Palinchron + Phantasmal Image: This pair is a simple and effective way to generate infinite mana. A Phantasmal Image that copies a Palinchron costs six mana to play and return to your hand, generating one additional mana per loop. Be careful when utilizing this combo pair, as opponents can respond to the Phantasmal Image's (copying Palinchron) trigger to untap lands by targeting it with a spell or ability to interrupt the combo. However, if you happen to have four additional mana to return the Phantasmal Image to your hand, you can return it to your hand with the sacrifice trigger on stack. Good opponents will target Phantasmal Image immediately, however, before you have a chance to untap your lands. This pair wins the game on the spot, as Phantasmal Image can copy Prime Speaker Zegana to force her back into the command zone, allowing us to re-cast her as many times as we like by sacrificing her to the Legend Rule each time we cast her.

Palinchron + Deadeye Navigator: This pair is another bread-and-butter combo in blue-based combo lists. When paired, Palinchron's enters the battlefield effect can be re-triggered for only two mana, generating five additional mana each loop. This combo, like the combo above, can be responded to with the Soulbond trigger on the stack (before creatures are paired). This combo also wins the game on-the-spot, as Deadeye Navigator can re-pair with Prime Speaker Zegana to use her enters the battlefield trigger as many times as necessary to find our Blue Sun's Zenith to end the game.

Palinchron + Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger: Palinchron also combos with mana-doubling effects, and as long as we have seven or fewer lands in play that generate twelve or more mana, we can loop our Palinchron and generate infinite mana. This pair does not win the game on-the-spot, but allows us to draw eight cards when casting Prime Speaker Zegana, often resulting in us winning the game off of the cards that we draw.

Palinchron + Mana Reflection: Similar to Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, Mana Reflection allows us to loop Palinchron to produce infinite mana as long as we can produce twelve or more mana with seven or fewer lands. This pair allows us to draw five cards when casting Prime Speaker Zegana and has a lower end-the-game success rate than Vorinclex, as we are reliant on the cards drawn to abuse our access to infinite mana.

Palinchron + Panharmonicon: Panharmonicon allows us to untap seven lands twice when casting Palinchron, so as long as we can generate twelve or more mana with seven or fewer lands, we can generate infinite mana with this pair. Like Mana Reflection, this pair doesn't allow us to win the game on-the-spot and is reliant on the cards drawn off of Prime Speaker Zegana's enters the battlefield trigger to win the game. However, Panharmonicon provides an additional draw trigger from Prime Speaker Zegana, allowing us to draw ten cards, rather than five.

Palinchron + Gaea's Cradle: If we have enough creatures in play, Gaea's Cradle and six other lands could produce twelve mana. If so, we can produce infinite mana by looping Palinchron. As long as you have three blue sources in play, you can generate infinite colored mana. If you only have access to two blue sources, you can generate infinite green mana.

Deadeye Navigator Suite:

Deadeye Navigator + Peregrine Drake: This pair is extremely similar to the Palinchron + Deadeye Navigator pair. Peregrine drake serves as a back-up combo piece in case Palinchron has been removed from the game, and this pair wins the game on the spot. See the Palinchron + Deadeye Navigator combo description to see how we end the game from this position.

Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron: See Palinchron + Deadeye Navigator.

Deadeye Navigator + Prime Speaker Zegana: While this pair is not an infinite combo, it serves as a powerful back-up, value-based option. By pairing Prime Speaker Zegana with Deadeye Navigator, you can draw (at minimum) six cards for two mana. If the game state reaches a point where your Palinchron or Peregrine Drake have been answered and your Deadeye Navigator is alone on the board, casting Prime Speaker Zegana to draw six cards and pair with Deadeye Navigator presents a pairing strong enough that it demands an immediate answer, or you threaten an insurmountable amount of card advantage.

Deadeye Navigator + Eternal Witness: This pair, with infinite mana and an extra turn spell, allows you to take infinite turns. Simply play the extra turn spell, activate the soulbond ability on Eternal Witness, and return your extra turn spell to your hand. By themselves, they are a great value-based combo that can recycle your powerful instants and sorceries. There is a combo line that can be initiated with Eternal Witness if Deadeye Navigator and Palinchron or Peregrine Drake are in your graveyard, and it is Eternal Witness --> Return Deadeye Navigator --> Play Deadeye Navigator/Pair with Eternal Witness --> Activate Soulbond Ability of Eternal Witness --> Return Palinchron or Peregrine Drake --> Play Palinchron or Peregrine Drake --> Activate Soulbond Ability of Deadeye Navigator --> Soulbond to Palinchron or Peregrine Drake --> Generate Infinite Mana.

NOTE: This only works if you have a lot of mana in a long, drawn out game. Doing this all in one turn is generally not possible, as it would require eighteen mana for the Palinchron line or sixteen mana for the Peregrine Drake line.

Mana Reflection Suite:

Mana Reflection + Palinchron:

Mana Reflection + Grim Monolith:

Food Chain Suite:

Food Chain + Misthollow Griffin:

Food Chain + Prime Speaker Zegana:

Chokehold Suites:

Eternal Witness + Evacuation:

Panharmonicon + Venser, Shaper Savant:

The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale + Gaea's Cradle:

Tooth and Nail Pairs:

Palinchron + Phantasmal Image:

Palinchron + Deadeye Navigator:

Palinchron + Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger:

Deadeye Navigator + Eternal Witness:

Deadeye Navigator + Venser, Shaper Savant:

Deadeye Navigator + Peregrine Drake:

Deadeye Navigator + Duplicant:

Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir + Eternal Witness:

Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir + Seedborn Muse:

Craterhoof Behemoth + Phantasmal Image/Phyrexian Metamorph:

Craterhoof Behemoth + Palinchron:

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77% Casual

23% Competitive

Date added	9 years
Last updated	3 months
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 49 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.53
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Beast 3/3 G, Construct 0/0 C, Elk 3/3 G, Food
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