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[Primer] Compleation Claw - Ezuri EDH

Commander / EDH Aggro Combo Counters GU (Simic) Infect Stompy Weenie

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Creature (37)

Land (35)

Artifact (5)

Planeswalker (2)

Commander (1)

Commander: altered Ezuri, Claw of Progress

Instant (8)

Enchantment (7)

Sorcery (5)

This deck has been moved to Moxfield. It will no longer be updated here. Please follow the link to see the most up-to-date version of this deck.

Introduction

Ezuri, Renegade Leader was once the hope of the Elf faction on Mirrodin. But as the Praetor grip on the plane strengthened, so too did the influence of the Progress Engine.

Ezuri could evade them no longer, and was captured. Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur experimented on him. Everything on New Phyrexia must reach its highest potential, by any means necessary. Augmented, perfected, compleat.

Ezuri, Claw of Progress is the engine of New Phyrexia's unnatural evolution. With his mutagenic abilities, every living thing on the plane will be compleat.

This deck focuses on Ezuri's ability to generate Experience Counters whenever we play a creature with power 2 or less, so nearly our entire creature line-up features 2-or-less power critters. That restriction removes a lot of the generic Simic "goodstuff" and encourages us to use a lot of fun creatures you don't normally see. Ezuri uses his Experience counters to buff one of our creatures and this deck is designed to take advantage of that in every way possible.

This Primer features the following:

  • TL;DR Primer - for those that just want the general, bare-minimum game plan

  • Why Ezuri? - explaining the style of deck this is and what sort of player might enjoy it, although I would encourage you to playtest and give it a try regardless because it just might surprise you even if you're not initially interested

  • Packages - cards grouped together so you can have a better idea of how many sources we have of ramp, card draw, removal, etc.

  • Individual Card Choices - every single card discussed individually to justify its inclusion in the deck and specific interactions

  • Combos - step-by-step combos explained so you can demonstrate them to opponents in a live game

  • No-Combo Kit - certain cards may rub some play groups the wrong way, this section points them out so you can remove them and substitute different cards to satisfy a lower-power playgroup

  • Upgrades - if you want to make this deck even more over-the-top or damn near cEDH level

  • Budget Options - a significantly cheaper version of this deck

  • Counter Stacking Effects Explained - an in-depth explanation of how effects like Hardened Scales and Branching Evolution work alongside each other

  • Change Log - any edits made to the deck itself and why those changes occurred

TL;DR Primer

  • Get Ezuri, Claw of Progress on the board as soon as possible

  • Protect Ezuri while playing weak creatures to gain Experience counters

  • Put +1/+1 counters on evasive (unblockable/flying) creatures and hit hard at your opponents' life totals, work toward using Wild Beastmaster and Cultivator of Blades as finishers

  • If the game hasn't ended, find a way to tutor Sage of Hours and start taking infinite turns to close out the game (this combo is explained in detail in the Combos section of this primer)

  • Alternatively, find Simic Ascendancy and try to win that way

Why Ezuri?

You will like this deck if:

  • You like creatures and turning them sideways

  • You're tired of the generic Simic goodstuff decks and commonly used finishers like Craterhoof Behemoth

  • You like modular and customizable decks in which several pieces can be swapped without hurting the overall game plan

  • You're looking for a deck that's not quite cEDH-tier but highly optimized

  • You're looking for a budget build with a high ceiling to upgrade (check the Budget section of this primer for a significantly cheaper version of this build)

Packages

besieged

Every piece, organic and metallic, serves only to fuel the Progress Engine

Individual Cards Explained

A lot of the cards in this deck are pretty self-explanatory. Reading the card explains the card. However, some do have some niche applications and synergies that aren't immediately apparent. Take a glance through this section if any card in the list looks peculiar to you, otherwise feel free to collapse this panel and skip it if you feel confident that you understand the applications of each card.

I also prefer to discuss my cards in order of ascending CMC to better visualize my curve. If you're viewing this deck, I encourage you to click the "Sort" dropdown and select "Mana Value".

Ezuri, Claw of Progress isn't too complex of a commander but let's disect it just so we're on the same page.

"Whenever a creature with power 2 less enters the battlefield under your control, you get an Experience Counter."

The word "whenever" means this ability triggers for EACH creature that meets the requirement, regardless of whether they ETB'd individually or together. Let's say we have a Chasm Skulker with a bunch of +1/+1 counters and it dies. We then make a bunch of 1/1 Squid tokens. Each of those tokens with trigger Ezuri, meaning we'll get Exp counters equal to the number of tokens that entered.

Keep in mind that state-based effects increasing our creatures' power will interfere with Ezuri's ability. For example, if we have a Murkfiend Liege on the field and play an Ice-Fang Coatl, it will enter the field as a 3/3 and therefore will NOT trigger Ezuri's ability. This is why we're not running any anthem effects.

Ezuri's last ability is the payoff for generating so many experience counters. At the beginning of combat, we get to place +1/+1 counters on any other creature equal to the number of experience counters we have. With this effect, we can make one of our weak creatures absolutely huge. This deck is packed full of ways to make these creatures evasive, allowing them to slip past any blockers and deal massive damage to our opponents.

Keep in mind that experience counters are placed on players, not Ezuri, so if he is removed from the field, we retain any Exp counters we have earned and can just cast Ezuri later to start gaining them again on top of the ones we already have.

  • NOTE: Nearly every creature in the deck has a base power of 2 or less, so pretty much all of them will trigger Ezuri, Claw of Progress's effect. Therefore I will not be mentioning this over and over because it will get repetitive.

Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves and Llanowar Elves are all reliable, cheap, early-game mana dorks.

Birds of Paradise is another cheap mana dork but taps for either of our colors.

Hypnotic Siren at its worst is just a 1/1 with Flying for just the cost of , so it's an easy Exp counter and an evasive creature that can be loaded up with +1/+1 counters for big damage. If we draw it in the early game, we can use it as a beater. However, if we find it in the late game, we can cast it for its Bestow cost and use it to take control an enemy creature. This is a great way to shut down an enemy commander without making it change zones so its owner cannot move it back to their command zone. Hypnotic Siren is just a versatile card in this deck.

Mausoleum Wanderer is cheap to cast, triggers Ezuri and has Flying which gives it decent evasion. Furthermore, it can sac itself to counter an instant or sorcery unless the caster pays , with X being the Wanderer's power. If we put a bunch of +1/+1 counters on it, X is going to be a fairly big number so it'll either counter the spell or force our opponent to pay so much mana to make sure it resolves that they'll be unlikely to have mana for further plays.

Siren Stormtamer is fantastic in this deck because not only does it trigger Ezuri upon ETB, but it has Flying which makes it a prime candidate to buff with +1/+1 counters. And finally, it gives us the option to sacrifice it to counter a spell or ability that targets one of our creatures (or us directly).

Ulvenwald Tracker is a repeatable fight effect that can allow our creatures to deal direct damage to other creatures outside of combat. We're playing a deck designed to buff creatures to monumental proportions so having an on-demand fight effect is a great way to get rid of creatures our opponents are trying to protect. We can't force blocks but we can force fights. Creature removal in Simic is hard to come by so we'll take what we can get.

Gyre Sage can tap for green mana equal to the number of +1/+1 counters on it. With Ezuri, Claw of Progress, we can put all of our experience on Gyre Sage and tap it for massive amounts of mana, great for using on a finisher like Finale of Devastation.

Incubation Druid taps for 1 mana of either Blue or Green (in our deck) but if it has at least 1 +1/+1 counter on it, it produces 3 mana instead. The ceiling is much lower than Gyre Sage but it does at least have a self sufficient way of helping itself out with the Adapt ability.

Sakura-Tribe Elder can sacrifice itself at instant speed to tutor a basic land onto our field. It's a great blocker because we can put it in front of an attacking creature and sac it before damage calculation, thus fizzling the attack and getting a land out of our deck.

Scavenging Ooze is great in here because it gives us an option to disrupt Graveyard based decks such as Muldrotha, the Gravetide, Karador, Ghost Chieftain, Meren of Clan Nel Toth, etc. Furthermore, it synergizes with our +1/+1 counter synergies. Things like Hardened Scales will help the Ooze grow stronger at a faster rate all while we gain life and/or remove important cards from our opponents' graveyards.

Duskshell Crawler triggers Ezuri when it enters and allows us to put a +1/+1 counter on any creature we want. The best part, however, is that it gives each of our creatures with a +1/+1 counter Trample. We want to make sure we're buffing our creatures and attacking for damage; that won't happen if our opponents keep putting chump blockers in front of them. Herald of Secret Streams helps us get around the problem, Skatewing Spy helps us get over the problem, Duskshell Crawler lets us go through the problem.

Invisible Stalker is very difficult for opponents to deal with due to Hexproof. The best part is that it's unblockable, so we can stack a ton of +1/+1 counters on it at the start of combat with Ezuri's effect and swing for massive, unblockable combat damage.

Blighted Agent is another unblockable threat but this one has Infect, meaning it only needs to deal 10 points of damage to a single player to take them out of the game. Not every playgroup will be ok with it, however, so be sure to let them know you are playing it and replace it with another creature before the game starts if they are not ok with Infect.

Thrummingbird lets us Proliferate whenever it deals damage to an opponent, which is pretty much laid out right on the bird's effect text. We choose any permanents with counters on them and give them one more of every kind of counter they have. This can include our creatures with +1/+1 counters, our Simic Ascendancy with Growth counters, our Planeswalkers with Loyalty counters, us with Experience counters and any opponents with Poison counters. That's pretty much everything we should be proliferating whenever we get the chance.

Sage of Hours lets us take an extra turn if we remove at least five +1/+1 counters from it using its effect. If we have at least five Exp counters and Ezuri, Claw of Progress on board, we can essentially take infinite turns by putting counters on the Sage during each combat, not swinging and just removing those counters at instant speed to take an extra turn and repeat.

Benevolent Hydra is a bit like Hardened Scales with extra utility. First off, we can cast it for just which means it will enter the battlefield as a 1/1 which will trigger Ezuri. Or we can sink as much mana into it as we want and make it enter with additional +1/+1 counters. The real value, however, is that it increases the number of +1/+1 counters that would be placed on our creatures by any effect by one. And the hydra itself can redistribute one of its own counters to another creature with its activated ability, so that counter will actually turn into two thanks to its own static effect.

Farhaven Elf lets us find any basic land when it enters the battlefield. Ezuri, Claw of Progress trigger + ramp all in one.

Wood Elves does nearly the same thing as Farhaven Elf except it lets us search for a Forest (which can come into play untapped). This means we can tutor for Breeding Pool and Tangled Islet instead of a normal Forest if we want to. We also have the option of fetching a Dryad Arbor, which is a Forest but also a 1/1 creature, meaning we get another Exp counter if Ezuri is on board.

Champion of Lambholt grows stronger with each creature we play but the great thing is that it makes enemy creatures with lesser power than it unable to block our attacking creatures. If we use Ezuri, Claw of Progress to buff Champion of Lambholt, we can make it insanely powerful without having to wait for it to power up on its own. Then, most of our creatures will be able to attack unimpeded.

Wild Beastmaster is one of our finishers in this deck if the Sage of Hours combo can't be assembled. Whenever she attacks, she gives all of our other creautures +X/+X where X is her power. So we take all of our available +1/+1 counters from Ezuri, Claw of Progress's trigger and stack them on her, turn her sideways and all of our other creatures get the same kind of buff. This, alongside with Cultivator of Blades, is one of the best finishers in the deck.

Rishkar, Peema Renegade can put a +1/+1 counter on up to 2 creatures when it enters the battlefield but the real value is that it turns every creature we control with a +1/+1 counter into a mana dork that taps for green.

Marwyn, the Nurturer is mainly in here to generate massive amounts of mana with her last ability. She can grow stronger herself every time we play an Elf but we can always shortcut by giving her a bunch of +1/+1 counters from Ezuri, Claw of Progress's ability.

Trygon Predator is a repeatable removal option for artifacts and enchantments; all we have to do is deal damage with it to the player with that artifact/enchantment. The nice thing is that it has flying, meaning it's a great target for Ezuri, Claw of Progress buffs.

Cold-Eyed Selkie lets us draw cards equal to the amount of combat damage it does to an enemy player. We have plenty of ways of making things unblockable so it's not unreasonable to expect that this will be drawing us A LOT of cards once it's been buffed by Ezuri, Claw of Progress. Even on its own, it has Islandwalk, so if there is a blue player at the table, be sure to take advantage of that if our hand is running low on cards.

Kodama of the West Tree essentially gives Trample to all of our creatures that have +1/+1 counters, so it acts as another copy of Duskshell Crawler. Furthermore, whenever one of those creatures deals damage to our opponents, we get to ramp which is made incredibly easy because Kodama gives them Trample.

Fathom Mage is an insanely good card draw engine in this deck because it draws us a card for EACH +1/+1 counter that is put on it, even if multiple are placed on it at one time, it still counts each one and draws us a card for each one.

Herald of Secret Streams makes all of our creatures with +1/+1 counters unblockable. Not much to say here, it triggers Ezuri and fascilitates our game plan by allowing our creatures to swing freely.

Skatewing Spy gives each of our creatures with a +1/+1 counter Flying, giving them evasion to help avoid blockers. This sort of functions as a backup Herald of Secret Streams. Remember, we want to go tall and attack to get in big damage. He also has Adapt 2, allowing us to sink mana into him late game to make him even stronger.

Glen Elendra Archmage has insanely good synergy and utility in this deck, let's break it down. First off, it will trigger Ezuri and get us an Exp counter when we play it. After that, we can sacrifice it to counter any non-creature spell. Then, it comes back with Persist, meaning it will trigger Ezuri again and have a -1/-1 counter placed on it which prevents Persist from reviving it again. However, Magic rules state that if a -1/-1 counter and a +1/+1 counter are placed on a creature, they cancel each other out and are both removed from that creature. So if we have a Glen Elendra Archmage that has persisted, we can load it with at least one +1/+1 counter from any number of effects and it essentially deletes that -1/-1 counter, allowing us to counter another non-creature spell and Glen Elendra Archmage will be reanimated due to Persist all over again. Fantastic synergy and repeatable Negates.

Beast Whisperer draws us a card whenever we cast a creature, a useful way of keeping our hand full of gas since we're running so many cheap spells.

Toski, Bearer of Secrets synergizes with Ezuri, has Indestructible making it difficult to get rid of, and draws us a card whenever one of our creatures deals combat damage to somebody. It does everything we want, excellect card for this deck especially considering how many evasive creatures we have that will be connecting with combat damage.

Defiler of Vigor is absolutely insane in any creature-focused green deck, but the fact that it grants +1/+1 counters to our whole team whenever we cast a green permanent makes it that much more ridiculous. If we have any counter stacking effects like Hardened Scales or Branching Evolution, the value is going to be nuts. On top of that, it reduces the casting cost of green spells in exchange for life (definitely-not-phyrexian mana). As if that wasn't enough already, it's a massive 6/6 body with Trample which makes it a great target for Ezuri to buff when combat begins.

Cultivator of Blades has Fabricate 2, meaning we get to create two 1/1 Servo tokens when it enters the battlefield. This means three Ezuri triggers, gaining us three experience counters. The Cultivator's last ability is insanely good in this deck; when it attacks, it gives every other creature a +X/+X buff where X is equal to its power. Normally, 1 power isn't too impressive but remember that Ezuri, Claw of Progress will put a ton of +1/+1 counters on any creature we want as we move to combat, so if we put them all on Cultivator of Blades and attack with it, it'll be giving that same huge buff to all of our other creatures.

Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider has the second half of Doubling Season stapled onto it, doubling the counters we receive along with our permanents. Double the +1/+1 counters, double the Experience counters, double the Growth counters on Simic Ascendancy. Furthermore, it effectively halves the number of counters our opponents put on permanents. Vorinclex himself is an excellent creature to put Ezuri's counters on, because he has Trample and he'll double however many counters would be placed on him. Let's say we have 5 experience counters when we play Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider. We move to combat and Ezuri, Claw of Progress triggers. Normally, we'd place five +1/+1 counters on a creature, but Vorinclex turns that into 10. If we put them on him, we have a 16/16 with Trample and Haste. That's insanely scary and this Praetor can decimate opponents out of nowhere if they don't have an answer for it.

Nissa, Voice of Zendikar can generate a steady stream of 0/1 plants with her +1 ability, each of which will trigger Ezuri, Claw of Progress. She can also -2 to give a +1/+1 counter to each creature we control, which synergizes with things like Simic Ascendancy, Hardened Scales, Branching Evolution, etc. We also have the option to Ult her if we're low on life or running out of gas.

Oko, Thief of Crowns is mainly in here because Simic doesn't have a lot of options for creature removal. His +1 turns any Artifact or creature into a vanilla 3/3. In Commander, this might actually be better than hard removal. Let's say our opponent has a very problematic Commander such as Animar, Soul of Elements. If it's hit by conventional removal such as Pongify, that player can just put it back in their command zone and cast it later. However, if it's simply turned into a 3/3 with no abilities, it hasn't changed zones so that player can't move it back to the command zone. Oko makes sure they get stuck with a worthless 3/3 and they have to find a way to remove it themselves if they want to re-cast it again as an actual creature with abilities.

Animation Module has amazing synergy in this deck and does everything we could possibly want. It lets us create a 1/1 servo whenever a +1/+1 counter is put on a creature. This 1/1 servo entering the field will trigger Ezuri, Claw of Progress and get us another experience counter. Furthermore, we can pay to give a creature or player another counter of a type they already have. This means we can buff a creature that already has a +1/+1 counter but more importantly we can give ourselves another Experience counter if we already have at least 1. In some niche cases, we can even give an opponent another Poison (infect) counter if they already have at least 1.

The Ozolith lets us store any counters that would normally be lost when a creature holding them dies. We then have the option of moving those counters to another creature at the beginning of combat. +1/+1 counters should be treated as resources in this deck, and The Ozolith makes sure we don't lose them just because the creature holding them leaves the field.

Sol Ring is just a simple, efficient mana rock, an EDH staple.

Arcane Signet and Talisman of Curiosity are cheap mana rocks that tap for either of our colors.

Hardened Scales is a cheap enchantment that increases the number of +1/+1 counters we receive from any effect by 1. If Ezuri would place 3 of them on a creature, that creature gets 4 instead. If counters would be moved from one source to another, the permanent being moved to gets an extra one. For example, if The Ozolith has 3 counters and we move them to a creature, that creature receives 4 of them if Hardened Scales is in play.

Ranger Class is a fantastic enchantment for this deck. If you're unfamiliar with how Classes work, it's explained right on the card. We can spend mana at sorcery speed to add a new ability onto the existing abilities. When we cast Ranger Class, we get a 2/2 Wolf token which is great for gaining an Experience counter with Ezuri. After that, we can spend to add the ability to give a +1/+1 counter to one of our attacking creatures. Again, perfect synergy with our deck and gameplan. Finally, if we reach the final tier of Ranger Class, it not only lets us peek at the top card of our deck at anytime, but we can cast creatures off the top of our deck. This acts as an extension of our hand and lets us dig creatures out of the top of our deck if have the mana to spend and want to keep the cards in our hand as a last resort. Furthermore, if we don't see a creature on top, we have a couple of ways of shuffling our deck with various tutors like Muddle the Mixture and Nature's Lore as well as fetch lands like Misty Rainforest. Effects like these let us reshuffle so we have a chance of seeing a creature on top that we can cast. Ranger Class is fantastic in this deck and is a great mana sink if we have a ton of it available and not much to spend it on.

Simic Ascendancy gives us the option to put +1/+1 counters on creatures in exchange for mana. A useful mana sink if we have nothing else to do (Gyre Sage and Marwyn, the Nurturer will be producing a ton of mana so we can use it here). However, the scary part is that for each +1/+1 counter we put on creatures (from any source, not just Ascendancy), this enchantment receives a Growth counter. At the beginning of our upkeep, it checks to see how many Growth counters it has and if it sees 20 or more, we straight up win the game. There are obvious synergies such as Ezuri, Claw of Progress's ability but keep in mind that counters being moved counts as counters being placed. So something like The Ozolith moving its counters will generate that many Growth counters for Simic Ascendancy. Furthermore, we can Proliferate these Growth counters with things like Animation Module or Thrummingbird. If this card isn't answered, it can steal the game.

Branching Evolution is like a better Hardened Scales. Whereas Scales just increases the counters generated by 1, Branching Evolution straight up doubles them. If Ezuri would place 3 of them on a creature, that creature gets 6 instead. If The Ozolith has 3 counters and we move them to a creature, that creature receives 6 of them.

Bred for the Hunt rewards us for playing a creature-heavy, aggressive +1/+1 counter deck. Each time any of them deal combat damage to a player, we draw a card. More fuel to keep the Progress Engine rolling.

Guardian Project lets us draw a card whenever we play a non-token creature with a unique name. Since this is Commander/EDH, we'll be taking advantage of that clause. Furthermore, we want to be playing creatures anyway so we might as well replace each one by drawing a card when we do so.

Doubling Season is appropriately named, because it doubles the amount of tokens generated from any of our sources such as Nissa, Voice of Zendikar. It also doubles the number of counters put on any of our permanents, so it's like a Branching Evolution but better because it cares about ALL types of counters. This means Simic Ascendancy receives twice as many Growth counters as usual. This also means our Planeswalkers enter the field with double their starting Loyalty and their plus abilities give them twice as many Loyalty counters when we use them.

Pact of Negation is mainly in here to protect our combo (Sage of Hours + Ezuri, Claw of Progress) from any attempted disruption. The fact that we have to pay for it later isn't a big deal if we're going to be taking infinite turns anyway.

Pongify and Rapid Hybridization are just cheap, 1-mana removal spells that can get rid of a problematic creature.

Muddle the Mixture can be used defensively to counter an Instant or Sorcery, or we can Transmute it to find one of our valuable 2-CMC cards. Need some evasive threat to put Ezuri counters on? Go get Blighted Agent. Board is in a stalemate and we need another way to win? Go get Simic Ascendancy. Coast is clear and we can start taking infinite turns? Go get Sage of Hours. Graveyard decks running amok? Go get Scavenging Ooze. Need to finish the game with combat damage? Go get Finale of Devastation. Have a ton of excess mana and nothing else to spend it on? Go get Ranger Class. Lots of great options.

Cyclonic Rift can serve as quick, targeted removal or as mass removal if we overload it with 7 mana.

Beast Within is just a reliable removal spell for any permanent on the board. Sure the controller gets a 3/3 beast token but odds are if we're casting this, the thing we're destroying is more threatening than a vanilla 3/3.

Chord of Calling is an instant speed tutor that can find any creature in our deck. We have lots of big mana generators like Gyre Sage and Marwyn, the Nurturer, as well as lots of small creatures so between the mana and convoke, we can pretty much find whatever we need.

Fierce Guardianship is a free Negate so long as we control Ezuri, Claw of Progress, useful for stopping a scary non-creature spell if we're tapped out and great for protecting our combo with Sage of Hours when we attempt to take our first extra turn.

Rampant Growth, Farseek, Nature's Lore and Three Visits all ramp us by getting a land out of our deck and onto the board.

Finale of Devastation is a great finisher in our deck because we have ways to generate massive mana (i.e. Gyre Sage or Marwyn, the Nurturer) so we can leverage this to find whatever creature we want, then give our whole team a massive buff with Haste to close out the game. Finale can search for a creature from our deck OR graveyard, so keep that in mind. Sinking just 2 mana into X also gives us the option to tutor Sage of Hours which we can use to combo off.

Command Tower, Barkchannel Pathway  , Botanical Sanctum, Breeding Pool, Dreamroot Cascade, Flooded Grove, Hinterland Harbor, Rejuvenating Springs, Vineglimmer Snarl, Waterlogged Grove and Yavimaya Coast can all enter untapped and produce either of our colors.

Fabled Passage, Prismatic Vista and Misty Rainforest fix our mana and thin our deck while doing it.

Tangled Islet enters tapped but can be fetched with Wood Elves, Farseek, Three Visits, Nature's Lore or Misty Rainforest.

Dryad Arbor can be fetched with Wood Elves, Three Visits, Nature's Lore and Misty Rainforest and since it's a 1/1 creature, it gives us an experience counter if Ezuri, Claw of Progress is on the field.

Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth turns all of our lands into Forests, allowing them to tap for green mana. This is useful because we have a few lands that only tap for colorless such as Inkmoth Nexus and Rogue's Passage.

Boseiju, Who Endures has virtually no downside when compared to a regular Forest. We can play it untapped and it produces if that's what we need. However, if we find this in the late game and don't need the mana, we can hold it in hand and surprise an opponent with its Channel ability, allowing us to destroy an artifact, enchantment or non-basic land.

Otawara, Soaring City has virtually no downside when compared to a regular Island. We can play it untapped and it produces if that's what we need. However, if we find this in the late game and don't need the mana, we can hold it in hand and surprise an opponent with its Channel ability, allowing us to bounce nearly any permanent type back to its owner's hand.

Inkmoth Nexus is only in here because it can turn itself into a Flying creature with Infect. If we have a lot of exp counters, we can use Ezuri's trigger to put the +1/+1 counters on Inkmoth Nexus (be sure to turn it into a creature before combat starts) and if our opponents have no flyers, we can swing over them for Infect damage.

Rogue's Passage gives us the option to make one of our creatures unblockable in case we need to push damage through blockers.

10 Forests and 4 Islands round out the basic lands in the deck. We're playing more forests than islands because the majority of our spells require green mana to cast, especially a lot of the early game mana dorks and ramp spells.

tide

Every being on this plane will be consumed by the inevitable tide of corruption

Combos

Requirements:

Steps:

  1. Move to combat, Ezuri triggers and we put 5 +1/+1 counters on Sage of Hours.

  2. We don't have to attack with it, no need to put it at risk.

  3. At any point after that, we can remove all +1/+1 counters from Sage of Hours and take an extra turn.

Notes:

  • On that extra turn, we draw a card and have another option to advance our board state or deal more combat damage. We move to combat, Ezuri triggers and we put 5 (or more) +1/+1 counters on Sage of Hours again.

  • Then we can remove them again and take another extra turn. See where this is going? It's pretty straightforward. We just take infinite turns and eventually just beat everyone down. Just make sure Sage of Hours is never put in danger by attacking. Eventually we will find a Herald of Secret Streams or Duskshell Crawler to ensure that Sage of Hours can push damage through. Or we'll eventually draw Simic Ascendancy and easily put 20 growth counters on it before we deck out.

  • This is best attempted while our opponents are tapped out or we know for sure that there is no instant-speed interaction available to them.

No-Combo Kit

Some playgroups may not appreciate you taking infinite turns. If that's the case, be sure to remove Sage of Hours from the deck. If that is removed, you can potentially consider removing Muddle the Mixture because it's mainly in here to Transmute for Sage of Hours. You can also take out Pact of Negation if you want, it's mainly in here to protect our infinite turn combo from any disruption.

Other playgroups might hate dying to Infect. If so, be sure to remove Blighted Agent and Inkmoth Nexus.

With those removed, make up the space with any of the cards from this list

Be sure to choose replacements that are similar in function and mana cost. For example, Inkmoth Nexus should be replaced with another land such as Novijen, Heart of Progress, Blighted Agent should be replaced with an evasive 2-mana creature such as Maraleaf Pixie, etc.

adjustments

Just a few more adjustments

Upgrades

If you'd like to push this deck even further, there are a couple of changes you can make.

  1. Cut some lands in favor of fast mana rocks like Chrome Mox, Mana Crypt, Jeweled Lotus. These will help get Ezuri on board more quickly and just overall accelerate your curve significantly.

  2. Cut some of the "dead weight" or "win more" creatures in favor of some more interaction. Examples include Mana Drain, Swan Song, An Offer You Can't Refuse. Creatures that fit the bill but also work with Ezuri are good here as well, examples of those would be Gilded Drake and Malevolent Hermit  .

  3. You can also include additional combos instead of just relying on Sage of Hours. You can find some examples here.

A common combo line in a lot of high-level Simic decks is Aluren + any creature bounce effect (Shrieking Drake, Dream Stalker, Man-o'-War) + any card draw effect like Glimpse of Nature, Beast Whisperer, Soul of the Harvest, etc. This lets you draw your whole deck. In our list, we can leverage this to not only draw our deck but get a ton of Exp Counters with Ezuri, cast most of our creatures then take an extra turn with Sage of Hours to swing for game afterward.

You can also look to add Umbral Mantle since it can generate infinite mana with things like Marwyn, the Nurturer or Gyre Sage if they're big enough.

progresstyrant

We do not stop at perfection, we exceed it

Budget Options

A sample $80 budget version of this deck can be found here

Lots of great options in there, cards that work well with Ezuri and don't break the bank. Hover over the cards in this list and swap them out for cards of the same type from the budget list linked above. You're going to want to stick to 33 or more creatures (because that's what Ezuri cares about the most) and make sure you have plenty of mana dorks among them.

You can also save a lot of money on lands by just playing the slower tapped lands rather than things like Breeding Pool and Misty Rainforest. Start there before making swaps elsewhere.

The great thing about Ezuri, Claw of Progress is that he really doesn't require the most expensive cards to be good. You can play budget creatures and still have a good time. I encourage you to playtest the budget deck linked above and see for yourself.

All of that aside, if I wanted to make a budget dent in this particular list, here’s where I would start:

  1. Boseiju, Who Endures, Otawara, Soaring City, Prismatic Vista and Fabled Passage can all come out. Replace them with 2 Forests and 2 Islands and you’ll save about $65.

  2. Next up, Doubling Season is good but not $90 good, replace it with Iridescent Hornbeetle or Tanazir Quandrix.

  3. Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider is another card in the same category, good but not required. This one could also be replaced with any budget 4, 5 or 6 drop that works well with Ezuri.

  4. Fierce Guardianship is a $70 card that can be swapped for another piece of protection like An Offer You Can't Refuse or Inspiring Call.

  5. Finale of Devastation’s $50 price tag is actually somewhat justified considering it provides us with a mana sink and can search for our game winning Sage of Hours but if you need to cut it, try a board wipe in its place such as Oversimplify, Wash Out, Whelming Wave or Evacuate.

  6. Cyclonic Rift can also be replaced with any of the aforementioned board wipes, or you can run some more targeted removal like Nature's Claim or Return to Nature.

Counter Stacking Effects Explained

I feel like this needed its own section because effects like Hardened Scales + Branching Evolution can be a little tricky for newer players.

If you have multiple counter stacking effects on the board at the same time, you get to choose how to stack them.

Lets start off simple with an example:

Well, it depends:

  • If you take Branching Evolution into account first, the amount of +1/+1 counters being placed is doubled. So 1 turns into 2. But then you have to take Hardened Scales into account, which adds another. So 2 turns into 3. Duskshell Crawler will have three +1/+1 counters placed on it this way, making it a 3/6.

  • However, what happens if we flip them? Taking Hardened Scales into account first, 1 counter turns into 2. Then taking Branching Evolution into account, 2 is doubled so it turns into 4. Duskshell Crawler will have four +1/+1 counters placed on it this way, making it a 4/7.

Order matters!

Let's try another example, see if you can figure out how many +1/+1 counters should be placed for maximum value in the following scenario:

Answer Show

Starting to get the hang of it? Let's get crazy with this last example:

Answer Show

raider

The strong are resilient, but only the strongest are feared

Change Log

1/5/23

  • Did even more testing and decided to remove Foundation Breaker in favor of Glen Elendra Archmage because having a repeatable Negate is fun, especially if it's on a creature body that can Persist repeatedly if we keep canceling out its -1/-1 counter with +1/+1 counters.

  • To make up for the artifact/enchantment hate loss, I got my hands on Boseiju, Who Endures and Otawara, Soaring City and replaced a basic Forest and Island with them.

  • Made several updates to the Primer to reflect the recent changes

1/4/23

  • Mist-Cloaked Herald, Gudul Lurker and Slither Blade were all removed. Unblockable creatures are cool, but I wanted some more utility, so each one of these was replaced with another 1-mana creature with some form of evasion (Flying) and some form of utility which the aforementioned creatures were lacking.

  • The replacements are Siren Stormtamer, Mausoleum Wanderer and Hypnotic Siren. Each one is cheap to cast, has Flying and gives us an Exp Counter with Ezuri, so they can easily be loaded up with +1/+1 counters if we want to swing in with evasive damage but they have additional effects we can leverage as well.

12/27/22

  • Took out Simic Signet because we have plenty of ramp already and replaced it with Ulvenwald Tracker because he's small enough to trigger Ezuri but also gives us a repeatable fight effect which is a great removal option for us.

12/1/22

  • Replaced Pir, Imaginative Rascal with Benevolent Hydra because it provides (almost) the same static effect with the added utility of being able to redistribute its own counters which Pir can't do.

10/31/22

  • Tested Ranger Class and liked it a lot, so much so that I replaced Swiftfoot Boots. The boots are nice but there's so much ramp in the deck that it's not terribly difficult to re-cast Ezuri if he gets removed. Ranger Class creates a token that grants us an Exp counter, puts +1/+1 counters on our creatures and lets us cast creatures off the top of our deck. It's a fantastic card for what we're trying to do.

10/5/22

9/25/22

9/1/22

  • I wracked my head on what to cut for Defiler of Vigor and decided that the curve of the deck was too delicate, meaning I did not want to cut a lower CMC card in favor of the Defiler so it had to be a CMC 5 or higher card. As much as I love Iridescent Hornbeetle, it will be taking a back seat for a while as I test Defiler of Vigor in its place.

8/29/22

  • Took some lessons learned from the budget build of this deck and decided to do a bit of an overhaul.

  • All snow-covered basic lands were removed and replaced with regular basic lands of the same type. Rimewood Falls will remain in the deck until Tangled Islet releases in Dominaria United. I still like the idea of being able to find it with Wood Elves, Nature's Lore and Three Visits.

  • Ice-Fang Coatl and Into the North were removed due to the removal of the snow lands. The Coatl was fine but I wanted more unblockable threats because I was liking how Invisible Stalker was performing. Into the North isn't necessary because we have so much ramp already and our curve isn't huge.

  • Finally, Viral Drake was removed. This was a tough decision but in gameplay I noticed that by the time I played Viral Drake, my opponents were on the brink of death by regular combat damage anyway, so dealing Infect was a little overkill and the Proliferate activation isn't cheap.

  • With those 3 cuts, I decided to add Bred for the Hunt because it was drawing me quite a few cards in the budget list. And Slither Blade along with Gudul Lurker. 1-drop unblockable creatures can become a menace very quickly in this deck and adding them justified the inclusion of Bred for the Hunt.

7/24/22

7/19/22

change

There is no end to our evolution

Deleted Memes

These memes didn't really fit the theme or tone of the primer above which is why I didn't put them anywhere in there to avoid ruining it. However I did spend a whole 6 minutes making them in Microsoft Paint so now you have to look at them.

car

agent

squidward

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Revision 31 See all

(1 year ago)

-1 Awakening Zone main
+1 Heronblade Elite main
Top Ranked
Date added 8 years
Last updated 1 year
Legality

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

8 - 0 Mythic Rares

52 - 0 Rares

13 - 0 Uncommons

13 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.46
Tokens Ape 3/3 G, Beast 3/3 G, Elk 3/3 G, Experience Token, Food, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Human 2/2 G, Plant 0/1 G, Servo 1/1 C, Wolf 2/2 G
Folders Tri-Color Dragon Rulers, Dragons, decks i like, Dragon Deck, looks fun, New 2017, Tribal (Modern/Standard), Modern Marvels, Modern, deck
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