Size Matters (An Outdated Combo Deck)

Commander / EDH* Budget Casual Infinite Combo Jank Mono-Green Primer

ThinkJank

Creature (32)

• 1x Acidic Slime
• 1x Ant Queen
• 1x Beast Whisperer
• 1x Elvish Harbinger
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Epitaph Golem
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Forgotten Ancient
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Genesis Hydra
• 1x Gyre Sage
• 1x Jade Mage
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Marwyn, the Nurturer
• 1x Pir, Imaginative Rascal
• 1x Protean Hulk
• 1x Quirion Ranger
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Scryb Ranger
• 1x Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
• 1x Starved Rusalka
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Tajuru Preserver
• 1x Viridian Joiner
• 1x Wall of Blossoms
• 1x Wall of Roots
• 1x Wirewood Symbiote
• 1x Woodland Bellower
• 1x Yavimaya Elder

Sorcery (13)

• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Genesis Wave
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Harmonize
• 1x Increasing Savagery
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Life's Legacy
• 1x Praetor's Counsel
• 1x Primal Command
• 1x Soul's Majesty
• 1x Time of Need
• 1x Uncage the Menagerie

Instant (5)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Momentous Fall
• 1x Solidarity of Heroes
• 1x Sprout Swarm

Land (35)

• 33x Forest
• 1x Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1x Reliquary Tower

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Fungal Plots
• 1x Greater Good
• 1x Hibernation's End

Commander (1)

Artifact (11)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Paradox Engine
• 1x Relic of Progenitus
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sword of the Paruns
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Tower of Fortunes
• 1x Umbral Mantle

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Rest in Peace Paradox Engine . This deck is no longer legal in its current form.

Why Play The Deck?

It's no secret that Jugan isn't a good card. Outclassed by most (arguably all) of the other four dragons in his cycle, it's safe to say that in terms of EDH he's much less of a rising star and more of a dying brown dwarf that couldn't accrue enough mass to ignite. Relegated to the trade binders of the few people who haven't already burned their copies in the cold winter months, poor Jugan rarely ever sees the light of day as a commander. In fact, EDHREC lists the dragon spirit at a measly 16 decks, which is by far the lowest of the cycle.

The biggest reason for Jugan's poor success in the format is that his ability... kind of sucks. Even Ryusei , the other contender for "Worst of the Dragon Spirits" is at least a board wipe when he dies, which is always somewhat relevant in commander. Jugan just makes things moderately bigger, a mediocre effect in a format where Avenger of Zendikar sees heavy play. The fact that you have to send him to the graveyard to get the effect also really puts a damper on what was already little more than an incrementally better Verdurous Gearhulk , because it makes it that much harder to accrue value from his corpse.

However, I believe that Jugan has a bit more potential than people give him credit for. When used in conjunction with big mana creatures like Gyre Sage , he suddenly becomes vaguely appealing as a combo/value commander who pushes his underlings to be the biggest, best version of themselves possible. If you’re interested, keep reading!

The Strategy

This deck, at its core, is a ramp deck that can combo off in the situations it needs to, winning either through sheer force or infinite loops depending on the draw.

Many games are determined by powering up a Gyre Sage or similar card, and using it to ramp into haymakers like Steel Hellkite or Genesis Wave . Accelerating these powerful cards out and being able to generate maximum advantage at an early point in the game can often result in a clean victory, especially with proper prediction and threat assessment. Combined with a sacrifice outlet and a Scavenging Ooze effect, your army will grow linearly in size turn after turn until you can smash your opponents skulls in with ease.

Sometimes, though, you get lucky. When you get lucky, things start to get really fun. Gyre Sage effects combined with Umbral Mantle generate infinite mana, but that’s hardly any fun, is it? If I wanted to win that way every game, I’d play Selvala, Heart of the Wilds as my commander. (Although I do run that combo. Call me a hypocrite, I guess.) The true combo of this deck comes to fruition with a Gyre Sage effect, a Scavenging Ooze effect, a sacrifice outlet , and Paradox Engine . A fun quirk of Jugan’s death trigger is that when placed on a Gyre Sage or similar, the additional mana that creature can now produce actually offsets the Commander Tax. Scavenging Ooze gets Jugan out of the graveyard for recasting, and Paradox Engine untaps your megadork every time you recast the titular dragon! It’s infinite mana, p/t, and whatever effect your sac outlet has!

My suggestion is to try and assemble this combo whenever possible, because if you're not winning stylishly you're playing Commander wrong.

Card Choices

Gyre Sage , Viridian Joiner , Marwyn, the Nurturer , Selvala, Heart of the Wilds : These four "megadorks" are some of the most important in the deck, enabling both the ramp and the combos that the deck has to offer. Each of them can go infinite with several series of cards in the deck, and with only a few boosts from Jugan can be made into combat monsters as well.

Greater Good , Altar of Dementia , Starved Rusalka : These are your sacrifice outlets. Despite how important they can be for the deck, we only play three of them due to the fact that they aren't very useful in multiples, and don't do a ton outside of the combo. We can easily win without these cards, and if we feel like we're close to comboing off we can always tutor for Starved Rusalka with one of our several creature tutors.

Life's Legacy , Momentous Fall : Unlike the above, these are not repeatable, limiting their usefulness in the deck, but they still warrant an inclusion by virtue of the sheer card advantage and Jugan-saccing they provide. Either is a fine source of card draw, and usually better than several other draw options the deck has.

Scavenging Ooze , Epitaph Golem , Fungal Plots , Relic of Progenitus : Any of these can get Jugan out of the graveyard after being sacrificed, though Scooze is the best of them. It doesn't have to tap, and it only costs one mana, in addition to being a tutorable creature. Relic has additional utility as a graveyard hoser, but cannot participate in the combo without Paradox Engine.

Paradox Engine , Scryb Ranger , Quirion Ranger , Wirewood Symbiote : Speaking of the perpetual motion machine, Paradox Engine makes an appearance along with several other untappers to keep the ramp train on the tracks. Paradox Engine is the only one of these that can be used to infinite combo, though the other three are tutorable, making them good when the deck is on the value plan.

Elvish Harbinger , Protean Hulk , Woodland Bellower , Time of Need , Uncage the Menagerie , Weird Harvest , Hibernation's End : There are a lot of creature tutors in this deck, some of them serving as mass tutors that can fetch a ton of creatures at once. Of these, Weird Harvest is probably the worst, enabling your opponents to fetch answers to whatever you tutor, but it's nice when you have infinite mana and can grab a solid third of your deck with it. Hibernation's End also allows the deck to play a more toolbox angle, which can sometimes be appreciated.

Umbral Mantle , Sword of the Paruns : These two cards are the "easy" combo. When paired with a megadork, they produce infinite mana, and Umbral Mantle turns it into an infinitely large creature as well. If you want to win efficiently, these are an easy, albeit boring, way to do it.

Genesis Wave , Genesis Hydra , Green Sun's Zenith , Jade Mage , Ant Queen , Tower of Fortunes , Sprout Swarm : Got lots of mana but nowhere to put it? These guys got you covered! Token production, card draw, or sheer #value, these cards provide something do do with your obscene mana production. There is no greater feeling than a Genesis wave for X=12 on turn 7.

Forgotten Ancient , Rishkar, Peema Renegade , Solidarity of Heroes , Increasing Savagery , Pir, Imaginative Rascal : These cards are pretty self-explanatory. They either add more counters or synergize with the act of adding more counters. If you need a buff to a megadork and don't have a way to sacrifice Jugan, these are fine substitutes.

Corner Cases and Important Decisions

Using Time of Need Show

Time of Need can pull four creatures from the deck: Marwyn , Pir , Rishkar , and Selvala . Most of the time, you want to be tutoring for Selvala, but every once in a while the other three might need to make an appearance. Imagine an opening hand that contains both Time of Need and Increasing Savagery . On turn 2, you can play Time of Need, but in this case you should tutor for Marwyn instead. This is because Selvala actually costs mana to activate her ability. Choosing Marwyn enables the line of Turn 2 Time of Need, Turn 3 Marwyn, Turn 4 Increasing Savagery and tap Marwyn for 6 mana, dumping whatever haymakers you might have on hand. You can't do that with Selvala!

More corner cases and interactions will be added as the deck is played.

Playing on a Budget

Turns out Commander can be kind of expensive! If you can't afford the full cost of this deck, there are a few cuts you can make to continue playing the deck on a cheaper dime. Removing Paradox Engine , Selvala, Heart of the Wilds , Eternal Witness , Thran Dynamo , Relic of Progenitus , and Krosan Grip reduces the number of expensive, non-critical cards by over $50.

Potential Cuts and Additions

Cuts

Pir, Imaginative Rascal : This newcomer from Battlebond is nice as a tutorable Hardened Scales , but I often find myself both wishing for a two-mana Time of Need target, and a more impactful three-mana play. When he works, he works, but he doesn't help me when I'm losing.

Additions Thousand-Year Elixir : I'm unsure if the cost is worth it, but it certainly seems like a powerful option to kick my megadorks into overdrive. I can use it to produce tons of mana and attack with my big dork in the same turn, or just make a zillion green mana every turn. The question is whether the pseudo-haste and indiscriminate untap is worth the extra mana compared to Magewright's Stone , or if such an effect is needed at all.

Melira, Sylvok Outcast : I've been thinking for a while now that Time of Need could really benefit from a CMC 2 target.

Top Ranked	Achieved #27 position overall 6 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	5 years
Exclude colors	WUBR
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 27 - 0 Rares 25 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.09
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Insect 1/1 G, Saproling 1/1 G
Folders	possibilities, Interesting Commander Decks, Green, Ideas, EDH, Decks that look fun, Commander Ideas, Nice Decks, Current choice, Budget