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Teenie Tiny Tana Tymna Tumults

Commander / EDH*

Gwent

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Playtest v1
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Land (32)

Instant (8)

Creature (30)

Sorcery (9)

Commanders (2)

Commander: foil Tana, the Bloodsower
Commander: foil Tymna the Weaver

Artifact (10)

Enchantment (7)

Sideboard

Creature (1)

Maybeboard

Instant (5)

Land (1)

Enchantment (4)

Artifact (2)

Creature (1)

Foreword

I've only recently begun delving into competitive EDH (as of the initial draft of this writing, about 10 momths). As I am hesitant to call this a guide; this is a personal testament and examination of what I've learned from seeking advice of those beyond me, my experiences at my local community and communities far and wide. Of course, this could also be an attempt to impart perspective upon those seeking it through prose.

One of the first things I learned about cEDH was the importance of breaking parity. Though I enjoy playing a wide variety of fast combo and resilient, slower combo archetypes; my preferred style play is proactive and reactive control through creatures and stax elements. My first attempt at a competitive deck was with Anafenza, the Foremost and her crew of versatile and numerous hatebears. Though the deck was solid, it did not run many ways to lock out or close a game (Living Plane and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite was the effective go to closer), and Anafenza was nothing spectacular outside of match-ups with grave-based combo decks. The advent of Tana, the Bloodsower and Tymna the Weaver not only addressed the aforementioned points, but opened a litany of tools for hatebear and stax builds to utilize.

Overview

Strengths of this deck:

1) Effective, versatile, and resilient stax effects. The multitude of colors available allows us to go wide with land denial and land destruction effects such as Contamination, Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon, Armageddon, Ravages of War, Ruination, Death Cloud, Smokestack, etc. Furthermore, our ability to break and recover from those effects is superb; which allows us to run a wide spectrum of hate cards without fear of keeping ourselves out of the game.

2) The use of Hatebears coincides with our partner commanders' thirst for blood. If you've got hatebears on the board state, you might as well squeeze every inch of value out of them - this means getting in for combat damage when you can. Prior to Tana and Tymna, I would have been skeptical to include Sofi's and the like as they could hardly justify their slots. With the tag team, the best equipment in the format takes the deck above and beyond, offering not only evasion and protection but also useful Saproling tokens and card draw.

3) This build is not commander reliant. Make no mistake, having either Tana or Tymna on a favorable board state in the early and mid game will be brutal for our opponents. However, we do not need either of them in a dire sense as their roles are redundantly offered throughout our deck. This means is that we will always have lines of play catering towards out strategy - if not in the opening hand, then surely in the command zone.

4) Deck connectivity; this deck's ability to grab silver bullets and hatebears / stax pieces is second to none. The usual tutors certainly make an appearance here but we welcome special guests such as Sylvan Tutor and Imperial Seal (which I see more often in fast combo builds than in stax builds) as cards that can be cast on precombat main phase and draw into post combat main phase (or via Sensei's Divining Top).

Weaknesses of this deck;

1) Very little instant speed reaction. This is perhaps another way of saying we're not playing Blue; but our effectiveness lies heavily on proactive plays and anticipation. That's not to say that we don't have lines of play at instant speed, or that those plays are weak by any means. Survival of the Fittest into a Hushwing Gryff or Aven Mindcensor is nothing to scoff at when played appropriately.

2) Weak to board wipes (but not the end of the world if it happens). A well-timed board wipe will very quickly make our impressive battlefield supremely irrelevant. However, It should be noted that there are several ways the deck can play through board wipes or even avoid getting wiped altogether.

3) Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is one of our win-cons. In many ways I really do consider this a downside - three red in cmc alone means this is not a card you want to see in an opening hand or early game, especially in a 4-color deck that goes heavy on green and white mana primarily. Chord of Calling and Eldritch Evolution are certainly preferred ways to get this guy on board, but in some cases you want to use those to grab a needed hatebear (or perhaps Elesh Norn). Of course, the card you may be running along side kiki-combo is also potentially a dead draw in most situations outside of closing the game.

Choice Inclusions by Function and Synergy

How do we win? Show

Tutors Show

Accelerants / Ramp Show

Stax Elements Show

Hate Bears Show

Equipment Show

Generic Removal and Answers Show

Filling in the Blanks / Miscellaneous Show

Playing the Deck

Every opening hand tells a different story, from a different angle, with different characters. Generally speaking you will have some combination of lands, acceleration, resource denial, hate bears, parity breakers, interaction, combo pieces, and equipment. Let's put this another way;

Things you want in your opening hand (In moderation)

1) 1-3 Lands

2) 1-2 of any form of acceleration

3) 1-2 Relevant hate bears or hate pieces

4) 1-2 pieces of resource denial / stax piece

5) Tutors

6) Card advantage

7) Parity-breaking // Interaction

Things you don't want in your opening hand

7) Combo Pieces

8) Equipment (unless its Lightning Greaves and something in your hand is a silver bullet on a creature or a tutor)

Things You Always Have In The Command Zone

9) Card Draw

10) Parity-Breaking (Only when Tana is paired with the correct cards)

Why did I prioritize in such a way? Well, 1 and 2 let us play magic, let alone faster magic. Cards that fall under 2 typically also double as parity breakers for 4. Meanwhile, 3 and 4 function to slow down the game long enough for us to mount irreversible advantage or simply lock the game out. Tutors are the catch all for things not present in our hand but require a casting cost, the vulnerability of being countered, and doesn't beat simply already having the cards we want in our hand.

Card advantage is always nice to have, but we readily have that available in Tymna if we desperately need it, and in terms of casting priority we only want to throw out a Sylvan Library or Dark Confidant earlier than anything else if we are trying to force interaction, or if we want to make a greed play and gamble the odds of our opponents not having a decent enough hand.

As aforementioned, most parity breakers are in our dorks / rocks, but there are a few cards that stand out as obvious power plays. Earthcraft, when run alongside Ruination, Blood Moon, and Magus of the Moon, gives us plenty of reason to go a bit heavier on the basics. Paired with token generation from Tana, the Bloodsower or Bitterblossom, we can expect to generate much more mana than our opponents. Phyrexian Altar is an include for similar reasons (but also serves as a sac outlet when we need it, perhaps we want a card in the yard instead of exile when staring down a Swords to Plowshares, or we need to resolve Chord of Calling but our Gaddock Teeg is still on board).

Keeping in mind this sort of priority of cards when looking at your opening hand should be a decent guide for what to keep, what to mulligan, and your possible lines of play before and after considering opponent's vantage points. Playing the hand and the subsequent game is a matter of experience and practice; but we can certainly discuss some general lines of play here.

The idea of our plays is to create as much virtual card disadvantage for as many of our opponents as possible. In theory, creating and protecting a board state where each card in their hand and their deck has no effect on our ability to win the game, or brings them no closer to winning the game for themselves - makes us the sure victor. In practice, the diversity of our opponents decks, their archetypes, card choices, and our fortune or misfortune dictates that not all our plays effects our opponents the same. An example may be that a well-timed Hushwing Gryff will totally hose the combo turn of an Animars player and perhaps even a while after, but will do absolutely nothing against Jeleva or Zur Doomsday storm. Assuredly, there are plenty of plays that likely hurt the widest range of decks across multiple archetypes (aven mincensor, Leoning Arbiter, Eidolon of Rhetoric, a well-timed Ravages of War with a favorable board state, etc). However, we are not guaranteed to have them when we need them every game. Some or many of them may be removed or countered if we play carelessly, while others require time and set up to be effective and others still only serve to slow and not halt progress.

This means you need to prioritize your pieces on success rate and necessity. Be prepared to play pieces to have them removed, and in a case where such is certain consider timing that play to achieve great efficiency or buy the greatest amount of tempo.

That being said, keep in mind that every hate bear and stax piece has a value to each opponent. Hushwing Gryff is certainly not cared for by the Animar player, but may be priceless to the Jeleva player for as long as that player needs time to find the right cards. In a different light, board wipes and removal can often be staved off for several turns when opponents seek to answer your pieces while still factoring in each other player's capacity to win on following turns. This often means that pieces may typically be answered if and only if the combo player can win on the same turn.

Alternatively, you can anticipate your opponent's interaction in an attempt to have them use it on each other, then play your pieces on the following turn. Don't forget that in some cases, one or more opponent's only or preferred answer to your stax and hate pieces is to turn sideways for combat; which begs the necessity to keep your life total in mind and gauge your ability to extend your creatures accordingly.

No matter how you choose to play it, at some point you should aim to put the heavy hitters onto the board. These heavy hitters may be Contamination, Ravages of War, Blood Moon, Vandalblast, Eidolon of Rhetoric; in general these are the pieces that will either lock the game down or effectively bring you to a highly advantageous point. Different board states, different opponents and different games dictate what constitutes as a closer and what does not (as well as when you should play it).

Playing with Board Wipes in Mind

As far as I'm concerned, Toxic Deluge is the board wipe to keep in mind here. Obviously, most other cards will do the job of ruining your board state sufficiently (including an opponent's own Elesh Norn). Regardless, consider that Wrath of God and Damnation coming in at 4 cmc makes it weak to Gaddock Teeg and vulnerable to early mana denial lines of play. Additionally, wrath effects of the heavier casting cost variety can be difficult to slot in (depending on the archetype), and equally as frail to counterspells as cheaper variants.

There is a noticeable gap between the period in which you cast Tymna and the follow up casting of Tana. This is the preferred space in which we should and can anticipate the toxic deluge being cast. The reasoning is simple, if Tymna is left unchecked we will draw into a slew of creature and non-creature threats and cast them as we see fit (perhaps giving the non-creature pieces priority); which lessens the need for us to ever cast Tana. If a board wipe comes down after the Tymna is cast, then we simply follow up with Tana and use our Saproling tokens to lock down the board via Contamination, Smokestack or generate greater amounts of mana via Earthcraft, Phyrexian Altar, etc (which even opens up the feasibility of recasting Tymna if we like).

Other lines of play in our opening hand may be sufficient enough for us never to have to cast Tymna or Tana, or avoid doing so until much later in the game. This gives us plenty of opportunities to force answers earlier, or lock down the board and roll out of the red carpet for our commanders.

General Tips and Tricks

1) When playing with either Tymna or Tana on board, it may be favorable to proceed directly to combat phase, generate your combat triggered resources; and make a better informed decision on your second main. If your opponents mean to foil your combat phase, best to let them try before doing anything else. Eidolon of Rhetoric on the board also means you want to know exactly how your combat phase went and what came of it before casting your one spell for turn. The exceptions to this are also fairly obvious; main phase 1 top of deck tutor (Sylvan Tutor, Imperial Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Worldly Tutor, Sterling Grove) into a Tymna draw trigger is a reasonable line of play. Additionally, if you are testing Combat Celebrant with your kiki-combo, keep in mind you will want those pieces on the battlefield prior to combat.

2) In my experience, Crucible of Worlds is counter or blow up on sight; you may see similar results so play accordingly. Furthermore on the issue, recognize that in many cases we cam set ourselves ahead of a our opponents in anticipation for something like Ravages of War easily without Crucible sticking the board. Using the crucible as counter or removal bait is certainly a fine tactic in this sense. Fairly soon we'll also have access to Ramunap Excatavor which I'll be more than happy to use.

3) Playing against fellow stax players can be tricky, because they come equipped with their own ways of keeping themselves from the harm of their stax effects as well as many of ours. The most common way this is done is via mana rocks. Thankfully, we have plenty of ways to hate on artifacts in the build (and you can feel free to slot in your own to fit your meta). Against Teferi and Brago decks, this is likely where you will want to hurt them. Land destruction and Blood Moon / Contamination effects will slow them down but they may still be able to cast mana rocks or have them in strong presence - meaning they can still produce the colors they need to play magic. Against Brago and Derevi decks, bear in mind that your ability to block creatures in the air is limited to a few creatures (that you may not even want to block with without the protection of a sword). Other decks still will play through stax effects via their creatures - which alone is no issue since we also have the tools to deal with them. Consequently, pressure certainly amounts when we face multiple decks capable of one and the other.

4) Many similar lists don't run Swords of X and Y (or any equipment) - and you shouldn't either if you don't want to. Personally, I have found these pieces of equipment invaluable to my build. Providing protection, card draw, colorless removal, creature recursion, and land untaps is no small benefit. The only caveat is that to use them, you must have a meaningful board presence and the opportunity to play them when they will provide some lasting impact. This may typically translate to slowing down the board, or creating stax hurdles for our opponents to overcome while we advance our board state further towards success. As an extension of this point, do feel free to swap and slot in whatever you feel gives you the competitive edge at your environment.

5) Skyshroud Elf is a HOUSE. H-O-U-S-E. I think this card works really well alongside the likes of Contamination, Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon, etc. I would love to see it in more lists, please test it out and let me know what your thoughts are!

Conclusion / Misc

I've been playing the deck post-development for about three months in what I consider a diverse and competitive meta. I'm satisfied with the results so far and am excited for future cards that can bring the build to the next level (Looking at you Ramunap Excavator). In my experience, most opening hands provide useful and meaningful lines of play and our ability to deal with differing types of threats is consistent and deliberate. Surely, we may lose to the occasional fast start or unlucky mulligan - but on the average every game feels winnable and every loss can be attributed to a decision I made or failed to make.

The deck is versatile and can be built from the ground up employing several different perspectives. For example, a variant employing Ravos instead of Tymna may not only be manageable with testing, but perhaps even a viable alternative with the right cards (Chains of Mephistopheles, The Abyss, Spirit of the Labyrinth come to mind). It should be emphasized the you should actively and constantly evaluate the state of your meta and adjust the deck accordingly; a hate-bear stax deck must remain sensitive to subtle changes in the environment to have maximum effect in as many games as possible.

(Thanks to Dan and Razzliox for answering some questions I had a few months ago that eventually led to this deck's initial draft, and for the folks in cEDH reddit's discord for pointing out some similar lists for me to look at)

Updates

Made some updates to the build as a result of recent play-testing and comparing notes.

-Academy Rector; nothing game ending comes out of this card and 4 mana + something to sac it with makes it too infrequently usable.

-Phyrexian Altar; Shines if we get Tana tokens on the board state; but is 3 mana and serves as a mana utility function in a deck that already has plenty of other better options.

-Imperial Recruiter; We have so many tutors and card advantage enablers as it is; I'm not even sure I need Recruiter of the Guard in the build as of right now. This slot can go to some more meta hate.

-Thalia, Heretic Cathar; Not doing much work for sitting at the 3 mana slot; Lands that could come in untapped may be getting hosed by contamination, blood moon, or armageddon. Otherwise, they have parity elsewhere such as artifacts, in which case we should seek to answer those cards with other hate pieces.

Upgraded mana base with Flooded Strand and Polluted Delta.

Thalia, Guardian of Thraben; 2 cmc that slows the game down. Not ending games but keeps us moving to the next turn.

Birthing Pod; Probably a no duh' moment since the namesake revolves around this card but I've never really been particularly excited for it. Trying it to see if my jimmies are rustled. We're running the whole package here so..

Yisan, the wanderer bard

Village Bell Ringer

Felidar Guardian

Nature's Claim

On the chopping block;

In the maybeboard;

Anafenza, The Foremost

Scavenging Ooze / Withered Wretch / Rest in Peace

Red Elemental Blast

Chaos Warp

Harsh Mentor

More stuff!

More to come

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Revision 4 See all

(7 years ago)

-1 Academy Rector main
+1 Birthing Pod main
+1 Chaos Warp maybe
-1 Chromatic Lantern main
+1 Chrome Mox maybe
-1 Crucible of Worlds main
-1 Dosan the Falling Leaf maybe
+1 Felidar Guardian main
+1 Flooded Strand main
-1 Fracturing Gust maybe
+1 Gemstone Caverns maybe
-1 Grand Abolisher maybe
+1 Harsh Mentor maybe
-3 Imperial Recruiter main
-1 Living Plane main
+1 Nature's Claim maybe
+1 Null Rod maybe
-1 Phyrexian Altar main
-1 Plains main
+1 Polluted Delta main
and 32 other change(s)
Top Ranked
  • Achieved #24 position overall 7 years ago
Date added 7 years
Last updated 7 years
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

39 - 1 Mythic Rares

34 - 0 Rares

7 - 0 Uncommons

8 - 0 Commons
Cards 98
Avg. CMC 2.36
Tokens Copy Clone, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Saproling 1/1 G
Folders Take Note, Others' Commanders, Things to Consider, 10K EDH, Favorable Fodder, EDH/Commander, Othershtuff, edh
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