Inconsphinxuous

Commander / EDH Budget Combo Competitive Control Multiplayer WUB (Esper)

LaikaRed

Artifact (29)

• 1x Altar of the Brood
• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Darksteel Forge
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Dispeller's Capsule
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Manalith
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x Scourglass
• 1x Sculpting Steel
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Tormod's Crypt
• 1x Unwinding Clock
• 1x Voltaic Key
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Creature (5)

• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Storm Crow
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Trophy Mage
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Land (38)

• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Ancient Den
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darksteel Citadel
• 11x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Painted Bluffs
• 5x Plains
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 1x Shimmering Grotto
• 1x Spire of Industry
• 7x Swamp
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Unknown Shores
• 1x Vault of Whispers

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Increasing Ambition
• 1x Open the Vaults
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Roar of Reclamation
• 1x Serum Visions

Commander (1)

Instant (10)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Daze
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Foil
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Negate
• 1x Swan Song

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Artificer's Intuition
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Hanna's Custody
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Underworld Connections

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This is a 75% Sharuum the Hegemon list, if you are unfamiliar with what that means I will explain below

What is 75%?

A 75% deck is a semi competitive deck which is capable of playing with and even beating fully optimized lists with a bit of luck and/or tight gameplay while still being slow and interactive enough that more casual decks and players don't feel out of the race from the beginning, even if in reality they are.

Why play a 75% list?

There are lots of answers to this question, but I'll refrain and only list a few of the most prevalent reasons.

1. You want a challenge - perhaps you are the best player in your group, or your friends simply don't have decks that answer your competitive list well, either way winning relatively undisputed most games doesn't sit well with many players, even if you personally are fine with it.

2. You have a divided meta - more often than one might expect a playgroup has multiple casual players, and a handful of competitive players, as a result you might want to compete with the decks that always win, but not necessarily want to crush the casual players on turn 3, so you build a 75% list.

3. Standard competitive lists don't work in your meta - any competitive player can explain why aggro strategies or voltron tend to perform poorly in a competitive multiplayer environment, however, a slow control or combo deck can't do much when the table is full of fast creatures or decked out generals, therefore your deck has to change to reflect this meta. Competitive decks are not equipped to deal with sub-optimal strategies and choices as well as good ones, as in a competitive environment these choices would not be present.

This can be illustrated with the card Mental Misstep, which works very well in competitive meta's as many decks play a series of crucial 1 CMC cards to race to victory, in a casual meta however you might hit a Sol Ring at best, which isn't bad but it also isn't very good or even likely, and running a card that is dead in hand against a majority of the table simply isn't worth running.Alright, now with that out of the way lets get down to the deck itself.

What is this deck?

This is a Sharuum the Hegemon combo-control/mana-rock tribal deck.

Essentially the deck aims to combo out like most competitive lists, however it opts to do so slowly rather than try to race for a turn 3 combo, the exchange being that we have much more resilience in the face of disruption and unorthodox strategies.

The deck can be viewed as a control deck, however we won't be the table police, and we don't plan on countering everything that looks like a threat, instead using the cheap counters we do have to disable fast combo decks from winning early, so we can then come in for the win ourselves.

How does the deck win?

Essentially the deck wins via this combo: Sharuum the Hegemon + (Phyrexian Metamorph/Sculpting Steel) + (Altar of the Brood/Zulaport Cutthroat)

If that gets entirely shut down, which requires exile effects, the secondary win condition is to beat down with Sharuum the Hegemon, which is always a poor feeling situation, but it is a 5/5 flier, and the deck is capable of generating enough value that it isn't impossible.

It isn't very likely that you will have to come off of plan A with this deck, as there are multiples of the combo pieces and Sharuum herself is a way to fish those pieces back out of the graveyard if they do get taken care of.

Why play Sharuum?

Sharuum the Hegemon is a combo piece with built in recursion and utility which is fantastic when you're on your heels, furthermore she is a beater on a locked board if it comes down to it.

Zur the Enchanter fights on a locked board better than Sharuum the Hegemon but is not a combo piece himself, instead grabbing pieces from your library. Zur tends to hit the gas rather than dig you out of a corner, as he can only use a card once.

Breya, Etherium Shaper is one of the most viable alternatives to Sharuum the Hegemon, as she has even more utility and adds another colour, the issue is that if your experiencing artifact hate Breya, Etherium Shaper does nothing to help, whereas Sharuum the Hegemon directly combats that problem with her recursion, furthermore Breya, Etherium Shaper tends to run clunkier combos, and/or Doomsday combos, but at that point why not build a deck to race other Doomsday lists? She simply isn't focused enough for my taste when it comes to a 75% list but I would love to be proven wrong.

Oloro, Ageless Ascetic does well in a pillowfort strategy or hard control but offers little in terms of combo and is less useful on a locked board than many other viable generals.

Sen Triplets is not only a massive mana sink but an inconsistent one at that, offers nothing in terms of combo or on a locked board, they're fun but not competitive.

Sydri, Galvanic Genius another fun idea, and she has a lot of cute interactions, but cute doesn't cut it unfortunately, she only really does well when your ahead, which isn't good enough here.

In addition, many commanders have stigmas attached and playing Zur the Enchanter, Breya, Etherium Shaper, or even Oloro, Ageless Ascetic can make you a target, even subconsciously. Playing Sharuum the Hegemon has less stigmas and as a result allows both competitive and casual players to view you as less of a threat or ignore you.

Cards for combating sub-optimal decks

Ghostly Prison + Propaganda + Cyclonic Rift: these cards are extremely effective against aggro/midrange strategies or even just voltron, and essentially allow chip damage from small creatures to become a non-factor, which is all quite good as this deck aims to win a longer game.

Hanna's Custody: this card is effective against an over abundance of artifact hate, many optimal lists run some artifact hate, but sub-optimal lists can run quite a bit more, especially when in red-green.

Open the Vaults + Roar of Reclamation: these cards are used to bring yourself unexpectedly back into the game, if your opponents tap out thinking that your deck is out of big threats these can catch everyone by surprise and help you in a corner, these work particularly well against decks with a few wrath-like effects, which isn't common in most competitive lists, but is often prevalent in casual metas.

Cards that should be here

Essentially better tutors such as Demonic Tutor, as the current ones are obviously too slow.

Slightly better ramp like Mana Crypt belong in this list but are simply out of my price range currently.

Better lands, the current mana base is fine, and runs no tap lands, but the lack of fetches, pain lands, etc is obviously sub optimal.

Additionally there are some cards such as Foil, which are obviously worse than other cards such as Force of Will, this is always done because of budget.

And with that I think I've covered everything! so.. Show

7th Edition Storm Crow is optimal.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 26 - 0 Rares 24 - 0 Uncommons 24 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.62
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U
Folders	Sharuum Lists