We're Gonna Need a LOT of Dice (Commander / EDH MTG Deck)

We're Gonna Need a LOT of Dice

Commander / EDH*

ThallionDarkshine

Creature (39)

Land (37)

Instant (6)

Planeswalker (1)

1x Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury

Commander (1)

Artifact (7)

Enchantment (6)

Sorcery (3)

Maybeboard

Creature (9)

Instant (2)

Land (1)

1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

Sorcery (2)

This Ezuri deck is built around playing lots of low-power utility creatures, including mana dorks, with Ezuri on board and using his ability to buff up cards that care about their power and/or +1/+1 counters. This deck has gone through many iterations to get to its current state. My latest changes have attempted to lower the curve and allow you to ramp out an early Ezuri more often. In the future, I plan to either shift the deck towards either more token-producers, more game-ending spells, or more counterspells to protect your board. Feel free to leave any card suggestions, comments on my probably unintelligible explanations on card choices, or even notes on the formatting.

Card Choices by Role

Note - This may not be up to date. Some of the cards in the current deck list might not have explanations here, and there may be explanations for some cards that no longer exist in the deck. Cards in the deck will have their names bolded.

Ramp

1-CMC:

Sol Ring - No explanation needed, just an incredibly powerful EDH staple.

2-CMC:

Sakura-Tribe Elder - Another staple, it's a Rampant Growth that gives you an experience counter later in the game and can chump block and still get you a land.

Devoted Druid - This is a great mana dork in this deck. Easy casting cost, ramps out Ezuri, can generate massive mana for combos, what's not to love?

Gyre Sage - This is unique among our 2-cmc ramp spells in that it cannot facilitate a t3 Ezuri. However, with Ezuri buffing it up it can easily tap for 6 or 7 mana.

Magus of the Library - This is a very interesting card, in that it functions as both ramp and draw. Playing this on t2 causes it to function much like a Phyrexian Arena that doesn't ping you, and it can also tap for mana if necessary.

Simic Signet - A great 2-cmc mana rock that fixes your mana for you. With all the colorless rocks and dorks in the deck, it's nice to have an outlet to filter it into colored mana.

Thought Vessel - Since a lot of our draw engines draw us lots of cards at once, it's nice to have no max hand size. Like most of the other 2-cmc ramp spells, it also lets us play a t3 Ezuri, which is nice.

Plague Myr - This card isn't for you if your playgroup hates infect, but otherwise it's a mana dork that doubles as a win condition later in the game. That combination is very strong, since it means that it's basically never a dead draw.

3-CMC

Awakening Zone - I love this card in any deck that wants tokens and ramp. It lets you store up mana for an explosive turn while steadily accruing experience counters. I'm not sure how to express how good this card really is, you just have to try it and see for yourself.

Cultivate and Kodama's Reach - Definitely some of my favorite ramp spells, they ramp you and make sure you keep hitting your land drops.

Growing Rites of Itlimoc - I'm kind of iffy about this card, since it's hard to flip with the low number of token producers in the deck. Even when it flips, it usually only gives 3-5 mana. Still, it cantrips for a creature, so it can't be that bad. I'll continue testing with it and see how it performs.

Viridian Joiner - A Gyre Sage that generates mana on its own and doesn't grow on its own. Just another mana-producing sink for Ezuri's counters. Its mana production can also be augmented by pump spells or anthems.

Yavimaya Elder - It doesn't actually ramp you, but ensures that you keep hitting your land drops. A decent inclusion, but there may be better options available.

Fertilid - This is one of our most powerful ramp cards, letting us easily fetch all our basics over the span of a few turns. While a 7 mana Explosive Vegetation doesn't look all that appealing on the surface, the amount of lands that this can get you in combination with Ezuri is incredible.

4-CMC

From Beyond - An Awakening Zone that comes down a turn later and makes bigger tokens. I think the effect is strong enough to run, even at 4-cmc.

5-CMC

Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury - A very versatile planeswalker, it offers token production, ramp, artifact/enchantment destruction, and draw if you get the chance to ultimate her. All of her abilities are very powerful throughout the game.

7-CMC

Zendikar Resurgent - This is an incredibly powerful card for the unique combination of abilities it provides. First off, it lets you draw off of each creature you cast. Next, it gives you extra mana off of all your lands so you can cast even more creatures. If your opponents let you untap with this in play, you should be in a great position to take over the game.

Draw

2-CMC

Evolutionary Leap - Lets you sacrifice stuff in response to removal for some card draw, lets your creatures with etb-effects cycle, and turns tokens into cards.

3-CMC

Lifecrafter's Bestiary - It filters your draws and lets you make any creature spell you cast cantrip for an extra green mana. Not an amazing card, but it helps keep your hand full.

Cold-Eyed Selkie - Blue is a very prevalent color in EDH, so this will probably find someone it can hit for free. Once you get a few counters on it, the draw power it provides gets out of control.

Toothy, Imaginary Friend - This card is fantastic in here, getting bigger whenever you draw cards and then whenever your opponents deal with it, you get a bunch more cards to reload. And if that wasn't good enough already, it tutors card:Pir, Imaginative Rebel on etb, which is pretty powerful in its own right.

4-CMC

Vizier of the Menagerie - Makes your difficult casting cost easier, and gives you a great draw engine. With the amount of creatures in the deck, you should be able to "draw" quite a few cards off of this. In addition, unlike other cards like this, the top card is not revealed to your opponents, which is very nice.

Mindless Automaton - It's the weakest of our draw engines, but once you get a bunch of experience counters, it can draw you lots of cards. The nice thing about this is that you don't have to draw all the cards right away, meaning that half of your draws don't have to be discarded at end of turn like with other draw engines.

Fathom Mage - A great draw engine, giving you a card for every +1/+1 counter it gets. It's a bit annoying that you only get the counters at the moment it gets the counters, meaning that you might just have to discard most of the cards, and then spend another Ezuri trigger to draw the next time. Still, definitely a great inclusion.

Rashmi, Eternities Crafter - Functions somewhat like a Phyrexian Arena, and sometimes even lets you cheat out the card you draw. Synergizes nicely with Courser of Kruphix and Vizier of the Menagerie to ensure you get something you can cast.

Tezzeret's Gambit - A Divination that gives you an experience counter and pumps your team. Not flashy, but definitely very strong.

Greater Good - One of the most powerful sac-outlets in the game, this card gives you a free way to turn big creatures into value. I really liked Evolutionary Leap as a sac-outlet, but the mana cost kept piling up. While it was much better at turning weaker creatures into value, this can dig you incredibly deep and lets you turn every Ezuri trigger into a massive draw spell.

5-CMC

6-CMC

Rishkar's Expertise - Incredibly powerful draw that lets you keep tempo by playing something off of it. With a couple Ezuri triggers, this could easily be draw 5 or 6, and using it in a pinch as a smaller draw spell isn't too bad given that you get to cast one of your draws.

7-CMC

Removal/Interaction

1-CMC

Ulvenwald Tracker - It's a 1-drop to trigger Ezuri, and acts as repeatable creature removal. What's not to love about that?

Rapid Hybridization - Cheap instant-speed creature removal. Gives them a token, but your creatures should be much larger than a measly 3/3.

Stubborn Denial - A 1-cmc counterspell to defend against removal mostly. Most of the time you have something to protect you'll have ferocious, and I've used the conditional mode to decent effect several times.

2-CMC

Night Soil - Fairly powerful grave-hate that generates tokens to give you experience counters. Scavenging Ooze might be a better card for graveyard hate, but as an enchantment this should be more resilient, and the tokens it produces synergize nicely with Ezuri.

Cyclonic Rift - One of the best removal spells in the format, should have a place in any blue deck that can potentially get to 7 mana. One-sided board wipes are great, and with all the ramp in the deck, you should be able to overload it and still have mana left for other things.

Reality Shift - Instant speed creature removal that exiles. The manifest is slightly more relevant than the tokens from Swan Song and Rapid Hybridization, but it's a small price to pay for the ability to remove an Ulamog or Blightsteel Colossus.

Arcane Denial - A "nice" counterspell. I read somewhere that 2-for-3ing an opponent is better than 1-for-1ing them in multiplayer. In addition, the mana cost is much easier than Counterspell.

3-CMC

Beast Within - One of the best green removal spells. Instant speed, can hit anything targetable, and only gives its controller a mostly useless token.

Krosan Grip - Split second is incredibly underrated, and has so many applications. This lets you kill things with activated abilities you don't want happening, like Nevinyrral's Disk or Necropotence. I can't tell you how many times I wish I had this in hand instead of a removal spell without split second. Alright fine, it's probably about 2 or 3, but you get the point.

Song of the Dryads - When I build a deck, I usually fall into the trap of assuming my commander will be available to me. This takes full advantage of that, turning anything into a forest. Most commanders work considerably less well as a land.

Trygon Predator - Repeatable artifact/enchantment removal on a body that triggers Ezuri, definitely a great card.

Cephalid Constable - Your opponents probably won't let this hit them, but giving it unblockable is a recipe for a one-sided board wipe. It even hits lands if you're feeling mean.

Tempting Licid - I really like Lure effects in Ezuri, since they have lots of flexibility in their use. They can let you use a powerful creature as a pseudo-board wipe, or let a useless creature draw blockers away from your team, making them essentially unblockable. This is probably the best Lure effect we have access to, letting you mess with other players' combats, turn into an aura in response to removal, and basically just annoy your opponents.

4-CMC

Mystic Snake - It's Counterspell + Grizzly Bears. Maybe another 2-cmc counterspell would be better, but I like this for its ability to give you an experience counter. And with the amount of ramp in the deck, you should be able to hold up 4 mana after a strong turn fairly often.

5-CMC

Acidic Slime - A great piece of removal that also serves as a rattlesnake to discourage attacks from coming your way. Hitting lands is pretty important, because people often have very powerful utility lands.

Ixidron - This is an incredibly mean creature-wipe, turning all nontoken creatures into useless 2/2s. Meanwhile, all your creatures keep their +1/+1 counters, making them much larger than 2/2. Note that it does not give the creatures the ability to turn face up again, making it another great way to say "no" to someone's commander.

6-CMC

Duplicant - A decent piece of creature removal that triggers Ezuri. If there were more effects like Reality Shift, I would consider cutting this, but exiling is very important so this definitely deserves its slot.

Triskelion - This card is incredibly powerful, doubling as creature removal and a finisher. With enough experience counters, it can also serve as a one-sided creature wipe. However, if you can do that, then why not just kill your opponents? This is definitely one of the strongest counter sinks in the deck.

Token Producers

1-CMC

Animation Module - I kept seeing this card popping up in Ezuri lists, and never really understood why. Recently, I took a second look and realized just how much it does in the deck. It is a decent set up play on turn 1, generates tokens fairly cheaply, and can give you experience counters when you don't have a lot else to do.

2-CMC

3-CMC

Nissa, Voice of Zendikar - One of the best planeswalkers for this deck, she makes tokens, buffs your team, and draws a bunch of cards if you get to her ult. In addition, she curves nicely into Ezuri, giving you a token, and with it an experience counter, for free.

Chasm Skulker - I'm not convinced that this card is all that great, but I picked one up recently, so I'm trying it to see how it does. It protects you from board wipes in a sense, and can grow into a big beater on its own, which is quite a lot for 3 mana. And if it dies with Ezuri on board... Let's just say you'll have a bunch of experience counters.

4-CMC

From Beyond - An Awakening Zone that comes down a turn later and makes bigger tokens. I think the effect is strong enough to run, even at 4-cmc.

Whirler Rogue - It gives you 3 Ezuri triggers for 4 mana, and lets you make your huge threats unblockable. Definitely one of the most powerful cards in this deck, at any stage in the game. Whether you need to generate your first few experience counters or just give your beaters evasion, it does it all.

5-CMC

Cultivator of Blades - A pump spell on a stick that gives you 3 Ezuri triggers. It doesn't give you trample, which is annoying sometimes, but it's still an incredibly powerful card in this deck. It's even an elf if you're interested in playing an elfball list.

Mycoloth - If uninterrupted, this card can singlehandedly close out games with Ezuri. It actually makes your experience counters grow exponentially, which is frankly ridiculous.

Whisperwood Elemental - With my luck, this might as well be a token producer that removes lands from my deck. Even when you hit creatures, you don't get their etb triggers, but it's still a decent source of card advantage. You can even bounce the noncreatures it hits with Temur Sabertooth to play normally. It also represents pseudo-protection against board wipes, which is nice.

7-CMC

Hornet Queen - This is mostly here for the 5 experience counters it provides, but the tokens serve as great rattlesnakes.

Finishers

2-CMC

Sage of Hours - I have been going back on forth on whether I want to run this card for quite some time. On one hand, it's a dead draw in the early game, sitting in your hand until you can win the game with it. On the other hand, pretty much all of the other decks in my play group have very powerful finishing combos, so I have decided to run it to give myself a more concrete way to close out games.

3-CMC

Hadana's Climb - Flipping this is incredibly easy, and once flipped it can activate to give a creature both a huge buff and flying to help it get in for damage.

4-CMC

Dragon Throne of Tarkir - I like this card as a powerful way to repeatably Overwhelming Stampede, though it is fairly mana intensive to do so. However, I feel the effect is easily powerful enough to warrant its inclusion.

Viral Drake - Much like with Plague Myr, stay away from this card if your playgroup dislikes infect, but otherwise it's an incredibly powerful value engine. The ability to repeatably proliferate is pretty sweet, and lets it close out games very quickly.

5-CMC

Kalonian Hydra - This card is insane. It grows out of control incredibly quickly, and is one of the few win-conditions that works without Ezuri. Doubling the counters on all your creatures every attack is so powerful, closing out games very fast.

Mycoloth - If uninterrupted, this card can singlehandedly close out games with Ezuri. It actually makes your experience counters grow exponentially, which is frankly ridiculous.

Overwhelming Stampede - I was initially against this card, since but it was mostly just for superficial reasons, since you have to cast it before your Ezuri trigger for the turn. However, you'll usually get a massive buff from this even without the extra counters, and it gives trample, which is very important. The other option in this slot would be Triumph of the Hordes, I'll test both out and see how they work.

6-CMC

Utility Lands

Path of Ancestry - Elf is a really popular creature type, and even if it's only a etb-tapped dual land that lets you scry when you cast your commander, it's a great card.

Lumbering Falls - This serves as a decent beater that can slowly build up counters with Ezuri and is difficult to remove. It lives through sorcery-speed board wipes and targeted removal, making it a great counter sink.

Reliquary Tower - A lot of our draw engines draw tons of cards at once, so it's nice to be able to keep all those cards in your hand.

Rogue's Passage - Lets you makes something unblockable to swing in for the kill. I would never dream of building an Ezuri list without this card.

Alchemist's Refuge - One of the downsides of Ezuri is that you need creatures to buff, and powerful creatures surviving a rotation of the table is often very unlikely. This lets you flash in your threats, letting you attack with them immediately on your next turn.

Command Beacon - This card is pretty great, letting you get around the commander tax for one cast of Ezuri. I've found that people really like killing him, even when I don't have all that many experience counters. Since the deck relies on his abilities quite heavily, this is a great inclusion.

Other

1-CMC

Sylvan Safekeeper - A great way to protect all your stuff from targeted removal, and a nice card to play right after Ezuri for your first experience counter.

Shrieking Drake - This is a great card, letting you pay to generate an experience counters. In addition, it synergizes very well with Lifecrafter's Bestiary and Zendikar Resurgent, forming a powerful draw engine.

2-CMC

Fauna Shaman - Survival of the Fittest on a stick, lets you get whatever creature you need at the time, and since a lot of our answers are in the form of creatures, it is very useful.

Swiftfoot Boots - One of the most important cards in the deck, it protects from targeted removal and gives haste. Haste enablers are necessary, since often giving opponents a turn to respond to a big threat is too risky. Hasting out a Cephalid Constable, buffing it with Ezuri, and hitting someone to bounce their lands, or if you're not a terrible person the rest of their board is so powerful.

Thrummingbird - This card can get out of control very quickly, proliferating experience counters, +1/+1 counters on your team and planeswalkers' loyalty counters. It's a great cheap option to get your experience counters off the ground.

Den Protector - Not only is this a great piece of recursion, it also is a decent evasive beater, which is a pretty strong combination.

3-CMC

Champion of Lambholt - After putting counters on this once or twice with Ezuri, your team should be unblockable. And when you can pump your team to ridiculous proportions with various cards in the deck, that's very scary. This is probably the best source of evasion in the deck.

Eternal Witness - Just a great green staple, letting you recur anything you need. Very powerful in combination with Temur Sabertooth

Sword of Vengeance - I was dismissive of this card at first, but after taking a second look, I think it's actually fairly strong in this deck. Some important things you want in an Ezuri deck are things that give haste and trample or unblockable. This gives both haste and trample, as well as a couple other nice abilities. While the equip cost is pretty steep, I think it's worth it for the power and utility it gives.

Tempting Licid - This card has lots of utility in the deck. You can put it on a massive creature to serve as removal, some useless mana dork to draw blockers away from your huge threats, and even use it on opposing creatures. In addition, it's fairly difficult to remove, since if they target the enchanted creature, you can simply end the effect, and targeting it with an enchantment/creature-removal spell can be fizzled by switching what it is. I'm even considering adding to the lure subtheme with Noble Quarry, since they seem like they'll play very well with the deck.

Pir, Imaginative Rascal - Hardened Scales was a card that I see in tons of Ezuri decks, but I never really felt had enough value on its own to justify a slot. Now, a Hardened Scales on legs that also can have some niche utility and also tutors a broken draw engine... Sign me up!

4-CMC

Temur Sabertooth - This is a great way to eke out some additional value out of etb effects, save creatures from board wipes/spot removal, and maybe even win the game. While not in this particular list, many of the big-mana producing creatures can combo with this, a haste-enabler, and Master Biomancer to produce infinite mana.

Faerie Artisans - I'm constantly being surprised at how powerful this card is. I included it initially just as a way to get some extra experience counters, and maybe even a few nice etb effects. Since then, I've had people giving me good stuff in exchange for not attacking them, drawn tons of cards off of Evolutionary Leap, and gotten tons of sweet etb effects. With Temur Sabertooth on board, you can even bounce it to hand when you get something your really like to keep it permanently.

Forgotten Ancient - This card is a great backup to Ezuri, letting your deck function without him in play, and letting you spread out your counters with Ezuri on the board. It can grow incredibly quickly, letting you dump a bunch of counters on your team on your next turn.

8-CMC

Praetor's Counsel - Returns your entire graveyard to hand, and gives you no max hand size. Both of these effects are incredibly valuable, but 8 is a lot of mana. Maybe Seasons Past would be better in this slot, but for now I'm sticking with this.

Changelog

8/5/2018

In this minor update, I'm taking out some cards that I really like but feel somewhat low impact in favor of some interesting cards I want to test.

+Dryad Greenseeker: This card seems pretty powerful, making sure I'm hitting my land drops, and is a 2-drop, much better than Yavimaya Elder, which I previously had in this slot.

+Abzan Beastmaster: I've been trying to find another draw engine for this deck for a while. I tested Skullclamp, which is a ridiculously powerful card, but I don't have enough tokens or sac outlets to make it work. I thought about Paradoxical Outcome for a while, but it feels a bit too cute. For now, I'll be running this guy in that slot and seeing how he feels. Having repeatable draw on a cheap body to get early Ezuri counters seems pretty sweet, but it may not be quite good enough.

+Reclamation Sage: I'm testing this over Acidic Slime to help lower the curve, in addition to letting me abuse it more easily with Temur Sabertooth. I've actually never used the slime to blow up a land, but this may still be slightly too weak, and it's very possible that I'll revert this change in the near future.

-Acidic Slime: This card is more expensive than I'd like for a piece of removal, so I'm trying Reclamation Sage in its place.

-Yavimaya Elder: I like this card, but sometimes you need that piece to get you from 2 to 3 mana, which this doesn't do all that well. For that reason, I'm trying Dryad Greenseeker in its place.

-Thrummingbird: This is probably one of my favorite cards in Ezuri, but I feel like often it's kind of low impact. This may be a really bad cut, since this card can do some sweet things, but for now I'm cutting it to find room for some more card draw.

7/17/2018

So... I kind of forgot to keep updating this with some of the more recent changes. Essentially, I found that the deck was pretty slow, and my hand kept filling up with clunky 4+ drops that all needed haste to function effectively. Obviously, when I draw one of my two haste-enablers, this works out pretty alright, but in the other situations it's not all that great. I was trying to avoid running the 1-cmc dorks, thinking that they didn't really do enough, but I tried throwing them in, and they felt pretty good. I like 1-cmc creatures to empty my hand after a big draw effect, and the early ramp to get Ezuri out fast is always nice. Other than that... I swapped around some stuff to fit the group I've been playing with lately. Anyways, I'll give my best estimate of the changes, but no promises on accuracy. Currently missing one of the cuts I made, but it's a pretty decent approximation of the changes.

+Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Llanowar Elves: As mentioned above, I like 1-cmc creatures, and the early ramp is nice. Also, the Llanowar Elves promo is super sweet, and I really wanted to get the chance to play it in something.

+Scavenging Ooze: Scooze is probably the best grave hate available, and it's not all that pricy at the moment. I noticed myself running into a lot of decks where I really wanted to hit noncreatures in the graveyards, so I switched over from Night Soil.

+Khalni Garden: Going up to 37 lands with a land that also nets you an experience counter sometimes, or even just a target for Ezuri's counters. Not the greatest land, but I think it's alright as the 37th.

+Spellseeker: This card is bonkers in any deck that runs Cyclonic Rift and counters, so I jammed it in as soon as I picked one up.

+Sage of Hours: I need a consistent way to close out games without a haste enabler on the table, and this is probably the best one available. I still feel kind of scummy when I try to win with it, but my new playgroup is somewhat more cutthroat, so I need it as a finisher.

-Kalonian Hydra: I don't have enough haste-enablers to make this work, and 5 mana often represented the majority of my turn. Playing somewhat of a do-nothing for most of my turn doesn't seem appealing, so this guy's coming out.

-Farhaven Elf: I don't like 3-cmc ramp in Ezuri, so I'm not sure exactly why I put this guy in. reads description for change Oh right, I just threw in the first ramp creature I saw.

-Viral Drake: I never really had enough mana to justify doing the proliferate ability, and often this guy would just sit in hand waiting for a haste enabler so I could kill someone with a flying infect creature.

-Night Soil: I like this card a lot, but I need to be able to hit noncreatures in graveyards, so I'm swapping it out for Scavenging Ooze.

- Growing Rites of Itlimoc : I always struggled to flip this card, and even when it flips I don't have enough token generation to really take advantage of it. It would often just cycle (or whiff) for 3 mana, and maybe turn into a sol land.

-Nissa, Voice of Zendikar: I had wayyy too many 3-drops, so she had to come out to make room for some of the new stuff. Not convinced that cutting her is correct, but I'll test like this for now and see how it goes.

4/8/2018

This deck runs a bunch of powerful draw engines, and I'm trying to add the ramp to help make sure that you can make use of those cards. In particular, I want to fit in more land ramp to make sure we can rebuild after board wipes, but I also want to maintain a high creature count for various synergies. I'm not sure what the correct cuts are, but I'm currently trying removing some low-impact or high cost cards to make room. In addition, I changed up the land base a little bit, cutting the cycle lands and replacing them with basics. I don't think I want to be cycling lands all that often, so switching to basics should speed up the mana base a tad.

-Sylvan Safekeeper: While keeping Ezuri on board is important to the deck, doing so at the cost of our lands is usually just bad. There is no creature in the deck important enough that we are willing to sacrifice our lands to protect it. In addition, I'm really bad at evaluating when it is correct to protect things, so I waste too many lands a lot of the time.

-Sage of Hours: I keep going back and forth on whether to include this card. For now, I want cards that are useful in every stage of the game, whereas this guy paints a target on your back and does basically nothing in the early to mid game.

-Hornet Queen: 7 mana is a lot... Not really much to say besides that. Having a bunch of flying blockers is nice, but I want to try to lower the curve more, so I'm cutting it for now.

+Farhaven Elf, Yavimaya Elder: Both of these cards are fairly mediocre, but they ramp you or make sure you hit your land drops and are creatures, so I guess they're fine? Not sure exactly where I want to take the ramp package, but this is what I'm testing at the moment.

+Stratus Dancer: Having an extra morph creature is pretty decent because it actually lets them be a secret. People caught on that I only ran Den Protector, so I'm throwing this guy in to mess with them. In addition, it's a fairly decent counterspell, and a flying blocker to help with the loss of Hornet Queen.

4/6/2018

So with Battlebond coming out, Greater Good (and tons of other format staples) has become cheaper, and some cool new cards have been released. I'm not sure about these changes, but I definitely want to get the chance to test out Toothy and Pir in here, since they seem like a fantastic fit.

-From Beyond: I like this effect a lot, but coming down on 4 means that it conflicts with playing my commander as well as a bunch of my other more powerful 4-drops. In addition, I can't really use the second ability at all, since there aren't really any eldrazi that fit well in the deck.

-Mystic Snake: This card won me a game once upon a time, but most of the time I think 4 mana is too expensive for a simple counterspell on a stick.

-Evolutionary Leap: I really like this card, but currently I'm trying out Greater Good as a sac outlet.

+Toothy, Imaginary Friend, card:Pir, Imaginative Rebel: Toothy and Pir are some of the cards I'm most excited for from Battlebond. Toothy can get really big really fast and refills your hand when your opponents deal with him. Pir is a Hardened Scales on a stick that can have some niche utility on the side. The best part is, they tutor each other, so you aren't really getting a Hardened Scales or a Chasm Skulker that draws cards, you're getting that and a card draw.

+Greater Good: This card has such a high power level, letting you dig through your deck incredibly quickly and get value from your creatures in response to removal. I'm not sure if I want this over Evolutionary Leap, or if maybe I even want both, but I'm testing this for now to see how it plays.

3/31/2018

So I've been contemplating this change for quite some time. I have a bunch of things that I want to be playing in here, but I always struggle finding cuts for them. elgosu1337 suggested some great cuts to me, and it definitely helped me a lot with this update, so thanks for that! With this change, I have also updated the card choices explanations, so as of this update every card in the decklist should have an explanation.

-Magus of the Library: This card has been feeling really clunky for quite some time, but I was valuing 2-drop mana dorks very highly, so I kept ignoring its very situational nature and color-intensive mana cost. Basically, I really liked the idea of the card, but it's just not good enough to deserve a slot.

-Tezzeret's Gambit: This is another card that I really liked in theory, but never really lived up to my idea of it. It's a pretty decent card, but I don't think I have enough slots to devote to card draw to get away with running a Divination effect, even if it does give an experience counter.

-Praetor's Counsel: This deck doesn't generate tons of mana all that well, especially when this card would be useful. We want this after a board wipe to help us reload, but at that point we have very little mana, so even if we can cast it, it's unlikely that we'll be able to do anything else on our turn, making it not all that great.

+Shrieking Drake: pain42 suggested this to me a while back, but I was dragging my heels on putting it in. After playing with it in a game, I definitely see that it is worth its place. It lets us get our experience counter generation off the ground so quickly, and can form a powerful draw engine in combination with Lifecrafter's Bestiary or Zendikar Resurgent.

+Zendikar Resurgent: As I mentioned, this is fantastic with Shrieking Drake as a powerful draw engine. While often we won't have much mana available after casting this, it is a must-answer threat, and if not dealt with can allow us to take over the game. I remember a game with my elfball Ezuri list where, after getting my board wiped, I took a turn off to develop this, and the next turn easily comboed off and won. This is an incredibly powerful card, but I've been letting a few bad experiences where it sat in my hand because of on-board enchantment destruction affect my judgement.

+Command Beacon: I've been wanting to go up to 36 lands for a while, and this is a pretty great land, letting you regain access to Ezuri at a reasonable mana cost after he's been killed a couple of times.

3/12/2018

So... I haven't really been keeping track of changes to this decks, so I'm just going to put my best guess of the recent changes in this update.

-Yavimaya Elder: This card, while it makes sure you hit your land drops for the next few turns, is very slow, and often loses value because of hand size. Also, double green is not a cost I want to be playing on a ramp/fixing spell.

-Mycoloth: I love the idea of this card, but that's about it. I'm always hesitant to play it, since I don't usually have many tokens to sacrifice, and it pretty much eats a removal spell instantly. Overall, it's just too slow of a threat that is too vulnerable to common removal.

-Vizier of the Menagerie: I'm growing more sure that this is not the type of draw we want in this deck. While in more combo or cycle-oriented lists this card can be invaluable, this deck wants to slowly build a board, saving resources for after they clear your threats. Extending your hand size by 1 is not that valuable for that strategy, and it doesn't even have 2 power to get you an experience counter.

-Viridian Joiner: This deck doesn't have all that many high-cmc cards, and coming down on turn 3 and only generating 1 mana initially means that it usually doesn't do a whole lot. I'm not even sure if I want Gyre Sage anymore, since it also doesn't ramp you into Ezuri. However, it can be slotted into turns much more easily.

-Krosan Grip: I feel the deck is slightly too reactive in its current state. This may not be the correct piece of interaction to remove, but I'll keep testing with other options.

-Overwhelming Stampede: I really dislike how this card interacts with Ezuri. You need a big creature to stick for a turn in order for this to actually generate a relevant buff for your team.

+Hadana's Climb: Not only can this serve as a much weaker backup Ezuri, once it flips it gives massive buffs and evasion to your creatures, everything this deck is trying to do.

+Viral Drake: This addition is part of my attempt to make the deck more aggressive, adding a powerful beater that quickly threatens death and gives you a powerful mana sink.

+Fertilid: This is coming in over Viridian Joiner because I want more ramp that persists through creature wipes, and this is probably the most powerful way to do so.

+Sage of Hours: Another new finisher to help me close out games. Most of the decks in my meta have fairly absolute win conditions, so just beating down with creatures over time wasn't quite cutting it.

+Forgotten Ancient: This card is coming in as another backup to Ezuri, since I've found that the deck does almost nothing without him on the field. In addition, this can let you spread out your counters, which can be nice with proliferate.

1/5/2018

-Courser of Kruphix: While filtering out land draws has been a fairly strong effect, giving opponents knowledge of my draws made this card's effect more bad than good.

-Coiling Oracle: Needing both my colors on turn 2, combined with the fairly low likelihood of hitting a land, means that this will hardly ever lead to a t3 Ezuri. In addition, paying 2 mana simply to draw is fairly mediocre, so I'm replacing this with more consistent ramp and more powerful draw.

-Fuel for the Cause: I'm not sure whether cutting this or Mystic Snake would be better. 4-cmc counterspells are very slow, and while the proliferate is nice, I'm cutting this in an attempt to speed up the deck. I'm choosing to keep the snake over this because of its synergies with Temur Sabertooth and Vizier of the Menagerie.

-Dragon Throne of Tarkir: While a powerful effect to have, the huge equip cost and the fact that your opponents will usually be able to see it coming means that it's not all that effective. However, this is the cut that I'm most unsure of, and it may once again find a spot in the list in the future.

+Rishkar's Expertise: Incredibly powerful draw that lets you keep tempo by playing something off of it. I definitely think that the deck could benefit from another large draw spell, and this is probably one of the best that's not already included.

+Devoted Druid: This card was previously excluded from the list for budget reasons, but seeing as its price has dropped since I last checked, it's definitely finding a home here. Easy casting cost, ramps out Ezuri, generates massive mana for combos, what's not to love?

+Animation Module: I kept seeing this card popping up in Ezuri lists, and never really understood why. Recently, I took a second look and realized just how much it does in the deck. It is a decent set up play on turn 1, generates tokens fairly cheaply, and can give you experience counters when you don't have a lot else to do. And if everyone else is running it, guess I might as well join them (jumping off a bridge is scheduled for next week).

+Den Protector: I ran this in a much earlier version of the list, but never really noticed how well it fit, just thinking of it as another decent piece of recursion. Not only is it great recursion, it also is a decent evasive beater, which is a pretty strong combination.

Overall, this update is just me replacing ineffective cards with more powerful/versatile options.

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Date added	7 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 24 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.98
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Copy Clone, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Elf Druid 1/1 G, Experience Token, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Manifest 2/2 C, Morph 2/2 C, Plant 0/1 G, Servo 1/1 C, Squid 1/1 U, Thopter 1/1 C
Folders	Favorites, Completed Budget Decks, Decks that are neato, Commander Decks, Ramp, Decklist Comparisons, Want to build
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