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Without an Inkling of Doubt! [Ink-Treader Primer]

Commander / EDH Combo Jank RGWU Tokens Value Engine

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Land (34)

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HandSize (3)

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Commander: Ink-Treader Nephilim

Cantrip (14)

Ramp (13)

Cute (9)

Asymmetrical (8)

Evasion (7)

Lifegain (5)

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Tokens (71)

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Land (33)

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Ink-Treader Nephilim is not a legal commander, none of the nephilim are. They are, however, an important part of EDH history, and are often allowed with table permission. They've been a part of the format since we stopped only using Elder Dragons. I've been personally playinf this deck for over a decade. They've got the Mark Rosewater seal of approval for EDH. Gavin Verhey has an entire explaining that they cannot be erratta'd, but that they're welcome at his table. Were textual errata not a problem for MTG as a whole, they would be legends in a heartbeat. If this is a problem for you, pretend this is a Tazri/Zada deck.

What am I reading?

This is an Ink-Treader Nephilim ~75% Deck.

I built it because it is fun to play. It's among the handful of combo decks that have multiple, often surprising paths to victory. It's filled to the brim with cute interactions. This is not a commander that can win 100% of its matchups. It's disrupt-able, but that disruption is equitable. It's a value engine that doesn't go infinite. It's almost never a boring deck.

Where a Cantrip is defined as any instant or sorcery that draws a card. n, where n is the number of creatures on the battlefield. m, where m is the number of creatures you control.

Two Card:

Three Card:

If All Else Fails:

Show

Ink-Treader Nephilim is a 3/3 for , and Radiate on a stick. Simple enough, but an incredibly effective value engine which makes this deck enticing. At it's core, it's a combo piece which paints a target on it's back.

Most of these cards assume ink-treader is on the board, and are written with that in mind in these justifications. I'm assuming you can figure out how to make use of them on a board without Ink-Treader.

Instants by Name

  • Artifact Mutation: Destroy a pesky artifact, make some tokens
  • Aura Mutation: Destroy a pesky enchantment, make some tokens
  • Banishing Knack: So long as you have more creatures than your opponent (or have stolen them) this is a 1cmc Cyclonic Rift
  • Boon of Safety: Saves Ink-Treader in a pinch, and makes everything on the board one-time indestructible.
  • Cytoshape: Your creatures are your opponent's best creature. This can be used for wonky nonsense, or to overrun your opponents with big nonsense. What a fun card.
  • Depths of Desire: Delays the game by a few turns, but creates a boatload of treasure for you to build back faster than your opponents.
  • Sheltering Word: Protection that helps you get back the life you paid into shocklands (and getting hit in the face for four turns)
  • Luxurious Libation: _Oh boy! Creates as many 1/1 tokens as there are targets, can be paid into as a pump spell.
  • Silence: If this gets of it, for only one mana, all but guarantees your combo goes off.
  • Slip Out the Back: Protects, temporarily removes, it does it all!
  • Snap: Delays your opponents for a few, and hopefully untaps enough lands to make it worth your while.
  • Soul Partition: Delays the game, makes your opponents creatures cost 2 more!
  • Spawning Breath: Unfortunately, destroys most tokens, but it creates enough 1/1s that it should more than make up for it.
  • Startle: Creates as many tokens as there are creatures! We love it!
  • Sudden Breakthrough: What if you had ALL of the treasures? In a pinch, it's some evasion too!
  • Tamiyo's Safekeeping: Great protection, it's both indestructible AND hexproof! Plus you gain some life.
  • Tyvar's Stand: It's indestructible and hexproof, it pumps if you need it.
  • Veil of Summer: All your instants/sorceries are un-counterable! In a pinch protects you from a bad blue/black effect. Most turns, draws you a card.

Cantrips - - Bandage: Cantrip that sometimes can solve a combat or negate some burn - Cerulean Wisps: Cantrip that untaps the board. The color change is likely irrelevant. - Charge Through: Cantrip that affords trample, which is nice and asymmetrical if cast on your turn. - Crimson Wisps: Cantrip with Haste, which is asymmetrical if cast on your turn. The color change is likely irrelevant. - Expedite: Cantrip with Haste, which is asymmetrical if cast on your turn. - Fists of Flame: Cantrip with ultra-pump. Be sure to order this so your opponents creatures are first. Trample to boot means that most games this is a win-condition. - Geistwave: This is a backup plan, but an important one to have. It returns all creatures, delaying the game and hopefully draws enough for you to get what you need to win. - Niveous Wisps: Cantrip that taps down your opponent's creatures. Best played off your turn. - Shelter: Cantrip affording Protection in a pinch, evasion is a likely possibility. Timely Interference - Viridescent Wisps: Cantrip that pumps. This is a spikey trap, giving +1/+0 to your opponents creatures as well.

Sorceries

Creatures

Enchantments

Artifacts

Your First Five Turns

To make the most impact, this deck does ask that Ink Treader be on the battlefield. This means having at least five mana sources (I don't recommend casting without an immediate impact). Mulligans can help with this, but I do try to avoid them as those first few turns it's difficult to generate cards.

The ramp package is built upon Fetch Lands and fetch effects finding Shock Lands or Triomes to get access to all four colors.

Making the Most of the Midgame

The deck is built around making targetable objects, and the fastest path to that is in token generators. I've optimized for either impact on cast or scalability. The deck is a little strange, as to some degree it doesn't matter who owns the token, making Forbidden Orchard almost an upside.

Ink-Treader Generators: Luxurious Libation, Startle, Spawning Breath, Kick in the Door.

Once-Per-Turn Generators: Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse, Skrelv's Hive, Forbidden Orchard

Once-Per-Cast Generators: Poppet Stitcher   Third Path Iconoclast

Scalable Generators: Silverfur Partisan.

Invasion-Block "Mutations" removal: Artifact Mutation and Aura Mutation.

Misc: Dovescape is more of a control piece, but prints a token per cast.

Threaten Effects Kari Zev's Expertise, Shackles of Treachery, Wrangle, Involuntary Employment, Traitorous Greed, Confiscation Coup.

The deck can be explosive, but you'll need to keep your mana open. The deck is built to play its value-engine at instant speed, but the end-game at sorcery. You'll notice that about ⅓ of the deck affects the board at instant-speed. You'll aim to play most cards on the end-step of the player before you.

This deck draws cards like an arcade cabinet prints tickets: spontaneously and explosively. You will want to take that advantage of off-turn casting, as it helps to alleviate the inevitable hand-size issues as well, although as before the end-step of your next turn you'll want to throw down a hand-size nullifier like Reliquary Tower.

Finishing the Game

This is not an aggressive deck, and will be more susceptible to early-game aggro-strategy opponents. The deck is also susceptible to hard-control like Counterspells and especially Stifle effects.

Almost all of the counter-play does, often, require Ink Treader on the board: e.g. Boon of Safety.

The other important piece of counter-play comes from Taigam who ensure the MVP cantrips land on your turn. Grand Abolisher serves a similar purpose, letting you play through on your turn. In a pinch, Silence and Ranger-Captain of Eos can serve the same purpose of ensuring your bombastic turn goes off.

It's important to take opportunities as they come to disrupt your opponents. Most of that sort of removal comes by way of asymmetrical opportunities. Artifact Mutation and Aura Mutation give you more targetable objects. Depths of Desire, Dramatic Rescue, Geistwave, Snap all put your cards back in-hand, to play again. Soul Partition does to, in a way.

This deck doesn't always win, heck sometimes it's your opponent's Act of Treason that resolves. The inconsistency is part of what's so appealing to me. When you do what you do matters, but if given enough leeway, you can really pull out some astounding turns.

Alright, so that's my funky deck. Thank you for reading this far, I hope it interested you. It's one of my favorites, and I just keep tuning it. There's so many great options, and honestly some of the cut ones might make a come back.

Non-bo's are plentiful, so here are some common pitfalls to avoid.

  • Damage "Divided as you Choose" choosing more than one target. Fire / Ice was a mainstay in this deck's early days but fire itself is a trap, as it can only hit the creatures on the board.

  • Two-Creature-Target spells will show up in your searches often because of their wording but, as great as it would be Finishing Move simply can't be in the deck.

  • Whenever You Cast triggers only trigger once, for this reason it's less of a spell-slinger deck than most cantrip decks. We still have a few cards that use this trigger, but we should evaluate them on this basis.

Specific and hurtful non-bos: Ride the Avalanche, Claim the Firstborn,Infectious Bite.

If you're brewing, here's some other fun ideas: Aspirant's Ascent, Supplant Form, Aether Mutation, Sylvan Offering, Modify Memory, Body of Knowledge, Akroan Horse, Synthesis Pod, Banish into Fable, Seize the Day, Rite of Replication, March of the Machines, Opalescence, Natural Affinity, Cloudshift Croaking Counterpart.

I'm always looking for new & interesting card suggestions, feel free to send yours.

Thank you for reading, upvote if you liked it!

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Date added 7 years
Last updated 1 year
Exclude colors B
Legality

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

6 - 0 Mythic Rares

47 - 0 Rares

12 - 0 Uncommons

31 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.30
Tokens 1/1 WU Token Creature Bird, Bird 1/1 U, Citizen 1/1 GW, Citizen 1/1 GW, Copy Clone, Dungeon: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, Dungeon: Lost Mine of Phandelver, Dungeon: Tomb of Annihilation, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Fractal 0/0 GU, Goblin 1/1 R, Goblin 1/1 R, Human 2/2 G, Phyrexian Mite 1/1 C, Saproling 1/1 G, Saproling 1/1 G, Skeleton 1/1 B, Soldier 1/1 C, Soldier 1/1 W, Spirit 1/1 C, Survivor 1/1 R, The Atropal, Treasure, Treasure, Wolf 2/2 G, Wolf 2/2 G, Zombie 2/2 B w/ Decayed
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