Zur the Oppressive A**hole (Retired)

Commander / EDH Enchant WUB (Esper)

sub780lime

Mana-Base (36)

• 1x Arcane Sanctum
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Brightclimb Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Clearwater Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 8x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 6x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Sea Gate Restoration  ^Flip
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath

Zur-Protection (6)

• 1x Curator's Ward
• 1x Diplomatic Immunity
• 1x Gift of Immortality
• 1x Greater Auramancy
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Shielded by Faith

Removal (4)

• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Day of Judgment
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Supreme Verdict

Recursion (2)

• 1x Replenish
• 1x Sun Titan

Counter-Package (18)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Cancel
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cryptic Command *list*
• 1x Delay
• 1x Dissipate
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Forbid
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Insidious Will
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mana Leak
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Negate
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Thassa's Intervention
• 1x Withering Boon

Player-Protection (9)

• 1x Arrest
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Insidious Will
• 1x Nevermore
• 1x Oubliette
• 1x Pariah
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Rule of Law
• 1x Teferi's Protection

Buffs (5)

• 1x All That Glitters
• 1x Aqueous Form
• 1x Battle Mastery
• 1x Ethereal Armor
• 1x Steel of the Godhead

Tutors (3)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Commander (1)

Draw-Package (13)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Cryptic Command *list*
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sea Gate Restoration  ^Flip
• 1x Sygg, River Cutthroat
• 1x Thassa's Intervention
• 1x Windfall

Ramp (9)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy

Utility (2)

• 1x Estrid's Invocation
• 1x Lithoform Engine

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Maybeboard

Other (45)

• 1x Arcane Laboratory
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Catastrophe
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Cleansing Nova
• 1x Copy Enchantment
• 1x Curator's Ward
• 1x Curse of Verbosity
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Desolation
• 1x Dismiss
• 1x Drannith Magistrate
• 1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
• 1x Exclude
• 1x Fatespinner
• 1x Gaseous Form
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Gift of Immortality
• 1x Helm of the Gods
• 1x Hyena Umbra
• 1x Imposing Sovereign
• 1x Imprisoned in the Moon
• 1x Island Sanctuary
• 1x Kor Spiritdancer
• 1x Lunar Force
• 1x Magus of the Moat
• 1x Mana Chains
• 1x Mesa Enchantress
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Norn's Annex
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Prismatic Lens
• 1x Robe of Mirrors
• 1x Seal of Cleansing
• 1x Solemnity
• 2x Sphere of Safety
• 1x Sphere of the Suns
• 1x Spirit of the Labyrinth
• 1x Stasis
• 1x Stony Silence
• 1x Telepathy
• 1x The Abyss
• 1x Vessel of Endless Rest

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I WANT TO GET MY COUNTER PACKAGE UP TO 20. LOOKING FOR CUTS.

"Wizards are all the same. You talk nonsense while making wise and meaningful faces."

As we know, Zur the Enchanter can be quite the bastard. My build is is definitely about voltron and commander damage, but it certainly runs plenty of annoying pieces - some stax effects, lots of counters, nerfing cards, etc. As such, I definitely do not pull the deck and say, "let's play", but instead ask if anyone wants to have a more annoying game :).

Game Plan

The most general game plan is to suit up Zur the Enchanter and swing swing swing. As a result, we want to get Zur out fast and protect him, some times finding ways to accelerate that game plan even further with Lithoform Engine .

Go Get 'em

The first enchantment we grab is usually Diplomatic Immunity - Zur the Enchanter now can't be targeted (even by us), but he can still pull any enchantments on attack. That being said, I have started finding myself grabbing Gift of Immortality on the first swing, some times. This is usually hand dependent and has to do with if I want to play something on Zur before I go get that Diplomatic Immunity and provides a unique kind of protection. His Aura's do drop so, it can be a tough choice. Next enchantment is most often Shielded by Faith . Combined with Diplomatic Immunity , this seriously hinders the modes by which Zur the Enchanter can be removed.

After that, we have some choices depending on what the game requires. When the games neutral, the simplest plan is to next grab Steel of the Godhead . This pumps Zur the Enchanter and makes him unblockable, all very useful for our commander damage strategy.

From there, we have a few paths that the game can dictate, even when trying to do damage. For example, we like to get all three of these, but it could be in varied order - All That Glitters , Battle Mastery , Ethereal Armor . When we've got Steel of the Godhead on, we are already at Zur the Enchanter hitting for 3 and having three enchantments on him. An All That Glitters or Ethereal Armor bumps that to hitting for 7 (four enchantments on Zur) or 13 (five enchantments on Zur) with both. Battle Mastery now doubles those unblockable hits and we are one-shotting commander damage, not counting the commander damage we've already gotten through.

Control

We are running a suite of counters and removal. We've got Counterspell , Pact of Negation , Cancel , Dissipate , Delay , Fierce Guardianship , etc. We run 12 counters in all. We specifically want to be using 'destroy' broad wipes because Zur the Enchanter is protected, so we've got things like Supreme Verdict , Day of Judgment , Damnation , and Cyclonic Rift . Ideally, we are countering threats that matter and these are just a backup plan

Lock it Down

There is definitely not a stax way to build Zur the Enchanter . When needed, Zur the Enchanter can drum up things like Ghostly Prison , Nevermore , Propaganda , Runed Halo , and Rule of Law to slow our opponents or protect us.

Zur can also drum up enchantments to play on our opponents stuff. Isn't it nice to nerf a commander or big creature with Oubliette . They'd have to counter Zur the Enchanter 's triggered ability.

Redundancy

There is some, but not much redundancy in the deck. Diplomatic Immunity might be better than Curator's Ward because it protects itself, but the latter is a good backup and allows us to still hard cast enchantments on Zur. The same goes for Aqueous Form versus Steel of the Godhead . We'd rather have the latter, but the former cards give us much need unblockable with a scry bonus. This redundancy can be quite valuable as we get into the late game. There are even some additional pump effects that we may find a way onto Zur the Enchanter or they can go on our few other creatures if relevant such as Unspeakable Symbol . That last one can end games if Zur's life gain is in full effect. 30 life for +10/+10 of commander damage will knock an opponent out.

What's Missing

As always, cards get left out due to room and some other very on-point ones are excluded due to theme or play group politics. As an example, I could have Glistening Oil and Phyresis in here. They are both under 3 CMC in our color pie and as we voltron up Zur the Enchanter we no longer need to hit opponents multiple times. A suited up with All That Glitters and Battle Mastery Zur means we are one shot infect killing our opponents. It definitely ups the speed with which Zur can win, but not everyone finds that fun. I keep these accessible on the side to slot in if the game might allow it.

Heliod, Sun-Crowned and Thassa, God of the Sea are both missing here and would make decent targets for Pariah as they, especially the former, will likely be creatures.

Additionally, there are a ton of 3CMC and under enchantments in these colors. Things like Curse of Verbosity , Mana Chains , Eidolon of Rhetoric , Seal of Cleansing , Hyena Umbra , Spirit of the Labyrinth , and Stony Silence could be slotted in and that is to just name a few. Now, some of these are redundancy plays, like Spirit of the Labyrinth , but even so, the point I am making is that there a ridiculous supply of 3CM or lower enchantments out there. I am sure your meta or play style will inform which ones you use. I'm running fifteen artifacts, so I don't really like Stony Silence , but you could potentially reduce that number and run it and it can be brutal for many other decks. Some I've left out for how stax or painful I really want to be, like Desolation .

That about does it :)

Top Ranked	Achieved #24 position overall 4 years ago Achieved #10 position in Commander / EDH 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Enchant 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH WUB (Esper) 4 years ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.77
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone
Folders	New Deck Ideas
Based on	Zur the Oppressive A**hole V.07 sub780lime EDH