MTG Combo: Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur + Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger

Have more mana at your disposal than your opponent and keep it that way. A lot of Edric's ramp strategy revolves around the almight Gaea's Cradle. Untap effects such as Kiora's Follower + Kiora, Master of the Depths can blow its effects way out of control and hurdle you towards a turn four or five win. Earthcraft is a must answer which usually goes unanswered and Shaman of Forgotten Ways doubles as a sneaky and surprisingly difficult to stop win-con. Coiling Oracle + Wood Elves are here to give us ramp which survives board wipes. Finally, Prophet of Kruphix, though a bit fragile, is an absolute boss here. You basically take a second turn during your opponent's turn. She also protects creatures from sorceries and let's us keep mana up for counters. A great card to tutor for when you're being outpaced and the all around deck MVP.

Keep your treats on the board with minimal tempo loss. Crystal Shard, Lightning Greaves, Spellskite and Sylvan Safekeeper are all cheap ways to keep your deck from being hated out by cheap burn and bounce. Aluren + Kira, Great Glass-Spinner is brutal and no one ever sees Crop Rotation + Yavimaya Hollow coming. Unfortunately, Edric has no real answer to board wipes besides counter magic. Asceticism combats this somewhat, essentially turning all of our lands into copies of Yavimaya Hollow, but it's expensive and slow. Even with the proper countermagic, Edric still needs to work hard to accumulate card advantage and not over-extend.

Put the winning cards into you hand. Edric's tutors fall into two different categories: creature and land. Chord of Calling, Green Sun's Zenith, Worldly Tutor, Summoner's Pact and Survival of the Fittest offer cost-effective ways to grab you a hold of the correct of the correct utility creatures for the situation. Cards like Green Sun's and Chord require strong deck knowledge to sure properly. For lands, we're mainly looking to put Gaea's Cradle on the board. Crop Rotation + Reap and Sow are the only ways to put Gaea's Cradle directly on the board, paying for themselves and then some. Our land tutor's however can also nab creature protection in Yavimaya Hollow, land retrieval in Petrified Field and counter proteciton in Cavern of Souls. Tolaria West also has the added bonus of fetching Pact of Negation + Summoner's Pact as well as Arcane Lighthouse, Maze of Ith, Tower of the Magistrate and Tormod's Crypt in post-board games.

Gain additional value from your land drops. Besides the one's already mention, Mosswort Bridge is a silent killer in this deck. There's nothing like hiding paying for your Time Stop. Dryad Arbor is also quite versatile. It does double duty with Gaea's Cradle and can be ramped into with Green Sun's Zenith at =. I leave the inclusion Cephalid Coliseum up to individual preference but I've found the filtering quite useful.

Take your opponent's threats off the board. This deck can remove just about anything. Beast Within + Song of the Dryads are our premier removal, hitting all virtually all relevant targets. I think Jace makes a nice forest. Curse of the Swine + Cyclonic Rift are pretty straightforward one-sided board wipes which is nice. Void Stalker can also be bounced after his ability goes off. The rest of the creatures handily deal with other creatures, artifacts, enchantments or lands such that this deck is rarely without an answer. It's important to keep a list of all your removal creatures in your head for tutors.

Such down your opponents options. Pretty straightforward here: counter your opponent's removal and win-cons. Most importantly we run of full sweet of powerful counter creatures, namely Mystic Snake, Venser, Shaper Savant and Glen Elendra Archmage. All of these creatures are absolutely wicked with Equilibrium or Cloudstone Curio and will often end games outright when paired with a bounce source. Time Stop, while expensive, is almost never bad, acting as Time Warp, Fog and Mindbreak Trap all in one. Plus, it's our only answer to hosers like Supreme Verdict + Volcanic Fallout . Finally Opposition can single-handed wrestle a game away. If it comes down on turn 4 while you have at least three creatures out then it's probably game.

End the game with your big guns. These creatures and spells aim to end the game either immediately or on the next turn. A resolved Tooth and Nail should end the game instantly with immediate combat damage using Avenger of Zendikar + Craterhoof Behemoth or by establishing a hard like with Deadeye Navigator + Mystic Snake . Deadeye Navigator combos with most creatures in the deck and is difficult to remove. Craterhoof Behemoth is the most straight-forward, and often best, win-con. He can easily pull off a win on turn five by turning a wimpy band of four mana dorks into 40 trample damage. Consecrated Sphinx + Garruk, Caller of Beasts don't win the game immediately but generally draw you two extra cards a turn. Garruk's ultimate is also a total game-ender, allowing your Craterhoof to piggyback on your Sylvan Safekeeper.

Tutorable answers for a wide variety of situations. Gilded Drake is an incredibly cheap way to deal with you opponents big creature threats and is nasty to boucne. Tilling Treefolk is yet another tutorable way to keep Gaea's Cradle online. Loaming Shaman is our premier graveyard hate, shuffling in everything they want and leaving out all their juicy tutors and value cards. Eternal Witness is reuseable and incredibly clutch and Champion of Lambholt beats token strategies as well as helping us to cope with the aftermath of Beast Within + Curse of the Swine + Gilded Drake . Between all these creatures, you should have an answer to most scenarios no more than a tutor away.

We run very few draw spells, generally relying on Edric, Spymaster of Trest for our major card advantage. It's not uncommon, however, for Edric to eat two pieces of removal early and, at , cost more than he's worth. Dig Through Time + Sylvan Library (and really Mosswort Bridge too) help to make up for this but overall we need to remember to pace ourselves with our play and not over extend into a Supreme Verdict that hits even out Dryad Arbor.

We only run one true combo in this deck, but it's a brutal one. Aluren + Cloudstone Curio almost allows us to infinitely play and bounce and play again any creature under CMC3. Cloud of Faeries gives us infinite mana, Reclamation Sage wipes their artifacts and enchantments, Eternal Witness returns our graveyard to our hand, and, finally, Coiling Oracle allows us to draw our entire deck and play ever single land in it. Unfortunately, there's no way to tutor for either elements of the combo, so you're pretty much hoping to just stumble into it and win.

Modify your deck to hate out archetypes and protect against specific strategies. Almost all of your sideboard is tutorable and is easily integrated with the deck's main strategy. Bane of Progress, Glissa Sunseeker, Thada Adel, Acquisitor and Tower of the Magistrate make the artifact match-up laughable while Gaea's Herald, Dosan the Falling Leaf and Dispel give us the edge on control. The rest of the cards hate out specific generals and strategies. Winter Orb can also be a surprising game-ender against decks that rely complete on land ramp and is quite simple for Gaea's Cradle + Kiora's Follower + Kiora, Master of the Depths to play through.

All the cards which didn't quite make the cut, haven't quite worked in the past, or I'd yet like to test. In particular, I've struggled to find the right bombs for this deck and you can see alternate options here. Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth are undeniably powerful but they nonbo with Tooth and Nail and neither can end the game immediately. Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur + Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger seems like such a bombs but instant speed removal like Dismember and Murderous Cut seem to think otherwise. Terastodon doesn't hit creatures and can make swinging difficult while Tidespout Tyrant relies on me having a hand. Ultimately, simply doesn't have access to the ideal bombs like Iona, Shield of Emeria but it makes do alright. I'm pretty happy with my current Fat Package but I'd love to hear what you all think.

This is a pricey, fairly optimized deck. In the end, however, it could always be powered up with the good ol' Force of Will + Jace, the Mind Sculptor + Mana Crypt + Mana Drain + Mana Vault + Misty Rainforest + Tropical Island + Wasteland package. In my opinion though, with the possible exception of Jace and Mana Drain, none of these cards are actually that good for Edric or will improve the deck all that much. You can also add in more cheap coutners like Abjure + Mental Misstep + Spell Snare + Spell Pierce + Daze if your in a hyper-competitive meta. In it's current form though, Edric has the answer to almost any problem and can pull out a win under pressure. If you have the power, by all means, go 100%, but don't think that those pieces will make this deck something it isn't already.

And no, not the prophet. I think Kruphix, God of Horizons is an interesting, unexplored general and giving blue control access to rollover mana could be borderline broken. With Kruphix at the helm and some modifications, this deck could become a powerful ramp, control hybrid that's extremely difficult to hate out. All you'd have to do is remove some of the big creatures and creatures tutor, up the counter magic and spell tutor and add in huge spells like Enter the Infinite + Time Stretch . Does anyone know of a deck like this? Should I brew a list for it??

Have more mana at your disposal than your opponent and keep it that way. A lot of Edric's ramp strategy revolves around the almight Gaea's Cradle. Untap effects such as Kiora's Follower + Kiora, Master of the Depths can blow its effects way out of control and hurdle you towards a turn four or five win. Earthcraft is a must answer which usually goes unanswered and Shaman of Forgotten Ways doubles as a sneaky and surprisingly difficult to stop win-con. Coiling Oracle + Wood Elves are here to give us ramp which survives board wipes. Finally, Prophet of Kruphix, though a bit fragile, is an absolute boss here. You basically take a second turn during your opponent's turn. She also protects creatures from sorceries and let's us keep mana up for counters. A great card to tutor for when you're being outpaced and the all around deck MVP.

Keep your treats on the board with minimal tempo loss. Crystal Shard, Lightning Greaves, Spellskite and Sylvan Safekeeper are all cheap ways to keep your deck from being hated out by cheap burn and bounce. Aluren + Kira, Great Glass-Spinner is brutal and no one ever sees Crop Rotation + Yavimaya Hollow coming. Unfortunately, Edric has no real answer to board wipes besides counter magic. Asceticism combats this somewhat, essentially turning all of our lands into copies of Yavimaya Hollow, but it's expensive and slow. Even with the proper countermagic, Edric still needs to work hard to accumulate card advantage and not over-extend.

Put the winning cards into you hand. Edric's tutors fall into two different categories: creature and land. Chord of Calling, Green Sun's Zenith, Worldly Tutor, Summoner's Pact and Survival of the Fittest offer cost-effective ways to grab you a hold of the correct of the correct utility creatures for the situation. Cards like Green Sun's and Chord require strong deck knowledge to sure properly. For lands, we're mainly looking to put Gaea's Cradle on the board. Crop Rotation + Reap and Sow are the only ways to put Gaea's Cradle directly on the board, paying for themselves and then some. Our land tutor's however can also nab creature protection in Yavimaya Hollow, land retrieval in Petrified Field and counter proteciton in Cavern of Souls. Tolaria West also has the added bonus of fetching Pact of Negation + Summoner's Pact as well as Arcane Lighthouse, Maze of Ith, Tower of the Magistrate and Tormod's Crypt in post-board games.

Gain additional value from your land drops. Besides the one's already mention, Mosswort Bridge is a silent killer in this deck. There's nothing like hiding paying for your Time Stop. Dryad Arbor is also quite versatile. It does double duty with Gaea's Cradle and can be ramped into with Green Sun's Zenith at =. I leave the inclusion Cephalid Coliseum up to individual preference but I've found the filtering quite useful.

Take your opponent's threats off the board. This deck can remove just about anything. Beast Within + Song of the Dryads are our premier removal, hitting all virtually all relevant targets. I think Jace makes a nice forest. Curse of the Swine + Cyclonic Rift are pretty straightforward one-sided board wipes which is nice. Void Stalker can also be bounced after his ability goes off. The rest of the creatures handily deal with other creatures, artifacts, enchantments or lands such that this deck is rarely without an answer. It's important to keep a list of all your removal creatures in your head for tutors.

Such down your opponents options. Pretty straightforward here: counter your opponent's removal and win-cons. Most importantly we run of full sweet of powerful counter creatures, namely Mystic Snake, Venser, Shaper Savant and Glen Elendra Archmage. All of these creatures are absolutely wicked with Equilibrium or Cloudstone Curio and will often end games outright when paired with a bounce source. Time Stop, while expensive, is almost never bad, acting as Time Warp, Fog and Mindbreak Trap all in one. Plus, it's our only answer to hosers like Supreme Verdict + Volcanic Fallout . Finally Opposition can single-handed wrestle a game away. If it comes down on turn 4 while you have at least three creatures out then it's probably game.

End the game with your big guns. These creatures and spells aim to end the game either immediately or on the next turn. A resolved Tooth and Nail should end the game instantly with immediate combat damage using Avenger of Zendikar + Craterhoof Behemoth or by establishing a hard like with Deadeye Navigator + Mystic Snake . Deadeye Navigator combos with most creatures in the deck and is difficult to remove. Craterhoof Behemoth is the most straight-forward, and often best, win-con. He can easily pull off a win on turn five by turning a wimpy band of four mana dorks into 40 trample damage. Consecrated Sphinx + Garruk, Caller of Beasts don't win the games but generally draw you two extra cards a turn. Garruk's ultimate is also a total game-ender, allowing your Craterhoof to piggyback on your Sylvan Safekeeper.

Tutorable answers for a wide variety of situations. Gilded Drake is an incredibly cheap way to deal with you opponents big creature threats and is nasty to boucne. Tilling Treefolk is yet another tutorable way to keep Gaea's Cradle online. Loaming Shaman is our premier graveyard hate, shuffling in everything they want and leaving out all their juicy tutors and value cards. Eternal Witness is reuseable and incredibly clutch and Champion of Lambholt beats token strategies as well as helping us to coat with the aftermath of Beast Within + Curse of the Swine + Gilded Drake . Between all these creatures, you should have an answer to most scenarios no more than a tutor away.

We run very few draw spells, generally relying on Edric, Spymaster of Trest for our major card advantage. It's no uncommon, however, for Edric to eat two pieces of removal early and, at , cost more than he's worth. Dig Through Time + Sylvan Library (and really Mosswort Bridge too) help to make up for this but overall we need to remember to pace ourselves with our play and not over extend into a Supreme Verdict that hits even out Dryad Arbor.

We only run one true combo in this deck, but it's a brutal one. Aluren + Cloudstone Curio almost allows us to infinitely play and bounce and play again any creature under CMC3. Cloud of Faeries gives us infinite mana, Reclamation Sage wipes their artifacts and enchantments, Eternal Witness returns our graveyard to our hand, and, finally, Coiling Oracle allows us to draw our entire deck and play ever single land in it. Unfortunately, there's no way to tutor for either elements of the combo, so you're pretty much hoping to just stumble into it and win.

Modify your deck to hate out archetypes and protect against specific strategies. Almost all of your sideboard is tutorable and is easily integrated with the deck's main strategy. Bane of Progress, Glissa Sunseeker, Thada Adel, Acquisitor and Tower of the Magistrate make the artifact match-up laughable while Gaea's Herald, Dosan the Falling Leaf and Dispel give us the edge on control. The rest of the cards hate out specific generals and strategies. Winters Orb can also be a surprising game-ender against decks that rely complete on land ramp and is quite simple for Gaea's Cradle + Kiora's Follower + Kiora, Master of the Depths to play through.

All the cards which didn't quite make the cut, haven't quite worked in the past, or I'd yet like to test. In particular, I've struggled to find the right bombs for this deck and you can see alternate options here. Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth are undeniably powerful but they nonbo with Tooth and Nail and neither can end the game immediately. Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur + Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger seems like such a bombs but instant speed removal like Dismember and Murderous Cut seem to think otherwise. Terastodon doesn't hit creatures and can make swinging difficult while Tidespout Tyrant relies on me having a hand. Ultimately, simply doesn't have access to the ideal bombs like Iona, Shield of Emeria but it makes do alright. I'm pretty happy with my current Fat Package but I'd love to hear what you all think.

This is a pricey, fairly optimized deck. In the end, however, it could always be powered up with the good ol' Force of Will + Jace, the Mind Sculptor + Mana Crypt + Mana Drain + Mana Vault + Misty Rainforest + Tropical Island + Wasteland package. In my opinion though, with the possible exception of Jace and Mana Drain, none of these cards are actually that good for Edric or will improve the deck all that much. You can also add in more cheap coutners like Abjure + Mental Misstep + Spell Snare + Spell Pierce + Daze if your in a hyper-competitive meta. In it's current form though, Edric has the answer to almost any problem and can pull out a win under pressure. If you have the power, by all means, go 100%, but don't think that those pieces will make this deck something it isn't already.

And no, not the prophet. I think Kruphix, God of Horizons is an interesting, unexplored general and giving blue control access to rollover mana could be borderline broken. With Kruphix at the helm and some modifications, this deck could become a powerful ramp, control hybrid that's extremely difficult to hate out. All you'd have to do is remove some of the big creatures and creatures tutor, up the counter magic and spell tutor and add in huge spells like Enter the Infinite + Time Stretch . Does anyone know of a deck like this? Should I brew a list for it??