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$100 Clone Grand Arg! But? Er... Digustin' IV

Commander / EDH Budget Legendary Matters Tempo WU (Azorius)

Jungian_Thing


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My pod has $100 decks, price on TCG low at the time of the last card change.

Why?! Why would you do this?

Look, if you're heading to FNM with the aim of making friends then this is definitely not the deck but if your family's motto is "odium sit influunt per te", then Darth Caesar, this pile of "Really?" is going to ensure your family name lives in infamy for aeons to come. This is the lowest of low ground. If you enjoy playing Magic while an "audience" of three look on and heckle you, then look no further.

Winning!

The name of the game is cast Abe and copy him, then copy him again or one of the versions that is no longer legendary, and again, and again... I mean, what's more hated than one Grand Arbiter Augustin IV? Many of him, that's what. Given the deck is all in on Abe, you need to protect him before you can copy him, having him not on the field early will result in a hand full of pretty useless cards and dropping him too late will mean you are going to have a hard time gumming up the game.

While that's happening get Stasis and Immovable Rod out, with added yuks from Kismet. Those of you who are old enough to remember Legends will be familiar with this setup but back then it was Time Elemental, this is better, no recasting Stasis each turn but it's 5 mana ... totally worth it! With both Stasis and Immovable Rod on the field, at the end of the turn before your's, activate Immovable Rod targeting Stasis (4 mana), Stasis is blanked, you choose to untap Immovable Rod during your untap step (or should I say, the untap step because it is the only one from then on), pay the upkeep on Stasis (1 mana) and go about your turn. Don't forget to venture into the dungeon. When all this is on the field, no one, apart from you, will be casting anything. Sounds expensive but with all the cost reduction from your Odium of Abes it won't matter.

Once you pass turn, you will hear "turn", "turn, "turn", oh, and "moving to discard". That is all you need to listen to. No, your mother isn't a hamster and your father doesn't smell of elderberries, well maybe, but that's not relevant, you focus on making enough Abes that you overlap the number of lands in your opponents' decks. Good times!

The win condition is Mechanized Production (or a soul stealing concession). I had toyed with a Chronicles Feldon's Cane but nerd rage is real and even I know not to take things too far...

Anything Else?

The rest of the deck is counter spells, wraths and tutors. You may see a bunch of high MV cards but once Abe and friends are out, colourless costs cease to be a problem.

Counter Spells Most in the deck have the benefit of playing well with Stasis just in case you find you land it without Immovable Rod, you can untap or return tapped lands to your hand to play them untapped again, others just play nice with cost reductions and budget. Many of the interaction spells are modal, value is go wide rather than go broken, they are cheap $$ and, with cost reduction, cheap to cast.

Tap and Bounce both are killers with Stasis out, nothing like an opponent "saving up" untapped lands over turns to drop a big threat only to have it go back to their hand or be tapped immediately. Magic as Garfield intended.

Wraths They aren't full board wipes, you won't be hitting Abe and his clones. Wraths are not only there to kill creatures, they are really good at tilting players and, sure, there is a win con in the deck but you are more likely to win by concession. Wraths extinguish hope.

Tutors Sorcery tutors are first going for Quantum Misalignment to make those sweet non-legendary copies. Artifact tutors and Search for Glory are going for Helm of the Host. Moon-Blessed Cleric either the win con Mechanized Production or one of the cloning enchantments. Plea for Guidance is busted with your plan in action.

Legendaries This deck has a few that can be tutored for, mostly creatures and a couple of artifacts like Helm of the Host. Creatures each are worth tactically casting (or cycling). On best creature, it's a tough call between grabbing Sakashima the Impostor or Taigam, Ojutai Master. Taigam if your hand is strong on instants/sorceries and you have mana. Taigum is cheap and not only makes your instants and sorceries uncounterable, it gives them rebound, giddy-up! Go for Sakashima on an early fast game, it will get you into 6 cost spells, so most of the deck, and then just clone, clone, clone.

Mana Lands with a fair amount of fixing and some utility that plays toward the clone strategy rather than the Stasis line, which has some synergistic lands but they are too focused and surprisingly expensive. Ramp comes from land cycling creatures, I like these in budget decks instead of rocks because most fast mana rocks are expensive and really benefit from having a good concentration to make them crazy good. There is no big advantage in dropping just one rock in a turn over grabbing a land and if you don't need more mana, having a creature (or counter spell) instead is value.

(Also, if you "optimise" plains to advertised symbols you will end up not drawing white mana early enough to cast Abe, its teetering on the edge, don't shift islands to plains.)

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Date added 2 years
Last updated 3 weeks
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

5 - 0 Mythic Rares

43 - 0 Rares

17 - 0 Uncommons

20 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 4.03
Tokens Copy Clone, Dungeon: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, Dungeon: Lost Mine of Phandelver, Dungeon: Tomb of Annihilation, Goblin 1/1 R, Manifest 2/2 C, Skeleton 1/1 B, The Atropal, Timeless Dragon 4/4 B, Treasure
Folders Realistic Commander Decks
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