Ezuri, Claw of Progress EDH

Commander / EDH

hoorayjames

Land (37)

• 1x Blighted Woodland
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 10x Forest
• 1x High Market
• 8x Island
• 1x Llanowar Reborn
• 1x Novijen, Heart of Progress
• 1x Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Sea Gate Wreckage
• 1x Simic Growth Chamber
• 1x Simic Guildgate
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Thornwood Falls
• 1x Vivid Creek
• 1x Vivid Grove
• 1x Zoetic Cavern

Buffs (8)

• 1x Beastmaster Ascension
• 1x Brawn
• 1x Champion of Lambholt
• 1x Cultivator of Blades
• 1x Overwhelming Stampede
• 1x Pathbreaker Ibex
• 1x Wild Beastmaster
• 1x Wonder

Emergency (4)

• 1x AEtherize
• 1x Arachnogenesis
• 1x Mystic Snake
• 1x Plaxcaster Frogling

Ramp (12)

• 1x Coiling Oracle
• 1x Cryptolith Rite
• 1x Crystalline Crawler
• 1x Farhaven Elf
• 1x Fertilid
• 1x Gyre Sage
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Simic Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Verdant Confluence

Removal (9)

• 1x Acidic Slime
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Curse of the Swine
• 1x Ezuri's Predation
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Monstrous Onslaught
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Trygon Predator
• 1x Walking Ballista

Tokens (8)

• 1x Animation Module
• 1x Chasm Skulker
• 1x Fable of Wolf and Owl
• 1x Fungal Sprouting
• 1x Hangarback Walker
• 1x Hooded Hydra
• 1x Hornet Queen
• 1x Mycoloth

Commander (1)

CardDraw (11)

• 1x Bident of Thassa
• 1x Bred for the Hunt
• 1x Cold-Eyed Selkie
• 1x Edric, Spymaster of Trest
• 1x Fathom Mage
• 1x Inspiring Call
• 1x Lifecrafter's Bestiary
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Prime Speaker Zegana
• 1x Rishkar's Expertise
• 1x Shamanic Revelation

CounterSynergy (5)

• 1x Bramblewood Paragon
• 1x Forgotten Ancient
• 1x Hardened Scales
• 1x Inexorable Tide
• 1x Vorel of the Hull Clade

Utility (5)

• 1x Baral's Expertise
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Kaseto, Orochi Archmage
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

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Maybeboard

Other (4)

• 1x Awakening Zone
• 1x Conjurer's Closet
• 1x Mimic Vat
• 1x Soul Foundry

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Story time: I got back into Magic just after BFZ came out and my brother had bought me the Ezuri, Claw of Progress Commander 2015 pre-con deck. Out of the box the deck was great, and as more sets come out with new upgrades it remains my favorite old-reliable EDH deck to play.

The focus of this deck: spam the Experience counters, make your Simic army swole, and start the beat-down. With a good opening hand and solid start, this deck quite often initiates a sort of Archenemy game in my playgroup of four. Many creatures in this deck function as both aggro and utility, and even single-use creatures become big threats over time if Ezuri starts dropping +1/+1 counters on them.

Almost every creature in this deck triggers Ezuri, Claw of Progress, gaining you experience counters. There's a lot of design space built around putting X +1/+1 counters on target creature on each of your turns:

• Ramp and/or draw cards out of control by sheer number of +1/+1 counters on Gyre Sage and Fathom Mage .

• Putting more +1/+1 counters on a Mycoloth will spawn more tokens next turn, which allows you to put more +1/+1 counters, and so on and so forth. Vorel of the Hull Clade helps with the snowballing as well.

• Making creatures huge has payoffs as well in card like Cultivator of Blades /Wild Beastmaster, Prime Speaker Zegana , and Champion of Lambholt

Other parts of this deck I like:

• Cards like Wonder and Brawn are excellent for giving your opponents a conundrum: allow the incarnation with flying/trample continue to get swole and attack each turn or kill it and turn on that keyword for the rest of my board? (The same goes for Hangarback Walker and Chasm Skulker: keep letting it get big or pop the balloon and let me get X experience counters all at once from the tokens? Their choice)

• The cards that make the entire playgroup turn on you as you ascend the iron throne of board threat: Fable of Wolf and Owl , Panharmonicon , Inexorable Tide, Rishkar's Expertise .

How to play this deck:

• Do your best to be able to play Ezuri turn 4 or sooner with your opening hand. Mulligan aggressively. Everything else is turned on by the commander and ramp/card draw is plentiful, so the worst the deck has to offer over time is good synergy.

• You don't always have to attack. Yeah, your creatures get huge and it's tempting to swing out early, but if they don't have trample or flying they'd sometimes just do better as huge blockers that deter attacks against you while you keep building your board.

• Remember that Ezuri's +1/+1 counter ability happens at the beginning of combat. You can't Overwhelming Stampede with full value there, but other cards like Pathbreaker Ibex are supplemented by the pre-combat sorcery speed power-ups.

Creature tokens needed (in no particular order):

• 1/1 colorless servo, 1/1 green insect with flying, 1/1 green snake, 2/2 green wolf, 1/1 blue bird, 4/4 green beast, 1/1 green saproling, 1/2 green spider with reach, 1/1 blue squid with islandwalk, 2/2 green boar, 1/1 colorless thopter with flying, 3/3 green frog lizard, and the Experience Counter emblem

Date added	7 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.52
Tokens	Bird 1/1 U, Boar 2/2 G, Experience Token, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Human 2/2 G, Insect 1/1 G w/ Flying, Deathtouch, Morph 2/2 C, Phyrexian Beast 4/4 G, Saproling 1/1 G, Servo 1/1 C, Snake 1/1 G, Spider 1/2 G, Squid 1/1 U, Thopter 1/1 C, Wolf 2/2 G
Folders	01