A Better Wort, the Raidmother

Commander / EDH* Combo Competitive RG (Gruul) Spellslinger Stax Storm Tempo

The99

Land (28)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Barbarian Ring
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cinder Glade
• 1x City of Traitors
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Fire-Lit Thicket
• 4x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 4x Mountain
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Spire Garden
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Taiga
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Yavimaya Hollow

Creature (18)

• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Collector Ouphe
• 1x Dire Fleet Daredevil
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Dualcaster Mage
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Goblin Cratermaker
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Joraga Treespeaker
• 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Manglehorn
• 1x Tinder Wall
• 1x Treasonous Ogre
• 1x Zealous Conscripts

Instant (21)

• 1x Abrade
• 1x Benefactor's Draught
• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Desperate Ritual
• 1x Emerald Charm
• 1x Fork
• 1x Manamorphose
• 1x Natural State
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Pyretic Ritual
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Reverberate
• 1x Ricochet Trap
• 1x Seething Song
• 1x Thrill of Possibility
• 1x Tibalt's Trickery
• 1x Veil of Summer
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Dual Casting
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Utopia Sprawl
• 1x Wild Growth

Artifact (4)

• 1x Jeweled Lotus
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Sol Ring

Commander (1)

Sorcery (19)

• 1x Cathartic Reunion
• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Finale of Promise
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Heat Shimmer
• 1x Infernal Plunge
• 1x Jeska's Will
• 1x Magmatic Insight
• 1x Meltdown
• 1x Rite of Flame
• 1x Seize the Spoils
• 1x Shatterskull Smashing  ^Flip
• 1x Tormenting Voice
• 1x Turntimber Symbiosis  ^Flip
• 1x Twinflame
• 1x Weird Harvest
• 1x Wild Guess

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Chandra, Acolyte of Flame
• 1x Domri, Anarch of Bolas
• 1x Wrenn and Six

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Sideboard

Creature (1)

• 1x Orcish Lumberjack

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Xenagos, the Reveler

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Be sure to join me over on The 99 for a full break down and discussion of Wort, the Raidmother!

Note: deck is subject to change over time!

How to Win in Three Easy Steps!

1. Cast Wort, the Raid Mother (ideally Turn 3/4)
2. Ramp, Rummage and Storm until a Combo is made available
3. Win through Combat with Kiki-Jiki or Dualcaster

Simple, right? In truth, learning the play lines and best courses of action in Wort, the Raidmother will require practice and time. However, once you understand what to look for as you're Storming through the list, you'll be able to produce multiple win attempts to outplay and best your Opponents! Now, as this wouldn't be a proper primer if I didn't help at least point you in the right direction, let's start by looking at what our main Combos are before jumping into how we will accomplish them.

The Combos & Conspired Play Lines

Let me start by saying, there's no real surprises here. Wort herself does not offer any magnificent A + B Combo (yet), so until she does we're relying on some ole' faithfuls.

• Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts = Infinite Zealous Conscripts Tokens, Death by Damage
• Dualcaster Mage + Twinflame or Heat Shimmer = Infinite Dualcaster Mage Tokens, Death by Damage
• Dualcaster Mage + Benefactor's Draught + Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker = Finite Draw & Dualcaster Mage Tokens, Death by Damage
• Anarchist + Dockside Extortionist + Twinflame or Heat Shimmer = ???

That's about it. You could add Great Oak Guardian or Hyrax Tower Scout for redundancy with Kiki, but I highly recommend you don't. The main plan here is to Ramp & Rummage with Wort until we have multiple avenues of approach in our hand. This means: use Dualcaster Mage for value - Copy that Demonic Tutor - or play out Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker early to Copy and ETB'er for value, or just Discard them both to a Rummage effect. We want a flush hand, full of protection and options for the multiple Conspired play lines this Deck offers.

• Cast Chord of Calling, X = Five: "As Additional" Conspire -> Get Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Zealous Conscripts (order depends on board state)
• Cast Eldritch Evolution: "As Additional" Sacrifice 3cmc (or greater) Creature and Conspire -> Get Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Zealous Conscripts (order depends on board state)
• Cast Finale of Devastation, X = Five: "As Additional" Conspire -> Get Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker (can be in Graveyard) and Zealous Conscripts (order depends on board state)

"What if Dualcaster Mage is on the Battlefield already?"

• Cast Twinflame or Heat Shimmer, Target Dualcaster Mage: "As Additional" Conspire -> Copy of Dualcaster Mage Copies Copy Spell

"What if Twinflame or Heat Shimmer are in my Graveyard and I only have one of the aforementioned Tutors?"

• Cast Tutor with "As Additional" Conspired -> Grab Dualcaster Mage, ETB Copies Eldritch Evolution, Chord of Calling or Finale of Devastation -> Grab Vexing Shusher for Protection or Dockside Extortionist for Mana -> Grab Eternal Witness, Returning Twinflame or Heat Shimmer -> Cast Twinflame or Heat Shimmer with "As Additional" Conspired with Dualcaster Mage and Vexing Shusher/Dockside Extortionist -> Begin Dualcaster Mage Combo

"What if there's a 'Rule of Law' Effect on the Battlefield?" - if this is stopping you from Ramping & Rummaging to a more advantageous Hand or Turn as you can still win through these...

• Cast Tutor with "As Additional" Conspired -> Grab Reclamation Sage, ETB Destroys 'Rule of Law' Effect -> Grab Eternal Witness, Returning Eldritch Evolution (if in Graveyard), Chord of Calling or Finale of Devastation to Hand -> Begin Casting for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker Combo or hold if insufficient Mana or Protection

That's enough "What if's" as these will be the most common issues you're confronted with in game to resolving a Win. Note: these all must take place Main Phase 1 as our Win is dependent on Combat and each action requires a Creature of "shared" Color to be available to Conspire with. There are several, layered play lines within the Cards I've left in this list and I will leave it to you to find them throughout playing the Deck yourself or simply testing Hands here. All you need to know is that there is always a solution available to a given problem. Linvala, Keeper of Silence holding you down? Perhaps it's that damned Cursed Totem. This Deck has answers and with the basic play lines I laid out for you you'll notice that Conspiring is of chief importance here...

Oh! You want to know about the Anarchist play line? It is one of the more complex plays to make, but is nonetheless as potent and viable in game. Say you’re going for your Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker/Zealous Conscripts line and one of the Tutors is Countered. You have Twinflame in your Graveyard and Dockside Extortionist in play.

• With remaining Eldritch Evolution, Chord of Calling or Finale of Devastation -> Grab Anarchist, Returning Twinflame -> Cast Twinflame with "As Additional" Conspired with Anarchist and Dockside Extortionist -> Copy Targets Dockside Extortionist, Original Targets Anarchist -> Dockside Extortionist ETB's for a minimum of 3xTreasure Tokens -> Anarchist ETB's, Returning Twinflame -> Repeat this process for Infinite Treasure Tokens -> Cast Twinflame Targeting Anarchist -> Anarchist ETB's, Returning Twinflame -> Repeat this process for Infinite Hasty Anarchist

This same Combo can be done with Heat Shimmer, but will require a minimum of 4xTreasure Tokens to be generated. Once you have infinite Treasure Tokens, you can also Conspire two Anarchist's to retrieve Twinflame/Heat Shimmer and a Rummage Effect to Draw through the Deck (if something is stopping you from Winning through Combat). The Anarchist Combo isn't one you will typically aim for, but by-and-by the "Townsfolk" is excellent at recovering value pieces and can be played for in situations as described.

The true beauty of Wort (that sounds funny) is that there is nothing that truly hampers her effectiveness once on board. How do I mean? Every Instant and Sorcery Spell we play has Conspire, no matter what. That "Cast" availability will always be there and is only limited by the Rule of Law effects we may be faced against. Otherwise, the Dualcaster Mage lines of play aren't inhibited either, outside of the chance Torpor Orb. Only Creature Activations - something stopping Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker - hurt this Deck (which I've addressed). There's little by way of hate, outside Creature Removal and Counters that can stop you; and note, when you're Storming folks aren’t wasting Counters on Wild Guess or Manamorphose, I assure you. Let's talk about some of those Storm cards now, the Cards that will help us achieve victory.

Ramp, Rummage & Storm

The Deck does fall prey to one thing: the dreaded top deck. By chance, you may not always hit what you need, and that's alright! This Deck is intended to play midrange, be the "least threatening" and carry on until it's ready to wreak havoc on the board. These are the Cards we're looking for to effectively Ramp & Rummage:

Ramp:

• Dorks - Arbor Elf, Birds of Paradise, Dockside Extortionist, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Joraga Treespeaker, Llanowar Elves, Orcish Lumberjack, Priest of Titania & Runaway Steam-Kin (easily the best)
• Rituals - Rite of Flame, Desperate Ritual, Manamorphose, Pyretic Ritual & Seething Song
• Land Tutors - Green Sun's Zenith (Dryad Arbor), Nature's Lore & Crop Rotation
• Walkers - Domri, Anarch of Bolas & Xenagos, the Reveler

Rummage:

• Seasoned Pyromancer - Excellent Kiki-Jiki or Twin/Heat Target, also makes bodies for Conspire
• Cathartic Reunion - Give a lot, gain a lot more. One of the best Conspire Cards
• Magmatic Insight - Excellent in tandem with Wrenn and Six and brilliant on it's own
• Pirate's Pillage - My favorite Rummage effect as it provides 4xTreasures once Conspired
• Tormenting Voice - Needed, much like the next Card
• Wild Guess - Needed, much like the previous Card
• Thrill of Possibility - The only Instant Speed Rummage available - changes how/when you play

Again, every single Instant and Sorcery in this Deck can be Conspired. With the multitudes of ways to "Cast" spells, you'll never be without access to any of these Cards: they are what make this Deck function. Whether your Chandra, Acolyte of Flame is helping you Conspire a Rummage with two Elementals or recasting a Spell from your Graveyard, you need to aim for these effects. Rummage is so effective here because of Cards like Finale of Promise and Underworld Breach. You should not be afraid to leverage every single one of these as they are feeding into a bigger strategy.

Fun fact: Wort, the Raidmother was the first Deck I ever tried to make competitive(!). This was a few years back when I was just getting into Commander... I failed, miserably, at making Wort work. It was a tough Deck to navigate then and still even now. However, it has been one of the most rewarding experiences revisiting her and ultimately one of my favorite lists. Whether that's solely nostalgia or the pure joy I get from working through the play lines in this Deck, I don't know; but I do hope you find a little joy playing this Deck as well! I was brought back to it because one Card got me thinking again. Thinking that maybe, just maybe... Wort can be made competitive. Twinning Staff <- boy do magical things happen when this is out. Thanks for checking out the Deck! Be sure to look over my other listings and enjoy all the content over on The 99. Happy Brewing, Babies!

Additional Notes: I think there's some confusion with how "Copying" works and "Additional Costs." If you Cast a spell without paying it's Cost, you must still pay any mandatory "Additional Costs" and may subsequently add any non-mandatory ones (e.g. Conspire). That means when Finale of Promise pops off, you can Conspire it or the Spells it is Casting from your Graveyard. Whenever Goblin Dark-Dwellers ETB's, you can Conspire those spells as well as the "Cast" enables "Additional Costs." Also note, CMC is a copyable trait while on the Stack, so X is always equal to the value applied to it. Copies are placed on the Stack, not "Cast" (i.e. You do not pay any "Additional Costs" again). Please defer to Magic: the Gatherings Comprehensive Rules, ruling 706. - 706.12 for a complete breakdown on "Copy"

Did you find the primer and video useful? Awesome! If you're looking to purchase any of the cards, doing so through TCGplayer helps me out a ton - https://bit.ly/2JPzevg - it costs you nothing extra too. Thank you and happy brewing, babies!

Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 1 Mythic Rares 45 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 19 - 1 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.03
Tokens	Copy Clone, Elemental 1/1 R, Emblem Wrenn and Six, Goblin Warrior 1/1 RG, Satyr 2/2 GR, Treasure
Folders	Wort