How about Reconnaissance? Seems like no downside.

Good question! Reconnaissance clearly has great synergy with a lot of our orb effects and Stasis and is a card I was very excited about for a while but ultimately I found it to be extremely low impact in situations where we don't have specifically Static Orb or Stasis and, being an enchantment, it's pretty tough for us to tutor.

I much prefer Copperhorn Scout for this type of effect because finding creatures is much easier for us.

Do you know what the cost of this deck would be non-foil?

TappedOut's TCGPlayer pricing has it at $3078.77 nonfoil. It lists the Card Kingdom pricing at $3584.43.

I was planing on making a staxs deck for my collection and I ultimately ended tied between Derevi, Empyrial Tactician and Karametra, God of Harvests. The deciding factor is which one I can build more easily for budget. All I would look for is to stop my opponents from doing things and slowly kill them. Which one would you recommend for this strategy?

Both decks will have a good amount of cards in common but ultimately I feel like Karametra, God of Harvests can be built more cheaply as there's no need to spend nearly as much on the mana base for it to be consistent.

That said, I feel like Derevi, Empyrial Tactician is the stronger commander. Though I might be a little biased. ;)

thanks for the help.

This deck is unbelievable. Seriously well done. I would not want to play against this...

First, love it. LOVE it.

Second, how reasonable is Sun Titan given that Cradle and Yisan mean you can get away with murder on the mana?He plays well with Stasis. Given that the deck is mostly hate bears with CMC of 3 or less, he might be able to bring back a useful hatebear, mana dork, lock piece, or Eternal Witness, which you aren't playing either.

Why no Eternal Witness? Things don't die or get countered often enough or they just get exiled?

Thanks for the kind words!

You raise an interesting question. In order to answer it properly, Im going to need to the reiterate decks philosophy as well as discuss what cards like Eternal Witness and Sun Titan bring to the table.

Theres no doubt that E Witness and Sun Titan are both generically powerful cards. That is to say, either could reasonably be included in many decks within their colours.

The main issue with them as default inclusions in Derevi is that they are both inherently very grindy cards. Our strategy is not to try and trade resources and then pull ahead. Were trying to consistently play disruptive pieces before laying down an engine and riding that into a hard lock situation. Ultimately, were trying to continuously deny our opponents the opportunity to interact. Neither Sun Titan nor E Witness contribute to our board of denial (or to a combo, like in some other decks); instead they would both function as comeback mechanics for us. Theres no doubt that in the right meta (probably a more midrange-heavy one) this could be nice utility to have. Maybe your meta fits this description! In a typical cEDH meta, its rare for games to go long enough and to feature enough mass removal that Sun Titan or Eternal Witness provide value that offsets the risk of them gumming up an opening hand.

And while we might be trying to slow down the game as part of our strategy, the kind of mana and card slot investment that Sun Titan or Eternal Witness represent is typically better dumped into additional denial. In other words: if weve stabilized the board already, were looking to quickly transition into a hard lock by applying additional hate pieces. Consecrated Sphinx usually works better in this position (if we really need card advantage) because its value is less conditional on our graveyard and our deck has a lot of redundancy. That said, Ive chosen to cut back on expensive, value-oriented cards like these in order to improve the decks consistency in turn 3 metas.

Which is not to say that these cards cant work... theres just a time and a place for them! :)

Posted from my phone so sorry for the poor quality English and lack of apostrophes lol.

Is there a budget primer?

Thanks for the awesome and in-depth reply. I don't play cEDH at all and have been playing a bant prison deck with Phelddagrif as a general and was thinking about moving to Derevi. I'm kinda picking up on cEDH just being so fast and so much of a race that you'd rather just lock the game out before it gets to that grindy stage. It makes sense, but i'll have to learn more about cEDH to get a feel for just how fast it really is.

I also like the Linvala and Living Plane setup, might be time to get rid of my Gauntlet of Might for some other big, dumb, toy.

Thanks again!

I've come back for another visit, this time I found my way here from a Team Turn Three video. Are they using your list in the video? Or are you playing it in the video? Hello again, and <3

Aw you are so busted, I recognize that altered Derevi! I also love the youtube channel which I have recently discovered. Your secret Identity is safe with me.

I find Reconnaissance to be too good to be out, it allows us to attack a player with blockers without the risk of losing an important piece working as a maze of ith and the cherry on top is the fact that it gives hour creatures pseudo vigilance acting as a doubling effect on derevi triggers

Reconnaissance is one of those cards that's in a weird place for cEDH: when it's good, it's quite good (specifically with Stasis or Static Orb out). When neither of those cards are in play, it's not nearly impactful enough for me to want it in most highly competitive pods.

Compounding the issue further is that it's not easy to tutor for outside of . This makes the card way higher variance than I'm okay with and, as such, I prefer Copperhorn Scout for that kind of utility. Being able to sac it to Eldritch Evolution or Birthing Pod when its unnecessary, being easy to tutor for, and the fact that at the bare minimum its an attacker for Derevi makes me value it more highly.

Have you ever tried Kismet/Frozen Aether or the one spell per turn Arcane Laboratory/Rule of Law/Eidolon effects? They are quite good. Worth a look, they make fast combo decks grind to a halt just as quickly, perhaps more so than when we have a taxer up.

As you can see, Im running Eidolon and Ethersworn Canonist. Kismet-type effects cost a little too much mana to be worth it, imo.

I havent overloaded on Rule of Law effects because one or two tax effects generally replicate that kind of effect early on while also contributing more to an eventual hard lock gamestate. Plus we break parity on them better.

How about Academy Rector? It has really nice synergy with Eldritch Evolution, allowing you to grab Stasis and Sun Titan which is pretty much a hard lock

PraunSaus

My main issue with the Rector line is how inconsistent it is to assemble. Finding Eldritch Evolution isnt as easy as it is in decks with access to blacks tutor suite. Were basically hoping to luck into it if we already have Academy Rector. Otherwise, we need to hold back on using Eldritch Evolution while trying to find Academy Rector. In general, Eldritch Evolution needs to find an engine ASAP so we dont run out of gas.

That and without access to a sac outlet, Rector is an extremely dead draw.

I saw another deck run Quicksmith Spy which I find interesting. Since we're slowing the game to a crawl it could make us draw a bunch of cards, especially off of Derevi triggers, and best of all we can put it on an orb and make it even more asymmetrical. What do you think?

Magnivore

I remember thinking it could be neat when it was first spoiled but ultimately it just strikes me as too slow and--more importantly--too conditional to be worthwhile.

Have you considered running gaddock teeg in the main?

LordCaptain

Gaddock Teeg, like any hatebear, is always a meta call.

The general cEDH meta is at a point where I don't feel like Teeg pulls his weight. That said, if you play against a lot of Teferi, untuned or non-Grixis control (due to clasms and the general efficiency of Lab Man-Consultation lines) decks, you might want to consider adding him back in.