Brains and Brawn

Commander / EDH Casual GU (Simic) Multiplayer

BSP

Creature (31)

• 1x Altered Ego
• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Carnage Tyrant
• 1x Clever Impersonator
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Farhaven Elf
• 1x Gigantoplasm
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Great Whale
• 1x Kiora's Follower
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Ondu Giant
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Prowling Serpopard
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Regal Behemoth
• 1x Sakashima the Impostor
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Stunt Double
• 1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
• 1x Temur Sabertooth
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Ulvenwald Hydra
• 1x Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
• 1x Wild Wanderer
• 1x Wood Elves

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Sylvan Library

Land (38)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 13x Forest
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 6x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Riptide Laboratory
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Yavimaya Coast
• 1x Yavimaya Hollow

Instant (10)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Commander (1)

Sorcery (11)

• 1x Bribery
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Explosive Vegetation
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Skyshroud Claim
• 1x Sylvan Scrying
• 1x Temporal Manipulation
• 1x Tooth and Nail

Artifact (6)

• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Simic Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Garruk, Primal Hunter
• 1x Garruk Wildspeaker

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Sideboard

Creature (8)

• 1x Clone
• 1x Grothama, All-Devouring
• 1x Kodama of the North Tree
• 1x Pathbreaker Ibex
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Rhonas the Indomitable
• 1x Sakashima's Student
• 1x Terastodon

Land (5)

• 3x Forest
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Island

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Circuitous Route
• 1x River's Rebuke

Instant (3)

• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Void Shatter

Artifact (1)

• 1x Fellwar Stone

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Any feedback on cards that would be better is welcome. Are there any major Zegana staples I'm missing that aren't covered below?

Who should play this deck? Show

This deck is built assuming a casual EDH environment, where the goal is mainly to have fun while still having a good shot at winning. This implies little to none of the following: target land destruction, mass land destruction, excessive amounts of counterspells/removal, stax, and infinite combos.

Play the deck if your meta is casual, you like drawing cards / having a hand, you don't want to miss land drops, you like creatures, you like engaging in combat, and you're fine with doing so as your primary win condition.

Don't play the deck if your meta is cutthroat with decks that win consistently on T3-T5, is loaded with LD, control, stax, you don't like blue/green, you don't like having a hand / drawing cards (!?), or you'd rather always have answers packed.

Deck Explanation Show

What if I told you there was a way to draw lots of cards...and build a massive board state while you do it?

The goal of this deck is to beat everyone down with board presence and card advantage. Zegana at the helm is the main source of said advantage.

General steps for each game:

1) Ramp. You're in Blue and Green in EDH, meaning you're lacking the best of the best removal spells. As such, the main goal is to accelerate out of reach and win before people can respond consistently.

2) Creatures. Start building a board, getting out any creatures that you can. The goal is to cast Zegana around T4 or T5 and draw 3 or more cards. Don't be afraid to cast Zegana when there's not much power on the board. The deck is loaded with clone effects that turn into card draw assuming Zegana is out. If she gets killed frequently, that's ok too because the deck ramps so hard, and that's people wasting removal on a commander that will come right back out.

3) Beat people down, or utilize some combo to win.

Strengths Show

-Card advantage! Zegana rewards you for building board state by drawing cards for your effort.

-Multitask: A Timmy green deck can pump out threats, but is liable to run out of gas. A blue deck can draw cards easily, but how will it keep others from smashing its face in? Zegana can do both at the same time with her ability.

-Board Presence / Speed: While no Animar, Zegana is capable of building a large field fast, and she can keep the production rolling with her inherent card draw too. Unless you get answered fast with lots of spot removal or wipes, watch your board state spiral out of control. Due to the massive amount of clone effects in the deck, you are almost guaranteed a copy of the best creature on the board at any given time.

Weaknesses Show

-Stack Control: This is a primarily green deck. As a result, you will have no control over what does and doesn't resolve.

Heavy Control: already covered in the 'who should play this deck' section, but let me point out that this deck is not designed to handle being countered at every opportunity, having its resources removed instantaneously, or being locked down. It also weak to continuous wrath effects, as no field = draw 1 card from Zegana.

Humility , Torpor Orb : yeah, GG if these hit the field and you don't have relevant removal in hand. The deck is entirely creature based.

Insurrection , Mob Rule , and the like: When your main plan is to have a giant field of creatures, you become vulnerable to powerful threaten effects.

No grave hate: I've put a lot of thought into each slot at this point. I'd hate to take anything out for devoted grave hate, but that leaves the deck somewhat susceptible to graveyard combo decks.

Telegraphed Combo: If you go for a combo win, a piece will most likely be vulnerable before the combo is set.

Board Control: The only card in the list to reset a crazy board state is Cyclonic Rift .

Overall, the weaknesses can be summed to "defense". I've tried to include more "answers" in the past, but I've found that without access to spells that consistently destroy other creatures and permanents (aka black and white), the deck is likely to lose the long game. As a result, most of the slots are devoted to developing your own board and accelerating out of reach.

Win Conditions Show

Fitting with its name, this deck focuses on winning by smashing everyone into dust, and gets to that point via a solid advantage engine. Now, specific cards...

Cyclonic Rift : A late game Cyclonic Rift can be enough to make opponents scoop outright since you'll be so far ahead. Also opens up fields for an unblocked combat step.

Pathbreaker Ibex / Garruk Wildspeaker / Craterhoof Behemoth / Overwhelming Stampede + lots of (fat) bodies: plow everyone else to the ground the old fashioned way.

Tooth and Nail : This card should always do massive work.

Psychosis Crawler : Turns the massive draw power this deck is packing into a lethal weapon. Clone this guy for even more damage out of your draws.

Rite of Replication : 5 copies of a good creature can easily end the game.

Expropriate - Blatant Thievery and Time Walk at the least, Time Stretch+ at best.

Notable Tooth and Nail Targets Show

Craterhoof Behemoth + Avenger of Zendikar : Even if the plants can't swing, they'll give your guys a huge power boost. If hoof is still alive come your following turn, use a way to trigger his ETB again to win (there's looooots)

Avenger of Zendikar + Tishana, Voice of Thunder : This will draw you a lot of cards in majority of cases.

Notable Omissions / Explanations Show

Conjurer's Closet , Deadeye Navigator : Both of these cards are great for reusing ETBs, but Closet is slow at 5 mana and relies completely on already having something out to abuse. I've found that Deadeye will make you a huge target, and unless you are playing with the intention of going infinite, he is "8 mana: reuse an ETB". That isn't worth the slot. The deck has other methods of reusing ETBs that flow better with the deck as a whole.

Palinchron : this is a casual deck, and Palinchron's presence would make infinite combos too easy. It's easy to put it in if the power level needs to be upped though.

Overwhelming Stampede : Craterhoof does what this card does and is easier to abuse. I don't like dead cards, and this one is unless I'm about to win.

Concordant Crossroads : very risky for this deck to drop before the game winning turn, and is completely dead up until then. I also have no way to tutor for it. However, there is a very strong argument that this deck will use the haste better than the opponents, so I'm not completely against this card either.

Clones: I'm at thirteen clone effects (altered ego, phyrexian metamorph, phantasmal image, sakashima and the student, progenitor mimic, clever impersonator, stunt double, gigantoplasm, Vesuvan Doppelganger, Clone, Cackling Counterpart, and RoR ). Clones are good in general, but the bonus of them here is that when Zegana is alive, they turn into card draw. This allows the deck pilot to not be scared of taking "weaker" draws in fear of not having access to Zegana's effect for a while.

Ramp: I'm running 36 lands with 10+ accelerators. While this is a bit excessive, hear me out. First, I hate missing land drops and/or falling behind curve, so I loaded the deck with ramp to avoid that as much as possible. Secondly, since the commander draws cards and is always available, I'm not worried about flooding out because I have ever present draw. Thirdly, I am much more concerned with early game than I am late. Late game doesn't matter if you can't get out of early game.

Updated 3/26/18 ; This deck is a blast to play! I may need to work some land destruction in outside of beast within.

Date added	9 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	17 - 2 Mythic Rares 35 - 9 Rares 15 - 4 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.69
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Elephant 3-3 G, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Plant 0/1 G, The Monarch, Wurm 6/6 G
Folders	ideas, Joke