TriusMalarky, I can’t argue with you there :)

We may have a different opinion what cEDH means then

Pikobyte, I highly doubt our opinions differ. I build and play $$$$$ cEDH decks on the reg. (They’re boring—-I don’t post them).

I just happen to also get my rocks off trolling cEDH tables with budget builds full of terrible cards.

Buy the deck bro. You won’t be disappointed :)

Well, we agree that cEDH is boring and that’s why I don’t play it. Going for a pact oracle win or a good chain combo isn’t anything I enjoy.

Didn’t mean to offend you in any way. This is a nice deck without doubt, especially for that budget. I just can’t see it stand much of a chance on a cEDH table. With very little interaction and protection, that amount of tap/bounce lands and cmc, I can see some issues. Protecting your combos vs a cEDH deck with like 30+ instants and tons of removals seems hard. Stopping an oracle combo, food chain or dramatic scepter in a deck with a avg cmc of 1.5 or below, plenty of fast mana and tutors seems borderline impossible. But it’s a nice deck nonetheless and it’s great if you enjoy it. CEDH just isn’t my cup of tea, I get bored by cEDH decks really fast

Pikobyte, Don’t worry—-you can’t offend me! I’m just a prickly personality :)

You’d be surprised how easy it is to disrupt the most “powerful” cEDH game plans. (Or maybe you wouldn’t be!) For instance, something as simple as Glowrider puts a stop to most cEDH combos. They only have so many Force of Wills, but we have and endless supply of these little sh@its :)

I know those cEDH folks think they’re playing a higher order game and so forth... yawns It’s really just about money and elitism.

I’ll tell you with some confidence that my $75 Talrand cEDH deck also crushes in 1v1 cEDH, like it’s not even funny. Trollin’ with Force Spike and a gaggle of bad, bad cards :)

It’s a bit weak to aggression in multiplayer though. Most cEDH tourneys are 1v1.

Buy the Derevi deck tho, seriously. It’s only $100. If you play it at a casual table you’ll feel like a jerk.

Much love and thanks for all your comments!

<3 0rc

A lot of cEDH lists are turbo combo decks. They claim that "stax requires an understanding of the meta" when Stony Silence reads "$2, : $300 of each of your opponent's decks is now unusable" and Deafening Silence reads "nobody gets to win unless I say so".

TriusMalarky, you're 100% right!

In a World without removal, yes.

Pikobyte, that world is called “stax” ;)

Removal or not, it's still true. Even with high numbers of interactive spells, cEDH players only have a handful of ways to kill a resolved stax piece. While they can draw tons of cards and tutor stuff, it can still take a table rotation or two before somebody takes care of your stax piece.

Actually, I watch cEDH gameplay a lot(got into it during quarantine and I don't play digitally) and from what I've seen, even in no banlist games, a Kataki, War's Wage stuck in play for the whole game. It never died. That's when everybody had multiple moxen/crypts/rings/etc in play. Stax pieces stick around for a long time in general.

I mean, in my playtesting(4 decks pitted against each other), even though I have increased enchantment hate as one of my decks is Tuvasa the Sunlit stax, it's still pretty difficult to get rid of the stax pieces. Not impossible, but they stick around for several turns, easily.

TriusMalarky, you’re a good dude :)

Yeah, tell that to my last playgroup. Had to wear riot gear and bring an ax to get into the building. They kept boarding me out . . . wonder why. They also had really bad gun safety, I almost got my brains blown out three times.

It couldn't be my weird combos that they were never prepared for . . . could it?

xD

Question for all:

Does anyone have a position as to whether or not I can remove another land to add Frogify ?

It would put me dangerously at 32–yet I still feel land-flooded from time to time (and rarely deprived).

Thanks!

<3 Orcus Lordus

You should go down to 32 but not for Frogify. Instead, go for Kenrith's Transformation. It draws a card and makes the creature a 3/3 which is actually better because it makes it harder for them to kill their commander and recast it.

Pretty good overall list, good budget too. I would try to cut these cards: 1x Arcanis the Omnipotent 1x Archetype of Imagination 1x Deepfathom Skulker 1x Wonder 1x Maraleaf Pixie 1x Totem-Guide Hartebeest 1x Skyward Eye Prophets. I would focus on rule of law effects (slows down everyone else) and some more counterspells. Instants arent bad really because you wont always have stax up. Counterspell, delay, spell pierce, negate, arcane denial are all good. You could also drop 1x Squeeze if you add these.

Actually, Arcanis is really absurd. Archetype and some of the other pieces could easily be cut, but Arcanis is amazing. 6 mana isn't too bad for repeatable Ancestral Recall that can also bounce itself to get away from removal.

pokejerk20, thank you for your interest. I will address each of your comments below.

Kenrith’s Transformation is already included. I agree that Kenrith’s is better than Frogify. I am specifically considering Frogify to add another similar effect.

Deepfathom Skulker draws an incredible amount of cards with evasive creatures. Alternatives such as Coastal Piracy will cost similar mana or more with our non-creature tax, have no body, and are untutorable in this deck. Is is Rhystic Study? No. But it arguably draws more and has better synergy. It also has a nice-sized body.

Skyward Eye Prophets is a house. Stacking a dozen untap triggers on it all but wins us the game. In fact, it fills our hands while dumping lands onto the board. It’s actually incredible, and we have the acceleration with dorks and Derevi when other players are dropping 4-drops.

Rule of Law effects aren’t particularly helpful when you have a hand full of cards and an incredible amount of mana acceleration due to dorks, multi-mana lands, and plentiful untap triggers before the second main phase. I do run one in Archon of Emeria, but I actually run the card more so because of the land-tap ability, and I have found that the Rule of Law-type effect makes it difficult to assemble and cast my win con pieces, which I typically hope to do all in one turn.

Archetype of Imagination is amazing in this deck. It makes all of our creatures evasive so we can better exploit Derevi’s tap/untap triggers. Furthermore, Wonder and Archetype combo with Stasis to create an unbreakable board state. Are there better cards for the job? Yes, but not on a budget.

Maraleaf Pixie is an evasive, creature, mana-fixing dork that also increases the effectiveness of Spellstutter Sprite. I think I’ll keep it.

Totem-guide Hartebeest tutors two of our win conditions and is recurrable itself. Is it ideal? I used to think not but It actually works quite well with our acceleration and I do love the fat butt. Alternatives are far out of our budget.

As for counterspells—-I run 5: 2 are creatures to evade our stax, 1 can also tutor for combo pieces, 1 protects us from board wipes and instants for a very low cost while factoring in the difficult of opponents overcoming our stax, and the final one provides an infinite counterspell lock, or at least multiple counterspells per turn (please take a look at that section of the primer). I agree that a deck can always use more counters. Though I feel that this deck contains enough.

Squeeze protects us from wrath effects, which are the deck’s biggest threat. It is one of the only 4 cmc non-creature spells worth including. That is noteworthy because these 4 drops are carefully selected as they will not be playable with Gaddock Teeg out (you will note that Squeeze is unplayable with Teeg out, but if Teeg is out it Squeeze is no longer needed). Plus I love the art :)

Thank you very much for your input. Feel free to throw more suggestions out there.

I will address your comment regarding Arcanis below as well.

TriusMalarky I agree that Arcanis is absurdly good. I have drawn 30 cards in a turn of of it!

Thank you again for your insight. You have bent over backwards to provide a detailed critique, and I appreciate that my constant disagreements haven’t scared you off.

I particularly appreciate your interest in this deck and your moderation of the comments section. It hasn’t gone unnoticed :)

Keep the suggestions coming. Also—-build and play this deck! I want your opinion on the play itself.

<3 Orc

This is fantastic and I love it. Awesome list and breakdown!!

4to16characters, thank you so much! I hope you build it and enjoy it as much as I do :)

Oh it's much too evil for me! (Me, having a Chulane deck and several other silly things)

4to16characters, but it’s only $100 :)

This looks so fun. Thanks for the detailed description. My wife is wanting me to build her a bird commander and I may just have to give this a try.

Wow really good deck, I'm a huge sucker for budget brews, and even bigger of a sucker when those builds can compete at any table, and this deck really takes my heart for that. +1 from me, and I'll definitely be checking out your other top rated decks.

Thanks, ObIviom :)

Just finished putting this deck together. This and the budget Talrand deck are now my only two competitive decks. I had one suggestion for this deck, though: Why no Exotic Orchard ? In a two-player game it has a 3 in 5 chance of tapping for at least one of your colors, and in a 4 way game it has a good chance of tapping for all three... It comes out untapped and it's cheap.