Chicken Slingshot

Commander / EDH* Control Mono-Blue Multiplayer Tokens

EmmaMuu

Instant (31)

• 1x Anticipate
• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Disallow
• 1x Dissolve
• 1x Dream Fracture
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x High Tide
• 1x Impulse
• 1x Logic Knot
• 1x Mana Leak
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Negate
• 1x Opt
• 1x Peek
• 1x Peer Through Depths
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Pull from Tomorrow
• 1x Quicken
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Redirect
• 1x Rewind
• 1x Supreme Will
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Telling Time
• 1x Twincast

Sorcery (19)

• 1x Baral's Expertise
• 1x Curse of the Swine
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 1x Mystic Speculation
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Pull from the Deep
• 1x Recurring Insight
• 1x Rise from the Tides
• 1x Serum Visions
• 1x Sleight of Hand
• 1x Spelltwine
• 1x Strategic Planning
• 1x Talrand's Invocation
• 1x Time Spiral
• 1x Time Warp
• 1x Treasure Cruise
• 1x Walk the Aeons

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Back to Basics
• 1x Jace's Sanctum
• 1x Opposition
• 1x Skywise Teachings
• 1x Trail of Evidence

Creature (3)

• 1x Baral, Chief of Compliance
• 1x Curious Homunculus  ^Flip
• 1x Diluvian Primordial

Commander (1)

Land (36)

• 1x Crystal Vein
• 1x Halimar Depths
• 28x Island
• 1x Lonely Sandbar
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Remote Isle
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Wasteland

Artifact (5)

• 1x Coat of Arms
• 1x Damping Matrix
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Sapphire Medallion
• 1x Torpor Orb

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Introduction and deck philosophy

I created this list to perfectly fit my play environment.

My playgroup is extremely diversified in terms of power level so I tried my best to build a deck which has a good chance to win against more cutthroat players while not being overly competitive or oppressive against casuals who are trying to have fun.

Control elements

The deck contains 13 counterspells which are more than enough in my experience, in fact some of them might be cut.

Torpor Orb and Damping Matrix prevent most of the infinite combos in the format (at least in my playgroup) while being annoying in general.Back to Basics is just too good, especially against very competitive decks that tend to have an extremely expensive mana base.

Some cheap spot removal/bounce spells are there to de al with threats. I suggest you run a few, which ones is mostly up to personal preference.

Cyclonic Rift is currently our only way to deal whith degenerate board states. I tried to run more but I found all the other options to be either too situational or too weak in general.

Wincons

The game is usually won by our general and Rise from the Tides serves as a backup wincon. Both of them work really well with Coat of Arms .

The deck also runs a couple of extra turns which are really versatile in the mid-game and often lead to a win in the late game if you have a decent number of tokens in play.

I'm currently testing a more token oriented variant with Skywise Teachings as an additional token generator and Opposition as a control tool/wincon, it needs some playtesting but it seems good on paper at least.

Notable exclusions

• Gravitational Shift and Favorable Winds :win more cards are no good in this deck, everything that reads "if you alredy have a lot of chickens in play you are even more threatening" doens't accomplish anything. Often times when those cards are good you would have won anyway and they are horrible if you are not in a good position. Even though Coat of Arms has the same requirements as those cards it makes the cut because when you play it you are kicking one or more players out of the game
• Combo wincon :As I mentioned in the introduction this deck is not meant to be too competitive and I personally hate losing to lame combos. Plus they don't really fit my playstyle.
• "Free" counterspells :I've never been a big fan of stuff like Foil, Misdirection or Commandeer . Their alternate cost is extremely crippling a not worth it in most cases, they are too expensive to cast normally, and some of them are too situational. The only real exeption to this is Force of Will simply because it's just that good.

Common mistakes/misconceptions

• Misuse of counterspells: Many people pick Talrand as a commander and think they can play it like they would in a 1v1 environment where your strategy is basically to counter almost everything. In multiplayer however you can only include a certain number of them in your deck since they generate too much card disadvantage and playing too passively all the time is not the best of ideas. Counterspell should be aimed almost exclusively at threats you can't deal with, cards that heavily hamper your strategy and cards that generally lead to a win. There are exeptions of course but before you counter something you have to ask yourself if it is really necessary.
• Playing the general too early :Before playing your general be sure to have at least one counterspell to defend him if possible and to have enough ways to make use of him. Dropping Talrand on turn 4 usually ends up in him being removed. I've also noticed that if you don't play him too early many players won't remove him even if they have the chance because they don't acknowledge him as a threat.
• High sorcery count :There are a lots of great sorceries that do all sorts of things and some of them might seem like a great fit for a deck like this, the juiciest being draw spells. Unfortunately this is often not the case since you almost never want to exhaust all your mana during your turn. Sure, you could remain open to avoid risks and draw cards on a later turn but mana efficency is really important and EDH games are so unpredictible that having the luxury to choose is often the better deal. You can afford to play some but they have to be exceptionally good

Suggestion are welcome, have fun!

Date added	7 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Mythic Rares 26 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 24 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.84
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Boar 2/2 G, Clue, Djinn Monk 2/2 U, Drake 2/2 U, Manifest 2/2 C, Zombie 2/2 B