[Damia Primer] One Good Turn Deserves Another

Commander / EDH BUG (Sultai) Competitive Infinite Combo Multiplayer Primer

SageOfStone

Land (30)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Bayou
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crystal Vein
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Forest
• 1x Island
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Wasteland
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Counterspells (5)

• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Misdirection
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Swan Song

Removal (4)

• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Snap
• 1x Toxic Deluge

Acceleration (25)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Edge of Autumn
• 1x Elvish Spirit Guide
• 1x Exploration
• 1x Explore
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Gilded Goose
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Lion's Eye Diamond
• 1x Lotus Cobra
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Simic Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Voltaic Key

Wincon (8)

• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Palinchron
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Stroke of Genius
• 1x Tooth and Nail

Recursion (4)

• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Regrowth
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Commander (1)

Redundancy (9)

• 1x Ad Nauseam
• 1x Day's Undoing
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Timetwister
• 1x Windfall

Tutors (9)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Grim Tutor
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Intuition
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Utility (5)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Paradoxical Outcome
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Temporal Mastery
• 1x Thirst for Knowledge

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Introduction

(Background Artwork by Steve Argyle. Can't thank him enough for making this masterpiece. Go give him money.)

10/2/2019 edit: Updated the list after way too long. Some parts of the primer might be aniquated.

This is a fully competitive pure combo deck. The deck is designed to compromise on nothing. This deck is incredibly fast, startlingly resilient, and peerlessly consistent.

My Damia deck has been my one evergreen deck for five years now. I've built upwards of fifty EDH decks, trying to see how competitive I can make them. All of it has been to learn more about different strategies and lines of play that I can use to better this deck. After years of building this deck from the ground up, I'm finally going to make a primer for it. This deck is and always will be a work in progress. I can theorycraft what I think would be a perfect list for my deck, but a year from now, it would be all wrong. For that reason, the list above is my paper EDH deck. I'll make a section for cards that should be in the deck, but I simply don't have at the time.

The Primer

Reading the List Show

I have custom categories. I'll go ahead and define what each category means. Cards will never be in multiple categories, even if they fit. I'll be putting them into the category that I feel they fit in the most.
Land: Cards with the supertype "Land."
Recursion: Cards that allow me to access and reuse cards in my graveyard.
Utility: Cards that have multiple uses, but don't outright fit into other categories for one reason or another.
Acceleration: This is the engine of the deck. The largest and most important part of the deck. Cards that increase my mana production will be found here.
Wincon: These are the cards that actually win the game.
Counterspells: Spells that interfere with the resolution of other spells. This isn't a control deck, so the cards in this category should only be used to prevent opponents from disrupting my combos or winning.
Removal: As fast as this deck is, there is always the possibility somebody will play something problematic. These are the cards that get rid of the problems.
Redundancy: Short for "commander redundancy." Damia is extremely powerful, but sometimes people counter or remove her from the field. These cards minimize the impact of that, or even make it to where I don't have to cast Damia. Anything that gets blowout amounts of card advantage goes here.
Tutors: - Cards that let me search my library for other cards. These increase the consistency of the deck.
Sideboard: The ten card wishboard. Not actually a functional sideboard.

Pure Combo Show

Most decks are some kind of combo control deck, aimed at suppressing incoming threats and reacting to plays made by opponents. The strategy of this deck however is to be the aggressive combo that people have to react to. As this is the best three color combination in EDH, the deck can find and use the relatively small amount of answers it has when it needs to, but the first priority is to begin applying game winning pressure early. If this wins the game, great. If it doesn't, the deck is resilient enough to keep trying turn after turn until a wincon sticks.

The idea is to make infinite mana and use an outlet, much like any other BUG combo deck. The difference is just in the approach.

Choosing Damia and the Color Identity Show

This is a Tooth and Nail deck, so obviously green is a necessity to the deck. The best two creature combos are found in blue, so its also a no-brainer inclusion. Black is a color that isn't immediately necessary to the strategy, but its inclusion into the deck offers so many powerful and synergistic cards that the strat basically can't live without it. Access to powerful accelerants like Dark Ritual or Cabal Ritual, broad tutors like Demonic Tutor, and the most broken card advantage engines like Necropotence and Ad Nauseam.

Now, choosing the general for the strategy is the next step. There aren't a lot of generals, so its not much of a choice. Sidisi, the Mimeoplasm and Vorosh don't do anything for the plan, so they're obviously out. Leovold interacts well with some cards in the deck, but doesn't actually contribute to the game plan. Tasigur offers an infinite mana outlet that is always accessible in the command zone, but doesn't contribute much to the plan other than providing an outlet. Damia is the perfect fit. The goal of the deck is already to make a lot of mana and win by casting big dumb spells, so a big dumb spell in the command zone ready to be used at any point in the game is an obvious choice.

Playing Damia does give me a few liberties with the proportions in the deck. Because I always have access to a reload in the command zone, I can play way more greedy fast mana. Cards like Elvish Spirit Guide and Lotus Petal might be too detrimental to the stability of other decks, but with Damia (and the commander redundancy package), these types of acceleration only benefit the game plan. Furthermore, Damia interacts very well with Time Stretch (the deck's plan b wincon). If I can resolve Time Stretch, I can cast Damia and 3-4 cmc worth of other cards in hand on the subsequent turn. Then, on the final turn, I untap with Damia and a ton of mana on the field, which is almost guaranteed to win the game.

In Depth List Analysis Show

Land

The lands in this deck are primarily chosen based on how efficiently they produce colored mana. I'll only be going over the lands that really need to be addressed, because saying "this land makes colored mana really well" over and over gets taxing. As of writing this, I don't have ABUR dual lands. They are obvious includes.

Filter Lands: These lands are used for color fixing, but their importance is large enough to warrant being addressed. This deck wins by making infinite mana with Deadeye Navigator and Palinchron. To do that though, I need three lands that can produce at least two blue. Flooded Grove or Sunken Ruins can be used with either a Swamp or a Forest, and still make two blue. The deck also needs two green mana to cast Tooth and Nail and two black mana to cast Ad Nauseam. So these lands are godsends. Cannot recommend them more for the strat.

Fetch Lands: Pretty obvious mana fixers, though they also have good synergy with Lotus Cobra. I play a few cards with Threshold as well, so having the cards in the yard can help. There are so many technical uses to having them (like Sensei's Top or Scroll Rack, to list a few). A lot of people use 9, but my number is 7. The number is adjustable. I would just recommend always using at least the four blue fetches. They're the most important.

Cavern of Souls : When you play a general with such a nutty ability, its usually automatically going to attract the nearest open counterspell. While this is sometimes beneficial, I do prefer when Damia sticks. There are a few incidental wizards in the list for it to work with as well. Its not the end of the world if it has to be used to fix for something like Lotus Cobra or Birds of Paradise, either.

Crystal Vein : I get some flak for this one sometimes. This deck is designed to get to nine mana as fast as possible, so a land that can produce two mana is important. I cannot recommend this land more. It enters untapped, and if need be, produces multiple mana.

Dryad Arbor : This is only in the deck to make Green Sun's Zenith active as a turn one land ramp spell. Other than that use, the card is straight up garbage. Still, GSZ is already such a powerhouse, and getting an extra land on turn one can sometimes lead to winning the game on turn two (not a common occurrence, but this is one of the cards that can make it happen).

Riptide Laboratory : The utility lands in the deck are kept to a minumum because I almost always have something to do with my mana with just spells. Still, this is a functional combo piece with Trinket Mage and a Palinchron combo. Its a last resort combo piece, but it does give me another out if Deadeye Navigator gets exiled. It can also be used with Snapcaster Mage for a powerful recursion engine. The last primary use for it is if I find myself with an excess of seven cards in hand and I have Damia out. I can just bounce her to my hand to reclaim my draw for turn. Of course, this should be used sparingly, as having Damia on the field is often worth losing a draw.

Strip Mine & Wasteland : The easiest, cheapest answer to the most broken lands in the game. My local metagame has multiple Gaea's Cradle s and a Cabal Coffers (aside from the one in my wishboard), so I can't forego the inclusion of these lands. Still, I can't see a reason not to run them, even without the biggest monesters of the format in your local metagame.

Recursion

Noxious Revival : This is one of the most powerful cards in the deck. Not only does this allow me to recur my own cards, it also functions as a free counterspell to graveyard strategies. I would have impressive stats to post if I had kept track of the number of times I've used this on an opponent's Jin Gitaxias or Necrotic Ooze in response to a reanimation spell. This is another glorious Damia master race card as well, because Damia negates the -1 from casting Noxious Revival. All around amazing card. Reclaim doesn't come anywhere close. Integral to most of my Intuition piles.

Regrowth : Pretty much the Demonic Tutor of recursion. Its cheap and adds the card to hand immediately. Pretty self explanatory. This deck runs the best of the best recursion for increased resilience, and this makes the cut.

Snapcaster Mage : Narrower than Regrowth, but it is instant speed, and its body makes it an outlet to Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron. It can be made uncounterable with Cavern of Souls.

Yawgmoth's Will : The argument can be made that this is the most powerful card in the game. This is also integral to my Intuition piles (we'll go over that later). With the rituals and cheap mana rocks in the deck, casting this often can net mana, while offering an outlet to the Tooth and Nail combo.

Utility

Brainstorm : This card is almost always very powerful. In the early turns it can lead to finding free mana rocks or counterspells, and in the late game, it quickly digs for wincons. It isn't super necessary, but the use to cmc ratio is very favourable. It also has quite a bit of synergy with the strat, as the deck causes my library to be shuffled quite often.

Scroll Rack : While functionally similar to the cards in the commander redundancy section, Scroll Rack doesn't meet the requirement to be included amongst them because it doesn't actually give me extra cards. Instead, Scroll Rack is an absurdly powerful digging engine, that can make otherwise unplayable hands great. Often times this card can be seen as a 1 mana investment per turn to double the amount of cards I have in hand. Its use against things like Thoughtseize is fringe, but worth mentioning.

Temporal Mastery : A really cheap extra turn effect. At the least, its a super Explore. If I don't have Tooth and Nail yet, but I do have nine mana, I can resolve both this and Damia in the same turn to guarantee an untap with her.

Acceleration

Birds of Paradise : The most consistent mana dork. Producing any color is important, and it has flying, which is sometimes relevant for necessary blocks.

Cabal Ritual : This deck really likes rituals. The threshold isn't always relevant, but when it is, its huge. Great at any stage of the game.

Mox Opal : A bit of a gamble, but this deck can easily churn out three artifacts if need be. 0cmc for colored mana is too good to pass up. If I end up adding Tidespout Tyrant , it is a combo piece.

Chrome Mox : 0cmc acceleration is the best. A lot of cards in the deck (including Damia) negate the loss of card advantage. It can produce colored mana, and can lead to explosive turn one plays.

Dark Ritual : Usually even better than Cabal Ritual. This is a temporary two mana jump, which can lead to dumb things like turn one Ad Nauseam (which usually means a turn two win) or Necropotence. This is essentially a more powerful black Mana Vault. 10/10.

Deathrite Shaman : Another 1cmc dork that produces all colors. Its also a good metagame option. There are a few graveyard strats in my meta. It also fulfills the niche of being the only life gain option in the mainboard.

Edge of Autumn : As the deck needs to have a number of lands out to win, these 2cmc land accelerants are super important. Edge of Autumn also has the benefit of being a free draw, if I need it. Its won me a fair share of games, and I'd consider it some of the best acceleration in the game.

Elvish Spirit Guide : This is essentially an uncounterable, 0cmc green Cabal Ritual (without threshold). This can let me get a turn one Sylvan Library. It makes green mana, which can sometimes be relevant to casting Tooth and Nail. Again, Damia and the commander redundancy package help circumvent the negative card advantage from such powerful acceleration.

Exploration : As the deck wins with multiple lands, this can be a good way to play a few extras. Lands are the hardest form of acceleration to disrupt or punish (though it is slower, hence why only the best of the best has made it). With all of the hand refills in this deck, having a cheap permanent to play extra lands is pretty important (especially with Damia).

Explore : Again, land acceleration is key. is what to expect from most land acceleration, and this replaces itself, while putting a land into play untapped. Pretty much the best land acceleration in the deck.

Farseek More land acceleration. It can grab Watery Grave, which is an important function. Pretty standard stuff.

Fellwar Stone : Stronger than Signets or Talismans. Usually produces all of my colors and enters untapped. Makes a great follow up to a turn one Sol Ring or Mana Crypt.

Grim Monolith : The strongest big mana rock. It makes more mana than it costs, so its already pretty good, but it also makes three mana, which can quickly put me at Tooth and Nail mana. An essential option.

Lotus Cobra : One of the most absurd mana dorks available, and one that can function even under Linvala, Keeper of Silence . This guy can easily make two colored mana per turn, and with all of the land acceleration that I play, he can make way more.

Lotus Petal : A 0cmc colored mana rock. Its a pseudoritual, which the deck already loves.

Mana Crypt : The best colorless mana rock in the game.

Mana Vault : Essentially a colorless Dark Ritual. Its a staple in most decks, but even more so in this one.

Mox Diamond : Either the best or the second best rock in the deck. Makes colored mana and its free. It can also be used to drop some lands that are clogging my hand so that Damia refills more cards.

Nature's Lore : Another powerful land accelerant. Gets untapped blue mana and its completely free with Lotus Cobra.

Simic Signet : Produces colored mana and enters untapped. It makes the two main colors that this deck needs, and plays well with Sol Ring and Mana Crypt.

Sol Ring : Card is bad and I feel bad.

Wincon

Blue Sun's Zenith : This is the primary infinite mana outlet for the deck. Draws my library, then decks out all opponents. Functions as commander redundancy. Braingeyser effects are very powerful when the goal of the deck is to make big mana.

Deadeye Navigator : Part of the Tooth and Nail package. With Palinchron it makes infinite mana. From there, its as simple as adding in one of the many incidental third pieces to the combo. This also enables an infinite turn combo with Time Stretch and Eternal Witness, which is a good plan b for if Palinchron is exiled. Due to the way the deck is constructed, I can live without Deadeye Navigator if need be, but it is still super important to keep him low profile as much as possible. Playing Deadeye Navigator to simply "get value" is strictly not advised.

Eternal Witness : Part of the Tooth and Nail package. Its an outlet to Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron , as well as powerful recursion. Its very important because if need be, I can Tooth and Nail for Eternal Witness and Palinchron, then get Tooth and Nail back to cast again. On the resolution of the second T&N, I will have a win on board (Deadeye, Palinchron, Eternal Witness, Trinket Mage), regardless of what is in the graveyard. Goes infinite with Jace and Time Stretch, in case Deadeye Navigator and Palinchron are both exiled.

Palinchron : Part of the Tooth and Nail package. Also goes infinite with Phantasmal Image, in case Deadeye Navigator is exiled. Goes infinite with the wishboard Cabal Coffers, though pulling that off is a bit tricky. Useful if a lot of other pieces are exiled.

Phantasmal Image : Honorary part of the Tooth and Nail package. This fits in the utility category, but as a rule of thumb, if something is a two card combo, it gets listed as a wincon. Great even when not used as a combo piece. Copying problematic or powerful commanders is a quick way to get ahead.

Sensei's Divining Top : The outlet to Trinket Mage. This is a bit tricky, but what you do is activate Deadeye Navigator after making infinite mana to rebond with Trinket Mage. Activate Trinket Mage, and find Top. Rebond to Deadeye. Play top, and tap it to draw a card. Activate Trinket Mage and then find Top again. Repeat.

Stroke of Genius : Second, easier to cast Blue Sun's Zenith. Obviously useful if USZ is exiled. Again, Braingeyser effects are great. If they printed another instant speed effect like this in my colors, I'd probably play it too.

Time Stretch : The plan b wincon that the deck gets its name from. At worst, I can use it to untap with Damia at least once. With that much mana, its usually game. Its an outlet to all of the plans in the deck, really. This is especially good because the deck is already trying to make 9-10 mana. It fits in as essentially a second Tooth and Nail.

Tooth and Nail : The deck. A one card combo for only . If this resolves, the game is mine. Powerful.

Counterspells

Force of Will : A powerhouse free counterspell. With Damia out, this is bar none the most powerful counterspell in the game, because it essentially works out to paying a life to counter a spell and draw two cards.

Misdirection : Essentially a second Force. It only really counters counterspells, but that is what I primarily use my counterspells for in the first place. I've used it in clutch situations to redirect kill spells pointed at Damia (or a combo piece) to a creature I don't control. Interestingly enough, it works against Abrupt Decay and other uncounterable spells.

Pact of Negation : Another free counterspell. Particularly useful for protecting my combo or Damia (or both). It actually has a cost if I don't win on the spot, but it doesn't require another blue card, which is occasionally relevant.

Remand : My only 2cmc counterspell. I play it because it draws a card. Countering spells is usually card disadvantage in four pods, but this one isn't. Its also pretty neat to counter somebody's wincon or otherwise super threat, then watch as the board destroys them because they know what is coming.

Swan Song : A very wide 1cmc counterspell. The 2/2 bird is usually a non issue.

Removal

Cyclonic Rift : An instant speed catch all that can sometimes be used to board wipe my opponents.

Gilded Drake : The best way to shut down any deck that depends on its commander (unless they're troll/shrouded or not a creature of course). Really good at punishing any powerful creature meant to sit on the board (Derevi, Elesh Norn, Iona, Consecrated Sphinx, etc.).

Snap : A free removal spell for creatures. It can net mana with Cabal Coffers or Ancient Tomb. It can also be used to fix mana in case I need extra black or green mana. Can be used to reuse Snapcaster Mage, Trinket Mage, Eternal Witness or even Phyrexian Metamorph and Sower of Temptation. Probably the best removal spell in the deck.

Toxic Deluge : The cheapest board wipe in my colors. Kills a lot more creatures than the more expensive Damnation .

Redundancy

Ad Nauseam : One of the most powerful "draw" spells in the deck. Usually ends up being 15+ cards for five mana. Easy to cast on turn two or three, and possible on turn one. Usually ends up being a win with counterspell backup on the following turn.

Day's Undoing : to draw seven cards is a steal, regardless of whether it ends my turn or not. I don't currently own a Timetwister , but I would play both if I did.

Fact or Fiction : Instant speed, and can get a lot of cards. Helps fuel Threshold.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor : A +1 Brainstorm per turn. Potentially a combo piece with Eternal Witness and Time Stretch, which is a good backup.

Memory Jar : A colorless wheel I can pay for in advance. One of those cards that a deck has to justify not playing.

Necropotence : A 3cmc Damia+. Broken card advantage outlet. Can be easily cast on turn one, and games where it is, I win.

Rhystic Study : Either a one sided Thorn of Amethyst that affects creatures as well, or a draw per spell that doesn't get taxed. Either option is massively beneficial. I prefer this to Mystic Remora because it has no upkeep costs and affects creatures.

Sylvan Library : for an enchantment that says to draw two extra cards per turn. The rest of the text on the card is negligible.

Time Spiral : Harder to cast on turn one than Day's or Windfall, but it is a free wheel when it resolves. Great if I find I have a reasonable amount of mana, but I'm coming up dry on cards.

Whispering Madness : A more expensive Windfall that can easily be slapped onto a Lotus Cobra or a Snapcaster Mage to be reused to broken effect.

Windfall : Very close to Timetwister, and even has some applications of its own, like fueling threshold or keeping cards in the grave to use with the recursion package.

Tutors

Demonic Tutor : The cheapest catch all tutor that adds the card directly to hand. Technically functions as an infinite mana outlet because it finds infinite mana outlets.

Green Sun's Zenith : This is functionally a ramp spell, as the selection of cards available is relatively small. It classifies as a tutor however because it can find Eternal Witness to be an outlet to infinite mana. It also can find Deathrite Shaman for graveyard hosing and life gain.

Intuition : A blue, instant speed Demonic Tutor. Probably the most skill intensive card in the deck. I would make an entire section devoted to this card, but there are really too many game winning piles that are relevant to specific situations. Its worth mentioning that you can find Noxious Revival, Yawgmoth's Will, and the desired card, which will always end with getting what you want. There are much more complicated piles depending on the situation at hand, and the only way to learn all of them is to play the deck a lot.

Lim-Dul's Vault : A 2cmc Vampiric Tutor. It can find multiple relevant cards. I've won games just because I've been able to put Temporal Mastery on top of Tooth and Nail. The extra turn let me get to nine mana.

Living Wish : Accesses my my Wishboard. See that section for details.

Mystical Tutor : A narrower, blue Vampiric Tutor. This is primarily a spellslinger combo deck, so this is a pretty good option. Works great with Temporal Mastery.

Trinket Mage : Like GSZ, its technically a ramp card. It can find Sensei's Divining Top, which makes it also an infinite mana outlet with Deadeye Navigator.

Vampiric Tutor : The best tutor in the game. Its a catch all, its instant speed. Its just one mana. Vastly superior to Imperial Seal (which didn't make the cut for reasons explained in the Omissions section).

Wishboard

Archaeomancer : Wishboard Eternal Witness redundancy. Good for grinding out more advantage with Time Stretch, if need be.

Azure Mage : Wishboard infinite mana outlet. I was torn between either this or Ishkanah, Grafwidow for filling this spot. I went with Azure Mage for two reasons. The first being that Azure Mage draws my library, which is harder to disrupt than targeted life loss. The second is that Azure Mage is a wizards and can be made uncounterable with a Cavern of Souls calling wizard. Fringe, but useful.

Cabal Coffers : Cabal Coffers is too situational to make the cut for the main deck. However, if I find Living Wish after a player plays Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, its a powerhouse land that can easily shoot me up to the 9+ mana threshold.

Dust Bowl : Fills two niches. First is obviously wishboard land destruction. Second is the simpler wishboard etb untapped land that always makes mana.

Glen Elendra Archmage : Matchup tool for taking down spellslinger combo decks. Can be reused with Riptide Laboratory or Deadeye Navigator, though the latter is quite risky. Most threats to Deadeye are solved with the Archmage anyway though. Its a Wizard, so it can be made easily uncounterable by Cavern.

Maze of Ith : Matchup tool for decks that need to connect like Brago, Derevi, Yidris or any voltron commander. One of the more flexible slots in the board.

Phyrexian Revoker : On demand hosing for a problematic activated ability. Works great for stopping Tasigur, Breya or Krenko decks. Its really wide, so its one of the best options in the board.

Priest of Titania : Matchup tool for the greedy elf decks. Can easily skyrocket me from 4 mana (to cast Living Wish and Priest in one turn) to 9 mana.

Scavenging Ooze : Matchup tool for graveyard combo decks like Angry Hermit, Devourer combo, or Boonweaver combo. Also a life gain tool in a pinch.

Sower of Temptation : Gilded Drake redundancy. Helps against all of the same decks. Its a wizard, yada yada.

Omissions and Possible Additions

This is the section where I'll overview the cards that aren't in the deck. To start, the possible additions:

ABUR Duals: I don't have them at the time being, so I don't play them. Definite additions.

Timetwister : Don't currently own one. Guaranteed to make the cut.

Three Visits : The last of the cards I would play guaranteed if I had them. Nature's Lore is probably the second best land acceleration in the deck.

Bazaar of Baghdad : As it may have been made apparent, I'm very choosy about the cards I play that support Damia. I do this because Damia alone is a very powerful wincon if she sits on the table for even one turn. However, this card is absurdly powerful for both situations where Damia is or isn't on the field.

Spire of Industry : This is pretty much a guaranteed addition, but I have to think about what to cut for it.

Constructing the Deck Show

II figure I'll share some tips on how to go about constructing a deck like this. Obviously buying it in one go is out of the question for a lot of people. The first thing you have to get are the lands. The deck isn't anything if you can't reliably play your spells.

I would recommend actually building the deck as a more control oriented variant to begin with, as counterspells and removal are generally more affordable than some of the more expensive pieces for a hard combo list.

In the deck's early years, I actually played a pure control variant with no infinite combos. It works very well, but the strategy requires a lot (understatement) of technical play, an encyclopedic knowledge of the decklist, and from the feedback I got from my play group, its literally the least fun deck to play against ever. There are a lot of ways to win with a deck like this, and Tooth and Nail is just one of them. Once upon a time, this deck's wincon was casting a kicked Rite pf Replication on Kokusho, the Evening Star . For that reason, I think the wincons can be some of the last things you pick up.

Obviously one of the most important things is the acceleration package. There are a lot of strategies that can reliably win on turn 4 (and less reliably before then), so you need to be able to count to nine mana as fast as possible. Obviously 0cmc acceleration and things like Dark Ritual will make the deck blazingly fast and should be obtained as soon as possible. If your group isn't extremely competitive (don't play this deck) but you still want to play this deck, you can get away with holding off on the super expensive stuff and just get things like Lotus Cobra and Nature's Lore.

The Commander Redundancy package is super important if your pods tend to favor control. Its one of the most mentioned methods of "stopping the deck" to kill or counter Damia. This is mostly false. Removing Damia is negatively impactful for the strat, but with a solid redundancy package, you can just use Damia as an ever present threat that must be addressed before Tooth and Nail even comes into the equation. The deck accelerates super hard, and that takes its toll on card advantage. You have to have a way to refill reliably without relying too much on Damia.

Tutors are obviously super important, and make the deck much faster and consistent. The most important ones are the black tutors. Most of the time they'll be finding big accelerants like Mana Crypt or Lotus Cobra, but of course they find whatever you truly need most at the time. I would get them as you go, but definitely focus on the aforementioned stuff first.

Recursion is the of the super important categories. Without recursion, the deck is just very fast combo deck. The recursion package is small, but extremely potent, and gives the deck layers of resilience. Most of it isn't terribly expensive, so its not hard to pick up.

The counterspells, removal and utility stuff are all icing. Honestly, the deck could be run without counterspells or removal if you feel like being all in all the time. For that, I would only recommend getting Force and Pact. Snubbing counterspells pointed at your wincon is very strong, but the deck can just recur a wincon or find a different one. Focusing more on speed is an option. I choose to use a few counterspells and a small removal suite because my group has a lot of super fast, frail wincons. This amount of interaction spells allow me to cut down on the reliability of these super fast wincons. It makes my relatively fast, consistent wincon much more likely to be the one to win out. The utility stuff is all just good stuff. Scroll Rack in particular should be obtained around the time you start getting the commander redundancy, as it gets much more powerful with those cards in the deck.

Playing the Deck Show

Alright, you've learned a lot of the ins and outs of the deck list, now its time to learn how to play the deck.

This deck averages a four turn game, so keep that in mind when I use terms like "early game, mid game, and late game." Early would be turns 1-2, three at the latest. Mid would be 2-3, and late would be 3-6.

From the get go, you want to be putting in accelerants and possibly refilling card advantage (believe me, I can drop my hand easily on turn one, its often very relevant to be able to refill as well). Mana Crypt is a relatively common turn one play from this deck. Naturally drawing it feels great as always, but its also a very good turn one Demonic Tutor option. The best plausible turn one involves making a few extra mana, then casting a Windfall effect. If you go first and do this you probably win the game straight off. There are ways of entwining Tooth and Nail on turn one with enough lands and a wincon, but they're astronomically unlikely and shouldn't be expected.

Turn two should be spent playing more acceleration and either a tutor or a redundancy piece. Depending on your start, you might be casting Damia or Tooth and Nail on this turn. If you're casting Tooth and Nail, make sure you actually have the resources and capability of winning on the spot. If not, save it and just play Damia. A Damia play on this turn is extremely safe. Most of the time, people are trying to set up their own boards and don't want to have to remove her (or they just can't). If you untap with a turn 2 Damia, you're going to win, quite possibly on the spot. Even if they remove her, you still ate some removal or counterspells, and the real wincons are more likely to resolve as a result. More realistically, you're going to be playing more acceleration and a wheel. This is also a super common Ad Nauseam turn. If you cast it and resolve it, you can feel pretty safe going to very low life totals. I generally drop about 25-30 life into Ad Nauseam.

Here, I would like to further reinforce that solving all the board's problems is not your job. You just can't do it and expect to win in a timely manner. Just because somebody else got a good start doesn't mean you should start holding up counterspell or removal mana. Focus on getting your own start unless its absolutely necessary.

Turn three is the first turn you can reliably start winning the game. If turns one and two went average, turn three can be spent playing Damia or redundancy. If you still need a bit to close the gap to 9 mana, play another accelererant. Otherwise, feel free to tutor for (or just cast) Tooth and Nail / Time Stretch. A big Stroke of Genius or USZ is good here. If Ad Nauseam resolved at the end of the second turn, you're (very) probably winning upon untapping. Don't even bother trying to hold a counterspell to protect Tooth and Nail. If an opponent had a response to a spell, they would have stopped Ad Nauseam. The only thing to be wary of is removal. If the coast is clear, go for it.

Turns four and on are simple. Just keep jamming wincons until one sticks. If the game goes too long, you might want to actually begin holding some answers to the wincons of your opponents.

Now, I'd like to examine some sample hands. These were randomly generated, and I just picked the first three keepable hands.

Our first hand (after one mulligan, six lands and a ritual) is Riptide Lab, Bloodstained Mire, Forbidden Orchard, Strip Mine, Snap, Yawgmoth's Will and Chrome Mox. Its heavy on lands, but that reduces the likelihood of drawing them later when we're looking for substance. Honestly, this is one of the worst hands possible, but its got acceleration. I would definitely keep this over going to six, but if you still have your free mulligan, take it. Anyways, since I used my mulligan, I'll keep. I'm instantly rewarded with the top card of the library being Intuition. The best play here is to just crack a Mire and further reduce the number of lands in the deck. Now I have no idea what the next card you draw into will be, but if its a land or a card more relevant than Snap, exile Snap to Chrome Mox and play a land. You probably don't care about anything quite as much as resolving an end of turn Intuition. You probably want to find Crypt, Sol Ring and Mana Vault here. Turn three will be spend casting Yawgmoth's will, getting back all of the mana rocks and Intuition. If you play your cards right, you will win on turn 4.

Our next hand comes immediately after the last. No mulligan was required. This time we have Exotic Orchard, Reflecting Pool, and Crystal Vein for lands. We have Simic Signet, Lotus Petal, Brainstorm and Lim-Dul's Vault. This is a super keepable hand, even with no lands that produce colored mana on turn one. Our first draw is Breeding Pool. Very useful. Unfortunately, this hand is very open and a very large number of lines of play can happen, depending on the piles we see with Lim-Dul's Vault. I would spend turn 1 playing Petal and Breeding Pool, then resolving an end of turn Vault. With Brainstorm, everything is much more powerful. We'll be able to see four of the five cards we set on top. Without more information, I would predict this hand to win on turn four. Turn three is possible if the Vault pile is very good. If the pile is average, turn five would be the latest I could expect.

Our third hand comes immediately after the last, requiring no mulligan. We rolled really well this time. We have Overgrown Tomb as our only land in hand. We have Mana Vault and Crypt, along with Mystical Tutor, Intuition, Gilded Drake and Yawgmoth's Will. This is a snap keep if I've ever seen one, even if there is no blue mana. Our top card is Felwar Stone, and everything is beautiful. We're a bit slower if we go first, but if even one player goes before us, we explode. Turn one (assuming we aren't first, as its more likely) should be spent playing Crypt, Fellwar Stone and Mana Vault. You can play your Tomb tapped to save some life. Turn two will be started at 7 mana. Depending on our draw, we can either play Damia or just go with plan A and use Intuition and Yawgmoth's will in a similar fashion to our first hand. I would expect this hand to win on turn three. Four if somebody stops us.

Since that last hand was really cheesy, I decided to roll one more hand. The lands are City of Brass and Cephalid Coliseum. The fact that both of these deal damage to tap is troubling, but the rest of the hand is worth it. We have Sol Ring, Green Sun's, Scroll Rack, Snapcaster Mage and Noxious Revival. This is a snap keep. Our top card is Swan Song. Lame. We have two lines of play. Turn one we can play City, Sol Ring and Scroll Rack. However, I think it would be more beneficial to go ahead and GSZ for Dryad Arbor and call it a turn. We do this because Dryad Arbor has summoning sickness, and also because we NEED to get to three lands that don't damage us to combo off. On turn two, hold off on playing the Coliseum. We possibly need to drop Sol Ring and Scroll Rack, so we can dig for a land that doesn't hurt. As everything at this point relies on what we see with the Rack, I'll just hall my prediction that this hand would most likely score a win on turn four or five.

This is rather fun, so I'll roll one more hand. No mulligan required again. We have Urborg and Windswept for lands. We also have Chrome Mox, Demonic Tutor, Lim-Dul's Vault, Noxious Revival and Cyclonic Rift. This isn't quite Magic Christmasland, but its close. Our top card is Toxic Deluge. We ended up with half our removal suite in our hand. Windswept for Breeding Pool and Chrome Mox exiling Deluge allows us to tutor for Crypt. We can then cast Noxious Revival on our upkeep to get the Tutor back. We can tutor for Sol Ring and play it with mana from Crypt and Chrome Mox. We still have Urborg and Breeding Pool up, so we can cast and end of turn Vault. Remember, we have Rift, so a real option is holding back and Rifting end of turn, then casting Windfall. Another good option is casting Damia. The Vault can be used however it needs to be with the board state. I personally like the Windfall plan, but if you can get a good set of cards together, you might just be able to win on turn three. So I'd predict this hand to win on turn 3-5 depending on the line of play you choose. If you go with Rift, you probably win on turn 4-5.

Matchups Show

While the top tier decks and strategies are debatable, there are a few that every group should understand are big name threats. I'll attempt to break up matchups into good, bad and mostly even.

Favourable Matchups

Stax - Derevi, Teferi, Brago

These decks tend to rely on shutting down one type of mana production. With all of my different methods of accelerating, I find it relatively easy to maneuver around them. These show up in my metagame all the time. Another thing that gives me the edge is that my wincon is faster. They have to try to lock three people out in a way nobody breaks the lock. I just have to resolve a spell and I win. Furthermore my wincon is less abrasive. To stop me, players have to go out of their way, at no additional benefit to themselves. To stop a stax player is to actually speed up your wincon. Proper threat assessment and technical play isn't in favor of this strategy.

Swing to Win - Zur, Narset, Kaalia

I win this matchup with speed and consistency. These commander decks rely heavily on their commander, and attacking. These decks tend to win relatively quickly, but rely on extra pieces to do so in a timely manner. As such they run a lot of control cards. This deck has a very good matchup against control. Furthermore, in the case of non-Narset commanders who win like this, I have Gilded Drake, which utterly destroys their wincon until its too late.

Reanimator - Mimeoplasm, Sharuum, Karador, Jarad

These decks are definitively faster than mine. Unfortunately the wincon is very fragile. I have a lot of answers to their fastest wincons, and they require little or no mana. Stopping one of these decks once is usually more than enough to give me time to win. There is also the consistency factor. Reanimator has the feeling of either winning fast or doing nothing. A lot of times I don't even need my responses.

Control - Tasigur, Edric, Yisan

These decks tend to rely on getting one for one advantage or answering specific threats. With the amount of advantage this deck generates and the amount of threats I jam, it can be very overwhelming. Edric is a little different. These are three different examples of types of control decks. Tasigur is UBx control with combo finisher. Edric is a more aggressive creature strat that trys to answer the board's threats with cheap counterspells. Yisan is mono green toolbox control, aimed at controlling artifacts. The deck handles each a different way, but the core advantages are all there.

Mostly Even Matchups

Doomsday/Storm - Zur, Jeleva, Breya, Yidris

Realistically, all of our decks win off of Ad Nauseam, and we all get to it at the same time. So its pretty much the same speed. My deck has more consistency, but those decks have a slightly harder to disrupt wincon. Its slightly in my favour if I had to call it, but the difference is so marginal that it doesn't matter much.

Food Chain - Prossh, Tazri, Maelstrom Wanderer, Brood Tyrant

The Food Chain strat is interesting. I would say Prossh is has an upper hand on my deck because he's faster and requires almost no set up. Tazri is super even because it actually requires a second piece. Wanderer and Brood Tyrant both have the same issue as Tazri, and have worse colors. Finding and casting Food Chain is way quicker than getting 9 mana. Prossh also has the best recursion colors (), so it can keep incredibly resilient. I can still win games with my control suite and just racing, but Prossh has a leg up. Tazri and friends need another piece which causes them to lag behind Prossh, worsening their matchup.

Pure Combo: Damia, Reaper King, Thrasios/Tymna

Obviously my deck is even against the mirror. Personally, I would probably do very good in the matchup due to years of experience playing the strat, but at the end of the day, this is as even as it gets.

Unfavourable Matchups

My deck really doesn't have any archetypes that it is weak against. Obviously if a voltron deck decides to sit down and kill me before it inevitably loses, that might be a problem. Multiplayer doesn't really have voltron though, so its not a problem. Instead, I'll go in depth on the two commanders that truly do have an edge against this deck.

#2 - Leovold

In addition to having a commander that hard counters mine, as well as turns off a good number of cards in the deck, Leovold also employs a similar strategy that can make a good number of my cards like Windfall rather detrimental. The soft lock is slightly faster than my wincon. If I try really hard and focus on Leovold, I can come out on top, but its an uphill battle. Luckily for me, everybody hates Leo. So again, I don't have to deal with it alone. Whatever actual wincon the Leovold deck is playing (usually Doomsday or Tooth and Nail) is generally on a back burner until the lock is in place. So its mostly a battle of preventing the lock and keeping Leo off the field.

#1 - Nekusar

This matchup is just all kinds of terrible for me. Lucky for me, Nekusar isn't a super popular commander. Its a little bit like Leovold in that it turns off a good amount of my deck and counters my commander. Nekusar doesn't stop me from drawing cards, but it does take advantage of the deck's flimsy life total. Nekusar's primary win condition isn't necessarily faster that Tooth and Nail, but its quite often fast enough to take me out. The "Keep the commander off the field" strategy doesn't work here because unlike Leovold, Nekusar has tons of commander redundancy. Kederekt Parasite , Underworld Dreams , Fate Unraveller, etc. Then there are other problems like Liliana's Caress and Megrim . They also employ the same all in drop a ton of acceleration and then wheel strategy. So really, this deck has very little to do against Nekusar aside from pray that I start out better or somebody keeps Nekusar in check.

Changelog Show

4-3-17
-1 Riptide Laboratory
-1 Yavimaya Coast
+1 Spire of Industry
+1 Wooded Foothills

I decided to nix the Laboratory finally. In all the years I've played it, I've made particularly good use of it maybe three times. Yavimaya Coast was a tough cut, but I can't have that many lands that smack me for damage when they're tapped for mana. Spire of Industry is some more great color fixing with a requirement that is super easy in the deck. Foothills has been out of the deck for a while because I didn't want more green only fetches. With Brainstorm being a recent addition, I feel including it again isn't a bad choice.

Top Ranked	Achieved #26 position overall 7 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	5 years
Exclude colors	WR
Key combos	Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	18 - 0 Mythic Rares 54 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.33
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Food, Spirit 1/1 C
Folders	foreign decks, Cedh, Damia, Watch, Edh, Cool Deck Ideas - EDH, Favorites, EDH, Sultai Stuff, *buildupon