[EDH-2] Noyan Dar's One-Punch Griffin

Commander / EDH* Combo Control Counters Counterspell Island Jank Pillow Fort Theme/Gimmick WU (Azorius)

meowCat1234

Land (35)

• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Blinkmoth Nexus
• 1x Celestial Colonnade
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Deserted Beach
• 1x Faerie Conclave
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Griffin Canyon
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Hengegate Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Inkmoth Nexus
• 1x Irrigated Farmland
• 3x Island
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Meticulous Archive
• 1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mystic Gate
• 1x Nimbus Maze
• 2x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Restless Anchorage
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Seachrome Coast
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Tolaria West
• 1x Windswept Heath

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Rhystic StudyGC
• 1x Search for Azcanta  ^Flip
• 1x Terra Eternal
• 1x Unnatural Selection

Instant (24)

• 1x An Offer You Can't Refuse
• 1x Brainsurge
• 1x Commit / Memory
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic RiftGC
• 1x Experimental Augury
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Heliod's Intervention
• 1x Impulse
• 1x Memory Deluge
• 1x Mission Briefing
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical TutorGC
• 1x Negate
• 1x Opt
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Pull from Tomorrow
• 1x Stroke of Midnight
• 1x Supreme Will
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Vanish into Eternity
• 1x View from Above

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Day's Undoing
• 1x Glimpse the Cosmos
• 1x Mystic Speculation
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Serum Visions
• 1x Start the TARDIS
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 1x Tragic Arrogance
• 1x Windfall

Commander (1)

Artifact (14)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Maskwood Nexus
• 1x Norn's Annex
• 1x Runed Stalactite
• 1x Sapphire Medallion
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x Thought Vessel

Creature (7)

• 1x Cataclysmic Gearhulk
• 1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Spellskite
• 1x Thassa, God of the Sea
• 1x Torrential Gearhulk
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Archangel Elspeth
• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker

---

Maybeboard

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Collective Restraint
• 1x Teferi's Ageless Insight

Instant (2)

• 1x Consider
• 1x Deliberate

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Sleight of Hand

---

WORK IN PROGRESS!!

The Janky Griffin {W}{U}

For the information of all, this is my pet deck. It has been with me since its original inception way back 2016. We've had our ups and downs and this is the version I like the most. It's got a unique approach to it, a unique combo, and some questionable card choices. The deck won't give you a lot of wins but it will be sure to wow most new tables with it.

This deck is in no way intended to be a very competitive, cutthroat deck where a lot of goodstuff cards get thrown into the deck. It used to run a lot more tutors but over time I found that play style repetitive and boring. The current version instead aims to achieve the same effect as running tutors by running a rather large number of cantrips and draw spells. Combined with recursion/recover effects, the effective spell count is high enough that triggering Noyan's ability shouldn't be too difficult.

The deck can make explosive plays, very fast. After a bit of a set-up, the deck should straight out kill at most a single opponent a turn. It's janky enough that it would be fun to see people's reactions when you kill them with this set-up.

If you like a unique take on spellslinger/control decks, I highly recommend Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper.

The primary way to play this deck is to play it safely while setting up the combo pieces. You don't want the commander out in the field if you have not assembled the combo yet. It should be: commander, then a turn later play the combo and just straight out scare the hell out of the table. I once got super lucky and pulled off the combo on turn 5, though that could be a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. For all other games that could take longer for me to assemble the combo, I prefer to dig dig dig through my library until I get there.

However, there are times when we cannot reliably assemble our combo. During these times, we just want to play the usual Noyan game.

Note: I'm trying to slowly foil out this deck to the best of my abilities. Some cards I just left as-is since the foils are either too expensive, or do not exist.

Plan A - The Griffin Canyon Combo

The Combo Pieces

• The Land - the central piece of the combo needed to close out games

  1. Griffin Canyon

• Changeling - to give Griffin Canyon the "Griffin" creature type ;)

  1. Maskwood Nexus
  2. Unnatural Selection
  3. Runed Stalactite

• Evasion - optional items just so our monstrous Griffin Canyon can swing at ease

  1. Thassa, God of the Sea - repeatable unblockable engine that enables us to freely scry 1 on upkeep is a very good addition to the deck, props for being a hard to remove enchantment
  2. View from Above - helps animate our land and gives them flying and is a repeatable spell to boot
  3. Elspeth, Knight-Errant - can make our land creatures fly, spouts out tokens for blockers, and has a backbreaking ultimate

My favorite wincon for this deck is to get Griffin Canyon out, animate it with Noyan's ability, give it changeling with Unnatural Selection and the like, make it big and swing.

Here is how the combo works:

1. Animate Griffin Canyon with Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper, making it a creature with haste
2. Give it the “Griffin” creature type
3. Activate its ability targetting itself, untapping it and giving itself +1/+1 in the process
4. Repeat step 3 to make a very large canyon
5. Give it evasion then swing to take out an opponent

Of course, Thespian's Stage can also be used as a secondary Griffin Canyon if one so desires.

Plan B

Plan B Strategy

If push comes to shove and the Griffin Canyon combo doesn't work or maybe it was get rid of earlier in the game, we can always proceed with plan B. The way plan B works is to just play the usual game with Noyan out (casting instants/sorceries) then putting the +1/+1 counters on the other target lands that are either indestructible or evasion built into them.

Plan B Targets

1. Blinkmoth Nexus - built-in evasion
2. Celestial Colonnade - built-in evasion
3. Faerie Conclave - built-in evasion
4. Cascading Cataracts - indestructible land
5. Razortide Bridge - indestructible land

Card Choices

Protection

• Counterspells - I'm picking up mostly 2-mana counterspells since the deck can go hungry with mana to dig deeper into the deck

  1. Counterspell - the OG counter, obligatory inclusion
  2. Saw it Coming
  3. Swan Song - hits most of the relevant threats at {U}
  4. Negate
  5. Muddle the Mixture - a worse Counterspell, mostly used as a tutor for Unnatural Selection
  6. Commit / Memory - an expensive counterspell that can act as removal and GY recycle at the same time

• Hexproof/Shroud/Indestructible - to protect our manlands from targeted removal and destroy effects

  1. Terra Eternal - all our lands are wrath-proof (except for exile effects)
  2. Tomik, Distinguished Advokist - gives our lands hexproof, which is really helpful

• Pillowfort - we are mostly a control deck so we should be able to stay alive in the long run

  1. Propaganda - a huge "don't attack me" sign
  2. Ghostly Prison - see Propaganda
  3. Norn's Annex - my favorite of the bunch, the third 3-mana Propaganda effect
  4. Collective Restraint - more redundancy
  5. Elspeth, Knight-Errant - not really a hardcore pillowfort card but helps but churning out bodies for use as blockers

Card Advantage

• Tutors - The deck has become less dependent on the Griffin Canyon combo, so the number of tutors have been significantly reduced

  1. Muddle the Mixture - mostly used for Unnatural Selection, but can also be used for Isochron Scepter if so desired
  2. Tolaria West - Griffin Canyon/any land
  3. Expedition Map - Griffin Canyon/any land
  4. Weathered Wayfarer - Griffin Canyon/any land
  5. Mystical Tutor - instant speed, basically what's needed for the game

Removal

Since this is more of a control deck, board wipes are more than a necessity. We don't want to load up on a gazillion board wipes, so I included the top 5 that will be more advantageous to us than the opponents.

1. Cyclonic Rift - one-sided board wipe is always welcome
2. Supreme Verdict - can't be countered
3. Tragic Arrogance - my favorite board wipe, can be used politically most of the times
4. Cataclysmic Gearhulk - a worse Tragic Arrogance in that the opponent can choose which permanents remain on their board

5. Devastating Mastery - a very cost effective wipe, always cast this for 2{W}{W}

Exclusions

With all these cards above and all the jankiness there is in Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper, there are some obvious card choices that I am staying away from right now. Here are they and the reasons they are exlcluded:

Land Tax - while it is a very nice card, it is one very expensive card that I don't see much use for. Ramping very fast is not a necessity for this deck

Teferi's Response - while only Noyan Dar can make this card work, it doesn't protect our manland from boardwipes, hence its exclusion

Sacred Ground/Equinox - I have tried these cards before but they seem to be lackluster to me. They just sit there and don't do much. I'd rather go on the offensive rather than the defensive.

Lands Acquire List

With this being a lands-matter deck, I believe the lands should showcase the beauty of the deck. As such, I'm collecting beautiful land pieces. This section will be used to track down said endeavor.

1. Seachrome Coast - ZNE foil (obtained)
2. Sea of Clouds - ZNE foil (obtained)
3. Celestial Colonnade - ZNE foil (obtained)
4. Arid Mesa - ZNE foil (obtained)
5. Marsh Flats - ZNE foil (obtained)
6. Misty Rainforest - ZNE foil (obtained)
7. Scalding Tarn - ZNE foil (obtained)
8. Flooded Strand - ZNE foil (obtained)
9. Polluted Delta - ZNE foil (obtained)
10. Windswept Heath - ZNE foil (obtained EXP Windswept Heath instead)
11. Prairie Stream - EXP foil (obtained)
12. Hallowed Fountain - Unfinity foil (obtained)
13. Glacial Fortress - SLD foil (obtained)
14. Mystic Gate - EXP foil (obtained)

Random Foils Acquire List

1. Propaganda - SLD (obtained)
2. Mystic Remora - SLD (obtained)
3. Windfall - 30th anniversary (obtained)
4. Torrential Gearhulk - masterpiece (obtained)
5. Azorius Signet - SLD old border
6. Talisman of Progress - SLD old border (obtained)
7. Fellwar Stone - SLD old border (obtained)

Suggestions

That's it guys. I hope I have laid out the gameplan and the choice of tools clear enough...

I welcome any comments and suggestions as I am looking towards improving the deck. There might be things that look different when look at another angle. Thanks!

Top Ranked	Achieved #13 position overall 2 years ago Achieved #9 position in Commander / EDH 2 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Combo 2 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Counterspell 2 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	1 month
Exclude colors	BRG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	24 - 0 Mythic Rares 53 - 0 Rares 13 - 0 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.51
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Elephant 3-3 G, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Human 1/1 W, Map, Shapeshifter 2/2 U, Soldier 1/1 W w/ Lifelink, Treasure
Folders	EDH Jank, EDH Templetes, Other's Decks, Commander, Cool stuff, Interesting Commander Decks, maybe i can learn, Need to playtest, Budget, Decks of Interest