Gahiji's Great Big Banquet (PRIMER)

Commander / EDH Aggro Budget Group Hug Group Slug Primer Tokens

tobiasfunke

Land (32)

• 1x Blossoming Sands
• 1x Boros Guildgate
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 8x Forest
• 1x Graypelt Refuge
• 1x Gruul Guildgate
• 1x Jungle Shrine
• 1x Krosan Verge
• 6x Mountain
• 8x Plains
• 1x Rugged Highlands
• 1x Tranquil Expanse
• 1x Wind-Scarred Crag

Don't-attack-me (9)

• 1x Archetype of Courage
• 1x Five-Alarm Fire
• 1x Glory of Warfare
• 1x Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
• 1x Retaliator Griffin
• 1x Riot Control
• 1x Sandwurm Convergence
• 1x Spear of Heliod
• 1x Sphere of Safety

Tokens (9)

• 1x Alliance of Arms
• 1x Assemble the Legion
• 1x Dragonlair Spider
• 1x From Beyond
• 1x Heliod, God of the Sun
• 1x Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
• 1x Sandwurm Convergence
• 1x Spawnwrithe
• 1x Sylvan Offering

Board-wipe (3)

• 1x Hour of Reckoning
• 1x Martial Coup
• 1x Sunblast Angel

Utility (2)

• 1x Mosswort Bridge
• 1x Wrap in Vigor

Ramp (12)

• 1x Blighted Woodland
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Fertile Ground
• 1x From Beyond
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Paradise Druid
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Selvala, Explorer Returned
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Spectral Searchlight
• 1x Springbloom Druid
• 1x Trace of Abundance

Removal (10)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Crib Swap
• 1x Field of Ruin
• 1x Firemane Avenger
• 1x Five-Alarm Fire
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Rampage of the Clans
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Sylvan Reclamation
• 1x Transmogrifying Wand

Aggro (8)

• 1x Adriana, Captain of the Guard
• 1x Anya, Merciless Angel
• 1x Glory of Warfare
• 1x Heliod, God of the Sun
• 1x Khenra Charioteer
• 1x Rite of the Raging Storm
• 1x Spawnwrithe
• 1x Varchild's War-Riders

Forced-combat (2)

• 1x Angel's Trumpet
• 1x Fumiko the Lowblood

Hate (2)

• 1x Imposing Sovereign
• 1x Suture Priest

Commander (1)

Draw (10)

• 1x Camaraderie
• 1x Eidolon of Blossoms
• 1x Guardian Project
• 1x Harmonize
• 1x Hunter's Insight
• 1x Inheritance
• 1x Palace Sentinels
• 1x Reap the Past
• 1x Shamanic Revelation
• 1x Wildest Dreams

Group-hug (9)

• 1x Alliance of Arms
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Hunted Troll
• 1x Rite of the Raging Storm
• 1x Selvala, Explorer Returned
• 1x Spectral Searchlight
• 1x Sylvan Offering
• 1x Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor
• 1x Varchild's War-Riders

Win-con (4)

• 1x Bond of Discipline
• 1x Mob Rule
• 1x Overrun
• 1x Response / Resurgence

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Fun for the whole family.

Note: This is a budget deck, so some of the card choices aren't super optimal as a result... And some of the card choices are a bit goofy because at its core I wanted this to be a fun deck for everyone involved.

Introduction

When building this deck I was looking to emphasize the multiplayer aspect of commander — the diplomacy, the psychology, and the interactivity that comes with having four players in one free for all game. As such, I wanted to give my opponents more choices and more resources. Still, this deck doesn't quite fall into group hug or group slug, it's more of a hybrid of the two. I wanted to promote combat and damage to players without being perceived as the aggressive threat in every case.

The concept is simple: promote combat, protect yourself and your board, finish opponents with your creatures.

Why Gahiji?

I had been looking at several commanders for a deck of this sort, Zedru, Samut, Kynaios and Tiros, and Mayael all came to mind for various reasons but didn't quite fit my idea.

Gahiji is perfect in its simplicity. Any creature swinging at your opponents instead of you gets buffed. In my experience that alone can be enough to direct an attack against someone else instead of yourself. My favourite example is with Hunted Troll your chosen opponent can ether swing the faeries at you for 4 damage or at an opponent for 12 damage, so chances are they won't be coming at you for a while. The other big draw to Gahiji is that you're in Naya and get access to good ramp, forced combat effects, and pillow fort effects.

hOw tO pLaY ThE dEcK

While the commander's ability and the Naya colours might suggest a straightforward playstlye, playing this deck is entirely political. The goal is not to scare everyone and to go all in on one player as soon as you can like some aggressive decks, the goal is to make everyone take damage as fast as possible without being perceived as the big threat.

As such, playing this deck will often mean holding scarier cards in your hand for later, using your group hug effects to benefit players who have fallen behind, and attacking enough to ping away without attracting too much ire. You will want to make deals, hold removal up defensively, and slowly build up strength until you're ready to pounce.

Once players get whittled down to the low 20s in life you want to be in a position to start eliminating players. This is where you WILL become the threat, but ideally you will have built up a strong enough board and accumulated enough card advantage that by the time the table turns on you it will be too late ( a good way to obtain said card advantage is with a well timed Hunter's Insight or Shamanic Revelation in order to fill up your hand and sit on some cards for later). At this stage you will want cards like Wrap in Vigor , Riot Control , and Wildest Dreams in your hand to ensure your survival.

Win Cons

Your win cons all involve combat damage, so you want to protect your board and grow your hoard of tokens.

Gahiji is your main enabler as your commander will triple the power of your tokens in many cases.

Khenra Charioteer is another vital piece, with trample making sure the tokens can get damage through.

Overrun , Bond of Discipline , Response / Resurgence all help you take a player off guard.

A surprisingly potent combo in commander is Rampage of the Clans followed by Mob Rule to gain control of all the centaurs created and give them haste. With the amount of mana rocks and enchantments people run in EDH this can lead to some massive swings.

The main win con, however, is attrition. You want to bleed your opponents out over time and slowly come out on top through a mix of having more efficient combat, and some defensive effects.

I hope this primer was useful. Let me know what you think of the deck and if you have any similar decks! I was thinking of doing a similar, highly thematic deck with pirates, so possibly more silly decks to come...

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 34 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.62
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Centaur 3/3 G, Copy Clone, Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Elephant 3/3 G, Elf Warrior 1/1 G, Enchantment Cleric 2/1 W, Faerie 1/1 U, Insect 1/1 G, Lightning Rager, Ogre 3/3 R, Ox 2/4 W, Shapeshifter 1/1 C, Soldier 1/1 RW, Soldier 1/1 W, Spirit 1/1 C, Survivor 1/1 R, The Monarch, Treefolk X/X G, Wurm 5/5 G
Based on	Gahiji's Great Big Banquet tobiasfunke EDH