Hello! This deck is my personal favorite that I've custom built in paper! It's not perfectly optimized because I've tried to keep it budget friendly, adding more expensive cards as I just so happen to collect them! Hopefully I'll be able to afford a better landbase next, but aside from that, the deck is about done. That being said, I'm always open to suggestions! With that out of the way, let's jump into how the deck runs!
I'm going to go through the deck category by category and break down how each card group interacts with one another. It can easily get very messy very fast if you don't know how this works! We'll start with the general premise of the deck mechanics first!
This deck kind of has 4 commanders, and that's because they all do essentially the same thing. We're running General Tazri so that we can utilize all 5 of the wonderful colors Magic has to offer. General Tazri is perfect because when she hits the battlefield, you get to tutor for Zada, Hedron Grinder, who is the true star of the deck. Zada, Hedron Grinder, Ink-Treader Nephilim, and Mirrorwing Dragon all work roughly the same way. When they get targeted by a single-target instant or sorcery, they copy it many times depending on the formerly named creature. This allows us to abuse single-target spells like Quasiduplicate and Shelter. Let's Get into some specifics categories!
Ramp
Most of these are your garden variety green ramp spells and mana rocks; Pretty self-explanatory. However, a few are a bit unique so I'll explain them.
Harabaz Druid is a nice piece of ramp since this is, after all, an Allies deck at the surface. Using copy spells like Quasiduplicate or Cackling Counterpart on one of our commanders Zada, Hedron Grinder will give us a copies of Harabaz Druid which is repeatable. Plus, the more you do that, the more mana Harabaz Druid taps for since they see themselves as Ally creatures!
Storm-Kiln Artist is, in my opinion, a better Harabaz Druid because when you hit Zada, Hedron Grinder with a Quasiduplicate-like spell, not only do you create more Storm-Kiln Artists, but you also make a treasure token for each time the spell was cast OR copied, which can add up very fast if there are lots of creatures on your battlefield. This effect builds even faster when you target Ink-Treader Nephilim with Quasiduplicate.
Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper might not seem like ramp at first glance, but every time you cast an instant or sorcery (Which you'll be doing a lot) you get to put three +1/+1 counters on a land and make it a creature. The important part is that it becomes a creature, which we can then copy using the same mechanic from before by targeting Zada, Hedron Grinder or the new land creature with Quasiduplicate. After a few times of repeating this process, you'll get a ton of lands. Preferably, you'll want to target something like Command Tower this way since you'll ideally be copying the same land over and over, because who doesn't want 8 Command Towers?
Protection
At this point, you might be thinking "This deck relies very heavily on Zada, Hedron Grinder being on the field". That's partly correct. While the deck thrives with Zada, Hedron Grinder or one of our other commanders on the field, it can still manage to stay in the game without them. But just to make sure they stay on the field, let's add some protection to our kit.
All of our means of protecting our board play the same way. Take Sheltering Light for example. Let's say we have General Tazri, Zada, Hedron Grinder, and a few other creatures on the field. One of your opponents plays Damnation. For a single white mana, we play Sheltering Light targeting Zada, Hedron Grinder. Now Zada, Hedron Grinder copies Sheltering Light for every other creature we control, choosing protection from black. Our board is safe, and now we also get to scry 1 for each creature we control. Now imagine if we had Storm-Kiln Artist on the board. We would get a treasure for each time Sheltering Light was copied. That is the magic of this deck, my friends. Just by protecting our board, we advance it at the same time.
Draw
As with any commander deck, you never want to run out of steam and the best way to prevent that from happening is by drawing more cards. While there might not be quite as many repeatable draw spells in this deck as usual, the cards that DO draw for us will usually draw us a ton.
We have three ways to draw cards here.
The most effective method of drawing is by targeting Zada, Hedron Grinder with spells like Shelter or Expedite while you have a good amount of creatures on the battlefield.
Archmage Emeritus is a great card drawer in any blue spell deck, but it shines in this spot because as we've seen, this deck copies instants and sorceries a ton, allowing Archmage Emeritus to do his thing and draw us those sweet, sweet cards.
Jadzi, Oracle of Arcavios
can be incredibly powerful late-game due to her ability to snowball lands and spells. In a way, she is the ultimate piece to this deck.
Mind's Desire is similar to Jadzi, Oracle of Arcavios
in that it snowballs into a wincon almost every time. Ideally, you want to play this spell after you've targeted Zada, Hedron Grinder or Ink-Treader Nephilim with a spell while the battlefield is full of creatures. With Mind's Desire's storm ability, you'll likely draw into you pieces for victory and be able to play them for free!
Lastly, Sea Gate Loremaster is a fairly consistent source of card draw that can be tutored by General Tazri.
Copiers
The main strategy is to use spells such as Quasiduplicate and Cackling Counterpart to target Zada, Hedron Grinder, Mirrorwing Dragon, and Ink-Treader Nephilim and copy your entire board of creatures, and sometimes even your opponent's board.
Using Rite of Replication or Stolen Identity on Ink-Treader Nephilim with give you a copy of every creature on the battlefield and using Supplant Form will bounce every creature and then make a copy for you.
The rest of the copy spells we're using in the deck can only target creatures you control, but this isn't a problem if we create tokens of our opponent's creatures or use Artisan of Forms. Typically, though, getting copies of the creatures we have in the deck is going to be more synergistic anyway so it doesn't matter too much.
Helm of the Host is great for repeating General Tazri's tutor ability or to just copy your best creature each turn.
Creatures
So what do we want to copy? Every creature in this deck fills a unique role and all of them that aren't legendary can benefit from being copied.
Hagra Diabolist can be a game ender from seemingly nowhere. As he gets copied, he and his copies will do exponentially more damage each time they enter the battlefield.
Halimar Excavator can be a sideboard choice if you want. I've included it because sometimes an opponent can gain life or prevent damage far faster than you can hurt them. It works the same way that Hagra Diabolist does and can get out of control fast if it isn't stopped early.
Chasm Guide + Harabaz Druid + Sea Gate Oracle
is essentially game over. You'll be able to draw into more copy spells and use the new copies to repeat the process. They are a means to an end, but not at all necessary.
Jwari Shapeshifter can be any one of our Ally creatures and can speed up whatever you're working on.
Murasa Pyromancer is great creature removal but it's usually the one card I'm not excited to draw. Typically not necessary, but when you need it, you'll want it.
Sedgemoor Witch can be an explosive threat, using our main combo of Quasiduplicate + Zada, Hedron Grinder
once with just those two on the board creates two Pest tokens and another Sedgemoor Witch. Use another copy spell on Zada, Hedron Grinder and you've now got a total of four Sedgemoor Witches, twelve Pest tokens, and your original Zada, Hedron Grinder. That's with no other supporting creatures on the board. Not a bad deal at all!
Terror of the Peaks is a deadly support piece and will end a game in one turn if left unchecked. Copy this into the ground if you can.
Tuktuk Scrapper is our main source of artifact removal and can do a surprising amount of damage. This little guy is an unsung hero and will often go unnoticed by opponents until it's too late.
Witherbloom Apprentice is a simple drainer and, like all our other creatures, gets more powerful in numbers.
Enhancers
By now, you may have realized that almost every nonlegendary creature can be a win condition when paired with our commander and one of the many copy spells. But let's make things even scarier and add some enhancers.
Illusionist's Bracers are very flexible and can be beneficial equipped to most creatures in the deck, but are most effective when used on Zada, Hedron Grinder, Mirrorwing Dragon, and Ink-Treader Nephilim, activating their abilities twice.
Killian, Ink Duelist makes almost all of our instants and sorceries 2 generic mana less to cast.
Panharmonicon is going to double all of our creatures' "ETB" effects.
Purphoros, God of the Forge is similar to Terror of the Peaks but "safer". He's indestructible and does 2 damage to EACH opponent and works really well with Sedgemoor Witch.
Recursion
With such a specific engine that the deck runs around, it's important to have a backup plan.
Bala Ged Recovery
and Treasured Find can get back any card from the graveyard, which will usually be one of our commanders if they happen to perish.
Feather, the Redeemed isn't so much recursion as it is insurance. How would you like keep all those juicy instants and sorceries you're casting and abusing? Feather is the answer.
Snapcaster Mage is not required, I just happened to have him and he works really well with getting back spells, while also benefiting from our copying mechanic and Panharmonicon.
Extus, Oriq Overlord
can be slotted in to help. Sadly, he can't return Zada, Hedron Grinder but Mirrorwing Dragon and Ink-Treader Nephilim are free for the returning!
That's the end of the deck tech! A few closing remarks/tips I've learned from piloting this deck for a few years:
1. Don't ever attack until you can kill. This deck is a slow starter and you don't want to paint a target on your back.
2. Be Patient and ALWAYS keep enough mana open to protect your board (This is usually only 1-3 mana for a protection spell).
3. If you're playing with a new playgroup who doesn't know it's a crouching Zada deck, you can tutor for Sea Gate Loremaster or Harabaz Druid with General Tazri when she enters for the first time. It will keep people from immediately targeting you and you can still draw into Mirrorwing Dragon, Zada, Hedron Grinder, or Ink-Treader Nephilim or tutor Zada when you copy Tazri later.
All comments and suggestions are appreciated, and any questions are welcome! Thanks for your view and I hope you enjoy my take on Crouching Zada!
