General Tazri, and Her Toolbox *Primer*

Commander / EDH Budget Casual Combo Primer Theme/Gimmick Tribal

SpookyToe

Creature (31)

• 1x Agadeem Occultist
• 1x Angelic Captain
• 1x Bala Ged Thief
• 1x Beastcaller Savant
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Chasm Guide
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Firemantle Mage
• 1x Grave Sifter
• 1x Hada Freeblade
• 1x Hagra Diabolist
• 1x Halimar Excavator
• 1x Harabaz Druid
• 1x Hero of Goma Fada
• 1x Jwari Shapeshifter
• 1x Kabira Evangel
• 1x Kazandu Blademaster
• 1x Kazuul Warlord
• 1x Lantern Scout
• 1x Makindi Patrol
• 1x Mina and Denn, Wildborn
• 1x Murasa Pyromancer
• 1x Ondu Cleric
• 1x Resolute Blademaster
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Sea Gate Loremaster
• 1x Seascape Aerialist
• 1x Tajuru Warcaller
• 1x Talus Paladin
• 1x Tuktuk Scrapper
• 1x Turntimber Ranger

Instant (3)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Eerie Interlude

Land (38)

• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Bad River
• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x Cinder Glade
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flood Plain
• 4x Forest
• 1x Grasslands
• 1x Holdout Settlement
• 3x Island
• 1x Krosan Verge
• 2x Mountain
• 1x Mountain Valley
• 5x Plains
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rocky Tar Pit
• 1x Rupture Spire
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Transguild Promenade
• 1x Unknown Shores

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Call to the Kindred
• 1x Cryptolith Rite
• 1x Descendants' Path
• 1x Market Festival
• 1x Retreat to Emeria
• 1x Xenograft

Commander (1)

Artifact (13)

• 1x Captain's Claws
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Conjurer's Closet
• 1x Cryptic Gateway
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Door of Destinies
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Obelisk of Urd
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Stoneforge Masterwork
• 1x Urza's Incubator

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Allied Reinforcements
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Harsh Mercy
• 1x March from the Tomb
• 1x Rite of Replication
• 1x Sylvan Scrying

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Tazri's Toolbox

Why General Tazri?

I like making decks that people deem useless or unplayable. My goal is to make those unplayable decks, well, playable! TheManaSource released a video talking about Tazri, and he said that allies are "bad slivers".

I cocked my head and furrowed my brow. "bad slivers"? Not in the slightest.

Slivers act with lords. The more you play, the more they see each other and get stronger. Allies, however, benefit from ETB (enter the battlefield) effects. As long as you keep playing more allies, you can dumptruck effects on all of your opponents. They're not worse, they're just different (and a hell of a lot more fun!).

As soon as Tazri was spoiled, I knew I had to make a deck from her. And this is my allies deck. A quick word before I begin, Tazri is not very powerful in 1v1, as the deck is very slow, usually "going off" around turn 6 or 7, 9 at the latest. You will usually win by turn 11 in worst case scenario. Multiplayer however, it's almost unbeatable (that's a lie, I just like to think it is). So, let's get to a playable and viable Tazri strategy!

And now, the Primer.

Step 1: Mana

Mana, and most importantly mana fixing, is critically important in a 5 color deck. Optimally you would run all 10 original dual lands and all ten fetch lands (Khans and Zendikar), but we are not millionaires; so instead, running the 10 "slow fetches" such as Bad River and the new fetchable duals like Canopy Vista are going to be used instead.

Now since the slow fetches are an incomplete cycle, and the zendikar duals are also incomplete, we're short 10 lands. Luckily there are dozens of budget lands that can tap for any color, such as Command Tower or Transguild Promenade, and Ash Barrens being my favorite of these. Krosan Verge is very, very powerful. Don't underestimate it.

You're probably wondering about the Reliquary Tower. We have Sea Gate Loremaster, who I will get to in the panel "Pick your Playstyle", and he draws us a lot of cards. We really, really don't want to discard in here.

So now, what do we do with all this mana from our lands?

That's right, make more mana!

Like I've previously stated, MANA FIXING IS CRITICALLY IMPORTANT. We also want a lot of mana, but that's not of the greatest importance.

Darksteel Ingot, Commander's Sphere, Farseek, Cryptolith Rite, and my personal favorite of Market Festival are here to give us fixing all day. I know there's no Chromatic Lantern which would be ideal, but honestly, in testing I never really need it. The lands do most of the fixing for us, and the rocks are just icing on the cake. If you really want to run the lantern you can, but I don't really see a need for it from the numerous tests I've performed.

The Sylvan Scrying is here primarily to tutor Reliquary Tower, but in a pinch it can also tutor something like Command Tower if you really need it.

So, now that our mana is all fixed up and we've ramped to kingdom come, let's see what all that mana can do.

Step 2: "Cheating"

Allies are an archetype that has a limitation of being quite slow. We not only have slow fixing, but also high mana costs, and a high curve in terms of the most powerful allies being around five mana.

Cheating allies is critically important. And, we have tons of methods to get free cards to reap the juicy benefits from their ETB triggers.

My personal favorites are Call to the Kindred and Descendants' Path . These two cards are phenomenal. Descendants' Path actually casts the card to get a trigger off of Door of Destinies, and the call just dumps allies out; which is exactly what we want.

Cryptic Gateway is another useful card in this category. It isn't as powerful as the spells listed above, but it allows our allies to be dumped out at instant speed; which is great in response to a board wipe. Flashing in a Hero of Goma Fada in response to a Wrath of God is really juicy.

Urza's Incubator is a broken card in commander. This thing wins me games every single time I play it. For very little mana we can play our hand and win on the spot, really nice include.

On different lines, Conjurer's Closet and Deadeye Navigator don't exactly "cheat" out allies, but more or less cheat out their ETB triggers; and more specifically, Tazri's. End step, flicker tazri from the closet and tutor an ally. Oh wait, I have Panharmonicon out. Now I get 2 allies at the end of my turn? Now that's some spice.

Lastly, cards like Captain's Claws and Retreat to Emeria give us free allies to buff and get triggers from. They aren't very powerful on their own, but awesome with the slew of allies that they're going to be triggering. In this list online I don't include Gideon, Ally of Zendikar due to his price, but I pulled one IRL and his free ally every turn is nothing to scoff at. But if you're poor, Allied Reinforcements is still good.

Step 3: Pick Your Playstyle (and our key combo!)

That's right! We get to customize how we play our deck. And sometimes on the fly. Tazri's ability to tutor allies is phenomenal, but we are only going to grab one card most of the time.

Sea Gate Loremaster.

This card is absolutely fantastic. Always having gas, always drawing cards, always having answers and always just dump trucking allies is really busted with the infinite power of Sea Gate Loremaster. Sadly he did die when Kozilek destroyed Sea Gate, but I have a suspicion that his fishy little but is still swimming.

There are several allies that can win the game for us. These are what I call the "Tier 1" allies. This does not mean tier as in strength, but capable of winning the game.

Tier 1 Allies: Hagra Diabolist, Halimar Excavator, Resolute Blademaster , Firemantle Mage , Seascape Aerialist , Kabira Evangel , Kazuul Warlord, Tajuru Warcaller and Sea Gate Loremaster.

Like I've previously stated, Tier does not mean power here, but general usefulness for our purpose: win the game. the diabolist just straight up makes people lose a ton of life, and I've won games by milling with the excavator. the mage, evangel and aerialist grant much needed evasion as the warlord is sometimes a better Door of Destinies. Warcaller is also just crazy good for the buffs.

Tier 2 allies: The "supporting allies: Bala Ged Thief , Hero of Goma Fada, Jwari Shapeshifter, Ondu Cleric, Lantern Scout , Talus Paladin , Chasm Guide , Agadeem Occultist, Murasa Pyromancer , Harabaz Druid and Agelic Captain.

the tier 2 cards are the ones that don't quite make the cut for being all stars. They're annoying and strong, but not game-ending. The thief is great for making people discard their hands, and the hero gives us much needed protection. The Cleric, scout and paladin gain us a ton of life, and the occultist grabs cards we killed with the pyromancer or milled with the excavator. The Captain is also great for damage. The druid also sinks us tons of mana in the late game. He's also awesome for fixing.

Tier 3 allies: Makindi Patrol , Beastcaller Savant, Mina and Denn, Wildborn, Hada Freeblade, Kazandu Blademaster, Tuktuk Scrapper and Turntimber Ranger.

These cards are very useful, but are also more flexible and not exactly needed. I like vigilance and blocking later from the Patrol, but Munda, Ambush Leader could take its place. I really, really do hate munda though as he puts non ally cards on the bottom, and we kinda need them. The savant is a haste-y mana dork, and mina and denn give us a pretty neat mana bump. The scrapper is also retarded if our opponent plays a lot of artifacts. The freeblade and blademaster are also useful for tons of counters.

The Turntimber Ranger is here as an infinite combo with Xenograft . Gross, huh? Infinite wolves and ally triggers are gross.

Now that I've gone over the cards, it's up to you to make the connections with. Do you want to mill? Burn? A million counters that are unblockable? The choice is up to you. Dividing up the cards in the "tiers" will help you prioritize allies. Tier 1's first, 2's second, 3's last. The infinite combo is also fun.

However, allies need a little help. Sure, they work great together, but they need a little extra push from some outside forces.

Tribal Support, and Useful Support Spells

Sometimes our allies aren't very strong in the realms of power and toughness. Luckily Obelisk of Urd and Door of Destinies are here to fix that problem.

Allies are a tribal deck (obviously), which means we need a lot of creatures. Unfortunealy, our opponent(s) aren't going to like those creatures, so they're going to cast quite a lot of board wipes. Luckily, we have answers in the form of Grave Sifter , a big body that draws us all of our allies back, as well as March from the Tomb.Eerie Interlude, a popular card in Alesha lists, is very, very strong here. I even use it to win the game sometimes. Boros Charm is also really helpful in the case of a suprise Wrath of God.

Panharmonicon dropped early is disgusting. Especially if you drop it on curve into tazri to tutor two allies. Now that's value.

Board wipes we run are Harsh Mercy, a really broken creature board wipe that's three mana and ONLY 2 REAL WORLD BUCKS!? That is CRIMINALLY underpriced. Go pick up 12 of these right now, I don't understand this. We also have Nevinyral's Disk for just killing everything.

Beast Within is great for killing anything on the board, however Vindicate would be much more optimal. Ponder is also useful for drawing into gas.

Conclusion, and a small rant.

Before I finish this primer, which I hope you enjoyed reading :), I'd like to begin a small rant.

Cohort.

Why?

This is by far one of the worst mechanics I've ever seen. The only one that's mildly good is Munda's Vanguard , and tapping two creatures to buff your team with counters is nothing compared to Kazuul Warlord, who is pennies.

Don't even get me started on the ones like Akoum Flameseeker and Drana's Chosen . Two creatures for such a simple effect is just... God it's awful.

Allies are meant to work together, not hinder each other. Really just a big disappointment to such a big ally fan like myself.

All toxicity aside, remember to upvote, give feedback, or maybe just a comment. I love discussion and I love feedback, positive, constructive, or what have you. And until then,

Godspeed,

SpookyToe.

Date added	8 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 28 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.58
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Copy Clone, Human 2/2 G, Knight Ally 2/2 W, Kor Ally 1/1 W, Wolf 2/2 G
Folders	nice, General Tazri, Five Color Ally Goodness, EDH, Possible EDH Deck Ideas, Maybe Build EDH, Decks that I like, budget brews and jank, Future Decks?, Xmage