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General Tazri's Blink Ride

Commander / EDH* Allies Five Color

wull


A 5C Ally deck, focused around using blink/clones with a Tazri ally toolbox.

Deck can be broken up into the following:

1) "Wizard" Allies

These are allies that have abilities which scale with the number of allies on the field. These are high priority targets for clones, as cloning/copying them can usually result in game ending effects.

Hagra Diabolist

Turntimber Ranger

Bala Ged Thief

Kazuul Warlord

Tajuru Warcaller

Tuktuk Scrapper (at least vs artifact centric decks)

Ondu Cleric

2) Utility Allies

Allies that provide useful abilities. Things like

Mina and Denn, Wildborn (ramp, trample, retreat to emeria triggers)

Agadeem Occultist (utility via enemy gys)

Hero of Goma Fada (wrath protection)

Zulaport Cutthroat (anti-wrath rattlesnake)

3) Enablers

These allies provide effects that enable your other strategies. The key one here is Chasm Guide. Haste is really, really important! Harabaz Druid and Beastcaller provide color fixing/ramp, while Sea Gate Loremaster provides gas.

4) Clones

I run most of the good ones - Dack's Duplicate for the haste, Prognetitor for the tokens, Clever Impersonator can occasionally become someone else's Mana Reflection or simply just another Retreat, Phantasmal and Jwai Shapeshifter are the cheapest clones around, Phyrexian Metamorph can be cast for 3. I find myself favoring the cheaper clones more often, since Allies benefits from "explosive" turns as no playgroup would (or should) let a board full of allies live too long.

Cackling Counterpart is instant speed.

Clone Legion can get really crazy if you reach the mana for it. I might cut it for Ghostly Flicker if it gets too unwieldy.

Mirror Mockery usually goes onto Tazri - it gets a surprising number of triggers, and even if Tazri dies you can still recast her again for another tutor.

Blade of Selves is still in testing.

5) Blink Suite

I run the mass blink effects. Ended up cutting Ghostly flicker at one point, since I find I almost always prefer to hit my whole board rather than 1-2 creatures. Still, its really cheaper.

Venser is notable since his -1 can also let you alpha strike with the pump allies.

Crystal Shard is still in testing, so far I really like the flexibility/repeatability of it. Cloudstone Curio might be a stronger pick.

Conjurer's Closet is just nuts with Tazri. If it sticks for a few turns, you usually win.

5) Recursion

Sun Titan and Eternal Witness are good blink targets. Wake the Dead is a cheap, mass reanimation effect - many of the allies have ETB effects that don't care about them staying around after.

Living Death is here as my only 'wrath' effect. Along with Patriach's Bidding, usually when you cast this you end up with a much more ridiculous ETB effect due to inherent ally synergy.

March from the Tomb is good because its mediocre. People don't tend to mind 1-2 utility allies coming back. Its also 5 cmc, so tutorable with Bring to Light.

6) Bring to Light is amazing in this deck. Fetches almost any ally or non-ally utility creature in this deck (only Sun Titan is too high if I'm not wrong), and can grab a reanimation spell, a removal spell, or a clone effect depending on the situation.

7) Misc.

Mirror Entity is tutorable with Tazri, and can often be an alternative to her ability as a finisher. The ability to make all your creatures allies for a turn is very significant as you can activate him in response to certain ETB abilities.

Aura Shards is value with any blink deck. Draws a ton of hate though.

Mirrorweave - not sure if this is a copy/clone effect, I have yet to actually play it, but it seems potentially powerful, though it does require a little setup.

Notable exclusions:

Halimar Excavator - potential "I win" effect via milling, however most players I know run Eldrazi. Self-milling is an option, but I am worried about going too "all into" the mill strat. I might swap it in sometime to test, but for now it seems very lacklustre outside of a combo kill.

Cohort allies - too slow, even though they are allies.

I've excluded most of the newer rally allies that just grant an ability, unless that ability is really good (double strike, haste, vigilance). I would consider them sideboard material, and rotate them in depending on the meta (lifelink might be more relevant in some metas, though between Ondu Cleric and Kalastria Healer I find myself rarely needing it).

I've also excluded a lot of the all-in tribal support like Door of Destinies and Coat of Arms in favor of more blink/clones. I feel these are a little excessive/overkill most of the time, and run the risk of backfiring too (coat of arms with enemy token swarms for example)

Will continue to update as I playtest.

Suggestions

Updates Add

-1 Mirrorweave +1 Mana Confluence

Find myself wanting more lands and fixing, since missing a color can be crippling. Mirrorweave is also too cute, so I'm cutting it.

Comments

Date added 8 years
Last updated 8 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

9 - 0 Mythic Rares

60 - 0 Rares

15 - 0 Uncommons

6 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.61
Tokens Copy Clone, Emblem Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Emblem Venser, the Sojourner, Human 2/2 G, Knight Ally 2/2 W, Kor Ally 1/1 W, Wolf 2/2 G
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