This deck basically uses Godo to go grab stuff that synergies with whatever you draw. Because of this, every game is different, and the deck never gets dull. Godo is an amazing toolbox commander. The deck is intentionally underpowered a bit, and designed to be as different as possible from the Godo-Helm combo deck (Waiting for Godo - cEDH primer).
The deck is definitely an aggro deck, but includes a lot of control elements, especially regarding controlling the creature board. Godo gives you answers to most anything, and can even destroy enchantments and lands with Argentum Armour. But he also assembles a range of synergies that help you control the board pretty effectively.
For example:
If you draw any of the pingers such as
Cunning Sparkmage
,
Goblin Sharpshooter
,
Ronin Cliffrider
, or
Endbringer
; go get
Basilisk Collar
and have a good time murder-hoboing the board. Someone played Avacyn? Get
Sword of Kaldra
instead. Oppressively control the battlefield and jokingly refer to your deck as 'mono-red control' (they will laugh, but then stop laughing when they realise that you were serious).
You draw
Ashling the Pilgrim
? Equip her with
Sword of Fire and Ice
,
Shield of Kaldra
and/or
Basilisk Collar
. Even without the collar you should be able to repeatedly explode the board without losing Ashling, which is often a pretty effective lock against creatures, especially if you can give her hexproof.
If you draw either
Embercleave
or
Umezawa's Jitte
, go get the other one! (also if you have a way to copy Godo's trigger you can go grab both) These two equipment are dynamite together. You can rack up 8 counters a turn to disrupt your opponent's boards and the combination of doublestrike, trample, and Jitte abilities means that you can swing into almost any board of creatures profitably (if they block you can remove counters after first strike damage to make him into an 8/8). Yes, you can 1-hit-KO a player; you can deal up to 40 trample damage in one turn with this combination if you keep removing the Jitte counters for +2/+2 between hits. However, unless a player needs removing, I often will just sandbag as many counters as I can, which can often control the board rather effectively (you can kill a player with no blockers by removing a single counter for 22 trample damage though). Embercleave fails to work with
Sword of Sinew and Steel
and
Sword of Fire and Ice
, unfortunately.
If you get
High Market
or
Helm of Possession
? Get
Nim Deathmantle
and start sacing Godo for more equipment while simultaneously disrupting your opponent's creatures (in the case of Helm). Also works great to start assembling Kaldra.
You draw
Heartless Hidetsugu
? Go grab a Lifelink equipment and siphon away your opponents' life totals into your own.
You draw
Inkmoth Nexus
? Get
Batterskull
, it's a flying 1-hit-KO that people tend not to see coming (it becomes a 5/5 infect flyer that can attack twice with Godo because of vigilance).
If you draw a fistful of equipment, grab
Hammer of Nazahn
and then play them all from your hand for free equips. Argentum Armor would normally be a bad draw from the top, but you can just go get hammer and then play it and cheat the equip cost the next turn and blow up a couple of problem permanents, effectively controlling the board while simultaneously dealing up to 22 damage a turn. (what a convenient number!)
If you draw a couple cards like
Panharmonicon
,
Twinflame
,
Heat Shimmer
,
Voyager Staff
,
Endless Sands
,
Mirrorpool
, or other effects to get extra Godo triggers? Get some great combos of equipments, such as Hammer+Argentum, Embercleave+Jitte, or just have a great time assembling Kaldra: it can attack twice with Godo for the low price of 1 mana.
If you somehow draw none of the above, go grab a Sword of your choice to start generating card advantage to dig you toward your synergies. Whatever works best for you:
Sword of the Animist
(if you need to ramp) or
Sword of Fire and Ice
(if you are flooded with ramp/land and need cards).
If people are playing degenerate decks I'll punish them by including
Ashnod's Altar
, which forms a fun little one-card-combo with a bunch of stuff that is in the deck already. The combo is: Play the Altar and Godo and search out
Nim Deathmantle
; now you can pay 2 to search your library with Godo. Search all three pieces of Kaldra (6 mana); Kaldra+Ashnod's generates infinite mana so you can then search for all the equipment in the deck and you should be able to evasion-kill three players pretty easily in one turn.
If somebody is being a real dick, I can also side in
Grafted Exoskeleton
,
Worldslayer
, and the
Blade of Selves
/
Masterwork of Ingenuity
combo as well (Attack with Blade, get two equipment; Hammer of Nazahn and Masterwork copying Blade of Selves. Then in second combat get 4 equipment, which can be the Kaldra set+Worldslayer). Obviously you could just side in
Helm of the Host
, but that is cheating.
There is a random 3->8 card combo in the deck, which I call the Newb-Goldberg Machine. It consists of Newgin (
Ugin, the Ineffable
),
Mystic Forge
and
Sensei's Divining Top
. You draw your deck by repeatedly tapping top and playing it from your deck for free, then dump all your mana rocks at reduced prices. Play all three pieces of Kaldra, play
Honor-Worn Shaku
, play
Goblin Sharpshooter
and give him some
Swiftfoot Boots
. From here you can tap the Kaldra token to make 1 mana (untap Shaku), and use that mana to make a new token and kill the old one. This doesn't generate mana, but is loop-able and untaps the Sharpshooter infinitely (ping opponents to death). If you somehow fizzle, play as much stuff as you can, keep 7 of your choice and discard the rest with Kozilek to shuffle them back into the deck.
A fun little janky combo I like to run sometimes involves siding in
Assault Suit
and
Tormentor's Trident
. If you put both of these on Godo (along with some evasion or protection ideally), your opponents are forced to beat each other to death as you sit back and laugh maniacally. Bonus points if you can get
Argentum Armor
,
Sword of Fire and Ice
,
Umezawa's Jitte
, or
Sword of the Animist
on Godo; so you can generate value while your opponents kill each other. Unfortunately, you do eventually have to get your hands dirty to put the last man standing out of his misery.
