Hokori, Dust Drinker - Prison/Stax/Value Creatures

Commander / EDH Hatebears Land Destruction Mono-White Prison Stax

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Creature (20)

• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Drannith Magistrate
• 1x Hushbringer
• 1x Oswald Fiddlebender
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Angel of Jubilation
• 1x Battle Angels of Tyr
• 1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1x Loxodon Gatekeeper
• 1x Aerial Extortionist
• 1x Spelltithe Enforcer
• 1x Thalia's Lancers
• 1x Champions of Minas Tirith
• 1x Crovax, Ascendant Hero
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Sunblast Angel
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Serra's Emissary
• 1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope

Instant (8)

• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Final Showdown
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Heliod's Intervention
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Stroke of Midnight
• 1x Unexplained Absence

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Winds of Abandon
• 1x Mass Calcify

Ramp (20)

• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Mox Amber
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Fractured Powerstone
• 1x Liquimetal Torque
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Pearl Medallion
• 1x Prismatic Lens
• 1x The Irencrag
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x The Celestus
• 1x Wand of the Worldsoul
• 1x Nyx Lotus
• 1x Sceptre of Eternal Glory
• 1x Gilded Lotus

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Aura of Silence
• 1x Angelic Destiny
• 1x Kismet
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Trouble in Pairs
• 1x True Conviction
• 1x Dazzling Theater / Prop Room

Commander (1)

Land (36)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Dust Bowl
• 1x Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Lotus Field
• 1x Monumental Henge
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 25x Snow-Covered Plains
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Undiscovered Paradise
• 1x War Room

Artifact (6)

• 1x Cursed Totem
• 1x Winter Orb
• 1x The One Ring
• 1x Mishra's Helix
• 1x Throne of Eldraine
• 1x God-Pharaoh's Statue

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Maybeboard

Other (62)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Mana Tithe
• 1x Meekstone
• 1x Serra Ascendant
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer
• 1x Archivist of Oghma
• 1x Containment Priest
• 1x Cursed Totem
• 1x Endless Atlas
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Hushbringer
• 1x Mastery of the Unseen
• 1x Rest in Peace
• 1x Seal of Cleansing
• 1x Spirit of the Labyrinth
• 1x Thorn of Amethyst
• 1x Torpor Orb
• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Devout Witness
• 1x Extraplanar Lens
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Intrepid Hero
• 1x Mana Web
• 1x Oketra's Monument
• 1x Reduce to Memory
• 1x Reidane, God of the Worthy  ^Flip
• 1x Skyclave Apparition
• 1x Smuggler's Share
• 1x Solitary Confinement
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Thalia, Heretic Cathar
• 1x Trinisphere
• 1x Wand of the Worldsoul
• 1x Archangel of Tithes
• 1x Armageddon
• 1x Armageddon
• 1x Court of Grace
• 1x Endless Horizons
• 1x Erratic Portal
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Luminous Broodmoth
• 1x Magus of the Tabernacle
• 1x Mangara, the Diplomat
• 1x Smokestack
• 1x Spiritual Asylum
• 1x Uba Mask
• 1x Windborn Muse
• 1x Wrath of God
• 1x Consulate Crackdown
• 1x Defiler of Faith
• 1x Hallowed Burial
• 1x Mind's Eye
• 1x Rout
• 1x Wandering Archaic  ^Flip
• 1x Archon of Coronation
• 1x Loreseeker's Stone
• 1x Martyr's Bond
• 1x The Immortal Sun
• 1x True Conviction

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This is kind of a prison deck which also relies on creatures as both prison pieces themselves, and as the main win condition via attacking. It aims to slow opponents down by preventing them from casting spells by denying them access to mana, thus denying them the ability to develop a board state, while you play mana rocks and can thus avoid Hokori's untap ability and increase your board state, and eventually overpower your opponents with value.

Because stax is salty in EDH, with good reason, because all your opponents will not be able to play Magic, they will resent you, you will often be arch enemy. Good timing is crucial here, you need to make sure that once you make every want to kill you, that it's too late and they can't really cast much anymore. Removal really helps with this, incase they can cast something you remove it. Also a little politicking can help too, if you can convince people that everyone is on the same page, or that you are actually helping prevent someone else from winning...

It's best to cast Hokori early, on a turn in which your opponents have tapped out, between turns 3-5, also depending on your hand and board state.

This deck can stall out, like when you cast a bunch of mana rocks but then have nothing in hand to play, and then keep drawing lands and mana rocks, so that you can't gain enough advantage before opponents can respond or figure a workaround to Hokori, or just untap enough lands to cast stuff... More card draw would help with this issue...

Also, decks with a lot of mana rocks or mana dorks are much less effected by Hokori, as they can still produce mana. This deck could probably also use some more artifact hate...

It can be vulnerable to board wipes.

Mana Denial Show

Initially, this deck had a lot more cards which increase the mana cost of spells, like Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Lodestone Golem, etc., which do all make sense. But while these cards can be strong in the early game, they often loses potency as a game goes on and opponents gradually build up their mana base, and these taxes become less relevant. These cards are really most effective with several of them on the board, which seemed to take up too many spots, and alone they can irrelevant or at worst detrimental. However, I still think these effects are very strong, and would like to figure out how to make them more one-sided.

Additionally, especially when cast early, they can prevent us from casting early mana rocks, which is bad, since using mana rocks is the way to avoid Hokori's ability and get ahead of opponents. It also delays playing more expensive cards, which is where the most power is.

Because of these drawbacks, I started leaning towards cards with more one-sided effects that tap mana down, instead of just increasing the cost of spells, thereby straight just denying opponents of mana altogether. Cards like Mana Web, Mishra's Helix, Thalia, Heretic Cathar, Kismet, Loxodon Gatekeeper, which are also more synergystic with Hokori.

Aura of Silence, and God-Pharaoh's Statue are the only cost-increasing cards left right now. I still like Reidane, God of the Worthy  .

Aside from lands, opponents can get mana from creatures and artifacts. Cursed Totem, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Crovax, Ascendant Hero, and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite disable opponent's mana dorks. Aura of Silence is good against mana rocks, and Consulate Crackdown hits all opponent's artifacts.

Crucible of Worlds or Sun Titan with Strip Mine is classic mana denial combo.

Smokestack with Crucible of Worlds or Sun Titan will opponents keep losing permanents to Smokestack while you effectively will not. Add Martyr's Bond for real mayhem.

Armageddon is the most land destruction card. It can be especially effective when played with Crucible of Worlds, Smokestack, or Sun Titan in play. Make sure you have enough mana rocks to still be able to play spells when this is cast. Best played when you have a better board state than opponents to keep them from catching back up.

Mishra's Helix might actually be the strongest mana-denial card in the deck... With enough mana, and Hokori in play, you can tap out all opponents each turn and effectively lock them out of the game.

Mana Ramp Show

Ideally, Hokori will be the in play as often as possible, leaving opponents' lands, and our lands tapped. It is crucial that to have ways of overcoming this so that we can out-pace and out-value our opponents as soon as possible.

Mana rocks are the basic way to ramp, but there is a tricky balance between having mana-rocks, enough land but not too much, and having cards in hand... With too many rocks, you are liable to just play them all out early, run out of cards, and have nothing to do. Bad.

Weathered Wayfarer can help get lands on the battlefield. Lotus Field, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, or War Room are usually the best targets.

Endless Horizons is also powerful, it's kind of like a super Land Tax. It can be risky to take too many plains out of the deck as they will remain exiled, so if Endless Horizons is destroyed they are gone forever. However, if every plains in the deck is exiled, it greatly increases the quality of draws and provides ample mana throughout the game. It's also great to play before an Smokestack or Armageddon.

Sword of Feast and Famine can be a little clunky, but it can provide protection for Hokori, and can free up your mana to cast those big win condition spells.

Deep Gnome Terramancer could be good, but might be too conditional and not relevant enough...?

Smothering Tithe.

Card Draw Show

Card draw mostly includes Endless Atlas, The Celestus, Loreseeker's Stone, Archivist of Oghma, and War Room, none of which I think are super good...

I'd like there to be more card draw in here, but a lot of the white card draw cards,like Cards like Archivist of Oghma, Mangara, the Diplomat, Search the Premises, and Smuggler's Share Mentor of the Meek, could be good includes, but might be a little slow or too conditional...

Card-drawing artifacts can be tutored for with Oswald Fiddlebender.

Sun Titan can recur Commander's Sphere for repeat card draw.

Creatures Show

Creatures provide the main win condition in the deck, which is simply attacking.

Although the majority of the creatures are not very strong, and don't necessarily make for great soldiers, each of them has a unique ability that aids in the overall strategy of denying opponents the opportunities to do things. Additionally, our creatures only have to be a little better than opponents' creatures to have the upper-hand, and often just an angel or two in play can be enough to control the board.

Creatures with mana value 6 or more is where most of the power is, with Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite being more or less the win conditions, with Crovax, Ascendant Hero, Sun Titan, and Archon of Coronation providing both threats and utility.

Recruiter of the Guard and Thalia's Lancers are just a creature tutors, since there is a lack of draw and tutoring otherwise. The Recruiter only gets a few small creatures, but acts as kind of a toolbox creature. The Lancers gets a legendary creature, like Elesh Norn, Avacyn, Linvala, Thalia, Oswald Fiddlebender...

True Conviction and/or Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite are probably the most effective win conditions, pumping all the small creatures, but they do depend on having other creatures out.

Oswald Fiddlebender Show

Oswald doesn't necessarily assemble a win-combo, but he does tutor for super value artifacts, as well as generally ramp, card draw, and mana denial.

The most expensive card he can tutor for is God-Pharaoh's Statue, which at worst can slow opponents down a little, mid value slow them down a lot, and max value completely lock opponents out from playing anything.

In order to get to God-Pharaoh's Statue there needs to be a few 5 cmc artifacts. Throne of Eldraine and Mishra's Helix cost 5 mana, and can be sacrificed to get the Statue, however these two artifacts are also very powerful and are ultimately what you want to get to with Oswald. Mishra's Helix with God-Pharaoh's statue for example can completely lock opponents out of casting anything once you can tap all their lands and have Hokori in play. Therefore, Gilded Lotus is included as the 5 cmc artifact to sacrifice to get to the Statue, since you usually want to keep the Helix and Throne...

Since there are ultimately three 5 mana artifact that you'd like to be able to tutor with Oswald (Throne of Eldraine, Mishra's Helilx, and Gilded Lotus to sacrifice to get the Statue), there needs to be three 4 mana artifacts to get the three 5 mana artifacts. These are Nyx Lotus, card:Scepter of Eternal Glory, and The One Ring.

To get to the three 4 mana artifacts, there needs to be three 3 mana artifacts. These are The Celestus, card:Wand of the World Soul, and Command Tower. In this case, Command Tower is kind of the "burn" card, because the other two are more desirable to have around, but ultimately at this point you're trying to get to the most relevant 5 mana artifact so any of them are "burn"able.

Sacrifice any 2 mana artifact to start this process.

Even though most of the 3 and 4 mana artifacts are good cards, and worth having in play, it's usually more important to just keep going higher. Many of them are mana rocks, which is why you want them in play, because they give you a lot of mana and help play around Hokori, but they aren't win conditions, so it's okay to sacrifice them to get a win condition...

Additionally, because a lot of the cards you sacrifice along the way can tap for 3 or more mana, Oswald becomes kind of a ramp card! It costs {W} to activate, so like tap Arcane Signet to activate, and sac and tutor into card:Wand of the World Soul, now you just tapped Oswald (mana from Signet to activate makes it free activation kind of...) and got the wand, and if you have a few extra creatures you can convoke into a big spell! Same like tap Commanders' Sphere to activate Oswald to get Scepter of Eternal Glory, that's a white Dark Ritual for free! Same idea with Gilded Lotus...

I could see including Akroma's Memorial as another win condition... It's not quite as good as True Conviction, but it's kind of cool that Oswald could tutor for that too. Would there need to be an extra 6 mana artifact to "burn"?

Exclusions / Substitutions Show

Aside from cards mentioned above, and cards in the Maybeboard section, the most notable exclusions here are probably the lack of some more traditional mono-white combo pieces like Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle, God-Eternal Oketra, or Rest in Peace + Helm of Obedience. These combos could be put in here, but I have excluded them because the pieces either do not really progress the overall strategy of the deck much on their own, or are too conditional, or both, and therefore they take up too much space. For example, Teshar and Oketra need several key pieces to combo, if not a whole deck built around them, and their strategies don't work that well with Hokori's ablility, requirements, or the overall strategy. As there isn't much card drawing or tutoring, assembling pieces to a conditional combo is not the best game plan. I have opted to try and include cards which, on their own on help to forward the game plan of stall, deny, out-value, and attack, while still having strong synergy overall.

Pillow fort cards like Ghostly Prison are a little too defensive and conditional, being useful only when you are being attacked. It's better to mess up opponents' board-states and deny them mana and ability to do things, and prevent them from casting threats in the first place. Archangel of Tithes is included, and does have this ability, but also makes opponents pay to block, and is a creature herself, so is much more useful.

Similarly, cards like Archivist of Oghma, Deep Gnome Terramancer, Mangara, the Diplomat, Search the Premises, and Smuggler's Share could be good includes, but are a little slow and too conditional...

Cost-increasing cards were discussed in the Mana Denial section.

Cards like Archon of Emeria, Eidolon of Rhetoric and Rule of Law mimic mana denial, by limiting the amount of spells that can be played. However, like the cost-increasing cards, they also prevent us from doing what we need and are therefore not proactive enough.

All that said, there are a lot of cards that would be great in here, and depending on your meta or playstyle, there are many relevant cards in the maybeboard.

I think that Mastery of the Unseen could be a cool card, serving create a board state, , gain life, and act as a pseudo card draw effect for creatures...

Cards I would want to fit in the most would be Serra Ascendant, Archivist of Oghma, Smuggler's Share, card:Search the Premesis, Sword of Feast and Famine, Mind's Eye, The Immortal Sun... Not in that order...

Date added	4 years
Last updated	2 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 43 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 4 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.38
Tokens	A Mysterious Creature, Copy Clone, Elephant 3/3 G, Human 1/1 W, The Monarch, Treasure
Folders	Decks, Beginner Decks