Kozilek, the Great Staxtortion

Commander / EDH* Artifact Colorless Competitive Eldrazi Stax

HaloSlayerX95

Utility Lands (25)

• 1x Arch of Orazca
• 1x Blast Zone
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Dust Bowl
• 1x Eye of Ugin
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Phyrexia's Core
• 1x Quicksand
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rishadan Port
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Sanctum of Ugin
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Tectonic Edge
• 1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Wasteland

Mana Lands (11)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Blasted Landscape
• 1x City of Traitors
• 1x Crystal Vein
• 1x Darksteel Citadel
• 1x Eldrazi Temple
• 1x Mishra's Workshop
• 1x Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper
• 2x Wastes

Planeswalkers (2)

• 1x Karn, Scion of Urza
• 1x Ugin, the Ineffable

Ramp (18)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Lion's Eye Diamond
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Metalworker
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Mox Tantalite
• 1x Prismatic Lens
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thran Dynamo

Stax Artifacts (11)

• 1x Cursed Totem
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Lodestone Golem
• 1x Null Rod
• 1x Sphere of Resistance
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x Tangle Wire
• 1x Thorn of Amethyst
• 1x Torpor Orb
• 1x Trinisphere
• 1x Winter Orb

Creatures (6)

• 1x Conduit of Ruin
• 1x Deal Broker
• 1x Emrakul, the Promised End
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Void Winnower
• 1x Wurmcoil Engine

Commander (1)

Utility Artifacts (17)

• 1x Blinkmoth Urn
• 1x Clock of Omens
• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Kuldotha Forgemaster
• 1x Manifold Key
• 1x Mind's Eye
• 1x Relic of Progenitus
• 1x Ring of Three Wishes
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Semblance Anvil
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sorcerous Spyglass
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Tamiyo's Journal
• 1x Unwinding Clock
• 1x Voltaic Key

Combo (9)

• 1x Cathodion
• 1x Karn, the Great Creator
• 1x Krark-Clan Ironworks
• 1x Mycosynth Lattice
• 1x Myr Retriever
• 1x Nim Deathmantle
• 1x Rings of Brighthearth
• 1x Scrap Trawler
• 1x Walking Ballista

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Maybeboard

Other (23)

• 1x All is Dust
• 1x Azor's Gateway  ^Flip
• 1x Bottled Cloister
• 1x Coercive Portal
• 1x Cryptic Caves
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x Field of the Dead
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1x Mishra's Helix
• 1x Mystic Forge
• 1x Not of this World
• 1x Null Brooch
• 1x Petrified Field
• 1x Scorched Ruins
• 1x Sculpting Steel
• 1x Sea Gate Wreckage
• 1x Su-Chi
• 1x Trading Post
• 1x Treasure Map  ^Flip
• 1x Urza's Mine
• 1x Urza's Power Plant
• 1x Urza's Tower

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Introduction

Hello friends and welcome to my first ever primer! Kozilek, the Great Distortion is a slow, staxy deck that uses fast mana rocks to dump out your hand and utilizes Kozilek's cast trigger to refill and refuel your hand. The main goal of the deck is to assemble one of a few possible combos (Karn, the Great Creator + Mycosynth Lattice or Ashnod's Altar + Cathodion + Nim Deathmantle to name a few), while simultaneously slowing down the whole board with your suite of stax artifacts.

We choose Kozilek as our commander for the deck as the sheer card advantage that Kozilek gives, as well as it's ability to counter cards allows it to try and compete in a CEDH environment. It being a 12/12 doesn't hurt too, as we can use his massive weight to kill our opponents through combat/commander damage.

This is a very exotic and weird deck, and may turn off players due to the lack of colors. You may want to try and play this deck if:

A. You want to try and bring something new to your CEDH playgroup.

B. You like playing stax or artifact-centric decks, but hate colors. or

C. You're still a Timmy at heart, and want to play CEDH with big big Eldrazi

If any of these resonate within you, feel free to try and test the deck out!

Deck Strengths

• Powerful Commander: With Kozilek as your commander, keeping your hand full is easy! Its cast trigger allows you to draw even if it gets countered, so a hand refill will always come. It's also a beefy big 12/12 that can whittle down opponents health's fast, making their Ad Nauseam or Necropotence hurt that much more.
• Multiple Wincons: There are a multitude of combos in the deck, and if those don't work, a beat down backup plan is also available, with big, impactful creatures that can threaten other players.
• Highly Disruptive: The deck is built around a stax theme, and if Kozilek stays on board, its ability to counter spells by discarding cards can get annoying, as the ability can only be responded to by Stifle effects or Reroute effects.
• Explosive: The deck can have a very explosive turn 1 or 2, dropping mana rocks and stax artifacts at the same time, while simultaneously having enough mana to cast Kozilek from our command zone, refilling our hand.
  

Deck Weaknesses

• Colorless: The lack of any colors is what makes the deck interesting, but is also its primary weakness. Having no access to multiple staples of the CEDH format make it hard to find replacements for cards such as tutors, removal, cantrips, and interaction.
• Commander Reliant: Without Kozilek, we are more than likely to lose all our momentum, so it is always necessary to find hands that will be able to build up to .
• THE COMMANDER IS TO CAST: Speaking of Kozilek, spending in itself is a challenge, as our opponents will always try and stop us from achieving a critical mass of ramp artifacts. Getting to in CEDH is also quite difficult when you have no access to mana ramp spells due to color restrictions.
• Artifact Heavy: Our deck is highly reliant on artifacts, as our ramp, removal, stax, and wincons are all artifacts. One well-placed Vandalblast or Cyclonic Rift will definitely send us back to the stone age.

Combos

Karn, the Great Creator + Mycosynth Lattice : Two card combo that forces our opponents in a hard-lock situation, making it so that only you can cast spells

Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth OR Grim Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth : Two card infinite mana combo with no sink. Throw all the mana in a Walking Ballista and cash out!

Ashnod's Altar + Cathodion + Nim Deathmantle : Three card infinite mana WITH a sacrifice outlet, allowing us to float infinite mana and cast our hands and Kozilek over and over again to draw our entire deck and cash out with Walking Ballista.

Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle + Wurmcoil Engine : The same as the Cathodion combo, but with a Wurmcoil Engine instead. Makes infinite mana and infinite tokens!

Krark-Clan Ironworks + Myr Retriever + Scrap Trawler : The most convoluted and complicated of all our combos. However, since this is commander, this combo is NOT RECOMMENDED to prioritize assembling in game. Only attempt to assemble when the pieces are in your hand or are already in play. These three cards (Krark-Clan Ironworks, Scrap Trawler, and Myr Retriever) function better as value/utility pieces in our deck, rather than our win con.

Single Card Discussions

Ramp

• Ashnod's Altar: One of our wincon pieces, but also helpful as ramp.
• Basalt Monolith: for .
• Everflowing Chalice: We will usually play this for so that it taps for , but can also be good with excess mana.
• Gilded Lotus: Top end mana ramp. for , with no other drawbacks.
• Grim Monolith: for . Straightforward good ramp.
• Lion's Eye Diamond: Explosive ramp. Discard cost is not that bad when we throw all our cards on the table anyway.
• Lotus Petal: for . Free ramp is free ramp.
• Mana Crypt: Our best ramp card. for is no joke, and can speed up our game plan exponentially
• Mana Vault: Another all-star ramp card. for can also lead to explosive turns.
• Metalworker: Our version of Treasonous Ogre, can also increase our speed exponentially.
• Mind Stone: for mana, with a draw ability if we need it.
• Mox Diamond: Super fast ramp. Makes for an explosive turn 1.
• Mox Opal: Practically free mana. Metalcraft in our deck is extremely easy to enable.
• Mox Tantalite: Our replacement for Chrome Mox. Not the best card to play on other turns but on turn 1.
• Prismatic Lens: for . Adding one mana of any color will rarely be used.
• Sol Ring: C'mon now. It's Sol Ring.
• Thought Vessel: It's for with upside.

• Thran Dynamo: for is a great rate, especially when it has no downside.

Utility Artifacts

Blinkmoth Urn: Can potentially gain us huge amounts of mana throughout the game, especially when our board stays relatively intact.

Clock of Omens: Can untap our high impact ramp artifacts, or alternatively, tap down our stax artifacts before our turn starts for us to not get stax'd.

Crucible of Worlds: Great recursion artifact, allows us to replay our Wasteland or our City of Traitors effects over and over again.

Expedition Map: Fetches our high impact/utility lands for us.

Kuldotha Forgemaster: One of our tutor effects. Sacrifice three of our low-impact artifacts for a win con!

Manifold Key: The better brother of Voltaic Key, with the added benefit of unblockable.

Mind's Eye: Our version of Rhystic Study. Clunky, but with excess mana, could draw us a bunch of cards.

Relic of Progenitus: Our anti-graveyard strategy card, which doubles as card draw.

Ring of Three Wishes: Our very clunky version of traditional tutor effects. We have no choice but to run this for the tutor effect, but boy, does it sure feel bad.

Scroll Rack: Good hand fixer. Allows us to chuck bad cards from our hand back into our deck, for the chance to get better cards.

Semblance Anvil: Strong synergy card. Imprint an artifact to reduce our other artifacts costs by 2.

Sensei's Divining Top: All-star CEDH card. Allows us to filter our draws and fix our topdeck.

Sorcerous Spyglass: Our version of traditional Thoughtseize effects. Can stop combos like Food Chain very well.

Sword of Feast and Famine: We play this sword for the untap all lands effect. Protection from black and green are also relevant color protections in CEDH.

Tamiyo's Journal: Our clunky draw/tutor engine. Bad in CEDH, but can work here in Kozilek as a consistent source of draw.

Unwinding Clock: Our version of Seedborn MuseAllows us to use our artifacts on other people's turns.

Voltaic Key: Can untap our high impact ramp artifacts for more value.

Creatures

Conduit of Ruin: Our good stuffs creature tutor. We play this mainly to reduce the cost of Kozilek, but can tutor for Emrakul, the Promised End or Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger for destructive plays.

Deal Broker: Our loot machine. Good early blocker against Tymna the Weaver centered decks, or against early attacks.

Emrakul, the Promised End: Super explosive creature. The eldest sister of Kozilek, she can ruin other people's day's by herself. Imagine targeting a Kess, Dissident Mage player and playing their Demonic Consultation for no reason, leaving them without a deck. Can single-handedly eliminate a player from the game.

Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger: Another super explosive creature. The younger brother of Kozilek, he can remove two threats from the table at once, while being a priority target once resolved.

Void Winnower: Another good tutor target, while also being a good stax effect on the board.

Wurmcoil Engine: A great early attacker, while also maintaining its ability to become a win con late game.

Planeswalkers

Karn, Scion of Urza: Good source of card draw. Somewhat like a Fact or Fiction in our deck. Can also make huge tokens if our boardstate is good enough.

Ugin, the Ineffable: Removal, while also being a cost reducer and a pseudo-card draw effect.

Stax Artifacts

Cursed Totem: Stops mana dorks, Thrasios, Triton Hero, and the like.

Grafdigger's Cage: Stops graveyard decks, and Flash + Protean Hulk strategies.

Lodestone Golem: Taxes the board except ours, as we mostly play artifacts.

Null Rod: Good against other artifact-heavy strategies, but also counters our own so be careful.

Sphere of Resistance: Good global tax effect, cast only after dumping your mana rocks to play, as it also taxes you.

Static Orb: Global stax effect. Grinds the game down to a halt.

Tangle Wire: Similar to Static Orb, also grinds the game down.

Thorn of Amethyst: Similar to Sphere of Resistance, except only for non-creatures. Good to play after casting Kozilek.

Torpor Orb: Stops ETB (enter-the-battlefield) effects.

Trinisphere: Great global tax effect. Stops fast combo players from doing their fast combos.

Winter Orb: Similar to Static Orb, but only on lands.

Utility Lands

Arch of Orazca: Card draw on a land.

Blast Zone: Removal on a land.

Buried Ruin: Artifact recursion on a land.

Cavern of Souls: Protection from counters on a land. Usually name Eldrazi as creature type.

Command Beacon: Commander recursion on a land.

Dust Bowl: Land removal on a land.

Eye of Ugin: Cost reducer on a land.

Geier Reach Sanitarium: Card draw on a land.

Ghost Quarter: Land removal on a land.

Homeward Path: Anti Gilded Drake on a land.

Inventors' Fair: Artifact tutor on a land.

Maze of Ith: Remove from combat on a land.

Phyrexia's Core: Sacrifice outlet/lifegain on a land.

Quicksand: Anti Tymna the Weaver/ other early attacks on a land.

Reliquary Tower: No maximum hand size on a land.

Rishadan Port: Tap down troublesome lands on a land.

Rogue's Passage: Unblockable Kozilek on a land.

Sanctum of Ugin: Another big creature tutor on a land.

Scavenger Grounds: Graveyard hate on a land.

Strip Mine: Land destruction on a land.

Tectonic Edge: Land destruction on a land.

The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale: Creature tax on a land.

Thespian's Stage: Can copy other utility lands.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Allows our utility lands to tap for

Wasteland: Land destruction on a land.

Conclusion

Hopefully with this primer, you get a new type of experience playing CEDH! This primer is a WIP, and suggestions would be highly appreciated on how to improve it, or for things to add/remove from the deck. Thank you for reading the primer, and may you all have great MTG games in the future!

Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Key combos	Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth Ashnod's Altar + Cathodion + Nim Deathmantle Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle + Wurmcoil Engine Grim Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth Krark-Clan Ironworks + Myr Retriever + Scrap Trawler Karn, the Great Creator + Mycosynth Lattice
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	20 - 0 Mythic Rares 48 - 0 Rares 25 - 0 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.16
Tokens	City's Blessing, Clue, Construct 0/0 C, Spirit 2/2 C, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Deathtouch, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Lifelink