Lazav's Peloton - A primer for Cycling with Lazav!

Commander / EDH Budget Jank UB (Dimir)

Osseous

Cycling (31)

• 1x Ancient Excavation *list*
• 1x Archfiend of Ifnir
• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Blasted Landscape
• 1x Censor
• 1x Choking Tethers
• 1x Complicate
• 1x Countervailing Winds
• 1x Curator of Mysteries
• 1x Death Pulse
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Dirge of Dread
• 1x Disciple of Malice
• 1x Expunge
• 1x Fetid Pools
• 1x Hieroglyphic Illumination
• 1x Jhessian Zombies
• 1x Moaning Wall
• 1x Nimble Obstructionist
• 1x Polluted Mire
• 1x Razaketh's Rite
• 1x Rebuild
• 1x Remote Isle
• 1x Rescind
• 1x Scarab Feast
• 1x Swat
• 1x Unearth
• 1x Vile Manifestation
• 1x Vizier of Tumbling Sands
• 1x Wander in Death
• 1x Wasteland Scorpion

Enabler (4)

• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Fluctuator
• 1x New Perspectives
• 1x Training Grounds

Tutor (4)

• 1x Dimir Infiltrator
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Razaketh's Rite
• 1x Shred Memory

Protection (2)

• 1x Invisible Stalker
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Lands (36)

• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Blasted Landscape
• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Choked Estuary
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Duskmantle, House of Shadow
• 1x Fetid Pools
• 9x Island
• 1x Polluted Mire
• 1x Remote Isle
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 11x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Isle
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave

Control (12)

• 1x Censor
• 1x Choking Tethers
• 1x Complicate
• 1x Countervailing Winds
• 1x Death Pulse
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Expunge
• 1x Nimble Obstructionist
• 1x Rebuild
• 1x Rescind
• 1x Scarab Feast
• 1x Swat

Do It Again! (8)

• 1x Elixir of Immortality
• 1x Game Plan
• 1x Jace's Archivist
• 1x Restless Dreams
• 1x Sacred Excavation
• 1x Shadow of the Grave
• 1x Tolarian Winds
• 1x Windfall

Commander (1)

Cycling Benefactor (14)

• 1x Archfiend of Ifnir
• 1x Chasm Skulker
• 1x Cunning Survivor
• 1x Curator of Mysteries
• 1x Drake Haven
• 1x Faith of the Devoted
• 1x Grisly Survivor
• 1x Hekma Sentinels
• 1x Horror of the Broken Lands
• 1x Psychosis Crawler
• 1x Ruthless Sniper
• 1x Shadowstorm Vizier
• 1x Toothy, Imaginary Friend
• 1x Vile Manifestation

Ramp (10)

• 1x Ancient Excavation *list*
• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Blasted Landscape
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Jhessian Zombies
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Plan B (3)

• 1x Living Death
• 1x Phage the Untouchable
• 1x Sickening Dreams

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Introduction

By far one of my favorite characters in all of MTG, belonging to my favorite guild of Ravnica, I, like many others, was enthused to see Lazav, the Multifarious spoiled as another playable iteration of himself with the release of GRN.

I used to play the old Lazav, Dimir Mastermind and absolutely loved the theme of it: Spying on my opponents hands via Telepathy, a lantern control package, and including heavy interaction from counterspells to outright targeted removal to have Lazav copy them. As many have astutely said before me, the OG Lazav, Dimir Mastermind has a joy trying to play other's decks against them, with the added bonus of scaling fairly well to the power level of most decks (since you are cloning and copying their cards). However, as others have also stated, the deck does poorly against spell-slingers, enchantresses, and nearly any creature light deck.

I won't go into further detail on the different strategies of OG Lazav and his new iteration: Joey Schultz has already of that! Rather, I want to discuss what this deck in particular is about. The new Lazav gives us the option to not focus so much on milling as the old Lazav, but rather focus on an entirely unique avenue of voltron mixed with combo, value, and wheel-based wincons and strategies.

Why Play this Deck?

You may like this deck if:

• You enjoy having things to do
• You enjoy drawing cards
• You like having options
• You enjoy putting together an engine and sometimes comboing off
• You like old school cards, especially foiled out

You may dislike this deck if:

• You are a spike (just play the tuned Lazav)
• You feel like you are running sub-optimal answers
• You don't enjoy setting up an engine
• You like counting on one clear wincon in the deck

Why cycling?

Cycling: A History

Cycling was first introduced in Urza's Saga back in 1998. It is an Activated Ability that allows you to pay a cost (e.g. , , etc.) in order to discard the card in your hand, in order to draw a card, or in the case of landcycling, search for a land from your library and put it into your hand. It is a classic ability that has a deep card pool spanning Urza's Saga, Onslaught, Scourge, Legions, Alara Reborn, and most recently, the Amonkhet block. A quick Gatherer search of "cycling" alone yields 217 cards, notwithstanding the cards that benefit or trigger from cycling but without cycling themselves (n = 53)!

For a time, cycling as a focused mechanic in an EDH deck was difficult, as the costs easily add up of trying to cycle multiple cards in succession. Cycling cards that require the default mana can be somewhat easy to circumvent if you generate infinite colorless mana (say, Rings of Brighthearth + Basalt Monolith shenanigans), or with the old school Fluctuator, but gets quite a bit more difficult when you include cards that cycle for color-specific costs (e.g. ). Fluctuator was really the only cycling enabler that circumvented infinite mana-generation combos, and thus limited the number of cards that could be cycled in succession for nearly two decades.

Until...

Lazav Cycling: A New Perspective

The release of New Perspectives in Amonkhet tremendously improved our ability to abuse cycling in an explosive manner. Despite being 3x the mana cost as Fluctuator and having a restrictive condition of needing at least 7 cards in hand in order to abuse its effect, I would argue that the benefits are more than worth it. Upon entering the battlefield, New Perspectives will draw you 3 cards, and then permit you to cycle without paying their cost whatsoever. This means that any cycling cost, , , or , simply don't matter any more. We can cycle freely and with n = 31 cards in the deck, we have about a 1/3 chance to draw into a cycling card at any given time. This probability increases as we progress in the game, hit our land drops and filter out some mana rocks as well as pitching things to our graveyard for Lazav through cycling or other means. Once New Perspectives hits the table, its easy to begin churning through the deck, either searching for answers, boardwipes, or wincons, or actively using cycling to enable the number of cycling/discard triggers included in the rest of our deck (e.g. Cunning Survivor, Archfiend of Ifnir, Faith of the Devoted, Drake Haven, Psychosis Crawler, Chasm Skulker, Toothy, Imaginary Fiend, etc.).

This begs a crucial piece of advice: play New Perspectives carefully. While enchantments are typically difficult to remove, playgroups will catch on quick to how easy it is to churn through your deck proccing draw/discard triggers and search for answers. I treat it more like Beastmaster Ascension in other decks, where instead of trying to drop it on turn 2 and telegraph my strategy, giving opponents time to save removal for it, I wait until I know I have at least 7 or more creatures attacking that turn before dropping it. I treat New Perspectives in much the same way.

Now, there are other commanders who have tried to take advantage of cycling as well. Zur the Enchanter is probably most infamous, given his ability to directly fetch Astral Slide which helps to set up an engine of ETB triggers with cycling, but often degenerates into a stasis or board-lock type of deck. Alesha, Who Smiles at Death is another, and in my opinion far more interesting, option for cycling which seeks to pitch creatures for her to recur, set up an Astral Slide engine but more for value-based ETB, or run Living Death to try and overwhelm and outnumber your opponents with a graveyard bash. Both of these are viable options - but we are taking a different, more subtle strategy...

Strategy

The basics

The overall strategy of this deck is very much in line with Wheel decks, though has some key differences. While some table wheels are included (e.g. Windfall, Jace's Archivist), the deck is far more focused on self-wheeling and discard/draw than say a Nekusar, the Mindrazer style of deck which is aiming to machine gun the whole table through wheels. Cards like Tolarian Winds then take the place of Ill-Gotten Gains or Dark Deal. Focusing on self-wheeling and discarding gives the opponents much less opportunity to draw into a response, and rather helps us focus on getting as many draw/discard/cycle triggers as possible to benefit from.

Lazav and Friends

Lazav, the Multifarious allows us to sink colorless mana into his activated ability to shapeshift into a creature in our graveyard at instant speed. Lazav then begs for things going into our graveyard - it's why he has Surveil 1 on entering the battlefield, and why most EDHrec pages look like Surveil tribal with some bigger cards like Entomb or Buried Alive to get that oh-so-predictable Vector Asp + Phyrexian Dreadnought combo. Cycling, however, allows us to pitch creatures (and other cards) into our graveyard while simultaneously replacing themselves with other cards.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Creatures with cycling typically aren't that powerful, and you're not wrong. This isn't all that bad however, as many cycling creatures don't generate nearly as much threat. For your opponents, cycling a Horror of the Broken Lands into your graveyard simply looks like you are pitching a bad card (even for pauper standards) in search for something better. This contrasts heavily with using an Entomb on a Phyrexian Dreadnought, or Eater of Days or Leveler which draws attention and telegraphs the strategy pretty blatantly. These kind of Lazav decks become a race against graveyard hate, which Lazav can handle fairly well due to his aggressive cost, but ultimately, makes the strategy fairly linear. Cycling doesn't draw nearly as much attention in filling your graveyard as using an Entomb or Buried Alive and has the added bonus of replacing cards lost and help search for answers. Finally, many of the cards that cycle can also benefit from other cycling effects. Cycling Horror of the Broken Lands gets you a card while pitching itself to the graveyard, and benefits from future cycling events. Activating Lazav's ability to become the Horror can become deadly with wheels or a cycling engine online.

Lazav Targets: Cycling, Discarding, and Drawing triggers

Lazav has a number of targets at his disposal for different purposes, but many of which benefit from cycling, discard, and draw triggers.

For evasion and protection (asides from equipment like Whispersilk Cloak), Lazav has: Invisible Stalker, Dimir Infiltrator, Cunning Survivor, Dirge of Dread, Wasteland Scorpion

For beats and voltron, Lazav has: Horror of the Broken Lands, Cunning Survivor, Grisly Survivor, Shadowstorm Vizier, Toothy, Imaginary Friend, Chasm Skulker, Vile Manifestation

For control, Lazav has: Archfiend of Ifnir, Ruthless Sniper, Wasteland Scorpion

As well as a host of other creatures (e.g. Psychosis Crawler, enchantments (e.g. Faith of the Devoted), and spells (e.g. Tolarian Winds, Decree of Pain) to help him along the way!

Sequencing and Lazav

Given that Lazav's activated ability costs , we can activate it at instant speed and relatively easily given that there is no mana-fixing constraint. Understanding how to sequence Lazav's ability thus becomes crucial, as you often need to layer his activation with a specific order in mind to get the most out of any given situation. Activating Lazav's ability to become a creature with evasion FIRST is crucial in order to get through the blockers step. An example would be to move to combat, activate Lazav's ability to become an Invisible Stalker, a Dimir Infiltrator or perhaps something with flying like Shadowstorm Vizier, then declare attacks. Opponents cannot block, which then opens up for followup activation(s) of Lazav's ability before the damage step, say transforming to a Horror of the Broken Lands. This then allows for cycling in order to pump Lazav (Horror of the Broken Lands) to get in for good damage.

Having Training Grounds out in play immensely helps with this, so that we are more easily able to transition between creatures when needed, and sink mana elsewhere (e.g. Faith of the Devoted, Drake Haven, etc.). In some cases, we can simply swap between 2CMC creatures without any trouble - in one game I was able to swap to Invisible Stalker to give him evasion and hexproof, swing in, and after blocks but before combat damage, swap to a Vile Manifestation for free, and use my mana to cycle as many cards as I could and get in for a Voltron win. This is also crucial for protection, as when Lazav gets targeted with removal, you can swap to Invisible Stalker with Training Grounds out, even if you are tapped out.

It's also crucial to keep in mind that while Lazav copies other creatures and gains their abilities, he retains his name. This means that Commander Damage, even if done with a mix of Lazav copied as a Horror of the Broken Lands and a Chasm Skulker will ultimately be tied to Lazav. The same holds for +1+1 counters, which is why Toothy, Imaginary Friend and Chasm Skulker are included here. Both benefit from draw triggers, which this deck has a lot of potential for with cycling, in the form of +1+1 counters. Both are then fantastic value engines as you can play them directly from hand, hopefully get a few +1+1 counters on them, and if they die, so be it - you just drew more cards in the case of Toothy or a got some squids in the case of the Skulker. Now that they are in the graveyard, Lazav can copy them, and start to get +1+1 counters on draw triggers, but if Lazav changes to another creature he gets to keep the +1+1 counters. This means that sequencing and weaving activations of Lazav when you know you will draw cards is crucial in order to consistently pump him up. This can be as simple as activating before your upkeep if one of them is in the graveyard and you have some extra mana in order to get at least one more +1+1 counter by main phase, or doing so before you know you wheel or cycle-storm in order to net batches of +1+1 counters.

Winning

How does this deck win?

This deck typically wins in a variety of ways. The goal is typically to piece together a cycling or wheel engine for Lazav to benefit from by copying a cycle/discard/draw trigger creature (e.g. Horror of the Broken Lands, Chasm Skulker) and swing in for commander damage or ping someone through typical wheel effects (e.g. Psychosis Crawler). Phage the Untouchable is a backup plan for Lazav, but too tempting not to run. Sickening Dreams also acts another finisher, if we're able to pitch a large enough hand, and at the worst is a decent board wipe.

How does this deck lose?

Losses are inevitable, especially with a janky deck. That said, this deck is particularly weak to graveyard hate, hand-locks (e.g. Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur), and excessive removal. Ramp is another particular issue in Dimir, often relying heavily on artifacts and in this deck, basic/landcycling. Furthermore, striking a balance with enough cycling cards to keep cycling engines going means you run cards with cycling over more optimal answers and cards. This means that while the ability to search for answers at any given moment is relatively high, the actual power of those answers is unfortunately low. Pitching cards to find removal when you need it feels good, but not when that removal is a Death Pulse against a Ghalta, Primal Hunger.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	3 years
Splash colors	UB
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 25 - 0 Rares 24 - 0 Uncommons 28 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.17
Tokens	Drake 2/2 U, Squid 1/1 U
Folders	Budget decks, EDH, Commander / EDH