potatopotatopotato that and he lost access to Prophet of Kruphix... And he can't even have Painter's Servant...

Servant would be so busted though lol.

Yea that would totally make him a solid T1 deck, I mean play a creature fetch a creature... God would this be busted!

Not to mention all the servant combos.

@Lesser_Gargadon Teneb is no joke, he's worse than Karador but his activated ability gets around countermagic which is very relevant in some matchups. He actually contributes to the deck's plan whereas [insert random Junk general here] does not.

Hello all, the Ghave commander deck link doesn't appear to work anymore. Can anyone please fix this?

Fixed!

I am planning on posting this primer on reddit in the near future, but I wanted to give you all a sneak peak at the innovations I have made with SBT since Gigi suggested Food Chain. After more than a year of tinkering with this list I can finally say it is optimized.

One Rule To Kill Them All (Competitive SBT Primer)

Commander / EDH* Lilbrudder

SCORE: 11 | 36 COMMENTS | 1799 VIEWS | IN 9 FOLDERS

I've built Mesmur Sharuum, and I'll be doing more testing and tweaking. So far, it can take on Yisan and Meren, both tuned. I feel like this version is reliant and fast, and LabMan means we don't have to rely on Sharuum.

What cards are you using to enable the lab man victory with sharuum?

Lilbrudder

Just reviwed your list, and I am making it the Sidisi list here. Goldfished a little bit and was super happy with results, and the primer is well written. Thanks for that awesome deck you created!

Also, I think it is time to replace the Sharuum deck we have in the description... Do we have a link to an uptimized version of the new one yet?

Using the Mesmeric combo to empty the grave, then flashback unburial rites + draw spell. Don't have to use it too often, but if Sharuum is locked out, or Gearhulk gets exiled, we don't lose automatically. Also, we can use Conjurer's Bauble (in because of the eggs wincon/synergy) to put a draw spell on The bottom for Tainted Pact. I'm still doing a lot of testing, and although I don't have some of the paper cards to optimize it, I will be using proxies. I also run the reversal/scepter combo, and it's bonkers. Imprinting many of our cheap instants is hilarious. Angel's Grace? Essence Flux - pay 2 get a memory jar every turn or start assembling a ridiculous board state (with our lady out)? Just nice utility. Can we get 2-for-1d? Yeah. It happens.

I will admit, casting our lady after we mill everything can be a bit challenging, as, to do it in one fell swoop, we need 7WUB - two for orb, 3 for monolith, and the rest for her regalness. Not impossible at all, but it makes comboing on T2-3 a challenge. That being said, I haven't gotten as much testing in with Mox Diamond and LED - both speeding up the deck a good bit. I'll try to post a list tomorrow.

Sounds exactly like the constraints on my Azami. Mana. Likely the lady sphinx won't move past tier 2 just for that reason but I'm very glad to hear you are having good success with her.

How can you guys really say that Kozilek The Butcher of Truth is tier 3? when someone makes a good build it can be brutal? and the number of combos that can be rammed in colorless decks are insane??? Im new to this site but ive been playing Kozilek as my general for years. the deck has so much utility. I will upload my list sometime soon when i get the time. like sure i understand that a lucky vandalblast will sometimes end us but thats more of a meta problem. most of the time im casting Kozilek turn 3 or 4 (sure sometimes it may take up to turn 5 or 6 if ive had a slow hand or ive had to deal with things but anyone thats ever played an optimized kozilek list can attest to how fast it is. not only that but there are easily over 15-16 infinite combos and plenty of stax effects that can make this commander a total powerhouse? how can you guys say that its only tier three? ive absolutely crushed plenty of the tier 2 decks that are listed and a few of the tier 1 decks listed didnt stand a chance either. ive taken down derevi, animar and scion of the ur dragon far more times then ive lost to them and i play in an extremely competitive meta where people often combo off turn 4 or 5.

TronIsloveTronislife Just because your deck beat Commanders that are listed as Tier 1 and Tier 2, that doesn't mean the decks you were playing against were optimized lists.

You also mention playing your Commander on T3-T4, those are the turns the Tier 1 decks should be winning, especially against a deck that can't disrupt them. Tier 2 decks I believe are typically supposed to be able to win T4-T6. This of course is if they are optimized.

I also run a EDH deck. Personally I run Emrakul, the Aeons Torn as the Commander and swap it to Kozilek, Butcher of Truth in Multiplayer games. It is a Casual deck at best. My Kaalia of the Vast deck can absolutely wreck it, AND some people think she should be dropped to Tier 3. While I have a lot of love for my EDH, the simple truth is, it just isn't very competitive.

thegigibeast: Thank you! It really means alot. I love this list and I am honored that I am able to contribute to it in some way.

TronIsloveTronislife

As another Kozilek, Butcher of Truth player since about 2 years (and the one maintaining this list), here are my thoughts on this.

Kozilek is brutal. On that you are right. If it goes unanswered it can win the game in a couple turns, by completely wrecking your opponents boards, one by one. But that is the problem: one by one. Even if there are a lot of infinite combos available, generally tier 1 decks can combo off a lot faster than we can. And not all the combos should be runned in the deck I think. Here is a link to my list, which I think is pretty close to optimization, if you want to take a look: [Primer] Kozilek, Butcher of Truth.

My theory on how we can beat other tier 1/2 decks: when we sit at a table with higher ranked commanders (even more so if it is the first time we play with those people), they will look at Kozilek and be like 'pff, 10CMC, gonna be long before he can do anything relevant, and colorless... pff'. They will generally start to disrupt each other, because every other tier 1/2 deck will try to combo off. If we are lucky, they will spend all their counters and removal and nobody will be able to combo. If we can cast Kozilek at this point, we are in a good situation, because many of those decks will run on a few lands/resources before comboing, so it should not be that difficult to get 1 or 2 players out with Kozilek alone. If we manage to get a draw engine running, it's even better, since we can draw into more stuff and keep the pressure up.

To sum it up, the strategy is to fly under the radar until you can hit hard. Yes Kozilek is strong, but since it is colorless it has no (or almost) interactivity at all, and artifacts are easy to remove/wipe. Tier 3 is the place for him for now. If they start printing some more spells like Warping Wail, I could see it move up one tier, one day. But for now, if you want to get a tier 1 deck with your artifacts base, I'd say add to get Teferi, Temporal Archmage or Arcum Dagsson, you won't be deceived with them!

I just realized dramatic reversal combo makes infinite wizards with Docent of perfection.

iAzire I have won on turn 2 before? so i dont really see your point? its not even the hardest thing to do? every now and then i will land a metal worker turn 1 and win on second turn. and the lists i play against are optimized. like i said i play in a very competitive meta, its not uncommon for people in my meta including myself to spend thousands of dollars on there edh decks. thats not even mentioning all the legacy and modern we play. colorless decks can go off on second turn with a good hand. how is that tier 3? not only that but when you run as many combos as i do its very hard for even (tier 1) decks to do anything in response. like i literally won on second turn tonight at fnm. first turn i draw a card cuz its multiplayer, play a land, mana crypt, into metalworker. pass the turn.

second turn i drew an artifact tapped metal worker revealed 5 artifacts had 10 mana cast staff of domination and won. i can do the same thing with manavault.

Now every now and then i actually use the great distortion as my general, and i actually think he is the stronger of the two. you can draw more cards off of him and you can counter spells as an activated ability. ( now yes you do have to have a card with the correct converted mana cost to do it but im lucky way more often then im not.) and the fact he has menace makes him alot easier to kill your opponents with commander damage. just drop silent arbiter and he becomes unblockable.

but my point is. decks like Kozilek and Karn silver golem can be cutt throat and can combo out of no where often just as fast if not faster then decks like animar.

Nearly every time I have played against a colorless deck I have been shocked at how effective they are. They get out of hand so fast and present such terrifying threats really early. Now part of that is the fact that people underestimate the explosiveness of such decks and focus on other players. I think the problem is, and always will be, consistency. Colorless has really expensive tutors, removal options and card draw engines, which means if they don't get a good opening hand they just kind of sit there until turn 5 or 6. The Eldrazi generals can certainly steal games against top commanders and win fast but not nearly as often as tuned tier 1/2 generals. Also due to thier reliance on artifacts they can be completely blown out and lack the tools to recover. If there was a colorless equivalent to Yawgmoth's Will or even Scrap Mastery and a couple of cost effective tutors, I definitely would put kozilek in tier 2.

As Lilbrudder mentioned TronIsloveTronislife it's not about "I can" it's about "I can 75% of the time consistently"

With my Yisan optimized list I CAN kill the table on T2-3 about 70% of the time.

With Selvala you CAN go off T2-3 but it takes the equivalent of a god hand.

See my point?

You mentioned a T2 win with metalworker. Did you tutor for a combo piece or did you have your combo in hand? This is the difference between higher tier decks and lower tier decks.

On another note I was helping a friend pick a new EDH deck and we started brainstorming Mishra. Is there any reason he's not T2? (For those who don't know you can run stuff like Blood Funnel, Chalice of the Void and Nether Void to cast your stuff and get it into play free while keeping your opponents staxed out pretty well.

Also possibility storm is hilarious in Mishra.

TronIsloveTronislife, Almost any optimized deck can win turn 1-2 with a god hand. Most top tier combo decks (Karador, Zur, etc) can win turn 0-1 if they draw the right cards. However, as these wins are fairly unlikely the fact that they are possible is not generally factored when considering a decks overall merit. One very fast win does not a top tier deck make. Additionally, just because people spend an exorbitant amount of money on decks does not mean they are tuned or optimized. I regularly curb stomp cocky players at my LGS who run things like foiled-out Niv-Mizzet and claim infallibility.

The fact that it is super easy to get infinite mana and infinite untap effects means that using combos like senseis divining top + cloudkey( or helm of awakening or semblance anvil) + alhammarets archive = infinite draw.

Or metalworker with staff of domination and 3 artifacts in hand is infinite card draw + infinite life + Infinite mana.

or karn, silver golem with voltaic construct and any mana rock that taps for 3 is infinite mana and infinite tap/ untap effects.

or basalt monolith with rings of bright hearth is infinite mana. pair that with clock of omens and voltaic key and thats infinite untaps.

now when your running cards like shimmer myr /vedalken orrery . and you achieve any card draw combo with infinite mana you can literally just pick your deck up and cast it at instant speed and then combo out with any of the 20 odd combos in your deck in response to anything?

Now keeping in mind that it is actually capable of doing that on turn 2 or 3 or in your opponents upkeep how is that tier 3?

also keeping in mind that they %100 always run more mana rocks then any other decks and can achieve 10 mana by turn 2,3 or 4 extremely consistently and combo off faster then most animar players with a good hand. tell me again how they are tier 3?

And what is the great distortion doing in tier 4? if you build the deck right he is even more powerful then butcher of truth?

My point is that you dont need a god hand to combo off early with colorless decks. you can literally trip and fall into infinite combos.

i think ive won more games on turn 3-4 than any other turns? and it was even more broken when i ran Karn silver golem as my general.

I feel like Norin the Wary should be turn 3 it seems there are some commanders he seems better then, just in my opinion.And MoxProxy is correct, just because i have a Selvala, Explorer Returned deck that has a chance of winning turn 2-3 doesnt mean i always will, i honestly average 4-6 unless my hand is unbelievable, and against commanders like Leovold, Emissary of Trest there is no way im winning early that game will run on, and on or i will be dominated.