Mana Flooding is a good thing?!?!?!

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Counterspell Forest GU (Simic) Landfall Lifegain Midrange Primer Ramp

fuster

Land (42)

Planeswalker (3)

Instant (19)

Sorcery (8)

Enchantment (6)

Commander (1)

Creature (16)

Artifact (5)

Maybeboard

Creature (4)

Sorcery (1)

1x Walk the Aeons

Instant (4)

Enchantment (2)

WELCOME TO MY PRIMER (WIP)

Tatyova, Benthic Druid is my personal pet deck that I originally built in mid 2018. I originally created this deck with 2 restrictions: No infinite combos and no extra turns. The deck's powerful synergies proved to be extremely fun to play with, and I ended up fine tuning the list over the last 4 years. After 4 years of playing the deck, I recently decided to go back on not using infinite combos and now include a few combos in the deck, but I will never play extra turn effects in commander as I find those to be very unfun.

I am aware this deck is extremely expensive (with 1/3 of the cost being just Gaea's Cradle!), so if you want a more budget friendly list to build off of, check out Tatyova on a Budget, which is a version of this deck built for Pauper commander!

Why Play Tatyova? Show

You will like playing Tatyova if...

You'll like playing Tatyova if:

You like drawing lots of cards. Tatyova turns the basic action of playing a land into a free cantrip. There are very few other decks that have a draw engine this cheap and efficient.
You like value engine decks. Playing lots of lands every turn and drawing cards off of them is probably one of the best value engines in the whole game. This deck is also very efficient with an average CMC of <2.5.
You like powerful card synergies where most of the cards can also stand on their own.
You like running a high number of counterspells. My current build runs a total of 7; I'm sure there's ways to tune it to run 8-10 though.
You like generating loads of tokens. Despite not being a token focused deck, Tatyova not only has ways to generate a lot of tokens, but also ways to use them to win games.
You like a lot of versatility. A lot of the cards I play are useful in a wide variety of situations, and there are multiple paths to victory with this deck. Being a lands focused deck, the deck also comes with a very sweet utility land package that adds a lot of value and consistency to the gameplay.

You won't like playing Tatyova if...

You'll dislike playing Tatyova if:

You're bad at keeping track of triggers or just don't like playing with a high number of triggers. This deck is jam packed with triggered abilities, and keeping up with every single one can get difficult for me sometimes, especially if I'm playing late at night. Keeping up with all the triggers has proven challenging for less experienced players who have borrowed my deck as well.
You like making big plays from the graveyard. This deck can play lands from the graveyard in order to draw extra cards, but aside from Eternal Witness and Snapcaster Mage, there aren't many ways to replay nonland cards from the graveyard.
You don't like relying on your commander to win games. While I can and have won games with this deck without playing my commander, a lot of the deck's gameplan relies on having the commander out to generate efficiency and value, thus making her a target for opposing removal. You'll definitely need to dedicate a decent chunk of the deck to protecting Tatyova.
You dislike Blue players or playing Blue in general.

Card Choices Show

Work in progress; coming soon.

This section is dedicated to talking about the cards I've chosen to play in this deck, and why they're good. I won't go in-depth into why I choose to run every single card in the list, but the cards I run can be broken down into one of several categories. I'll talk about each category below and notable selections for each:

Mana Ramp

We're a green deck after all, so the green mana ramp package is obligatory, especially when playing Tatyova means a cantrip effect gets tacked onto each one you play. The ramp cards I like to run are the cheap staples such as Nature's Lore, Three Visits, Cultivate, and Kodama's Reach. Sakura-Tribe Elder might only grab tapped basics, but it also serves as a good early game blocker, since I can use his ability at instant speed. I personally don't run this card since I don't have a lot of basics, but if you're building this deck on a budget, Rampant Growth is a worthy inclusion as well. I do not recommend Farseek since it's not super great at helping us fix our mana. We only have a couple of fetchable lands that can tap for green mana, so if those are out already, Farseek only gets us islands at that point.

While the deck omits a lot of mana rocks, I do still run Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, and Thought Vessel. Sol Ring and Mana Crypt are both powerful enough to help me get my commander out by turn 2, and Thought Vessel gives me an unlimited hand size at a low cost, which is helpful when I'm drawing a lot of cards.

Honorable mentions go to Green Sun's Zenith. While this isn't a ramp spell per se, it can functionally act like one if you cast it for X=0 on turn 1 to go get Dryad Arbor.

Extra Land Drops

While extra land drops are a form of mana ramp, I've decided to make this a completely different section from Mana Ramp for two reasons: Extra land drops are continuous effects that I can repeat each turn at no extra cost, and these effects will typically come from creatures and enchantments as opposed to sorceries.

These cards are staples in the deck and I can't get enough of them. This deck fires on all cylinders when you have 2 or more of these effects on the battlefield, since having at least 3-4 extra land drops and drawing 3-4 cards a turn leads to very explosive plays.

Cards such as Exploration, Azusa, Lost but Seeking, and Wayward Swordtooth have been day 1 inclusions because of their low cost. Oracle of Mul Daya is a bit more expensive at 4 mana, but has proven super useful at improving my draws by allowing me to play more lands off the top of my deck. When Dryad of the Ilysian Grove was first spoiled, I ended up cutting Courser of Kruphix to run it. I love that Oracle lets me both play extra land and play land off the top, but if I had to pick between both effects, I would rather have the extra land drop, which is why I cut Courser for the Dryad. Dryad also provides me an extra benefit by allowing my colorless utility lands and fetchlands to turn into more mana fixing.

The only one I don't run yet is Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait. It's a really good card, but at 6CMC, I'm currently unsure what to cut for it since it's so expensive.

Honorable mentions go to Summer Bloom for being a one time extra land drop effect that leads to explosive plays, Sakura-Tribe Scout for being both an instant speed Exploration on a stick and a combo piece even though I can't use him immediately, and Burgeoning for giving me extra land drops when it's not my turn.

Utility Lands

Tatyova naturally encourages a lands package, and running 42 lands definitely gives us enough room to run lots of powerful lands. There's a few different categories to mention here:

Acceleration

I use the word "acceleration" here because it applies to both mana and our gameplan. Ancient Tomb is yet another card that can help us power out our commander early, while Oboro, Palace in the Clouds can help us draw extra cards when we don't have any other lands in our hand to play. Gaea's Cradle doesn't really need any further explanation, as its explosiveness is pretty obvious. Dryad Arbor is worth mentioning too, as it can not only be tutored out via Green Sun's Zenith or Chord of Calling, but it serves as an extra body on the field too.

I should probably include the fetchlands here too; as they help with getting extra landfall triggers even when we don't have any extra land drop effects in play in addition to synergizing with hand fixers such as Brainstorm and Sensei's Divining Top. I run 8 in my list including Prismatic Vista, but there are alternatives you can run if you're building on a budget.

Toolbox Lands

These are very versatile lands that can be used in a variety of situations. Boseiju, Who Endures serves as uncounterable removal, Thespian's Stage can copy any land played on the field, Mystic Sanctuary can help us re-use any instant or sorcery we've played, and Tolaria West can help us search for any land in our deck. Finally, Strip Mine not only removes problematic lands, but can also be recurred to devastate your opponent's resources.

Counterspells

This is your most crucial form of interaction in this deck. I've opted to be more counter heavy than removal heavy with this deck since not only do I want to stop my opponent's combo plays at this level of play, but I also want to maximize the amount of protection I have for my commander when she is out. There are plenty of hard counter options available, so I tend to pass on soft counters like Mana Leak since the odds of your opponent being able to pay the tax are pretty good in this format. The counters here fall under a few categories:

2 CMC Counterspells

This is just Counterspell and the like, with 2 mana to counter a spell being the standard. There's a few options from this area to choose from, but I personally run Mana Drain because of how it sets up explosive turns. I run Arcane Denial because I think I'd rather have my opponent draw 2 cards than resolve a spell I'd counter with this card, plus I like that it draws me a card.

Other options you could viably run here include Delay, Negate, Muddle the Mixture, Tale's End and Deprive.

1 CMC Counterspells

These are the counters you can play for just one mana, which might have more limited use than your 2 mana counters. Swan Song is currently the only one I run. It's the best one in my opinion, as while it might be more limited in what it can target, the drawback of a 2/2 bird isn't super meaningful in commander. An Offer You Can't Refuse is a close second; it's a solid hard counter, but the 2 treasure tokens can potentially become a devastating drawback in high level play. Dispel is also viable, even if its use is limited.

Free Counterspells

These are the counters you can play while tapped out to catch your opponent off guard. You'll typically want to exhaust your regular counterspells first before using these. These include Force of Will, Force of Negation, Pact of Negation, and Fierce Guardianship. If you plan on sitting at more CEDH tables, Mental Misstep is an excellent option to include as well.

Recursion

We are obviously not a graveyard based deck, but that also means we can possibly catch our opponents off guard by recurring cards and making plays from the graveyard. There's 2 categories of recursion here:

Land Recursion

We have 3 cards in the deck that enable us to replay lands that end up in our graveyard. Crucible of Worlds and Ramunap Excavator are essentially the same card here, and I run both cards for redundancy. Ramunap Excavator is a bit better than crucible since I can tutor for it. We also have access to Life from the Loam in case we don't have either of those cards. Loam works best when you have extra land drops, and you can also naturally recur it with its Dredge ability. The best use of land recursion cards is to re-use your fetchlands in order to draw extra cards from your deck when you may not have lands in your hand, but if you're feeling cruel, you can also recur Strip Mine to devastate your opponent's manabase.

Nonland recursion.

We don't have too many of these effects, but the ones we do are pretty powerful. Snapcaster Mage and Mystic Sanctuary help us recur your instants and sorceries, while Eternal Witness is your one-time catch all recursion card that gets any card the other cards don't cover. Use her wisely.

Card Draw

Tatyova is an amazing draw engine, but we need to run more card draw effects as a backup in case we don't have access to our commander. I like running Brainstorm, Ponder, and Preordain (aka the Cantrip Cartel) since they're cheap cards that not only draw cards, but help with setting up our future turns as well.

Gush is extremely synergistic with this deck. Not only can you replay the lands you bounce with Gush in order to draw even more cards, you can also use this on your opponent's turns to avoid the hand size limit if you don't have Reliquary Tower out.

Windfall is a more recent inclusion in the deck. I mostly want to play this card early in the game to refill my hand after playing a few spells, but the biggest reason I like this card is the synergy it has with Narset, Parter of Veils. Speaking of which, Narset is also a great way to dig for more spells while slowing your opponents down for a low cost.

Win Conditions

We technically don't need these to win the game, especially if we generate enough tokens via Field of the Dead or Avenger of Zendikar, but these are our main ways to close out games. I personally run 3 win conditions so I have multiple ways to win. These include Craterhoof Behemoth combined with the aforementioned token generation, Aetherflux Reservoir to win games storm-style, and Thassa's Oracle as an instant win condition if you manage to draw your whole deck.

Cards I don't run

Big Dumb Beaters

These are the the most commonly recommended cards from bad players in the comments section. Sure, these cards can boast big attack power the more lands I play, but they don't really do much else to help advance my gameplan, and they don't have a lot to offer aside from being a big attacker that is easy to remove. These are cards such as Baloth Woodcrasher and Oran-Rief Hydra.

Artifact Ramp (Mana rocks)

You might have noticed a lack of mana rocks in this list, with cards such as Simic Signet, Talisman of Curiosity, and even the ubiquitously played Arcane Signet omitted from the deck. The reason for this is because not only are the green ramp spells functionally similar in setting me ahead one turn, but they also are more helpful late-game as they will also allow me to draw more cards. I do still run 4 mana rocks, but they are fast mana cards such as Sol Ring and Mana Crypt, which are cards that are strong enough to help me power out my commander as early as turn 2.

Taplands

Since this is a highly tuned deck, I avoid lands that enter tapped unconditionally such as Temple of Mystery, Rimewood Falls, and even the synergistic Simic Growth Chamber. Playing my spells on time is too important to me. The only tapland I think is worth running in this deck is Field of the Dead as it serves as a powerful token generator for 0 mana. As a side effect of avoiding unconditional taplands, I get an extra slot in the deck that I can use for more utility because I don't have to run Amulet of Vigor anymore.

Win-More Cards

These are cards that have powerful effects, but overall don't contribute to your overall gameplan unless you already have a good board position and have your deck firing on all cylinders, hence the nickname Win-More. Cards that fall in this category include expensive artifacts like Alhammarret's Archive and expensive mana ramp like Nissa's Renewal and Boundless Realms

Playing the deck Show

Work in progress; coming soon.

Early Game

Make sure you can play spells fast in your opening hand; mulligan hands that don't have ramp or sufficient land drops. You will typically want to get some ramp going in the first 2-3 turns in order to power out Tatyova as fast as possible. Don't be afraid to wait a turn to play Tatyova if you don't have a land drop available when you hit 5 mana, as she is going to be a lightning rod for opposing removal.

If possible, save your fetchlands and wait until you play your commander first before playing those lands. This is especially important if you don't have any extra land drop effects available to you, as a fetchland will net you 2 draws in this scenario. You'll want to maximize the landfall triggers as much as possible the turn you play Tatyova if you don't have counterspells or Sylvan Safekeeper available to play.

Mid Game

The mid game is all about building your board and securing your board position. Try and play as many extra land effects as possible in order to get as many lands out as possible. If you run out of land drops or your hand size is low, cards like Crucible of Worlds and to an lesser extent Life from the Loam will help you play lands from the graveyard. Playing fetchlands from the graveyard will also help you refill your hand quickly while also thinning your deck of basic lands so you can improve your odds of drawing relevant spells. Summer Bloom, Lotus Cobra and Scapeshift can both lead to very explosive turns while Tatyova is out, with Scapeshift also serving as a land tutor.

Mana ramping is not the only thing you'll want to do in the mid game. You'll also want to set up your win conditions and protect yourself/disrupt opposing strategies while you do so. Planeswalkers Oko, Thief of Crowns and Narset, Parter of Veils both serve as ways to disrupt your opponents. Oko can remove problematic permanents, while Narset helps shut down opposing plays, especially when combined with Windfall. Glacial Chasm and Constant Mists help provide continuous protection against opposing attacks. Finally, Cyclonic Rift and Sunder both provide a hard reset of the board should you find yourself falling behind your opponents.

As far as counterspells are concerned, we may run a decent number of them, but we also have to be very discerning and selective about what we choose to counter. I personally save counters and only use them for opposing win conditions, hate cards that interfere with the gameplan, and removal spells that can hit Tatyova, including board wipes.

Endgame

There's a few routes to take in order to close the game out. The easiest route is to build up a token army with Field of the Dead or Scute Swarm before overrunning the table with a Craterhoof Behemoth. Some builds also use card:Aetherflux Resovoir to win.

There's a few routes you can take to win with Thassa's Oracle as well. 2 of them involve infinite draw combos to draw out your deck. The obvious one is Tatyova, Retreat to Coralhelm, a self-bouncing land like Simic Growth Chamber, and Sakura-Tribe Scout. Tap Scout to play the land and draw a card off Tatyova, use the Retreat to Coralhelm trigger to untap the Scout, bounce the land you played back to your hand, and repeat until your deck is in your hand. The benefit of winning in this way is that you're guaranteed to have counterspell backup when you play Oracle.

Changelog Show

9/5/2023: cEDH Pack

I'm currently in the middle of preparing my deck for a local cEDH tournament coming soon. I've come up with a "cEDH pack", which is just a few cards I'd swap in for this tournament, but I've realized some of these cards could be good permanent additions to the deck outside of a cEDH tournament. Before I get into those, I do want to address a change I made beforehand:

Chrome Mox for Homeward Path

This piece of fast mana actually has not been working out too well for me. Exiling a non-land card that is also the same color as the color of mana I need has proven to be a steep cost for me in the early game. Including the card also came at the cost of cutting a land, and the more games I played, the more I felt the loss of that land. I decided having a utility land that counters people attempting to steal my commander would be much better for the deck overall. Plus, I found a card that lets me get the same fast mana early game for a much lower deckbuilding cost, which brings me to...

Flooded Grove for Gemstone Caverns

The first card in my cEDH pack that I made into a permanent addition to the deck, it's enabled me to play my commander as early as turn 1 with a lucky enough hand. The cost to get it out early is much more manageable since I can exile any card I want and reap its benefits, and since it's a land that enters untapped, I don't feel like I lose anything in consistency if I draw it later in the game. I ended up cutting Flooded Grove for it because it's been by far the worst dual land in my deck. I don't benefit much from the color filtering since the deck is only 2 colors, and tapping it for mana has proven to be clunky at times.

Skyshroud Ranger for Mystic Remora

Ranger was in the deck as a second, but slightly worse copy of Sakura-Tribe Scout. I'm keeping the scout, but I think swapping out the ranger for a card that lets me draw a few cards for the same mana cost would help smooth out the gameplay a bit more, especially if I can play it early on while opponents are still playing ramp spells. It's also a blue card, which means I have more fodder for the Forces.

2/22/2023: Even More Tuning

I can't seem to stop making changes the more I play this deck. First, let's address the elephant in the room:

Rootpath Purifier for Splendid Reclamation

Rootpath Purifier seemed great at first, but actually playing the card showed me it doesn't actually do me a whole lot of good. It's incompatible with all of my fetchlands except Prismatic Vista, and I don't draw the cards that allow me to search for basic lands frequently enough to justify running this card. This seems like it would be more effective in a budget deck that does run more basic land search, but its current price tag isn't budget friendly.

Anyway, I replaced it for card:Splendid Reclaimation. Same mana cost, but the payoff when I actually play this card is huge since it has the potential to refill my hand with enough lands in the yard.

Dryad Arbor for Dreamroot Cascade

There are a few cool perks of running Arbor. You get an extra body for Gaea's Cradle, and you can search for it with Green Sun's Zenith on turn 1 to help ramp your board a bit. You can also tutor it out with a fetchland to get a surprise blocker if the situation really calls for it.

None of those benefits are worth the cons of this card being a creature. Since it's a creature, I can't use it for mana immediately because it has summoning sickness. This means I absolutely hate seeing this card in my hand. I always want it in the deck where it's a tutor target, and the frustration doubles if the card ends up in my opening hand. Honestly, I'm surprised it took me almost 5 years to realize I should cut this card, but I ended up swapping it out for a color fixing dual that looks pretty and comes in untapped most of the time, which should help out a bit with consistency.

Thespian's Stage for Otawara, Soaring City

This was a utility land I ran since I first created the deck in 2018, originally intended to be run alongside cards like Dark Depths. Since I cut Depths, however, I find myself not really using this card a whole lot. The only lands in the deck worth copying now are Field of the Dead, which is cool but feels very win more, and Glacial Chasm, which is cool for getting around the Cumulative Upkeep requirement, but also unnecessary since I could just simply replay it from the graveyard if I don't want to pay life to keep it out. I also don't really come across opponent's lands that are worth copying either.

Since I wasn't getting much utility out of the land, I started noticing that tapping this land for colorless was dragging the deck down. I decided to swap it out. It was tough to choose between Otawara and Homeward Path since they are both useful abilities, but I ended up going with Otawara since it can tap for blue mana in a pinch. I might still try and find a slot for Path in the future, though.

Avenger of Zendikar for Scute Swarm

Oh boy, this was a hard change to make. It was pretty easy to actually justify the swap, but the difficulty was giving up the nostalgia factor. Avenger is a commander classic and a really awesome card to play, but the 7CMC price tag on it was really starting to show the more I saw it in my opening hand. Power creep is real, since not only is Scute Swarm cheaper to play (seriously, swapping this card in brought down the average CMC by a tenth!), but it also has a much higher ceiling for how many tokens it can spit out, since it has exponential growth.

Life from the Loam for Jeweled Lotus

F it, I'm biting the bullet and putting this card in. Thankfully there's a reprint coming later this year too. I replaced Loam for the Jeweled Lotus because I barely play this card, and I have 3 better ways to recur land in the deck now.

1/6/2023: More competitive tuning

The jury is still out on Rootpath Purifier, but in the meantime, I made a couple of tweaks to the deck to improve its performance in more competitive tables after getting more high level games in.

Bane of Progress for Collector Ouphe

I was questioning Bane's inclusion for a while, but a recent game with a Breya, Etherium Shaper deck really sealed the deal on this change. I powered out a Bane on turn 4 after the Breya deck spammed out a ton of artifacts, and it didn't get a ton of value because the Breya player ended up sacrificing everything for a ton of value on his end, including an extra turn thanks to Time Sieve. I did eventually pull out the win, but I started realizing Ouphe would be a much better hate card to shut down artifact strategies in competitive tables, as Ouphe would also prevent players from getting ahead with fast mana and abusing treasure tokens. Plus, being at 2CMC sure really helps the deck's average.

Sunder for Fierce Guardianship

I've proxied Guardianship for now, as I think $60 for the card is a bit outrageous and it's also overdue for a reprint. I've been meaning to include the card for a while, as it's an excellent way to protect Tatyova and an additional free counter, but I wasn't sure what to cut. I ended up cutting Sunder for it as despite the powerful synergies it has with extra land effects and recurring Strip Mine, I feel like I've played too many games where I don't really want to play it, and it just sits dead in my hand.

I'm also currently trying to find a slot to put Pongify in, let me know if you have any suggestions on what to cut for that card.

11/28/2022: Brother's War additions

The headline here might be a bit misleading, as I'm only really adding one Brother's War card and making a couple of changes using older cards to support the new addition, one of which is a card I've previously cut from this list. But more on that later.

-1 Aetherflux Reservoir for Rootpath Purifier

Reservoir has been a fun win condition, but it's also been the least reliable one in my deck, and it always feels clunky to draw the card. I decided cutting it for a card that can potentially boost my deck consistency would help immensely. Let me just play Prismatic Vista and go grab my Gaea's Cradle real quick. Totally not broken.

-1 Cultivate for Harrow

That's right folks, Harrow is back in the deck! Sure, I might be giving up a bit in the early game by making this change and the next one, but I think the fast mana I'm adding to the deck will help compensate a bit. Playing this with Rootpath Purifier means I can search for whatever 2 lands I want and have them come in untapped. As a bonus, I can do this at instant speed.

-1 Kodama's Reach for Ghostly Flicker

Same deal as Harrow, I might be giving up some EV in the early game in exchange for more value later game. This card is frankly a bit underrated and I'm disappointed in myself for not clearing up space for it sooner (It was on my radar and in my maybeboard for YEARS). This card also enables another infinite combo with 2 islands, Tatyova, Ancient Tomb, and Mystic Sanctuary, drawing out my deck for a win with Thassa's Oracle. I've been able to get this combo off as early as turn 4 in testing which is a bit ridiculous.

-1 Tolaria West for Mox Diamond

Mox Diamond's inclusion is pretty obvious and goes without saying (I decided to say screw it and just proxy the card until I can actually afford a real one), but I decided to cut Tolaria West for it because I felt like that card wasn't really pulling its weight. It felt clunky when I had to play it tapped, and it felt clunky when I didn't have the double blue to pay for its transmute cost. and even when I did, paying 3 mana for it felt clunky too. It's essentially a land tutor I rarely get to actually use. I can easily see switching it to Mox Diamond smoothing it out a bit.

11/15/2022: Trying to up the power level

In the interest of making the deck a bit more competitive, I've made a few changes. I also wanted to prepare it for the upcoming Brother's War release, as there's a really good card in the set that I probably need to add in here.

-1 Abundance for Skyshroud Ranger

This was the first change I made with the deck since the last update. Some people might question this move, but I found myself just holding Abundance in my hand and never getting around to playing it too often. Even when I did play it, it ended up becoming an extra trigger that I found myself not really needing to keep up with, as I have enough draw power for the choice to not really matter in the end. I ended up swapping it for the Ranger because I'd rather have an extra land drop effect, and this also helped me offset my average CMC a bit for this next upgrade...

-1 Sensei's Divining Top for Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait

Top is a great card, and it made sense to include it initially due to the number of fetchlands I run, but it often feels a bit clunky with this particular deck. I don't really have any brilliant synergies to combine with this card here. Aesi is a staple of most Tatyova lists nowadays, which makes sense, as not only is he an extra land drop effect, he's a solid backup in case I lose access to my commander. Plus having both of them out is just straight up broken. The switch was definitely worth the significant increase in my average CMC.

-1 Thought Vessel for Chrome Mox

In the interest of boosting my deck for CEDH tables, fast mana like Chrome Mox ends up being really beneficial for powering out my commander early. If I had the spare funds right now, I'd also be cutting a land for Mox Diamond, but unfortunately I don't have a spare $500-600 right now (anyone wanna straight trade for Lion's Eye Diamonds though?) Jeweled Lotus is also on my radar as a potential include, but I'm TBD on running that card at the moment. I will miss having an extra no hand size limit effect in the deck, but fast mana is probably way better.

10/12/2022: More deck fine tuning

This round of improvements ended up being super beneficial. I made the executive decision to include one infinite combo so I can sit down with this deck at cEDH tables if need be, and I managed to lower the average CMC from 2.6 to 2.41, which is a considerable improvement. My impression from initial testing is that the deck feels considerably more streamlined, and I find myself having dead draws less often.

-1 Harrow for Windfall

The more I played with Harrow, the more I realized I never wanted to cast this spell in the early game. Sure, it ramps me by a mana, but the sacrifice requirement made me hesitant to play it before I played my commander. That made me realize it was effectively a 3 mana draw 2 spell when my commander was out. Windfall seemed like a good alternative that lets me draw more cards when I don't have my commander out. Plus, it brutally combos with Narset, Parter of Veils.

-1 Turnabout for Retreat to Coralhelm

Turnabout is a good card, just not the best one for this deck. I find that I have enough ways to protect myself from an opponent's attack with Glacial Chasm and Constant Mists (both of which are cheaper to play), and I don't find myself needing to untap my creatures as much. Retreat allows me to untap my own creatures plenty, plus being able to scry whenever I play a land is very beneficial for helping me to improve my draws. Most importantly, it helps reduce my overall average CMC.

Unfortunately, it enables an infinite combo in this deck ( Sakura-Tribe Scout + Retreat to Coralhelm + Tatyova, Benthic Druid + Oboro, Palace in the Clouds ), but I decided I need at least one infinite combo to help me close out a game that goes long, as well as a combo to help my ability to sit down at cEDH tables with this deck if I need to. Which brings me to:

-1 Psychosis Crawler for Thassa's Oracle

Oracle is a much cheaper win condition than Psychosis Crawler. It's harder to win with Oracle as I pretty much have to draw my whole deck before playing it, but this is how I win when I play the combo that allows me to draw my deck.

-1 Rampaging Baloths for Narset, Parter of Veils

Baloths seems like a redundant card now that I'm running Field of the Dead. I generally don't care about the tokens from field being weaker, since I usually combine the tokens with Craterhoof Behemoth to close out the game anyway. The biggest benefit is that Field of the Dead is free to play as opposed to Baloths costing 6(!!!) mana. I decided to replace it with Narset; a planeswalker that not only helps me draw extra cards when my commander isn't out, but also interferes with my opponent's card draw for half the mana cost.

-1 Dark Depths for Boseiju, Who Endures

The reason why Dark Depths is good in Legacy is because Marit Lage threatens to wipe out all 20 life points in a single attack. It doesn't pose the same kind of threat in commander, where everyone starts with double that amount. There's also way too many ways to remove Marit Lage in commander despite it being indestructible, and it's not a very good way to close out games. I decided to swap it out for a utility land that can both tap for green mana (Color fixing improves versatility!) and act as an almost impossible to counter artifact/enchantment/land removal spell.

-1 Krosan Grip for Force of Negation

With Boseiju, Who Endures acting as uncounterable removal for less mana, I realized Krosan Grip was redundant and decided to free up the slot for an extra free counterspell to help protect my commander. This puts my counter package at 7 cards, which is almost ideal for protection.

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Casual

94% Competitive

Revision 95 See all

(1 year ago)

-1

Mystic Remora

maybe

Top Ranked	Achieved #73 position overall 5 years ago Achieved #53 position in Commander / EDH 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Forest 1 year ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH GU (Simic) 5 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 months
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 48 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.38
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, City's Blessing, Copy Clone, Elk 3/3 G, Food, Insect 1/1 G, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Refrence, Decks I Like, TT Sim EDH, Tatyova, decks, ghhgygggujgyhjgyhjyu, Cool, tatyova, commander decks, EDH
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