Opus Thief

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Infinite Combo UBR (Grixis)

ShaperSavant

Land (29)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Badlands
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Tarnished Citadel
• 1x Tundra
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Creature (7)

• 1x Alms Collector
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Drannith Magistrate
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Thassa's Oracle

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Underworld Breach

Instant (25)

• 1x Ad Nauseam
• 1x Brain Freeze
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Delay
• 1x Demonic Consultation
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Force of Negation
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Intuition
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Miscast
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Silence
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Tainted Pact
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Sorcery (14)

• 1x Burning Inquiry
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Sevinne's Reclamation
• 1x Timetwister
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Whispering Madness
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Winds of Change
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Commanders (2)

Artifact (16)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Cursed Totem
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Lion's Eye Diamond
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Progress

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils

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Maybeboard

Instant (8)

• 1x Angel's Grace
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Drown in the Loch
• 1x Snap
• 1x Spell Pierce
• 1x Wear / Tear
• 1x Winds of Rebuke

Artifact (2)

• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Uba Mask

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Dark Deal
• 1x Deafening Clarion
• 1x Massacre
• 1x Mnemonic Betrayal
• 1x Pyroclasm
• 1x Rite of Flame
• 1x Sevinne's Reclamation
• 1x Whipflare

Land (1)

• 1x Fiery Islet

Creature (4)

• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Containment Priest
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Simian Spirit Guide

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Rest in Peace
• 1x Suppression Field
• 1x Waste Not

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Opus Thief is a stormy deck focused around assembling combos between Wheel of Fortune effects and cards that abuse payoffs from your opponents drawing/discarding cards, such as Notion Thief, Smothering Tithe, Alms Collector.

Both halves of our combo are very powerful pieces in their own right -- wheels gives us fuel, even out staggered card advantage across the pod, and disrupt early mulligans. Our payout spells disrupt combos, steal or piggyback draw spells, and yield mana. We also use our A + B pieces to assemble the actual win. Combining these two strengths, our deck ends up being extremely slot efficient.

Being a nearly creatureless strategy enables us to play strong creature hate such as Cursed Totem, Suppression Field, and boardwipes to whatever density feels optimal. Grave hate only effects our Yawgmoth's Will, and can be removed later after we storm out; cards like Rest in Peace and Grafdigger's Cage can fit into the build just fine. Customize this aspect to your metagame.

Kraum is a powerful card advantage engine on his own, and synergizes with wheels distributing cards to our opponents. He grinds out of stalled games surprisingly quickly. Tymna offers some card advantage from swinging herself and drawing from Kraum or our other utility creatures.

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Game Plans

In rough order of ease of assembly, these tend to be your main plans in a given game.

• Casting Ad Nauseam.

• Assembling a wheel + payoff.

• Casting a Necropotence and sculpting into another combo.

• Chaining wheels into a Yawgmoth's Will or Mnemonic Betrayal, which is usually lethal.

• Controlling the game with our counterspells and stax and leaning on our command zone card advantage until another combo can be assembled.

• Assembling the Thassa's Oracle + Tainted Pact.

Combos

Assemble a wheel combo: one wheel and at least 1 payoff:

Wheels:

• Wheel of Fortune

• Timetwister

• Whispering Madness

• Windfall

• Winds of Change

• Dark Deal can replace Timetwister in budget versions.

Payoffs:

• Notion Thief

• Alms Collector

• Smothering Tithe

• Waste Not

Other combos:

• Laboratory Maniac + Demonic Consultation + Brainstorm

• Laboratory Maniac + Tainted Pact + Brainstorm

Win Conditions

Once you've successfully stripped hands or stormed off by drawing far too many cards, look to assemble a winning line through Laboratory Maniac or by setting up a lethal Windfall or Whispering Madness.

Laboratory Maniac can win with either Tainted Pact, Demonic Consultation, or casting 2-3 subsequent wheels into a Notion Thief with the latter being a Windfall or Whispering Madness.

Angel's Grace can open up a path to drawing your opponents out with Windfall. Use Grace+Naus or Notion Thief with Wheel of Fortune to get a draw 28, cast Windfall to draw the rest of your cards in library, Silence, then remove Thief, cast Grace, cast Whispering Madness twice with Yawgmoth's Will.

Ad Nauseam + Angel's Grace can draw a large chunk of deck such that a double Windfall will be lethal.

Mnemonic Betrayal in combination with Whispering Madness discards can allow you to win with your opponents' cards.

If all else fails, Waste Not + Windfall can make a zombie hoarde that can win over a pass while your opponents have no hands courtesy of Notion Thief.

Tips

• If you can cast a turn 1 Wheel effect it's usually correct to do so. This leaves you with some amount of fast mana on board and disrupts the gameplans the other decks searched for with their mulligans.

• A turn 1 Winds of Change is often not worth it unless you have other fast mana or are able to put down some form of card advatage as well. It leaves you at card disadvantage.

• Mid-game wheels are very dangerous without a payoff. Be careful of refueling your opponents once they have substantial mana on board.

• Keep track of the scary things entering your opponents' graveyards!

• If you're holding up Notion Thief or Alms Collector, attempt to use it to steal/deny 2+ draws. Stealing a single non-critical draw or allowing the opponent to opt out of a "may" draw might mean it's better to save it. Play to board context.

• It's important to keep track of the number of cards everyone has in hand; this lets you choose when to grind, when to reset card advantage, and the likelihood of being interacted with.

• If you use Yawgmoth's Will early on your combo turn, make sure you can still win with your Wheel/Grace lines with what you exile if possible. Timetwister has good interactions around Will at those points in the game.

• Take care to play around Necropotence's discard exile clause. Be sure you're willing to let your important pieces like Grace or LabMan go to exile. Don't forget you can cast instants on your endstep before discarding (which e.g. lets Grace go to the graveyard instead).

Top Ranked	Achieved #4 position overall 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Competitive 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Infinite Combo 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH UBR (Grixis) 5 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	4 years
Exclude colors	G
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 0 Mythic Rares 58 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.94
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Spirit 1/1 C, Treasure
Folders	cEDH, cEDH Primer decks, Competitive Builds, Primers, Pilot, Too funny to not play, Competitive decks, Combo Decks, edh, X Inspiration