ren666: Yeah, but it didn't do much. When I combo off, I don't need the doubled damage (I usually hit people for 50+ damage without difficulty), and otherwise it just helps opponents kill me and my creatures.

Great deck and tons of fun to pilot! How do you feel about Dominaria? Room for Mox Amber or Jaya Ballard, you think?

Manicero: Heh. I'm tempted. Probably no Mox Amber, but Jaya Ballard seems right up our alley...

Have you tried Taurean Mauler in your build?

Also, in my deck I used Snow-Covered Mountains instead of ordinary Mountains, so that Extraplanar Lens isn't likely to benefit an opponent.

I dont really get the Fiery Gambit interaction. doesn't it kill zada, so it doesnt matter?

omg i just say the title... the red scare! Well played sir.

BabyDoc: I'll acknowledge that Snow covered mountains would probably be an improvement, but it's not a huge issue most of the time (my meta has very few basic Mountains running around). And I'm not sure how Taurean Mauler would be helpful here, to be honest.

xEleven: I'm afraid I don't completely understand what you mean. You can choose to keep flipping until you lose on Zada's copy, which prevents you from losing her even if you win enough flips (since, once you lose, NO effects happen). And thanks, I love the title of this one too XD

Daedalus19876 never mind. I understand now, but thanks!

Thanks for the Primer. I recently built a budget Zada deck with the constraint every card had to be readily available for under $1. My deck came in at $30 and I was unable to include things like Young Pyromancer, Sol Ring or Reliquary Tower to name a few staples.

At this point I don’t think the match I built this deck for is going to happen. I had the opportunity to run the budget deck Sunday past and now I am ready to start upgrading. One of the guys I played against gave me his brew for a Zada deck he had played. Now I am dealing with the common struggle of way too many cards I want play but I digress.

My question for you; with all the cantrips available to abuse with Zada how does a card like Cathartic Reunion fit in? I’m not a very experienced player and I often miss or don’t understand the value of certain cards which is why primers like this one are so helpful to me.

When you cut cards like Panic that interrupt your “storm” how many cantrips did you end up with? I am aware of ~9 that target a single creature and ~4 are janky. I am running ~8 with Rile not making the cut because I am afraid it will wipe out all my tokens. How did cutting back on Cantrip’s effect the deck?

Thanks for explaining Fiery Gambit. How did Tilonalli's Summoner work out for you? I have it in my main board and after reading your primer and looking at both of your Zada decks I’ve got quite a few things to make room for and I keep eyeing this one as a potential cut.

Thanks! +1

paytongamer: Hey, sorry it took me a while to get back to you! I've been super busy with my job :/

Cathartic Reunion is valuable because it's a card filtering effect that works without having Zada in play, and can find "proper" cantrips to target at Zada. Cards like Panic were just sorta...odd. They weren't working right when I was trying to storm off, so they got cut - the deck still works fine in my experience. I would agree that Rile probably doesn't make the cut here (much like older ones like Zap). Tilonalli's Summoner has been so-so at the moment. She's only good when I have the city's blessing, which isn't too hard to get, but...she's definitely not amazing, but there aren't enough red token makers as it is :(

I hope that answers your questions! :)

I know this is mostly a primer, but i wanted to ask some general gameplay tips. Like when do you usually play Zada? T4 or when you can get some draw out of her before someone removes her. Or when a Possibility Storm is out, how do you resolve that, if per say, you have casted Renegade Tactics, do you draw first from the copies, or do you wait to see what it storms into?

Recaso: I'm glad I can answer!

Honestly, the decision of when to cast Zada depends somewhat on the board state. There are definitely games where I'll cast her on T4, and hope she doesn't get removed, in hopes I can win on T5. Or sometimes I'll generate 20+ mana off of Mana Geyser or whatever, and cast her in the middle of storming off...it depends.

With regards to Possibility Storm, I'd generally storm it first then apply Zada's copy ability, in case I flip into a spell like Hordeling Outburst that gives me more creatures :)

Thank you so much for putting this deck together. I've been wanting to make a Zada deck for some time now and finally did utilizing yours as a foundation. Obviously all play groups will be a little different and as such decks will need to be modified to meet the differing demands. Never the less, I was hoping to get your input on a few different cards.

First Bonus Round from Battlebond and copy spells in general. Works great with many cards in the deck, especially rituals.

Second Apex of Power from M19. It does come with a steep mana cost but has a strong effect when you do cast it. More than once I have found myself "storming" off, but only with producing mana while not managing to get cards. It's not terribly often, but does. This could really help in those situations.

Last is Mana Echoes when combined with a fire ball effect. Producing 20+ goblin tokens in a round is not a hard task. I've been using mana echoes with a fireball as an alternate win. Vomit out 20 goblins and your looking at 400 mana. All you need is a single red and people will burn.

Hope to hear your input on these cards.

Squicken: I'm glad the deck inspired you!!

Hmmm. I could definitely see what you're saying re: Bonus Round and rituals, but... I feel it's too conditional. Many times the mana spent on Bonus Round itself is barely recouped by the copied ritual, and copy effects don't stack with Zada's chained draw spells.

I used to run Mana Echoes, but the limiting factor is generally red mana in this deck, and the Fireball spells are pretty much useless without the Mana Echoes... It just never did what I wanted :(

And finally Apex of Power doesn't seem like my cup of tea here. It's already very hard to get to 10 mana in mono-red, and if I do so, generally a draw spell does just as much (or more) than Apex of Power does? It's just a dead card most of the time unless I'd already win.

Thanks for the comment! :)

Have you tried aggravated assault neheb combo here?

ren666: I considered it, but Aggravated Assault doesn't work with many other cards in the deck, so it wasn't worth including JUST for that combo.

Just out of curiosity for your opinion, as I will soon be using your list to fix my own abomination, was Primal Amulet  ^Flip not considered or did it simply not make the cut? Thanks for your time!

OddChild: The issue is that copied spells don't get spread by Zada (because they're not cast), so it doesn't do that much for the deck.

What's your plan with Reality Scramble ? Wouldn't it require tucking Zada?

BX223Hunter: I mean, she COULD go to command zone. But the critical thing is that if you Reality Scramble enough things (ie a number sufficient to grab all creatures from the deck), you'll have all of the creatures in your deck on the battlefield. Dualcaster Mage infinitely loops itself into the deck (copying Reality Scramble each time targeting itself), and your opponent gets killed by Purphoros, God of the Forge .

Hi, What about Kher Keep in the mana base ?

Also, i'm running a cheap version of this deck (around 50 dollars) but including more mana dorks (ie Iron Myr Plague Myr Hedron Crawler , Manakin ) what do you think about thoose dorks ? cheap acceleration that synergise with zada, putting more creatures on the board

Also playing impact tremors as a finisher, generating a ton of token, did you tested it too ? Thanks for updates !

What do you think about extra turn cards like Final Fortune , Last Chance , and Warrior's Oath ?

Gravitic Punch is amazing here, especially with the ability to recast it.

Phillygreenman007: Unfortunately, it does not work with Zada, since the spell has two targets :(

Purstman: I ran it for a while, and honestly just... wasn't super impressed? It was slow, I never used its ability, and it occasionally screwed me by not giving me the colored mana I needed.

Beasty_beanz: I probably could run those, but they detract from the combo density in the deck, and slots are tight :/