Saffi Loops The Competition! [[Primer]]

Commander / EDH Competitive GW (Selesnya) Hatebears

LordCaptain

Creature (43)

• 1x Academy Rector
• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Boonweaver Giant
• 1x Boreal Druid
• 1x Caustic Caterpillar
• 1x Collector Ouphe
• 1x Destiny Spinner
• 1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Elvish Visionary
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Fiend Hunter
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Heliod, Sun-Crowned
• 1x Heliod's Pilgrim
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Kataki, War's Wage
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Mentor of the Meek
• 1x Priest of Titania
• 1x Quirion Ranger
• 1x Ranger of Eos
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Renegade Rallier
• 1x Runic Armasaur
• 1x Sanctum Prelate
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Starved Rusalka
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 1x Thraben Inspector
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Wirewood Symbiote
• 1x Yisan, the Wanderer Bard

Land (30)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bountiful Promenade
• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x Castle Garenbrig
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 7x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Gavony Township
• 1x High Market
• 1x Horizon Canopy
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 4x Plains
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Instant (7)

• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Commander (1)

Enchantment (10)

• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Earthcraft
• 1x Evolutionary Leap
• 1x Greater Good
• 1x Pattern of Rebirth
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Utopia Sprawl
• 1x Wild Growth

Artifact (6)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mox Amber
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Skullclamp

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith

---

Maybeboard

Creature (1)

• 1x Reveillark

Artifact (1)

• 1x Sensei's Divining Top

---

This is currently being Updated because Recent sets have brought many cards that change the main combo lines and many of the card choices

Introduction

From the crease of light behind her, a voice rang hollow: “Saffi, Wait for me”

And so she waited and waited. She waited in the hermit druid lists of old with Crypt Champion and she waited in Hulkweaver with Zulaport Cutthroat. Saffi’s tired of being a follower, She’s tired of waiting, and she’s here to lead.

The Big Idea

”Your Superstitions and Rumblings are chaff before my Righteousness”

Saffi has always been a powerful card. She’s been played across the CEDH scape but there have always been doubt about her competitive viability as a commander.

She definitely has her shortcomings, such as being a creature that begs to be comboed with but lacks the Black tutors, or being a little soft to many forms of graveyard hate, but in the right meta Saffi can thrive and really show herself to be something special

So why play Saffi over something like a Captain Sisay or a completely different G/W deck such as Selvala, Explorer Returned?

1. It does not aim to be a fast, explosive combo deck, instead it seeks to build a board and combo out when the coast is clear

2. The deck can grind super hard due to the commander being both a combo piece and Protection for relevant creatures.

3. You’re less reliant on your commander as she is only ever in play to die.

Overall Gameplan

What does this deck actually want to do?

The answer to that question is twofold

• Use your tutors to find ways to slow down the other decks at the table and set up engines

• Assemble a combo and win the game

So how do we do that?

Well it all starts with the mulligan.

A great opening hand should consist of:

2 lands 1-2 dorks 1-2 Value/Tax Creatures 1 tutor 1 sac outlet

This kind of hand sets you up very nicely for whatever comes your way. This allows you to play a Saffi on turn 2 which can protect your board for the rest of the game, as well as preparing yourself to deal with the other decks at the table or even win depending on the outlet.

The strength of this deck comes from its resiliency to removal. Once it’s on the board and it’s very hard to get it off the board. This is largely due to the strong one card engines we can tutor for that are in the deck.

So what should we tutor for?

Some of our best early tutors are deck dependent and will be covered in the matchups section. These are some good catch all’s in the event you don’t know what you’re against.

Eidolon of Rhetoric

This card is a real nice play early, as a lot of your turns are fine with only a single spell cast. This becomes even more evident when you have a Yisan on the board. Speaking of which...

Yisan, the Wanderer Bard

Yisan does everything in this deck. He lets you set up value engines, find combo pieces, and even finds hate.

Fauna Shaman

Similar to Yisan in function here. She’s just a more easily tutorable Survival of the Fittest

Ranger of Eos

Ranger finds your dorks and things like Caustic Caterpillar and Starved Rusalka which help to set up engines and disrupt opponents. He also opens the door to further value by blocking things like Tymna the Weaver and coming back per Saffi.

Heliod's Pilgrim

You really only need to find the pilgrim if you haven’t already drawn either Boonweaver Giant or Pattern of Rebirth. Its only use is to find Pattern. However landing a Pattern will oftentimes win you the game regardless.

Runic Armasaur

This thing generates so much card advantage it’s unreal. That’s especially important in a deck like this where you’re looking to set up an engine and win via combo.

If you didn’t notice a lot of these have something in common, they create advantage and catapult us towards our actual win condition. This bringing us to the loops part of the deck.

Win Conditions and Combo Lines

”Just follow your nose for the fruity taste that shows”

The deck may be able to build a strong board presence but none of that matters if you can’t kill your opponents.

This is what the sac outlets are for. It’s not just a value outlet, it’s also a part of our win condition. Of course, how you win will be dependent on your outlet. Now let’s get into it.

Basic Saffi Combo

Saffi’s ability opens her up to a ton of combo opportunities, and in this deck understanding the fundamentals of how this deck combos is massively important. This is just a breakdown of how the basic combo works so that you can better understand the rest of the combos underneath this.

To execute a Saffi loop you will need the following cards: Your general. Saffi Eriksdotter

An unlucky Victim. Renegade Rallier/Sun Titan/Karmic Guide

A repeatable sacrifice outlet. Altar of Dementia/Ashnod's Altar/Greater Good.

1. Have Saffi, a Victim, and a sac outlet in play.
2. Use saffi’s ability targeting your victim
3. Sacrifice your victim to a sac outlet.
4. Return your victim to the battlefield
5. Return Saffi to the battlefield with the victims ETB

You now have a loop! Once you know how to do this there are a ton of decks you can just beat by having your sac outlet be Altar of Dementia. But what about those situations where that Altar just isn’t enough?

Earthcraft Line

This combo is the bread and butter. it’s what you’re looking to set up through a variety of means. Sometimes you can sub out an earthcraft for something like an Ashnod's Altar to similar effect. Anyway, here’s the combo

You’ll need: Earthcraft

Saffi

Rallier/Sun Titan/Karmic Guide

Mortarpod

1 Basic land

1. Have Earthcraft, Saffi, and Rallier in play
2. Play Mortarpod
3. Tap both Saffi and Rallier to generate 2 mana with Earthcraft
4. Equip Mortarpod to Rallier
5. Sacrifice Saffi per her ability targeting Rallier
6. Sacrifice Rallier to Mortarpod’s Ability and deal 1 damage to one of your opponents. Rallier returns to the battlefield per saffi’s ability and reccurs saffi.
7. Repeat steps 3-6 until all of your opponents have died a death by a thousand cuts.

The Ulamog Line

This is by far the oddest line in the deck but is the easiest to set up due to the sacrifice outlet being tutorable off of an Academy Rector.

What you’ll need: Saffi

Renegade Rallier/Sun Titan

Greater Good (GG)

At least 1 basic land

4 cards in hand

1. Saffi, GG, Rallier
2. Sacrifice Saffi per her ability targeting Rallier.
3. Sacrifice Rallier to GG to draw and Pitch.
4. Rallier Returns per Saffi’s ability and Reccurs Saffi Per his own ability

Steps 2-4 are the core of the combo. Steps 5-9 can be ignored if you have two mana available or an Earthcraft already in play.

1. Draw and pitch until you have Lotus Petal in hand
2. Play Petal, sacrifice it for green. You now have 3 cards in hand
3. Draw and pitch till you have Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre in hand.
4. Pitch ulamog to reshuffle the petal into your deck
5. Repeat steps 5-8 until you have 2 floating mana
6. Draw and Pitch until you have an Earthcraft in your hand. Play earthcraft. You now have 1 card in your hand Now, every time you loop Saffi/Rallier You net 2 mana.
7. Draw and pitch until you hit Ulamog. Cast ulamog. Destroy whatever the most threatening permanent is. If there is a Null Rod or a Stony Silence in play hit that first. You now have 0 cards in hand
8. Sacrifice Ulamog to GG. You now have 7 cards in hand. Repeat 11-12 until all Null Rod and Stony Silence affects are off the board. From this point on your hand is less relevant. If you start to become worried about hand size you can weave in Karmic Guide to lower your hand size.

From here you can just set up the Earthcraft Loop from before.

Pattern of Rebirth Line

Pattern lines are used as a means of assembling other combos. However, its strange enough that I believe it deserved its own section. I’m going to use a set up for it that doesn’t use any cards that cant be tutored for via creature tutors, so no altars or GG already in play. So where do we begin.

What You’ll Need Saffi Starved Rusalka A disposable creature Pattern of Rebirth Three Green Mana

1. Have all of the aforementioned things in play with Pattern on the disposable creature
2. Pay G to Rusalka to sacrifice your disposable lad with Pattern on it to search for Boonweaver Giant
3. When Boonweaver ETBs it will pull Pattern from the graveyard
4. Sacrifice Saffi Targeting Boonweaver
5. Sacrifice Boonweaver to Rusalka by paying G to find Academy Rector
6. Return Boonweaver to the battlefield per Saffi’s Ability
7. Sacrifice Rector to Rusalka, paying your final G. Go and find Greater Good.
8. Sacrifice Weaver to Greater Good. Go and find either Sun Titan or Renegade Rallier.
9. Reccur Saffi with Titan or Rallier.
10. Proceed to execute the Ulamog Line

Backup Line

Oh no! Saffi was so tired of waiting that she’s gone missing and we can’t find her!

Whatever shall we do?

Well luckily enough we have a nice backup line that is pretty similar to the Saffi lines mentioned above.

Fiend Hunter Loops

That’s right, good old Fiend Hunter has stepped up and has stopped hunting fiends to help you win the game.

This loop is very similar to the basic Saffi loop. To execute it you will need:

Fiend Hunter

Sun Titan/Karmic Guide

Ashnod's Altar/Altar of Dementia

1. Have Sun Titan and a sac outlet in play.
2. Play Fiend Hunter and exile Sun Titan underneath it.
3. Sacrifice Fiend Hunter to your outlet and return Sun Titan to the battlefield
4. Return Fiend Hunter to the battlefield with Sun Titan’s ability.

Bam. It’s almost as good as the Saffi loop. You can do most of the aforementioned combos with this loop. However it does not work with with the Greater Good Line because you don’t say card neutral in hand.

Loose Ends

This section is for talking about combos I didn’t include in the combo writeup either because they don’t win on their own or because they’re meant to set up a combo out of the combo.

Ashnod’s Altar Loops

Ashnod's Altar night possibly be one of the best cards in this deck. However, as a combo piece it’s used in a largely similar way to Earthcraft. The main difference is that this is also a sac outlet. Just sub this out above whenever you see Earthcraft being used and it ends up being a similar result.

Evolutionary Leap/Skullclamp

These two cards are interesting. They’re both incredibly good at what they do, but neither of them win the game. Because of this they’re both used in place of Mortarpod in Mortarpod combos to find Mortarpod.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 43 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.27
Tokens	Clue
Folders	CEDH Options, Cool decks, Decks to build, Decks to look at, Take Note, CEDH, Stuff for reference, Favorites