Should Have Read the Fine Print

Commander / EDH Counters Flying Primer WB (Orzhov)

Verse2

Lands (35)

• 1x Blinkmoth Nexus
• 1x Brightclimb Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hall of Heliod's Generosity
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 7x Plains
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 7x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of Champions
• 1x War Room
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip
• 1x Sejiri Shelter  ^Flip
• 1x Agadeem's Awakening  ^Flip
• 1x Emeria's Call  ^Flip

Card Draw (5)

• 1x Keen Duelist
• 1x Secret Rendezvous
• 1x Alms Collector
• 1x Mindless Automaton
• 1x Mind's Eye

Boardwipe (3)

• 1x Damn
• 1x Tragic Arrogance
• 1x Austere Command

Finisher (3)

• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Akroma's Will
• 1x Debt to the Deathless

Evasive/Good Attackers (20)

• 1x Segovian Angel
• 1x Blot Out the Sky
• 1x Dauthi Voidwalker
• 1x Luminarch Ascension
• 1x Nether Traitor
• 1x Selfless Spirit
• 1x Shinewend
• 1x Dauthi Embrace
• 1x Duelist's Heritage
• 1x Gideon Blackblade
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Archangel of Tithes
• 1x Basri's Lieutenant
• 1x Benevolent Offering
• 1x Court of Grace
• 1x Felisa, Fang of Silverquill
• 1x Bladegriff Prototype
• 1x Inkshield
• 1x Shadrix Silverquill
• 1x Sun Titan

Protection (6)

• 1x Soul Snare
• 1x Seal of Cleansing
• 1x Cunning Rhetoric
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Windborn Muse

Tutor (4)

• 1x Scheming Symmetry
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer
• 1x Wishclaw Talisman
• 1x Grim Tutor

Other (2)

• 1x Mikaeus, the Lunarch
• 1x Felidar Retreat

Commander (1)

Ramp (8)

• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Dream Devourer
• 1x Knight of the White Orchid
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1x Grim Hireling
• 1x Smothering Tithe

Political Manipulation (7)

• 1x Bloodthirsty Blade
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Crown of Doom
• 1x Opposition Agent
• 1x Mangara, the Diplomat
• 1x Temporal Extortion
• 1x Custodi Lich

Single Target Removal (5)

• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Despark
• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Council's Judgment

Graveyard Hate (1)

• 1x Author of Shadows

---

Maybeboard

Evasive/Good Attackers (18)

• 1x Gingerbrute
• 1x Will-o'-the-Wisp
• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Dreadhorde Invasion
• 1x Strict Proctor
• 1x Abzan Falconer
• 1x Flesh Carver
• 1x Guardian of Faith
• 1x Hushwing Gryff
• 1x Kunoros, Hound of Athreos
• 1x Reidane, God of the Worthy  ^Flip
• 1x Soltari Visionary
• 1x Vow of Malice
• 1x Archangel of Thune
• 1x Westgate Regent
• 1x Necropolis Regent
• 1x Noosegraf Mob
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One

Boardwipe (1)

• 1x Toxic Deluge

Tutor (1)

• 1x Enlightened Tutor

Other (8)

• 1x Profane Tutor
• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x The Ozolith
• 1x Brought Back
• 1x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Vedalken Orrery
• 1x Polluted Bonds

Single (5)

• 1x Retribution of the Ancients
• 1x Fracture
• 1x Vanishing Verse
• 1x Oubliette
• 1x Martial Law

Card Draw (3)

• 1x Flumph
• 1x Ambition's Cost
• 1x Crystalline Crawler

Protection (3)

• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Together Forever
• 1x Unbreakable Formation

Lands (7)

• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Tyrite Sanctum
• 1x Witch's Cottage
• 1x Blackbloom Rogue  ^Flip
• 1x Hagra Mauling  ^Flip

Ramp (6)

• 1x Marble Diamond
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Fain, the Broker
• 1x Victory Chimes
• 1x Keeper of the Accord
• 1x Scholarship Sponsor

Political Manipulation (3)

• 1x Orzhov Advokist
• 1x Axis of Mortality
• 1x Revival / Revenge

Graveyard Hate (1)

• 1x Bojuka Bog

---

When Breena, the Demagogue takes center stage, words become your greatest weapon. Incentivize your opponents into attacking each other in exchange for cards, but with a catch: depending on their life total they can get either a single card per turn cycle if they don't have the lowest life or they can get TWO cards per cycle if they do have the lowest. And for each card they draw this way, you get two +1/+1 counters in return. This means that other players are, at least early in the game, going to want to have low life since everybody knows that "life is just a resource". And we are going to have the best chance at providing that advantage or forcefully take it away depending on the boardstate since 1. almost all of our creatures have amazing evasion and 2. we can control how big they become. And don't forget the all important fact that for the majority of the game we will be able to take full advantage of Breena, drawing two cards and getting two counters per cycle. This, in combination with a crapton of political cards, cunning contracts, and multiple other ways to mess with people makes this deck belong amongst the most scandalous of decks.

---

Category Overlap

Disclaimer: I do not use Tappedout for deckbuilding. I prefer Moxfield because there you can put cards into multiple categories which is impossible on this site. Here's the link: http://www.moxfield.com/decks/7dMnK99j-UWodW-8jaFnYA

Wincons

Disclaimer: This deck is NOT supposed to be a focused deck because decks that focus on politics for winning can't be focused by nature. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't have ways to win. There are two main wincons that get amplified the more opponents have damaged each other:

Huge Creatures that are Hard to Block

The deck boasts 22 great attackers (or ways to create them) that have either some form of evasion like flying or shadow or keywords like vigilance witch makes it easier to block incoming attacks later. We also got a couple of cards that can improve our other 10 utility creatures' attacking abilities, like Sword of Feast and Famine and Duelist's Heritage for example. Most of these creatures are really cheap and small, but don't underestimate how quickly they will grow with Breena's ability. Segovian Angel becomes a better Serra Angel with just two swings for example, and Shadrix Silverquill essentially transforms into a 8/9 with the same amount of swings taking his double strike into account.

Here's a list of some of my favorite attackers: * Gideon Blackblade is one of the first cards I got and I'm so glad that I finally found a home for this awesome planeswalker! Think about it this way: this is a flexible, indestructible attacker that we put counters on during our own turn while also providing very relevant abilities to our other creatures. Vigilance should be the default choice in my opinion since we need to defend him during our opponents' turns. But don't discredit lifelink or indestructible. Making things indestructible could be useful in conjunction with boardwipes and turning our attacks into lifegain is always good in the late game. The deck already has built in ways to defend him using pillowfort or just our creatures. And to top it all of is his built in removal that exiles a nonland permanent! Those are some of the charts syngergy levels.

• Dauthi Voidwalker. This card is insane. Firstly, he has shadow. No way that your going to be able to block him. Secondly, he's graveyard hate that let's us steal our opponent's stuff from exile FOR FREE. Now keep in mind that it might not be in your best interest to ressurecct something crazy like an Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger or something too early since this is a political deck. If you become too threatening in the starting stages you risk getting a stain on your political record that will not go away for the rest of the game. Don't forget, you won't get any counters if everyone gangs up on you. But in the late game, go wild. You could also theoretically use it as a politcal tool, ressurrecting the second best thing for a favour from the owner for example.
  
  

• Inkshield. Basically a wincon if a player's bold enough too swing at you with too much power, protection, pillowfort if you leave your mana open and people know that you have it in your deck and creates great attackers/blockers to boot.
  
  

• Luminarch Ascension works wonders if it's in your opening hand or if you have pillowfort/blockers. Don't play it otherwise. This is the opposite of pillowfort when it's not online.
  
  

• Nether Traitor is a recent reprint and an awesome one at that! haste, shadow, recursion ... what's not to love.

Exsanguinate and Debt to the Deathless

Exsanguinate and Debt to the Deathless. Not much to explain since they're so well known. Rreally good cards to close out the game in conjunction with our unblockable damage, especially if we have Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth on the field. (psst - we can search for them using Weathered Wayfarer).

Politics

Politics are fun and are the reason why I chose to make this deck in the first place. I love it for a couple of reasons: 1. I love to make open ended deals and going around the terms, 2. I play commander to socialize and this deck is perfect for making people talk (it's literally designed to not work unless you talk haha) and 3. I love giving others powerful effects that benefit me to other people, making them seem responsible when in reality it was our doing all along (looking at you Bladegriff Prototype).

Here I have listed most of the political cards included with explanations on how to use them in a game:

• Bloodthirsty Blade. Pretty simple, just forces your opponents to attack. But what I particularly like about it is that unlike the goading auras (for example Martial Impetus) it's super cheap to equip, it won't go away if equipped creature dies and is super flexible. You don't even need to attach it to anything, sometimes it's eniugh just showing our opponents that if they play their fragile utility creature we can just goad, block and kill it. Perfect for tapping down our opponents creatures too, and lessening their defenses.
  
  

• Dauthi Voidwalker (see Wincons Section).
  
  

• Temporal Extortion. Super fun card in this list! This is basically a "Who wants to have the lowest life total?" which, mind you, your opponents are probably going to want and if they don't you get an extra turn! Very entertaining to watch the decision making process ensue.
  
  

• Keen Duelist. I'm still debating whether or not this is good enough to warrant a slot since we are giving our opponents even more cards with this and damaging ourselves in the process. But we also get a card and also damage them. It's sort of like cheaper Phyrexian Arena on an attacker which is always relevant in this deck and it can be used to control lifetotals. Lot's of pros and cons obviously. Tbh I just kind of like the idea of having a wizards duel at the begging of all of my upkeeps haha.
  
  

• Opposition Agent and Aven Mindcensor were made for this deck! And yes we are even willing to play Scheming Symmetry and Wishclaw Talisman in concert with them. I know it might seem evil but your opponents can't complain! Your giving them a crapton of cards! Just don't let them overstate their welcome since they shuts down fetchlands which is just mean. You can for example make deal in this vein: "If I attack you with Opposition Agent and let her die, will you do X for me instead?"
  
  

• Crown of Doom is an amzing artifact. When you give it away you can't get it back, it gives your opponent's creatures a relavent buff and, best of all, shifts the blame to other players. Even if you were the one caused it in the first place >:)
  
  

• Seal of Cleansing and Soul Snare are sub-optimal removal spells that are actually sneaky good here because, like Bloodthirsty Blade, they can be used as threats. It makes your opponents think "It's probably not a good idea to play my Smothering Tithe now while he still has Seal of Cleansing." and also deter attackers by threatening them that you'll blow something valuable up if they do. Can be recurred with Hall of Heliod's Generosity which you can find with Weathered Wayfarer.
  
  

• Cunning Rhetoric. This choice is a bit conveluted, but bear with me. This is not a mediocre pillowfort card like it seems at first glance when used very specifically. This deck runs a lot of pillowfort cards, which means that if an opponent is going for the kill he's gotta commit with everything he's got. Thankfully we've thought ahead for the answer for that play which is NOT Cunning Rhetoric, but Teferi's Protection and Inkshield. What this card does is disencentivize the small attacks that would otherwise come our way here and there, even further than the deck already does. And if they do attack us we get to steal a card! Players hate that so it's very unlikely to happen, but still.
  
  

• Alms Collector is one of the "fine prints you forgot to read" of the deck! Hold up mana to fool your opponents, thinking that you got Inkshield and wait until they cast something like Blue Sun's Zenith. Draw a ton of cards, etc. And while it sits on the field, the only way for them to get extra cards is using Breena's ability. Works really well with Secret Rendezvous, you get 4 cards, they get 1.
  
  

• Benevolent Offering. Make a deal with your opponent and give them spirits in return or have them attack with the spirits in exchange for something. Politically manipulate life totals while also healing your self.
  
  

• The monarch cards Custodi Lich and Court of Grace. Why do we want the monarch in this deck? Isn't the whole purpose of it to disinsentivize attacks in your direction until it's too late? Yes that's true but this is an even further insentive for people to attack each other and when you really need that extra card you can usually just grab it for free with your evasiveness. Pillowfort also helps a lot here plus we usually have a ton of blockers anyways. Don't forget that Custodi Lich makes people seriously question whether getting the monarch from you is worth it or not.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	18 - 0 Mythic Rares 45 - 0 Rares 17 - 0 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.00
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, Angel Warrior 4/4 W, Cat Beast 2/2 W, Foretell, Inkling 2/1 WB, Knight 2/2 W w/ Vigilance, Spirit 1/1 W, The Monarch, Treasure