Instant (31)
- 1x Arcane Denial
- 1x Brainstorm
- 1x Chain of Vapor
- 1x Chaos Warp
- 1x Counterspell
- 1x Cryptic Command *list*
- 1x Cyclonic Rift
- 1x Delay
- 1x Dig Through Time
- 1x Dispel
- 1x Expansion / Explosion
- 1x Flash of Insight
-
1x
Flusterstorm
- 1x Force of Negation
- 1x Force of Will
- 1x Frantic Search
-
1x
Hieroglyphic Illumination
- 1x Impulse
- 1x Izzet Charm
- 1x Logic Knot
- 1x Long-Term Plans
- 1x Mana Drain
- 1x Memory Lapse
- 1x Narset's Reversal
- 1x Negate
- 1x Opt
- 1x Pact of Negation
- 1x Pyroblast
- 1x Red Elemental Blast
- 1x Remand
- 1x Swan Song
Land (37)
- 1x Arid Mesa
- 1x Bloodstained Mire
- 1x Cascade Bluffs
- 1x Command Tower
- 1x Flooded Strand
- 16x Island
- 1x Misty Rainforest
- 8x Mountain
- 1x Polluted Delta
- 1x Scalding Tarn
- 1x Shivan Reef
-
1x
Steam Vents
- 1x Sulfur Falls
- 1x Volcanic Island
- 1x Wooded Foothills
Creature (8)
- 1x Deceiver Exarch
- 1x Imperial Recruiter
- 1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy Flip
- 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
- 1x Magus of the Moon
- 1x Pestermite
- 1x Snapcaster Mage
- 1x Torrential Gearhulk
Enchantment (3)
Planeswalker (2)
Commander (1)
Sorcery (11)
- 1x Ancestral Vision
- 1x Faithless Looting
- 1x Gitaxian Probe
- 1x Ponder
- 1x Preordain
-
1x
Rolling Earthquake
- 1x Ruination
- 1x Serum Visions
- 1x Shimmer of Possibility
- 1x Sleight of Hand
- 1x Vandalblast
Artifact (6)
Sideboard
Instant (8)
Land (1)
Maybeboard
Instant (1)
Description updated May, 2017
Introduction
Pure draw-go control with a combo finish, this deck is designed for multiplayer games of EDH and uses the typical banlist of the format.
In this simple primer, I will explain the gameplan of the deck and its history. I will give you tips on how to play it and maybe help you think about some cards in ways you never have before.
Thanks for reading my primer, let me know what you think about the deck in the comments below and if you enjoy it please Upvote!
I originally began developing this deck in spring 2013, a few months after getting back into Magic. Since then it has been through many permutations. As I've become a better deckbuilder over the last few years, this deck has improved too.
At first the thought of using Nin to kill one of my opponent's creatures after using one of many Threaten -effects was tantalizing. Getting all that sweet value for almost no cost, killing their guy and drawing 6 seemed like the best thing I could do—but I was wrong. This version of the deck didn't win very often, in fact it flew under the radar in most games. My opponents largely ignored it, and rightfully so; I had no ways to win outside of a well-timed Insurrection , so I searched for something better.
Before the prinitng of Nekusar, the Mindrazer , Nin was probably the best commander to turn drawing cards into pain for your opponents. Cards like Stuffy Doll and Psychosis Crawler are obviously synergistic, not to mention cards like Wheel of Fortune and Tolarian Winds . For a few months in 2014 I persued this route to victory, hoping to find a consistent way to win in the late game. Unfortunately, I found this version of the deck to be very slow, and without access to black spells it missed some of the best payoffs for the strategy. Once the Commander 2014 decks released I decided to stick it out with Nin and try to find another way to win.
By mid 2015, I was fully into Modern. I remember the feeling of sitting across the table from Splinter Twin players, let me tell you it wasn't great. Draw-go control that plays a great tempo game and wins on the oppoent's endstep, truly a thing of beauty. I decided that this would be the way that Nin would win.
Armed with a strong game plan, I have spent the last two years making the deck more efficient. I removed most of the creatures in favour of cantrips. Fetchlands rounded out the manabase and an emphasis on basic lands meant adding Ruination , Blood Moon , and Back to Basics . Counterspells were originally not a primary feature of the deck but are now essential and anything that moves at socery speed has to be very cheap or very impactful to justify its inclusion.
Today, I feel that this deck is extremely competitive. Sometimes I enjoy playing lists that aren't as efficiently tuned as this one, but when it comes to winning games this deck gives me a very good shot.
I suppose this section could be more accurately titled “Why not infinite mana artifacts combo?” which seems to be the most popular version of competitive Nin decks.
When people look at Nin, the Pain Artist they can see different things.
Nin is a Stroke of Genius .
...that's really good.
If she falls behind, Nin can just draw a new hand. If the deck gets ahead, drawing more cards will usually seal the deal. Nin also helps find the combo. At least one of these situation will occur in every EDH game, so Nin is always useful.
In case you haven't yet realized, Nin will target herself 90% of the time to let you draw cards. It's not fancy, but it works.
Nin's versatility explains why she is the commander for many different UR strategies, she adds consistency to any EDH archetype, but Nin also helps this deck's gameplan. Nin digs when neccessary, she catches you up from behind, and she can put you way ahead.
There isn't another Izzet commander who can fill all (or any) of these roles as well as Nin.
Okay, in this section I'm going to try to explain the the value of counterspells and give you some tips on how to play them properly. Forgive me if you've heard some of this before, I'm definitely not the first person to think this up. If you're looking for more detail, I definitely recommend checking out Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa's article on CFB called Playing With Counterspells.(https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/countering-spells/).
Counterspells are inherently powerful cards. They can deal with almost any threat, but the window use them is narrow. Whenever your opponents cast a spell you must consider, “Will this be the card that beats me?” You only have a moment to process how their spell will impact the game, and whether potential future spells would be more damaging. If you guess wrong, you lose, so playing with counterspells can be challenging and punish newer players in particular.
One major concept to understanding the importance of counterspells is realizing that their value increases the longer you hold them. It might seem a little silly to imagine a card sitting in your hand becoming more valuable as the game goes on, but it's true. The reasons for this are manifold, but the biggest value comes from the option to say “no” when it most matters. For a format defined by big mana and game-ending spells, tempting through it may be to
Negate
a
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
, when the next player resolves
Tooth and Nail
for their combo you realize your msitake. Holding onto powerful counterspells keeps you relatively insultated against big plays, and that's true in EDH as it is for other formats as well.
On the otherhand, holding a grip of counterspells and letting our opponent resolve their spells isn't a very good strategy. Counterspells may become more valuable as the game progresses, but holding them up will virtually cost you mana every turn that you don't use them, the costs keep adding up, so there's pressure to cast your counterspells as well. Fortunately, this deck is built to mitigate this drawback.
Thanks to instant speed draw spells, counterspells [i]don't[/i] cost many to hold them up. This applies to cycling as well
I tried and removed the Dualcaster Mage combo, which looks to combine with Twinflame , Heat Shimmer , or Cackling Counterpart . It's a worse version of the main combo, much worse.
Strategy
This is a combo/control deck. It doesn't make a lot of friends by attacking with 10,000 2/1 flying faeries right after destroying every nonbasic land, but that's the point.
Unfortunately, this deck is actually a little weak if multiple people decide it's the biggest threat at the table. So, Nin likes to play it cool. Early on, I won't counter some fair spell like a Sword of Fire and Ice and get someone mad at me. As the game progresses, it's crucial to be constantly evaluating the cards in your hand against the cards on the other side of the board.
Don't be afraid to use Nin! This deck has plenty of answers and various ways to hold off attacks. Drawing just an extra four cards might not seem worth it, but it can be the difference between winning and losing.
The lands consist mostly of basic lands and ways to find them. This is an advantage, making Back to Basics and Ruination into one-sided affairs. Blood Moon can stop some decks entirely, and though Magus of the Moon is just a speedbump in this format, he helps too. This type of attack can absolutely demolish some decks, and keep others busy while Nin finds the combo.
Yeah, Splinter Twin or Kiki-Jiki, the Mirror Breaker, and Deceiver Exarch , Pestermite , or Zealous Conscripts combine and give us infinite haste creatures. I'm not going to go into all the specifics about these spells, but yeah, it's Splinter Twin. In EDH.
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| Date added | 11 years |
| Last updated | 5 years |
| Legality | This deck is not Commander / EDH legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 11 - 0 Mythic Rares 33 - 5 Rares 12 - 3 Uncommons 19 - 3 Commons |
| Cards | 99 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.23 |
| Tokens | Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Emblem Dack Fayden, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Energy Reserve |
| Folders | EDH, EDH, EDH, Fun EDH Decks, NINspiration |
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