This is my personal brew for a competitive Tatyova, Benthic Druid Land Stax deck, I would place it at about tier 2 and believe that it's the ceiling for this commander. It runs cards such as Overburden, Storm Cauldron, and Mana Breach as stax pieces while it has cards which allow multiple land drops a turn break the parity. Ultimately it draws a bunch of cards with the commander and then wins through an infinite mana combo (High Tide + Palinchron
or Deadeye Navigator) or storming off with Aetherflux Reservoir.
I brewed this deck in a control/stax heavy meta where it performs well, but in a meta with a lot of fast combos it would fall short and need a much heavier stax subtheme (Winter Orb, Thorn of Amethyst, etc.).
Also in a faster meta I would snap switch Burgeoning for Exploration
Early Game
In the early game you will generally be looking for a hand with ramp such as Sol Ring or Azusa, Lost but Seeking and similar cards in order to slam Tatyova, Benthic Druid as early as possible. It is usually good to have protection for her when you cast her due to how heavily the deck relies on her effects, so cards like Lightning Greaves or Yavimaya Hollow are great to have.
Depending on the decks you are facing Null Rod or Overburden can be near instant scoops for them if you land them by turn 2.
Mid Game
The mid game generally starts around turn 3-5 usually when Tatyova, Benthic Druid or Horn of Greed are on the field along with land drop enablers through Oracle of Mul Daya, Wayward Swordtooth and the like.
This is when you want to drop cards such as Mana Breach and Storm Cauldron to punish your opponents for playing magic. You can also attempt to get a Crucible of Worlds + Strip Mine
lock going if you have a good board state.
You will often become the Archenemy at this point in the game, but it doesn't matter because you should be able to accrue enough resources to move into the late game by the time your stax pieces are removed.
Late Game
You're in the late game, this should be around turn 6-10. You're making multiple land drops and drawing upwards of 8 cards a turn. It's time to end your opponents misery of just watching you draw cards. You want to move into one of the three main game winning combos here: infinite mana combos Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron
, lab man combos Laboratory Maniac, or storm off Aetherflux Reservoir.
If your stax pieces managed to survive the mid game, you will want to bounce them back to your hand at the opponents endstep using cards like Chain of Vapor or Hurkyl's Recall.
With the infinite mana you will usually Capsize your opponents boards or draw your deck into a lab man.
The lab man combo involves either naturally drawing your deck through the commander and Horn of Greed or through Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter
and card:Sensei's Diving Top.
Finally storming off can happen once card:Aetherflux Reservoir has resolved. From here you can either manually storm off or you can use infinite mana into multiple Capsize casts or Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter
and shoot your opponents for 50.
Combos (List and Explanation)
Now that the basic game plan has been explained, I will go into detail about the combos in the deck:
-
Dark Depths + Thespian's Stage
- This combo is established by having both lands on the battlefield and paying to make Thespian's Stage a copy of Dark Depths. Since your new copy does not have any ice counters on it, you will be able to sac it and get a 20/20 flying indestructible token of Marit Lage.
This is a great clock to get down early game and the pieces can be tutored through cards like Expedition Map, Sylvan Scrying, and Crop Rotation.
-
Crucible of Worlds + Strip Mine
- This is a good combo to assemble whenever you have enough mana that it doesn't matter if you "miss" land drops anymore. It keeps your opponents off mana and can even help you avoid counterspells if you blow up their blue sources main phase 1 then move to main phase 2.
Cards that can be substituted in are
Ramunap Excavator
and Wasteland and the likes.
-
Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter
- This is a very versatile combo, it can generate infinite mana, infinite storm, infinite draw, and even infinite swans lol. Each combo utilizing these two cards is described below:
- Artifacts that produce at least - Isochron Scepter costs to activate and will untap all nonland permanents including itself, therefore you'll be able to net at least per activation. This will generate infinite colored or colorless mana depending on your rocks. You can then use this mana to Capsize your opponents boards or to cast Blue Sun's Zenith.
- With Aetherflux Reservoir + Mana Crypt
- As long as you can produce at least through mana rocks, you will be able to create infinite storm through the reservoir and gain infinite life. From here you can use the activated ability and shoot all your opponents for 50 damage multiple times until they are out.
- card:Sensei's Diving Top - By tapping the top to draw a card and then activating card:Iscochron Scepter in response to untap it and retap it then repeat, you can draw as many cars as you would like to. Once you have determined the amount of cards you want to draw, the last trigger placed on the stack will resolve and you will draw a card and place card:Sensei's Diving Top on top of your deck. Then the next trigger will resolve and you will draw the top, and the rest of the triggers will resolve with you continuing to draw and the top being unable to go on top of your deck since it is in your hand.
Once you have drawn all the cards you can play Laboratory Maniac and draw one more card to win the game.
- Copy Artifact + Swan Song
- This is one of my favorite combos, although I've only won with it once. You play Copy Artifact and copy the Isochron Scepter and then imprint Swan Song and you need at least worth of rocks. Now you generate infinite mana, then after that you cast a spell and attempt to swan song it with the copied scepter. In response to that you use the dramatic scepter to untap everything and use the swan song copied scepter to counter the first swan song. This will net you a single 2/2 flier. You can repeat this process as many times as you would like at instant speed and then you will be able to swing all out with an army of swans.
-
High Tide + Palinchron
& Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron
- These two combos with Palinchron create infinite mana, although for the High Tide one you also need at least 5 lands with the subtype Island. The first one allows you to net 2 mana each time you cast Palinchron and return it to your hand. Deadeye Navigator blinks it instead which also generates infinite mana.
From here you draw your deck with Blue Sun's Zenith and cast Laboratory Maniac or you can Capsize your opponents boards.
-Bonus
