Abzan Enigma [cEDH]

Commander / EDH BGW (Abzan, Junk) Combo Competitive Counters Reanimator Stax

jaymc1130

Land (Mana/Utility) (20)

• 1x Bayou
• 1x Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1x Centaur Garden
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Indatha Triome
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Plains
• 1x Riftstone Portal
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Scrubland
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Creature (Utility) (5)

• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Elvish Spirit Guide
• 1x Endurance
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Ranger-Captain of Eos

Instant (Removal) (5)

• 1x Abrupt Decay
• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares

[Flex Slot] Utility (5)

• 1x Fatal Push
• 1x Force of Vigor
• 1x Icatian Moneychanger
• 1x Serra Ascendant
• 1x White Plume Adventurer

Sorcery (Tutor) (3)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Imperial Seal

Creature (Enigma Engine) (10)

• 1x Bartolome del Presidio
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Devoted Druid
• 1x Geralf's Messenger
• 1x Orcish Bowmasters
• 1x Priest of Gix
• 1x Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1x Shield Mate
• 1x Wall of Roots
• 1x Young Wolf

Stax (Permanent) (10)

• 1x Archon of Emeria
• 1x Collector Ouphe
• 1x Dauthi Voidwalker
• 1x Deafening Silence
• 1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
• 1x Ethersworn Canonist
• 1x Null Rod
• 1x Opposition Agent
• 1x Rule of Law
• 1x Stony Silence

Enchantment (Ramp) (5)

• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Cryptolith Rite
• 1x Exploration
• 1x Utopia Sprawl
• 1x Wild Growth

Instant (Tutor) (5)

• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

[Flex Combo] Enigma Engine (4)

• 1x Botanical Brawler
• 1x Seal of Strength
• 1x Strangleroot Geist
• 1x Sylvan Safekeeper

[Flex Combo] Wither Smog (2)

• 1x Chain of Smog
• 1x Witherbloom Apprentice

Commander (1)

Land (Fetch) (9)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Creature (Dork) (7)

• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1x Priest of Titania
• 1x Sanctum Weaver

Instant (Utility) (5)

• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Silence
• 1x Veil of Summer
• 1x Wax / Wane

Enchantment (Utility) (3)

• 1x Leyline of Abundance
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Sylvan Library

[Flex Slot] Haste Enabler (1)

• 1x Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler

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Maybeboard

Enigma Engine (Sac) (8)

• 1x Bloodflow Connoisseur
• 1x Bridge from Below
• 1x Cathodion
• 1x Overeager Apprentice
• 1x Putrid Imp
• 1x Sinister Concoction
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Ramp (6)

• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Burgeoning
• 1x Eladamri's Vineyard
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Llanowar Elves

Tutors (5)

• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Untap (3)

• 1x Nature's Chosen
• 1x Quest for Renewal
• 1x Seedborn Muse

Enigma Engine (Simple) (2)

• 1x Blossoming Defense
• 1x Briar Shield

Removal (8)

• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Deadly Rollick
• 1x Dismember
• 1x Grasp of Fate
• 1x Natural State
• 1x Snuff Out
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Winds of Abandon

Value (6)

• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Hunting Grounds
• 1x Ramunap Excavator
• 1x Sevinne's Reclamation
• 1x Squandered Resources

Mana Rocks (4)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Sol Ring

Reanimates (4)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Reanimate

Haste (2)

• 1x Concordant Crossroads
• 1x Instill Energy

Enigma Engine (Complex) (7)

• 1x Grakmaw, Skyclave Ravager
• 1x Pelt Collector
• 1x Pollenbright Druid
• 1x Reyhan, Last of the Abzan *f-etch*
• 1x The Ozolith
• 1x Willow Geist
• 1x Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig

Land (7)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Emergence Zone
• 1x Horizon Canopy
• 1x Lake of the Dead
• 1x Nurturing Peatland
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Protection (4)

• 1x Allosaurus Shepherd
• 1x Autumn's Veil
• 1x Destiny Spinner
• 1x Grand Abolisher

Stax (3)

• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Drannith Magistrate
• 1x Phyrexian Censor

Sam Cat (2)

• 1x Cauldron Familiar
• 1x Samwise Gamgee

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Primer to come.

A brief run down of the concepts:

The Enigma Engine

The Enigma Engine consists of a package of mostly creatures that synergize well with Tayam to lead to game winning lines of play and play patterns. The theory behind this particular build of Tayam looks to maximize the leverage of the format's most impactful Stax pieces that the Enigma Engine inherently breaks parity on by being a creature activated ability loop. The Enigma Engine combined with the proactive stax disruption game plan allows the deck to both accumulate components more rapidly than opponents as well as explosively employ/deploy those elements to win the game. The Enigma Engine is fully reliant on Tayam being in play, so the deck will be very vulnerable to graveyard disruption effects (Rest in Peace, Dauthi Voidwalker, Tormod's Crypt, Bojuka Bog) and commander oriented hate (Oko, Thief of Crowns, Gilded Drake, Drannith Magistrate), as well as Cursed Totem style creature ability hate. This makes it critical to employ a back up game plan that gets around these restrictions, though outside of these critical opposing board state configurations the Enigma Engine is quite resilient, quick, consistent and potent.

The Enigma Engine comes in three distinct flavors: Simple, Sac, and Complex. The Simple version is pretty straight forward and is the primary plan of attack in most circumstances, relying on Devoted Druid and pump effects with Tayam in play to generate a loop. The Sac version has a basic configuration consisting of a sac outlet and an undying creature to sac. Adding mana generation components to this basic Sac set up enables rapid Tayam activations limited by available mana. The Complex variations rely on having counters on creatures (in play to remove counters from, in the yard to recur) and creatures that generate counters and is likewise constrained by available mana. The number of Complex configurations that are possible are legion, so being able to identify what Complex Engine configuration the deck is in given a particular game state is key. Many of these engine components have overlapping functional configurations that can churn away towards critical mass and a winning line of play.

Simple Configuration

The most card compact, mana compact Tayam Engine configurations available: Active Devoted Druid in play, Tayam, Luminious Enigma in play, and one of Shield Mate, Seal of Strength, Wax / Wane, or Centaur Garden with Threshold. Pump the Druid with pump effect of choice. Tap Druid for a mana, untap it to add a -1/-1 counter. Repeat twice thanks to the bigger butt now on the Druid. Spend the 3 mana and remove the -1/-1 counters to activate Tayam. Repeat to mill the library, assemble your winning configuration of choice and kill at instant speed with sac loops after recurring Zulaport Cutthroat, Orcish Bowmasters, or Geralf's Messenger, thus transitioning to the Sac configurations.

Sac Configuration

This configuration makes use of Carrion Feeder/Bartolome del Presidio/Bloodflow Connoisseur + Young Wolf/Strangleroot Geist/Geralf's Messenger loops and additional components can be added to generate additional iterations of loop, with Priest of Gix (and technically Rishkar, Peema Renegade being a back up in very narrow circumstances) being the infinite iteration component. Since the undying creatures come back with a vigilance counter and a +1/+1 counter the sac outlets generate extra +1/+1 counters above what's required (allowing this loop to also store counters on the sac outlets). The basic loop consists of Tayam in play, Carrion Feeder in play, Young Wolf in play. Sac Wolf to Feeder, Wolf comes back with +1/+1 counter and vigilance counter, and Feeder gets a +1/+1 counter. Pay 3 mana, activate Tayam, remove 3 counters from your Engine creatures, bring back a target. With Priest, just make sure the Priest is sacced prior to Tayam portion of the loop.

Other permanents in play can yield additional Complex configurations based on how those configurations generate mana and counters. For example, replacing the Priest as the mana generation component with a pumped Devoted Druid changes the nature of the Enigma Engine's potential while being used in such a configuration. Undying creatures need the +1/+1 counters removed for the loops to be self sustaining, and the Devoted Druid needs it's -1/-1 counters removed for the loops to be self sustaining. The general statement here being that most engine configurations will have a limited number of iterations they can churn through until they chug to a stop. As long as the simple configuration is in play, however, a pilot can transition to and through any and all engine configurations by using the Simple configuration to recur all the needed elements of another configuration.

If Young Wolf is replaced in the loop with Geralf's Messenger the loop is lethal.

Technically White Plume Adventurer and Assassin's Trophy can be looped via the Sac configuration for lethal using Endurance to restock the library.

If Bridge from Below is included in the list then the infinite mill ultimately results in infinite zombie tokens with infinite vigilance counters once the Bridge itself is milled, and typically only one additional activation of Tayam is required to be lethal in a variety of ways.

Complex Configurations

The Complex configurations of the Enigma Engine rely mostly on progressing toward critical mass of Tayam activations by reusing counter generating creatures for value over time in a slow game state controlled by proactive stax pieces as the activation iterations are limited (as opposed to Simple and Sac configurations which are capble of compact infinite loops). In any Complex configuration of the Enigma Engine the typical lines of play will be removing counters and spending mana to dig with Tayam mill activations and develop to the board from the graveyard. The most basic examples of a Complex configuration would be having Tayam in play with a 0/0 creature with 3 counters on it in play that dies as a statebased effect when the counters are removed (Grakmaw, Skyclave Ravager/Reyhan, Last of the Abzan/Botanical Brawler), or having a Wall of Roots in play and building up counters on it during opponent's turns. This type of configuration lets you use counters and mana on Tayam activations knowing that enough counters will be generated by the activation to secure additional future Tayam activations using more of your mana over the course of that, or several, turns. Many other more complicated configurations are possible, and some convoluted (and thus less reliable) Complex infinite loops are also possible in some game states.

For example: Sylvan Safekeeper/Squandered Resources + Gaea's Cradle + Sac Configuration (Tayam, Luminous Enigma + Young Wolf + Carrion Feeder) -> an alternative to using Priest of Gix to generate infinite mana (as the Sac Configuration itself generates a loop of 3 counters per 3 mana generated and cares not at all about how that mana is generated). The advantage of a Complex configuration such as this is that now Tayam recursion targets of choice are unlocked for each iteration rather than requiring the ability resolution to recur the Priest. (At instant speed Safekeeper targets don't matter much, but you can also loop it's shroud on the undying creature each iteration of that creature's death in the loop to resolve excess Safekeeper triggers.)

Bridge From Below

Bridge from Below is probably better suited in this deck in this format than it will be in any other list. Mill it and subsequently profit from the generation of all the zombie tokens that enter with vigilance counters. It's inclusion in the list means that the Sac and Complex configurations of the Enigma Engine are lethal loops once the deck is milled. However, Bridge is not a card one wants stranded in hand, so the inclusion of a discard outlet such as Putrid Imp is likely a requirement as a 2 card package. It's still a combo component package that's being tested for effectiveness in real game situations, but there's quite a bit of upside potential with it both in terms of generating value over time as well as being a sort of kill condition.

Sam Cat Combo

Samwise Gamgee and Cauldron Familiar function as a two card combo supplement package for the Sac engine configurations that provides a lethal line of play without using Tayam or requiring additional spells to be cast, but it still requires access to the graveyard and creature ability activations to sustain the loop. Also something that will be in testing at some point, though our play group's consensus is that this 2 card package has less effective potential than the Bridge from Below alternative option, and Witherbloom Apprentice and Chain of Smog still feels like the best bet to provide resilience to the formats effective hate pieces that stop our combo lines of play while also working well within the constraints of a Tayam list's own stax pieces.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 52 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.83
Tokens	Dungeon: Undercity, Orc Army, Skeleton 4/1 B, The Initiative, Treasure
Folders	Commander (Competitive: Tier 3)