Tayam, Enigmatic Aristocrat

Commander / EDH BGW (Abzan, Junk) Counters Reanimator

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Lands (32)

• 1x Bountiful Promenade
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 5x Forest
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Indatha Triome
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Nesting Grounds
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 4x Plains
• 1x Sandsteppe Citadel
• 7x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath

Ramp (6)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Devoted Druid
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Skull Prophet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Wall of Roots

Recursion (5)

• 1x Angelic Renewal
• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Luminous Broodmoth
• 1x Lurrus of the Dream-Den

Card Draw (4)

• 1x Elvish Visionary
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Mentor of the Meek
• 1x Necropotence

Counter Generation (9)

• 1x Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
• 1x Champion of Lambholt
• 1x Gavony Township
• 1x Good-Fortune Unicorn
• 1x Karn's Bastion
• 1x Keensight Mentor
• 1x Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
• 1x Pollenbright Druid
• 1x Weaponcraft Enthusiast

Removal (9)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Grasp of Fate
• 1x Knight of Autumn
• 1x Oblivion Stone
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Pernicious Deed
• 1x Plaguecrafter

Protection / Hatebears (6)

• 1x Aura of Silence
• 1x Cauldron of Souls
• 1x Drannith Magistrate
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Spore Frog

Tutors (6)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Fiend Artisan
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Commander (1)

Sacrifice Outlets (7)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Tokens (7)

• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Caller of the Claw
• 1x Dreadhorde Invasion
• 1x Hallowed Spiritkeeper
• 1x Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Promise of Bunrei

Aristocrats (4)

• 1x Bastion of Remembrance
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Cruel Celebrant
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Persist Creatures (4)

• 1x Kitchen Finks
• 1x Lesser Masticore
• 1x Putrid Goblin
• 1x Young Wolf

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Maybeboard

-1/-1 Counter Theme (More A Curiosity than Actually Anything Good) (19)

• 1x Ammit Eternal
• 1x Baleful Ammit
• 1x Cartouche of Ambition
• 1x Channeler Initiate
• 1x Contagion Clasp
• 1x Crumbling Ashes
• 1x Defiant Greatmaw
• 1x Festering Mummy
• 1x Fume Spitter
• 1x Glistening Oil
• 1x Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons
• 1x Harbinger of Night
• 1x Necropede
• 1x Necroskitter
• 1x Nest of Scarabs
• 1x Obelisk Spider
• 1x Ornery Kudu
• 1x Plague Belcher
• 1x Serrated Biskelion

Counter Generation (7)

• 1x Bow of Nylea
• 1x Evolution Sage
• 1x Heliod, Sun-Crowned
• 1x Huatli's Raptor
• 1x Martyr for the Cause
• 1x Throne of Geth
• 1x Vitality Hunter

Removal (1)

• 1x Darksteel Mutation

Recursion (2)

• 1x Death's Oasis
• 1x Nim Deathmantle

Sac Outlets (2)

• 1x Attrition
• 1x Bontu the Glorified

Vigilance Tribal (2)

• 1x Alert Heedbonder
• 1x Frondland Felidar

Stax / Protection / Hatebears (1)

• 1x Throne of the God-Pharaoh

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This is my first real attempt at a deck without relying on the internet having many answers and suggestions out there for me to peruse and consider.

Tayam, Luminous Enigma serves as a way to facilitate a sacrifice-based value engine that will be very hard to remove and drain down the opponents with basic aristocrats staples like Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat until we can by either

1) swooping in with a wave of tokens generated from cards like Bitterblossom and Nissa, Voice of Zendikar suped up with +1/+1 counters,

2) Using a very big boy formed with cards like Dreadhorde Invasion, Carrion Feeder, and Fiend Artisan

3) Some combination of the the previous 2 after a war of attrition with our opponents.

The deck has the basic skeleton of many Aristocrats strategies with sac outlets like Ashnod's Altar, Skull Clamp and Viscera Seer. However, Tayam needs counters - and we plan on using a variety of cards to get those. Tayam herself will provide a vigilance counter on every creature we have on the field, which is a good start. This will be supplemented by a few creatures with persist like Young Wolf; creatures that can come onto the board with counters of their own like Knight of Autumn and Weaponcraft Enthusiast; those who create counters through sacrifices like Carrion Feeder (which is even better if we sacrifice a creature with Persist to it); and many others that generate counters incidentally here and there. More importantly we'll have cornerstone creatures like Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, Pollenbright Druid, and Nissa, Voice of Zendikar that will be able to add tons of counters all at once through proliferation or (for Nissa) their walker abilities. Yawgmoth is especially great as he also serves as a source of card draw, a sac outlet, and a way to add counters on our own creatures if we need or onto others creatures to debilitate them. Yawgmoth and our Persist creatures will also synergize very well with Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons who will take those incidences of -1/-1 counters and use them to make snake tokens with deathtouch that can be absolutely devastating to enemy boards as well as a good defense. I'm especially excited to try out Keensight Mentor as well, as Tayam's natural ability to give everything Vigilance means that she'll be adding +1/+1 counters en masse.

The life gain we get through cards like Blood Artist as well as through lifelink granted by Vitality Hunter will give us plenty of resources to spend on Yawgmoth, Necropotence and Bitterblossom for more card draw, tokens, and proliferation -- and in turn more creature recursion.

The strategy will definitely depend on a few important creatures -- though there are a few more than what I've bothered to mention (admittedly they're not as exciting as the ones used as examples above, though) -- so we'll need ways to get them and keep them, especially since some are over 3 CMC. Along with plans for card draw, I've included a fair number of tutor sorceries (Vampiric Tutor, Entomb and Demonic Tutor are a few good ones -- the goal will be to either tutor or draw into Fauna Shaman and Fiend Artisan who will be able to bring out many of the important creatures we want. Once they are on the field, cards like Animate Dead and Angelic Renewal and forms of reanimation that can bring these creatures back while also being easily brought back by Tayam, and, as a back up for this and many other cards, Lurrus of the Dream-Den.

So we'll bring out what parts of a good sacrifice engine that we can, bring out Tayam, and draw into / use tutors to bring out any missing pieces. We'll use Tayam to keep most of our cards on the field and recurrable at instant speed once we get our resources flowing, and use recurrable cards like Animate Dead as middle men with Tayam to keep our higher CMC creatures in play. Some hate bears like Grand Abolisher and Aura of Silence have also been included to slow down opponents and put some pressure as we get our engine working.

Once we get good token creators on the field, they will be creating lots of creatures that can all get counters, which can in turn be both proliferated and consumed by Tayam to keep our board filled and start going positive on the number of creatures / counters we have said creatures. By then, we want to have really hampered our opponents and leave them struggling to respond to our board as we use our creatures to take them out.

This is at least the general plan. There are some cards I want to fit in like Caller of the Claw to make the deck bounce back faster from board wipes, and lots of testing to do once the C20 decks come in and I get a real chance to work with this deck, but I'm excited to hear what people think of this as well as get some feedback on improving the deck -- whether it be things to cut, consider, or ways to improve the win conditions / consistency of the deck.

If you did take the time to read my incoherent babbling, thank you so much! And please feel free to ask / point out anywhere that needs clarification, better explanation, or anything like that

Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 33 - 0 Rares 28 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.44
Tokens	Bear 2/2 G, Companion Zone, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Morph 2/2 C, Plant 0/1 G, Servo 1/1 C, Spirit 1/1 C, Spirit 1/1 W, Zombie Army 0/0 B
Folders	Real Life Decks