Krosan Cloudscraper is just another name for Cheaty Face
This deck was built for a random commander challenge, where each participant was given a commander that costed less than 50 cents, and had to build a deck that cost less than 50 dollars (at the time). That original budget list is on my Scryfall account. Even though I didn't win the competition, I thought the deck was still unique enough to put together in paper. Since then I've put some time and research into updating this without the budget restrictions, and I've continued to find fun things to add.
Gretchen Titchwillow can be kind of a generic simic lands commander, but I did my best to make this cool and interesting. That's why this deck is built around Spy Kit which lets you run some weird effects that are rarely seen in commander.
The "
Gretchen Synergy" section is pretty small, but all the cards directly work with Gretchen and her activated ability.
Illusionist's Bracers and
Training Grounds gives you additional value off her activated ability.
Minn, Wily Illusionist cares about drawing a second card each turn (which becomes easier with Gretchen) and lets us cheat big permanents into play.
Journey of Discovery is the worst ramp card in the deck, but Gretchen lets you put lands into play, which mitigates the downside of not paying Journey's entwine cost.
This deck has a
lot of tutor effects. Obviously, the "
Tutor, Spy Kit" section are effects that directly tutor for
Spy Kit, the key card of the deck. The "
Tutor, Spells" section is for cards that can find the instants and/or sorcery spells that work with Spy Kit, or at worst find the tutors that find Spy Kit. The "
Tutor, Other" section are utility tutors that can find whatever we need at the time.
The next section we need to talk about is "
Names Matters" and all of these cards directly care whether or not Spy Kit is equipped to any creatures. The cards
Bifurcate,
March of Burgeoning Life and
Mask of the Mimic all find (almost any) creature out of the deck (
except for Minn and Nezahal).
Echoing Truth can bounce every non-legendary and creature.
Mitotic Manipulation can dig through the deck to find a large creature to put into play, and at worst acts as a blue ramp spell and grabs a basic.
Mocking Doppelganger can goad every (non-legendary, non-token) creature on board when equipped.
Retraced Image can also cheat creatures out of your hand into play.
The "
Large Lads" section is for all the creatures we want to cheat out. Notably for this,
Nezahal, Primal Tide can't be found with the "Names Matters" stuff, since
Spy Kit doesn't give the names of Legendary creatures. Everything else can be found, and has a reason for being included in the deck. The biggest and baddest of these big boys is
Worldspine Wurm. He can be found with any of the Bifurcate effects, and goes especially well with
Mask of the Mimic.
Neoform is also an important card to talk about here. The deck is built in a way that makes Neoform very good. The tutors that find the important spells in the deck are on 3 cmc creatures, so Gretchen in the command zone means that Neoform can always find us a Spy Kit (using
Tribute Mage) or Names Matters spell (using
Spellseeker). There's also a line of ever increasing cmc's on creatures that return spells from the graveyard to hand going up to about 8 (the cmc 6 spell is notably
Torrential Gearhulk, returning Neoform with this will exile it).
Krosan Cloudscraper is also the right cmc to find Worldspine Worm with Neoform, which is it's main reason for being in the deck. (Notably though, if you have
Giant Ankheg out you can grab the Cloudscraper just to get a 13/13 beater)
The Neoform line(s) any 2 drop>
Eternal Witness 3 CMC >
Archaeomancer &
Timeless Witness 4 CMC >
Shipwreck Dowser 5 CMC >
Torrential Gearhulk 6 CMC >
Scholar of the Ages 7 CMC)
There's quite a bit of utility, but I want to highlight some of my favorite/important ones.
-
Riftsweeper is one of the best ways to "protect" Spy Kit, since we can grab it (or another important thing) from exile back into the deck.
-
Wild Mongrel seems weird here, but if we have Reliquary Tower out and we need a way to get cards back into the deck with
Elixir of Immortality for whatever reason, or can turn it into a lethal threat after resetting the board with one of the non-exile board wipes.
-
Echo Storm was originally included to make extra copies of Spy Kit, but turns out to be an incredibly useful piece of utility. I've made multiple copies of my opponents'
Esper Sentinel or
Cloud Key, but I've also used it to make copies of my own
Solemn Simulacrum or
Torrential Gearhulk.
Cool Lines I Want to Mention
-The Great Aurora is probably the coolest and goofiest board wipe in Magic. Because this deck is only running a small handful of tap lands, casting this means you almost always get the chance to rebuild before your opponents. Because the way that Aurora resolves, if you can get Avenger of Zendikar into play before hand, you can also essentially double the cards you draw on resolution and get a huge advantage when rebuilding.
-Diluvian Primordial is one of my favorite creatures to grab with the instant speed Names Matters tutors. I have, in previous games, used it to recast things with huge impact, like removal and ramp spells.
-Retraced Image is among the coolest cards I've found for this deck. It's found with many of the same tutors that search the deck for cards like Mask of the Mimic and March of Burgeoning Life, except Retraced Image gets things from your hand into play. It is sadly only at Sorcery speed, unless you have Leyline of Anticipation or Emergence Zone in a pinch.
-I think Echoing Truth is an incredibly underrated card in EDH. It's a cheap targeted removal spell that blows out token decks really bad (imagine bouncing twelve copies of Bloodforged Battle-Axe) but with Spy Kit it becomes a super budget Cyclonic Rift. (In this case it wouldn't bounce tokens that don't have formal card names and it wouldn't bounce legendary creatures)
Maybeboard Stuff
-Firstly is Meteor Golem, it is a seven drop that can easily swap in for Nezahal. This is good cause it can be found by your "Names Matters" cards and it's a removal spell. There are a few other 7 drops in the deck, but I'm on the fence about this swap currently.
-Secondly is Archetype of Imagination. I really like this card as a second way to get fliers beyond Hornet Queen, I just haven't found the right thing to cut, but I'm leaning towards cutting a noncreature card.
-There's also Isochron Scepter, which can work really well with our cheaper Bifurcate effects like Mask of the Mimic or March of Burgeoning Life. Again, I'm just looking for the right thing to swap for this one.
Infinite Combo Explanation (NOT CURRENTLY IN DECK) Show
I don't have the infinite combo in my paper version of the deck currently, to keep it a little more goofy and a little less sweaty, but I thought I'd go over the possibility for it... Altar of Dementia + Verdant Succession + Worldspine Wurm
You can actually replace the Altar with any free sac outlet, but I chose Dementia because it's 2 cmc (works with some of the other tutors). The loop is sacrificing Worldspine to the altar, trigger three death triggers (two from the Wurm and one from the Succession). Stack it so Succession resolves last, and the other two are in any order. When the triggers resolve, the Wurm will be shuffled into your library and then you can search for it and put it back into play with the Succession trigger. Infinite 5/5 Wurms with trample and infinite mill (or whatever your sac outlet gives) and infinite ETB's. With just adding Verdant Succession you can do a less-than-infinite version of this with Mask of the Mimic as your sac outlet. You can search for creatures that return cards from your graveyard to hand with the Mask search, and again, find the Wurm with Succession. (The creatures you find with the Mask search would be the same as the ones from the Neoform lines.)
