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₮ⱧɆɎ Ⱨ₳₮Ɇ Ʉ₴ ₵ɄⱫ ₮ⱧɆɎ ₳ł₦'₮ Ʉ₴

Commander / EDH GW (Selesnya) Hatebears Midrange Multiplayer Primer Stax

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Land (36)

Card Advantage (8)

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The Hate Menu (21)

Protection (10)

Tutor (7)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Karametra, God of Harvests

Ramp (13)

Utility (9)

Recursion (5)

₮ⱧɆɎ Ⱨ₳₮Ɇ Ʉ₴ ₵ɄⱫ ₮ⱧɆɎ ₳ł₦'₮ Ʉ₴: ₭₳Ɽ₳₥Ɇ₮Ɽ₳ Ⱨ₳₮Ɇ฿Ɇ₳Ɽ₴ ł₦₵.

This is my 75% big mana hatebears (aka creature stax) deck that aims to gain incremental advantage the more creatures I play while slowly denying my opponents the ability to play any decent game of magic. This asymmetrical play makes the deck very resilient and incrementally difficult to deal with the longer the game goes. The ability to ramp so quickly allows me to play bigger hatebears like Iona, Shield of Emeria early in the game. Captain Sissay is usually the preferred hatebears commander that is competitive, but there are some reasons to run Karametra, God of Harvests over him:

  • Karametra is less vulnerable than Sissay due to indestructibility
  • The ability to ramp with every creature played not only thins out my deck but also allows me to easily deploy higher CMC hatebears like Void Winnower in the early stages of the game when people are still setting up their board
  • Karametra isn't always viewed as a threat compared to Sissay
  • Winning through commander damage is entirely possible with Karametra unlike Sissay

Strengths:

  • Natural ramp at the commandzone allows me to pull ahead of everyone in most games if left unchecked
  • Natural defense against aggro unlike traditional stax strategies since all I run are creatures
  • Eats combo and multiple other popular strategies for breakfast
  • Late game inevitability

Weaknesses:

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The following are hatebears that may or may not be in the decklist to shit on a plethora of popular EDH strategies including ETB, graveyard/reanimation, sacrifice, artifacts, tutoring, creatures, and tokens:

The following are notable cards that I've included in order to make the deck run like a well-oiled machine:

I run an interaction suite mostly composed of creatures to answer almost any boardstate:

  • Kalemne's Captain : This creature is disgusting and is more devastating than the notorious Bane of Progress in this deck since I'm usually able to power him out early. Exiling problematic artifacts and enchantments will get rid of the problem permanently knowing that artifact/enchantment decks usually run a bunch of recursion engine. It is also an almost entirely asymmetrical effect since I run mostly creatures and little artifact and enchantments. His high CMC and high cost of activation is a non-issue in this deck provided the amount of ramp I can get.

  • Scavenging Ooze : One of the best graveyard hate on a creature. Being in play alone can make graveyard strategies awkward.

  • Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger : It doesn't matter if opponents have a counterspell, the exile still resolves which makes this an almost guaranteed removal.

  • Ulvenwald Tracker : This little guy combos with Karametra's indestructibility and high power to have the ability to kill almost any creature in play. It gets pretty disgusting with Seedborn Muse in play.

Early game (turns 1 to 4): Ramp with mana dorks like Birds of Paradise to get Karametra into play as soon as possible in order to start the ramp engine going. Watch out for blue or white players for that potential Swan Song or Return to Dust early game blowout. Early game Thalia, Guardian of Thraben / Thalia, Heretic Cathar / Kataki, War's Wage slows our opponents down as we set up our board for the mid game.

Mid game (turns 5 to 8): Karametra, God of Harvests should be in play to start the ramp engine going. This is the turn where I usually take off and spiral out of control if nobody stops me. Every creature I play increases the one-sided asymmetrical board advantage to my favor as more hatebears are being played. There is usually a specific line of play that I employ in order to lock out my opponents in a few rounds. The first target I usually get is Sylvan Safekeeper which can protect my hatebears from any targeted removals. The next usually is Gaddock Teeg which basically stops majority of boardwipes. With these two out, I can deploy any other hatebears depending on the boardstate.

Late game (turn 9 and beyond): At this point I should have a pretty solid lock in place through a combination of Gaddock Teeg / Sanctum Prelate / Void Winnower / Iona, Shield of Emeria / Brisela, Voice of Nightmares / Archon of Valor's Reach in addition to other hate effects and taxes. My opponents usually scoop at this point or I should be able to close out the game relatively quickly from there through a plethora of win conditions I pack in the deck if they still want to play the game out.

Path to Natural Creature Recursion Engine

Knight of the Reliquary helps set up the engine quickly with the ability to tutor for Emeria, The Sky Ruin and other important lands. Once the recursion engine is setup, it basically gives me the inevitability against multitude of non-exile removals. The optimal pathway to getting to the 7 plains requirement for Emeria, The Sky Ruin 's recursion engine is to get the following in order:

Boardwipe and Removal Protection Strategy

Everything in this deck is carefully chosen to interact with each other harmoniously and none of the cards in the deck are affected by Gaddock Teeg at all. It is also interesting to note that I can technically use Gaddock Teeg /Captain Sissay as my alternative commander with a different kind of playstyle.

Getting Gaddock Teeg / Sanctum Prelate / Void Winnower / Iona, Shield of Emeria / Brisela, Voice of Nightmares / Archon of Valor's Reach online is the best proactive defense against removals and boardwipes. The best boardwipe catch all is always Gaddock Teeg and should be the first card to get out and protect ASAP. I usually like to pair Archon of Valor's Reach naming "instants" with Gaddock Teeg as a general catch all for majority of the removal spells (sparring enchantment removals like Oblivion Ring ). However, with Sylvan Safekeeper , it is almost impossible to remove my board. The general rule of thumb for cmc numbers for popular boardwipe depending on the colors represented in the pod is ( spells like Black Sun's Zenith / Gaze of Granite are best taken care of with Gaddock Teeg ):

Assembling Brisela

Assembling Brisela, Voice of Nightmares is very easy and should only be attempted if there is a way to protect them via Grand Abolisher / Dragonlord Dromoka :

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The following are notable combo synergies I've included in the deck:

The following is an infinite combo I've included to swiftly end the game in the advent of a board stall:

Karametra is a versatile commander that encourages people to think out of the box to utilize her ramp ability. There are several popular builds which include Enchantress, Timmy stompy with Eldrazi titans and big green creatures, landfall matters, as well as Aluren combo. I've never seen a dedicated creature Stax build before and I think that this is a new area for Karametra players to explore. The asymmetrical effect is insane and has proven to be so effective in shutting down multiple deck strategies that I believe this is a completely viable playstyle in a 75% format riddled with unfair combos and shenanigans.

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Updates Add

Retired...for now — July 1, 2019
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I've decided to switch this deck over to Sigarda, Host of Herons voltron/hatebears due to meta reasons and may update this primer/list periodically as new sets arrive.

Primer Updated — Dec. 6, 2018
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Updates — Dec. 5, 2018
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Primer W.I.P. — Sept. 8, 2018
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Forecasted Changes — Dec. 6, 2017
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Revision 28 See all

(5 years ago)

+1 Beast Whisperer main
-1 Smothering Tithe main
Top Ranked
  • Achieved #8 position overall 7 years ago
Date added 7 years
Last updated 5 years
Key combos
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

20 - 0 Mythic Rares

49 - 0 Rares

11 - 0 Uncommons

6 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.52
Tokens Beast 3/3 G, City's Blessing, Clue
Folders My EDH Brews, Great Ideas, Cool Ideas, Cool ideas, Primers, EDH, Selvala, Interesting Commander Decks, like, EDH
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