Unscrewable Zedruu [Primer] (Commander / EDH MTG Deck)

Unscrewable Zedruu [Primer]

Commander / EDH Control RUW (Jeskai, America)

CaprineGrunt

Land (38)

Sorcery (8)

Instant (19)

Enchantment (13)

Commander (1)

Commander: altered Zedruu the Greathearted

Artifact (14)

Creature (7)

First, a disclaimer Show

Now, I present you, the goat, the legend! ZEDRUU! THE! GREATHEARTED!

You probably already know her, as she's been with us a long time already, but I'm gonna read her anyways, because I like reading that piece of art of a textbox. Let's see;

Zedruu herself Show

What does it mean to play a Zedruu deck?

the Zedruu Archetype Show

You'll like this deck if you:

- Like countering stuff.

Dislike your stuff getting countered.
Like casting Zedruu an drawing cards.
Dislike casting Zedruu and not drawing cards.
Think Sunforger is the best card ever and want to use it.
Don't mind losing green and black.
Hate getting mana screwed passiontely.
Like interacting with your opponents, and always having the last word
Love Zedruu, but also want to win.

You'll dislike this deck if you:

Actively hate playing blue (why?)

Dislike having a non-linear, impossible to goldfish deck.

Want your friends to like you after you win.

Dislike long (sometimes very long) games.

Can't live without black/green.

Because of the reactive nature of any control deck, this list can vary wildly from table to table. This particular deck lacks responses to multiple go-wide creature-based decks, for example. It shines, however, on staxy places that rely on artifacts, or against other interactive, slow decks.

So, take into account that basically no card here is set in stone. This also means the deck can cater to all budgets, from dirt cheap, under $75, to almost cEDH but not quite there (mainly because the lack of black and green).

Now, if you've played Zedruu for some amount of time you probably found yourself on some uncomfortable situations. Having useless cards in hand is a very common one. That's either because of over reliance on Zedruu, that leaves our gifts useless when she isn't commanding on the battlefield. Or, having too much things to do with too little mana, or getting mana flooded (these last two are more a Magic thing, not just Zedruu). This deck aims to fix all three things, in one elegant fell swoop. How?

Why is this deck special? Show

First of all, the deck runs exactly zero Gifts. Well, I lie. It runs some gifts. Mainly, Oblivion Ring effects, auras, or stax pieces. In general, stuff that doesn’t care about who controls it. I also run ways to draw cards that aren’t Zedruu (blasphemous, I know).

By doing this, I’m basically never stuck with nothing to do without Zedruu, solving the first problem, overdependence. But what about going short on mana? Well, this is divided on two parts, that support each other and are common on all classic control decks.

First, I run a big pile o' mana sources, and second, I run a big pile o' instant speed interaction. That way, I tend to hold mana anyways, just in case, while consistently hitting all landrops (Almost half the deck is mana. This combined with cantrips and draw engines, makes it the most consistent deck I have, mana-wise at least). But then we waltz dangerously close to the other end, right? Running tons of mana is bad when we got nothing to do with it...

Enter, Zedruu! A mana hungry, always present draw engine! The deck's mana curve is fairly low for edh standards because of this. Only six cards go over three mana, and of those, only half go over five. Seems counterproductive to have so few, but when you think about it, Zedruu is an always present mana sink with a minimum entry point of seven. You're probably thinking now, how in earth do I plan to draw cards from Zedruu when I'm mana-screwed? Imagine I don't draw any O-rings, just lands and useless instants. Now what?

Simple! We gift the lands!

Lands, you see, are the perfect gift. Only once you convince yourself of this simple fact, you'll appreciate Zedruu's true power. Lands are everywhere, cheap, basically immune to spot removal, live trough all but the most terrible of wraths, and universally loved. Who doesn't want a free basic mountain? C'mon Atraxa, I know you adore basic mountains. I'll be here, gaining life.

The deck, then, plays like most “classic” control decks, but with the adventage of being impossible to mana screw. The probability of it happening are so slim that calling them astronomically small would be giving too much credit to astronomy. That’s the reason we play Zedruu and not other Jeskai commanders.

The Parts of the Deck Show

Apart from the three basic pillars of every Zedruu deck, I subdivide the deck on smaller, bite-sized parts. Each plays a very clear goal, and these parts have little overlap. Because of this, not only can the cards on each part vary, but also the amount on each, and sometimes even the focus of a given part.

Counterspells

One of the central pieces of every control deck, and my cream and butter. I run eleven (wich is frankly maybe a bit too much), the most notable being the uncounterable Dovin's Veto and Counterflux because they can be Sunforgered, and the quasi-uncounterable Spell Queller (because who runs Essence Scatter nowadays? Also, can be gifted). However, you should adjust your counters to your meta. Maybe you should run that essence scatter. Who knows? Not me, It's your meta. Oh, I count Narset's Reversal as a counterspell, even tough it should count as a cheatingspell. The value you get out of it is mind blowing.

Instant Speed Removal

Removal is important, especially to deal with stuff that slipped trough our counters. Swords to Plowshares, Reality Shift, Generous Gift, Disenchant are some of the best on our colors, and what I'd consider the bare minimum. Seal Away and Cast Out can be gifted, which is always a plus. Again, add or remove as you deem necessary. There are tons of good, efficient removal on our colors.

Sorcery Speed Removal

Sorcery speed is significantly worse than instant speed, so be sure to use only permanents here, or at the very least sorceries that generate card advantage on themselves. Notorious here is Transmogrifying Wand, a repeatable source of removal that can be gifted when depleted. Basically Zedruu's favourite type of removal. Also, those Ox are actually Goats. Yeah.

One Time Draw/selection

This includes cantrips, tutors, and stuff like Dig Trough Time. It's the best way to get a consistent deck, and consistent decks win (unless they're consistently bad) I run eight in total. Notable mention is my only non-repeatable tutor, Invent. I play it because it searches both parts of my win, and it's a very versatile tutor. I even killed a Felidar Guardian once with the Invert part. That was neat.

Card Advantage Engines

Hear me now. Just because we have an engine on the command zone doesn't mean we get to sleep on this part. It's the most important part of every control deck, and every commander deck too. I never run less than five, and you should too. These are pivotal for the deck to function properly. I'll expand on this below. For now, trust me these are Super Important. A usually unplayable one that's basically made for us is Wild Research. Repeatable instant speed Gamble? Sign! Me! In!

Wraths

These are usually important, but on my meta there's barely any time where it's worth it to cast them. Very few green and too much blue means that the important stuff rarely actually enters. Still, Run a minimum of two. You never know when you'll need them. To note, both ones I'm running are asymmetrical. Tragic Arrogance lets me choose what dies, and not even a hexproofed indestructible protection from everything board is safe. Slaughter the Strong doesn't kill anything on my side, and gets rid of all the biggies for cheap. However, there are a million wraths, some of them even Sunforger-able.

Ramp

It is said our colors have certain lack on this department, but that's only partially true. Sure, we lack green's abundance of ramping one-drops, but we can manage just fine with what we have. Signets, sol ring, talismans... Dreamscape Artist is a better card than what it first appears. Don't underestimate the power of a repeatable, color shifted Harrow. Also, Thaumatic Compass can search basics on an emergency, and eventually turns into a Maze of Ith impersonator. Pentad Prism and Sphere of the Suns can be gifted safely once depleted. Oh, and Dockside Extortionist is just bonkers.

Win Cons

The less cards you have as win cons, the better. I personally run Obliterate with Boros Charm for an easily tutorable, mostly uncounterable way to get a huge advantage from basically any scenario, and then slowly kill everyone else with Zedruu beats, while making sure that no one gets to rebuild with my abundance of control (even without the charm, a well placed Obliterate swings games). But you can play pretty much anything you want here. More options, with their pros and cons below.

Hate Pieces

This is the most variable of the groups, and basically counts as the "flex slots" (tough most of the deck is made out of flex slots). Some examples are Authority of the Consuls against go-wide strategies, and some combos involving etb triggers. Rest in Peace hates on graveyard strats, Embargo hates on a lot of things. Hushbringer hates a lot of stuff, too. Run the ones catered specifically for your meta. If they're giftable and hard to remove, like enchantments, even better. Try to not abuse the cmc tho. Minimize the things above 3, and know that hate over four mana will be almost always too little, too late. I expand a bit on what counts as a hate piece below.

Other

Stuff that doesn't fit in any of the other categories. Usually, it's stuff that changes control of permanents, recursion, or clones. Basically anything that isn't interaction or an engine, but still generates card advantage some other way. On my list I run Vedalken Plotter, Role Reversal, Vizier of Many Faces (because it's uncounterable when played from the graveyard) and Sevinne's Reclamation.

Expanding on Engines Show

Engines are how we win the game. The wincons only kill opponents after the fact. Knowing that, you understand a bit better how any control deck works, or any edh deck, really. Zedruu is our biggest and most consistent Engine, by virtue of being on the command zone, always available. There are, however, a ton of other Engines on our colors (mainly blue). Some of the most notable:

Mystic Remora, a delayed Ancestral Recall most of the time, or even better. Nobody ever pays the 4, and it's almost always worth it to play, unless you're on a weird all-monogreen meta where nobody even knows what the stack is. If someone else plays it, heavily consider each noncreature spell. DON'T FEED THE FISH.
Rhystic Study, the Remora's more expensive cousin. Some people pay the one. Most don't, wich means we draw. It also draws from creatures, so never don't play it, unless you're very heavily budgeted.
Nezahal, Primal Tide, the fish was fed too much, and now it's back with a vengeance. Nobody payed the 4 anyways, but now you also get to keep all the cards over 7, and it has built-in protection. Amazing, worth every mana peep.
Smothering Tithe, But it's ramp! you say, confused. You are a fool. This little friend here will vomit gold like there's no tomorrow, and we will use all that money to make our actions per turn grow wildly out of control. Lets us play on our main step, and hold interaction throughout all the turn cycle. Even if it isn’t filling our hand, its effect is so powerful it counts as an Engine.
Paradox Haze, What would you say if you saw an Alhammarret's Archive for a discount, that you can gift while still getting all the benefits? Well, say it now, because that's what this cloudy fellow is.

-Sunforger, The best Boros card, now with blue! Counter stuff, remove stuff, get ludicrous amounts of adventage all around. The only disadvantage is its high cost (8 mana total for the first activation!) but it's still worth it.

Wild Research, while not strictly making us have more cards in hand, this weird enchantment is, when combined with any other Engine filling our hand, basically a strictly better Sunforger.
Niv-Mizzet, Parun, doubles as a wincon, is uncounterable, and draws a lot of cards. Only disadventage is the triple red, you'll have to build with that in mind if you do run him.
Tezeret, the Seeker, if you run enough artifact-based hate this pal slaps. Also counts as kinda-ramp.
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, slightly unusable due being so expensive, with no inherent protection, but if it sticks it wins games by itself.
Alhammarret's Archive, even without the discount, it's sometimes worth the while to double our draws. Works fantastically with all the other Engines.
Nin, the Pain Artist, doubles as removal in an emergency, draws three cards per cycle by poking Zedruu.
Land Tax, fills our hand with basics. useful if you want to trim a bit the land count, works well with Gamble effects
Jace, the Mind Sculptor, versatile and useful, can theoretically win by himself. Loses a bit of luster with three opponents.
Daxos of Meletis, a decent budget option. The lifegain helps. It’s particularly good on pods with goodstuff decks.
Thada Adel, Acquisitor, Steals Sol Rings, exiles combo pieces if needed, and will always be unblockable (if someone doesn’t have an island already, just be nice and gift them one)

Expanding on Wincons Show

There are a lot of ways to end a won game, and some ways to steal a win out of nowhere. I won't go too deep here, but always have in mind what your win con is. It affects a lot of little things along the way.

Obliterate + Boros Charm

Obliterate Boros Charm. Make our stuff indestructible, then destroy everything. Super flashy, synergyzes well with Smothering Tithe, giving us much more mana than what we deserve. It's slow, it's not very respectable, but if infinite combos are banned, you gotta do what you gotta do. Also works with Teferi's Protection, Apocalypse and Worldfire

Kiki Jiki + Felidar Guardian

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker copies Felidar Guardian, who blinks Kiki Jiki, who can repeat the process all again for any amount of hasty cats, attacking for that same amount. Also works with Shaeeli Rai and Flameshadow Conjuring (copy cat enters, blinks original cat. Original cat blinks a mountain, mountain pays the red. Repeat). Splinter Twin works with Pestermite, Corridor Monitor and Midnight Guard for a similar effect.

Naru Meha + Ghostly Flicker

Cast Ghostly Flicker targeting whatever, retain priority and cast Naru Meha, Master Wizard in response. When Naru Meha enters, she copies Ghostly flicker, now targeting herself and a something else. Target a land that enters untapped for infinite mana, Sunscorched Desert for infinite damage to the face, Desolate Lighthouse for infinite looting, and anything with an etb for infinite of those etbs. There's a myriad of ways to win with this. Also works with Dualcaster Mage. The main adventage of this is that it's instant speed, capable of winning on response to another player's win (lemme tell ya, it feels amazing).

Niv Mizzet + Curiosity

Niv-Mizzet, Parun, enchanted with Curiosity pings someone when you draw a card. Curiosity triggers, you draw again. Draw all the cards on your deck and ping your opponents for that same amount. End the loop by pinging a creature (Niv himself if there's no others). Also works with Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, Ophidian Eye and Tandem Lookout. This one is amazing because both your combo pieces are Engines. (Tandem Lookout dies a bit too often, tho, so consider running the other curiosity effects anyways). The main disadvantage is that it doesn’t kill everyone outright, so you’ll need some other way to do the last points of damage, or at least a way to shuffle cards into your deck, like Kozilek, Butcher of Truth.

These aren't your only options, of course. You can run Laboratory Maniac or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and win by drawing/decking your library, or “I win” cards like Approach of the Second Sun, or Felidar Sovereign. Whatever you choose, it's completely up to you, and nothing is too janky if it wins and it doesn't take more than three cards and two turns to set up. Try Happily Ever After with Transguild Courier if you want.

Expanding on Hate pieces Show

I can’t list all the hate pieces on our colors, there are simply too many. I can only give you some guidelines and examples, and you can search for the ones that better fit your meta.

What is a hate piece?

Broadly speaking, a hate piece is any permanent that affects greatly a given strategy. They’re a type of interaction, but one that happens before the thing to be interacted with is played.

Hate pieces sometimes get confused with Stax pieces. The main difference is that stax pieces are much more broad, and they attack a deck resources, instead of its strategy. Stax pieces are also rarely played, unless you have a way to make them assymetric. Hate pieces are inherently assymetric, because we aren’t playing the strategy they hate on.

Which hate pieces should I run?

This is largely dependant on the people you play with, but there are some rules of thumb.

Enchantments are harder to remove, and therefore a bit stronger. Artifacts, creatures and planeswalkers are all perfectly viable, but when you’re considering your options, have in mind you can be a bit more relaxed with an enchantment.
Effects that affect you are usually not worth it, unless the strategy you’re hating on is particularly dominant. Rule of Law effects, for example are good when against multiple storm players. Otherwise, It hurts us more than it helps us.
“Bad Gifts” are usually not worth it. Pyromancer's Swath, for example, completely cripples a player for the rest of the game. It can be played if there is one specific player that has a significantly stronger deck, and you need to get rid of them. There are other exceptions, too. Effects like Statecraft, that don’t cripple you, but once gifted can blank a player’s engines, board state and wincons all together, are worth to play.
If you’re unsure of what your opponents will play, there are hate pieces so broad they are borderline stax. Stuff like Storage Matrix, Embargo and Tangle Wire don’t affect us much, but restrict a lot people who rely too much on artifact or creature mana. Teferi, Time Raveler and Narset, Parter of Veils work as removal or card adventage, while limiting our opponent’s options.

Hate piece examples

Against reanimator: Rest in Peace, Graffdigger’s Cage, Containment Priest
Against Storm: Curse of Exhaustion, Arcane Laboratory, Damping Sphere
Against Enchantress: Aura of Silence
Against go-wide: Lightmine Field, Powerstone Minefield, Pendrell Mists
Against four/five color: Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon, Back to Basics
Against artifact decks: Null Rod, Kataki, War's Wage, Aura of Silence
Against etb decks: Torpor Orb, Hushbringer
Other: Aven Mindcensor, Pithing Needle, Alms Collector, Strangehold

How to build this deck Show

I feel I could go on about individual cards forever and not truly explain the decks essence. So instead I’ll explain what this deck wants, and then you’ll b able to judge the cards by yourself, and build an Unscrewable Zedruu for yourself.

The mana base

The deck’s hearth. The most important part of this is its consistency, and not necessarily the individual card power. You can get away running the Temple of Triumph cycle, basic lands and some utility. Even while being a three-color deck, it doesn’t really need any of those fancy fetches and shocks you see. They come in handy, of course, but they aren’t at all required.

The mana rocks count as mana sources and increase the amount of mana we can access early, so do run a sizable amount. Around 10 is usually enough, but that may vary depending on your meta (faster metas favor more rocks, with less lands). Take into account that if most of the deck is comprised of generally low costed stuff, with a focus on colored mana, you shouln’t add things like Mana Vault, and Grim Monolith just because you can afford them. Think about what you’re getting from them.

Going Xerox

Turbo Xerox, broadly speaking is the art of replacing lands with cantrips, at a roughly 1 to 2 ratio (2 cantrips count as a land). By doing this, you retain consistency early, get less dead draws in the late game. It is very effective, and heavily recommended. You can run Scrylands too for a similar, altough weaker effect. Count each scryland as a land and a fifth (1.2 lands) when doing this.

At the end, between lands, cantrips and mana rocks, you should have around half your deck being mana sources.

The interaction

Counters, boardwipes, spot removal, and hate. This is one big ball of flex slots. I recommend maximizing the ones you can gift, but don’t cripple yourself running bad cards just to gift them. Remember that White and Red instants can be fetched with Sunforger. If you run it, your Sunforger Suite should have between 4 to 10 cards.

You can balance each of the categories, but don’t skim too much on any one of them. Always run a bare minimum of two wipes, five counters, four pieces of hate, and six spot removal spells. Generally it’s a bad idea to run more than 35 pieces of interaction, because you start to run out of space for sources of card adventage.

Don’t be afraid to play around with the cards and cuantity of each. There is no “perfect” combination, optimal to all metas, so you’ll have to experiment anyways, and your opponents will inevitably change their decks, forcing you to adapt to new situations, different power levels, and varying speeds and amounts of interaction.

The card adventage

Either Engines, or cards that enter the “Other” category. These are a bit easier to decide, mainly because drawing cards is mostly the same in every pod. You have to run at least five Engines (without counting Zedruu). Something to note, cards like Temple Bell, and Dictate of Kruphix don’t actually generate card adventage, because they also make our opponents draw cards. We can’t afford to give our opponents cards, especially taking into account they are literally more than us.

A word about the cards on the “Other” category; these are your most flexible slots, and fluctuate between 3 and 7 cards. Usually you’ll want them generating adventage (Like a Clone copying a Praetor, or a Role Reversal swapping a Detention Sphere for a Sylvan Library). But they can be additional or redundant win cons if you want, combo protection cards like Silence, or pet cards you have.

The Win Con

This is less about the win condition itself, and more about how it shapes the deck and game sequences in subtle ways, adapting it to basically win better. On my list, for example, I run Obliterate+Boros Charm to win. Invent can tutor both pieces at instant speed, while Nezahal, Primal Tide can save itself from dying if the charm gets countered, or if I decide to Obliterate without it, maybe because I see no other way to stop someone from winning the next turn, or because I have a Smothering Tithe out already, which will give me all the mana I need. I also run Mistveil Plains and Flagstones of Trokair to recur important stuff if I need them (usually Sunforger targets).

If you ran the Dualcaster Mage+Ghostly Flicker combo, for another example, you’d probably want to run the scry lands, like Zhalfirin Void or Castle Vantress, so when you combo, you can search your library for the card you want, and then cast a cantrip to draw it.

What we don’t want

We are a control deck, aiming to be as effective as possible with each of our cards. We cannot afford to have dead cards in hand, (excluding redundant lands) ever. That’s how you lose. And I’ve seen a lot of Zedruu decks fall into very common pits, playing cards that don’t really pull their weight on cardboard. Most of them are Gifts, like Aggressive Mining or Steel Golem. These cards are not worth the spot on your deck. Why? They are hate cards, that only affect one player, and worst of all, they actually cost three more mana than their text says. I’d rather play something cheaper, with a broader reach. He only one I’d consider is Pyromancer's Swath, and only if there is one player that keeps winning, and you really want to take them out of the game, then focus on the remaining two.

Another pit are cards that gift themselves, like Akroan Horse which on paper sounds amazing, right? Free soldiers! No. A singular 1/1 per turn cycle isn’t going to do anything on this deck. At most, it might chumpblock something. If you want the cards, run an engine. If you desperately want the tokens, run Assemble the Legion, Metallurgic Summons, Luminarch Ascension, or Thopter Spy Network.

Yet another pitfall are cards that change control repeatedly, Like Perplexing Chimera or Eyes Everywhere. On paper, they’re great. Get a cool thing, they get a chimera. Great. Now you can’t be relaxed until that chimera returns to your side at the worst time possible. It overcomplicates things in a way that Narset's Reversal and Gilded Drake don’t.

And yet another pitfall are Donate and Harmless Offering. Redundancy is good, right? They help us gift stuff when Zedruu isn’t on the field. Yes, but why would you want to gift stuff when Zedruu isn’t on the field? Even worse, they’re sorcery speed, cost us a card, and take the exact same mana as Zedruu’s ability.

Other examples of cards that do largely nothing and are commonly played; Spellbook, Library of Leng (yeah, it’s amazing with a Wild Research out. But does nothing by itself, and it doesn’t win us the game), Delusions of Mediocrity and especially Illusions of Grandeur seem great on paper, they do almost nothing, gaining life is pretty much meaningless, and one player losing twenty life sounds nice, until you remember almost no one cares about life anyways, and most winconditions are infinite anyways. It’ll still make you a target, for some reason. Celestial Dawn used to ruin non-white decks because of a weird interaction it had with the edh rules. Now it does nothing. Rainbow Vale gifts itself! We wanted to gift lands, right? Yes, but not like that. You don’t want it early because it only gives you mana once, and you don’t care about it late, because you can pay the three anyways.

You could make a case for cards like Lightning Greaves. But the only creature we want to put these on is Zedruu herself, and we won’t be casting her until we have mana to cast her and hold interaction. You can run them if you’re in a meta with a lot of spot creature removal and low artifact hate.

Please, feel free to comment your opinions, questions, suggestions, and ideas! If you feel I overlooked a card, combo please do tell. Feedback is always welcome!

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April 3, 2020

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Replaced Horribly Awry for Walking Atlas. Turns out that repeatable ramp is good outside of green.

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94% Casual

Competitive

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Mythic Rares 41 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.69
Tokens	Elephant 3/3 G, Manifest 2/2 C, Ox 2/4 W, Spirit 1/1 C, Treasure, Vizier of Many Faces 0/0 W
Folders	a, fun, To Try, Waiting for New Decks
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