Unspeakably Bad | The Unspeakable [Primer]

Commander / EDH Mono-Blue Primer Spellslinger Storm Theme/Gimmick

Draces

Lands (32)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Halimar Depths
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Mystic Sanctuary
• 1x Otawara, Soaring City
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 17x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x War Room

Interaction (9)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Misdirection
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Swan Song

Supporting Creatures (6)

• 1x Displacer Kitten
• 1x God-Eternal Kefnet
• 1x Lier, Disciple of the Drowned
• 1x Mercurial Spelldancer
• 1x Peregrine Drake
• 1x Snapcaster Mage

Cantrips (12)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Consider
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Opt
• 1x Otherworldly Gaze
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Portent
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Quicken
• 1x Serum Visions
• 1x Visions of Beyond

Specific Selection (10)

• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Call to Mind
• 1x Eerie Procession
• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 1x Micromancer
• 1x Mirror of Fate
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Solve the Equation
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Stream of Consciousness

Ramp (7)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Coldsteel Heart
• 1x Extraplanar Lens
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Sapphire Medallion
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel

More Time (4)

• 1x Temporal Manipulation
• 1x Time Stretch
• 1x Time Warp
• 1x Walk the Aeons

Commander (1)

Impulse Effects (10)

• 1x Anticipate
• 1x Experimental Augury
• 1x Glimpse the Cosmos
• 1x Impulse
• 1x Peer Through Depths
• 1x See the Truth
• 1x Shimmer of Possibility
• 1x Sleight of Hand
• 1x Strategic Planning
• 1x Telling Time

Power Players (9)

• 1x Brain Freeze
• 1x Enter the Infinite
• 1x High Tide
• 1x Hullbreaker Horror
• 1x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
• 1x Leveler
• 1x Mirror-Mad Phantasm
• 1x Thassa's Oracle
• 1x Turnabout

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Sometimes creativity just isn't enough...

This was a harsh truth that I had to face with this deck. At first, the deck was a proof of concept more than something that should be taken seriously. It was a way to say, "In a perfect world, any deck can do something and even hold its own." However, there was something that I failed to take account of. Good decks play good cards. While plenty of good cards are listed in the deck, this deck would always be at a disadvantage against other decks by a card to card comparison alone. Not just in the 99, but also in the command zone. While that was a choice that I made personally fully aware of this fact, I was restricting the deck in its potential by not playing some powerful cards for the sake of uniqueness. In the modern era of EDH, power has been creeping up fast. Powerful new commanders like Jodah, the Unifier and Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm not only run good cards, but they also run at speeds that older decks can't match without the assistance of powerful cards. While the goal of any EDH game is to prioritize fun, it's not fun when your deck runs at such a slower speed compared to newer and more popular options. It's time that we build this deck to be more than just a chuckle at the table.

The Gameplan

The gameplan for my interpretation of The Unspeakable is a combination of a self-mill deck and a storm deck, much like a Lier, Disciple of the Drowned deck. We want to mill our library as fast as we can so we can abuse the arcane card Stream of Consciousness and extra turn spells. To get there, we have a mass amount of draw spells as well as powerful one off cards such as Mirror-Mad Phantasm and Enter the Infinite that can go through massive amounts of our deck at once. Due to the fragility of this deck, and storm strategies in general, we're planning for an all or nothing gameplay style, and hoping our opponents don't have enough interaction for all the spells we plan to cast.

Deck Composition

Cantrips

Casting cantrips are going to be a big part of this deck. The purpose of these cards is to cycle themselves to draw into something else. Best case scenario is either more cantrips, or any of our impulse effects.

Impulse Effects

Impulse effects allow us to dig three to four cards deep into our library and choose one to take to our hand, while putting the rest on the bottom. Wile usable in a similar manner to our cantrip lineup, our primary function for the impulse effects is to guarantee a specific card whether it be for the current turn, or an upcoming one. Whether that be a land drop, one of our power cards, or a form of interaction, the impulse effects make sure that we don't run out of gas by hitting dead draws off of our cantrips.

Power Players

These are the cards that are going to ring alarm bells across the table, and fetch all sorts of counterspells, and other forms of interaction. Dropping one of these cards onto the stack usually means that we have the resources to try and go for a win. We have two kinds of power play cards: The enablers, and the payoffs. The enablers are cards that move our gameplan from the midgame state, to the endgame state. These cards usually don't win the game on their own, and require other power players or support to be fully utilized. Our enablers are: Brain Freeze, Leveler, High Tide, Mirror-Mad Phantasm, Turnabout, Enter the Infinite, Hullbreaker Horror and our extra turn spells. Our payoffs are self explanatory. They are the cards we play after we're already in an endgame state. These will win us the game. While seeing Thassa's Oracle and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries may incite groans and complaints from many players, remember that good decks play good cards. We shouldn't restrict ourselves from playing good cards if we have the option to do so. Plus we cannot guarantee we have the chance to cast The Unspeakable and win with combat damage.

Specific Selection

The purpose of these cards are to recycle, and search for specific cards. Whether they will be grabbing them from deck, graveyard, or even exile will vary from game to game. But these cards add some inevitability to the deck. We will find our power play cards eventually.

Supporting Creatures

These cards are to aid us in achieving a win. While cards such as Displacer Kitten and Peregrine Drake are cards that are potential power players in their own right, we lack ways to search these outside of drawing into them. As such, our strategy will focus on the probability that we don't find these cards early, or find them too late.

Combos and Winning

• Stream of Consciousness + The Unspeakable + Time Warp This is my preferred way of winning. First cast any of our extra turn spells. Next cast Stream of Consciousness putting back our extra turn spell, and anything else you might need. Then swing with The Unspeakable, and with its trigger, return Stream of Consciousness back to your hand. Move to your extra turn and repeat these steps.
• Brain Freeze to mill our opponents out if our storm count is high enough.
• Bouncing all of our opponents' nonland permanents with Hullbreaker Horror
• And of course, we can't leave out the old reliable Leveler + Thassa's Oracle , and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries + Leveler .

Being a storm deck, a lot of combos are more or less synergies that are explored as the storm count ticks up. Displacer Kitten + Gilded Lotus is notable as most of our spells cost 3 or less, allowing us to easily go off as long as we have the gas. Blinking Archaeomancer to grab back High Tide and Turnabout can also allow us to generate a near-infinite supply of mana we can dump into our winning turn as well.

Weaknesses

1. We're very much an all or nothing deck. Emphasis on the nothing part. For a lot of the game, we are not doing a whole lot. Just casting cantrips and drawing cards. There isn't much we can do until our big storm turn. Granted our storm turns are massive, but there is usually a very long calm before we storm off. And may the table have mercy if we fail to win after storming off.
2. Our cards aren't individually powerful. Exceptions of course to our power play cards. Even still, our power play cards often need other cards in order to do anything. Without those, most of our deck is just weak spells that don't scale super well into the late game.
3. Our commander doesn't do anything until late game. Outside of common storm weaknesses, this is by far the biggest weakness. For almost all of the game, our commander is useless. Costing {U}{U}{U} and {6} with no protection doesn't give us a lot of incentive to cast The Unspeakable at any other point in the game. Plus once he does hit the field, he still needs additional help to do anything. Regardless as fast as this deck can potentially play, our reason for building the deck can't help us outside of very specific instances, in an already specific strategy.
4. It's a difficult deck to pilot. Keeping constant notes on board states and storm counts gets exhausting. Storm turns almost have to be planned out in advance for the sake of avoiding slow playing, not even taking into account of any adaptations needed throughout the game.

Why Play the Deck?

There's no better feeling than seeing the look of defeat on people's faces realizing they lost to The Unspeakable of all commanders. But on a more serious note, this deck is for people who like linear strategies with complex executions. You get to learn what your deck is inside and out, and are constantly aware of what is happening with both your own goals and your opponents. This deck rewards vast game knowledge and people who are quick to adapt on the fly. Such knowledge is needed to avoid running into dead draws and interactions, as chances are people often know what you'll be up to, and will try to stop you. It feels rewarding to weave your way through spell after spell to achieve a win, especially with such a card often disregarded as one of the worst commanders of all time.

I have to thank you all for taking your time to view this amalgamation of a deck. I do personally believe that any deck can be viable. Granted, those decks might need a lot of powerful cards. But even so, I do believe that and this was my insane way of proving it. I imagine that some people might think that this is just a generic storm deck with The Unspeakable at the helm just to prove a point, but I disagree. I built this deck with the intention of winning with it , and using it in mind. My playgroup likes to play with very fast decks, as well as strong strategies, so this is built to at least be at the same speed as them. It may not win all the time, but you bet people will remember seeing The Unspeakable not only appear in a game, but maybe it will win some too. Thanks again for viewing one of my favorite pet projects.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	1 year
Key combos	Jace, Wielder of Mysteries + Leveler Leveler + Thassa's Oracle Stream of Consciousness + The Unspeakable + Time Warp Displacer Kitten + Gilded Lotus
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 35 - 0 Rares 13 - 0 Uncommons 20 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.91
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Manifest 2/2 C
Folders	Want to make, Great Decks