Land (31)
- 1x Azorius Chancery
- 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
-
1x
Breeding Pool
- 1x City of Brass
- 1x Command Tower
- 1x Flooded Strand
- 1x Forbidden Orchard
- 1x Forest
- 1x Gaea's Cradle
- 1x Gruul Turf
- 1x Halimar Depths
-
1x
Hallowed Fountain
- 1x Island
- 1x Izzet Boilerworks
- 1x Mana Confluence
- 1x New Benalia
-
1x
Reflecting Pool
-
1x
Sacred Foundry
- 1x Scalding Tarn
- 1x Selesnya Sanctuary
- 1x Simic Growth Chamber
-
1x
Steam Vents
-
1x
Temple Garden
- 1x Temple of Abandon
- 1x Temple of Enlightenment
- 1x Temple of Epiphany
- 1x Temple of Mystery
- 1x Temple of Plenty
- 1x Temple of Triumph
- 1x Windswept Heath
- 1x Wooded Foothills
Artifact (7)
Creature (17)
- 1x Argothian Elder
- 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
- 1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
- 1x Birds of Paradise
- 1x Bloom Tender
- 1x Eternal Witness
- 1x Fatestitcher
- 1x Kiora's Follower
- 1x Krosan Restorer
- 1x Lotus Cobra
- 1x Magus of the Candelabra
- 1x Noble Hierarch
- 1x Oracle of Mul Daya
- 1x Palinchron
- 1x Stone-Seeder Hierophant
- 1x Trinket Mage
- 1x Voyaging Satyr
Enchantment (13)
Commander (1)
Instant (17)
- 1x Beast Within
- 1x Brainstorm
- 1x Capsize
- 1x Chaos Warp
- 1x Crop Rotation
- 1x Cyclonic Rift
- 1x Delay
- 1x Eladamri's Call
- 1x Enlightened Tutor
- 1x Frantic Search
- 1x Mystical Tutor
- 1x Noxious Revival
- 1x Pact of Negation
- 1x Remand
- 1x Snap
- 1x Stifle
- 1x Worldly Tutor
Sorcery (11)
Sideboard
Artifact (3)
Sorcery (1)
Instant (2)
Creature (1)
Maybeboard
Sorcery (3)
Creature (1)
Foreward
This deck is heavily inspired by Dan Brown's (a.k.a Pogobat's) Cromat / Progenitus 5c "combo" build found here
You might consider watching the whole progression of the deck from video to video to get a really good idea how the deck works and the 'decision trees' involved in playing a winning hand. I used his work and his ideas and merely transposed them into what I felt was a different and perhaps more suitable shell. The Lover's Meletis in some ways accomplishes what I believe Dan wanted out of a commander; a wide array of color accessibility with a total "rouse" for a general. Such was the purpose of Progenitus, which served to mask the true intention of the deck while allowing the pilot to go wide for tutors, card advantage, value engines, and answers to interact with the board. The biggest difference between the 5c and the Non-Black build is clearly the absence of the best tutors in the format. However, what we get in return is focus, resilience, and the satisfaction of playing what everyone assumes is a warm embrace of group hug - followed by the actual act of handing out the free hugs and still winning from the resulting value engines.
As of right now I'm still 4 cards short in the list - though I could shore it up with some fill ins from the sideboard list, I'd like to be as confident as possible before committing to a full 100 and would welcome suggestions.
Concept and Choice Inclusions
The idea of the deck revolves around the exploitation of the ravnica karoos (and we are particularly interested in the /Blue karoos), Voyaging Satyr and crew, and an acessory of other cards that serve to exponentially increase the mana we can produce per tap. This lets us play more cards, which in turn again boosts our mana per tap, or allow us to untap our lands or our Voyaging Satyr and friends. Rinse and repeat until eventually we can draw or tutor into our win cons and end the game decisively. Jeskai Ascendancy comes up huge in this regard, allowing us to not only untap cards like Krosan Restorer or Stone-Seeder Hierophant, but also our effective mana dorks such as Birds of Paradise and Bloom Tender. Ascendancy also allows us to filter the top of our library; which is relevant in the deck's playstyle when we consider Magus of the Future , Future Sight, Possibility Storm, and even Oracle of Mul Daya. This being said, Jeskai Ascendancy is not required for winning, despite its namesake in the title, it is merely a high point and certainly a card I've loved to build around in EDH for a while.
How do we win? Show
Let's run through some of the card choices (I'll run through a litany of options, some of which won't be on my current list but are there for your consideration);
Tutors Show
Lands and land synergy Show
Off the Top Rope! Show
Filling in the Blanks / Miscellaneous Show
Playing the Deck
In short, piloting the deck feels like taking your first myers briggs personality test; you make a series of ambiguous choices to whose consequences can't be certain until after the game is over. While this sounds like playing every deck ever; the difference here is refreshing. The decision trees vary game by game, and what may seem as the obvious choice in game 1 may lead you well towards defeat the following game. It should be no surprise that the deck is far from linear, and from such a characteristic comes versatility. Meanwhile, every decision you make comes with a feeling of uncertainty, and some consequence of many of your actions are simply left to chance.
Simplified, you will have to balance between committing resources to the board state, taking advantages of those resources, or leaving resources open to interact with opponents. The further along you are able to progress with the deck's plan, the more all three of these factors blend together into one well-oiled value engine. We run a suite of answers despite our knowledge of card disadvantage not only for a measure of security, but because the approach and climax of the deck's critical mass is not hindered by our loss of card disadvantage by using such answers. In other words, we draw a lot of cards and dig from the top so much it doesn't matter - we will still have more mana and more card advantage resources than our opponents if we can even so much as get our 'foot' through the board state.
The presence of a blue karoo, or an enchanted land from Dawn's Reflection; is often vital to our operations. The deck is reliant on blue heavily, and if you find you are lacking the right colored mana at the right time frequently I would consider examining the mana base. This should also be kept in mind when determining mulligans, blue and green are the main colors and are some indicators of whether to keep a playable hand or not.
While our general is not needed for our strategy and it could be said one need never cast it, you should not hesitate when the opportunity arises. If you find yourself in a lull (which from personal experience doesn't happen too often), or see a fine moment to employ good politics, then by all means commence the hugs. Kynaios and Tira are more beneficial for us not only as a card itself but in the overall strategy as well. Our general gives us extra lands drops, and playing off the top of our library means we can increase the likely hood or even control whether or not we can access a land to abuse our commander's ability.
Conclusion / Misc
A few definitive thoughts come to mind after initial and repeated sessions of playtest;
1) This deck is resilient
2) This deck is consistent
3) This deck is slower than other competitive midrange builds.
I found my condition very resilient against stax. In fact in many cases this deck gets more parity benefits than other midrange builds. This may be due to our ability to eek out more lands per turn, our dependency on, in some cases, only one land and thusly our redundant ability to untap and play off of said land; or our abundant sources of spot or efficient removal. The exception here might be cards like Back to Basics, Ruination, Blood Moon, and etc but we certainly can look for those picks and play around or with them (even swapping in more basic lands if needed). The weakness of the deck is easily its slower speed against the mainstay midrange combo giants such as Karador, Ghost Chieftain or Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord and we should certainly acknowledge a distinct disadvantage against fast combo (at least in a vacuum). This hopefully should not discourage any player from trying this build or a similar one; as the deck's strength in fact lies in its deceptive durdliness and its privilege to allow others to "fail first."
The deck can consistently win fast; but I've found myself more often playing the table to commit my opponent's resources against each other before going for an easy win. If that line of play appears linear, I can always cheese a win as early as possible. Better yet, I can even feint an early victory, exhaust my opponents resources and still hold up open mana and cards in hand to answer another's attempt to win; all the while increasing my chances at suceeding future attempts to win. This flexibility is refreshing, and keeps our opponent's guessing and working with us at the same time.
More stuff!
Here you can find other guide's to other builds I've worked on in the past - I do try to keep them updated as I see fit.
Ivory Doom: Ayli and the Clerics of Dominaria
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 40 | 31 COMMENTS | 4452 VIEWS | IN 30 FOLDERS
Divergent Athreos: The Bouncer at Club Erebos
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 75 | 39 COMMENTS | 9099 VIEWS | IN 32 FOLDERS
Feel free to check it out!
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| Top Ranked |
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| Date added | 8 years |
| Last updated | 4 years |
| Legality | This deck is not Commander / EDH legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 3 - 1 Mythic Rares 52 - 2 Rares 22 - 2 Uncommons 18 - 2 Commons |
| Cards | 97 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.35 |
| Tokens | Beast 3/3 G, Saproling 1/1 G, Spirit 1/1 C |
| Folders | EDH, Stuff I like, Good ideas, Bookmarks, EDH, EDH Ideas, Commander / EDH, Primers - All of them, Cool Decks, EDH |
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