My first EDH deck!

Deck Help forum

Posted on April 29, 2012, 10:04 a.m. by TylerJohns

Hello Hello!

I am Tyler Johns, and I love combo/control decks.

I really don't like anything other than standard, because the more cards you have access to the faster the games become.

I want to try EDH because games are LONG.

I saw the card riku-of-the-two-reflections and fell in love.

I know nothing about lands, how many to have in an EDH deck, what counters, draw spells, or how EDH works in the first place.

I would love some guidance!

THANK YOU

Epochalyptik says... #2

This article might be of use to you.

Generally, 34-37 lands is a good starting point for an EDH deck.

Your choice of counterspells and draw spells depends on your choice of win condition. Remember that counter and draw are supporting abilities/spells/effects in an EDH deck, so you'll need to use them to support an overarching strategy.

April 29, 2012 11:50 a.m.

TylerJohns says... #3

Ya just blue my mind with that second part...

This deck is 3 colors too o.O

April 29, 2012 12:23 p.m.

Epochalyptik says... #4

Don't forget that EDH decks (and especially any EDH decks with green in them) have access to an entire history of ramp spells and mana fixers. You won't really want to be running more lands than 38, and my decks have traditionally used 36 as the default.

Mana rocks like Thran DynamoMTG Card: Thran Dynamo, Gilded LotusMTG Card: Gilded Lotus, the Ravnican Signets, Sol RingMTG Card: Sol Ring, and Mana CryptMTG Card: Mana Crypt add to your mana production and color fixing.

Creatures like Primeval TitanMTG Card: Primeval Titan and Yavimaya ElderMTG Card: Yavimaya Elder can serve a similar purpose.

April 29, 2012 12:48 p.m.

TylerJohns says... #5

Hmm.

Would it be a good idea for me to go through every card released and read them all? I know so little.

April 29, 2012 1:53 p.m.

Epochalyptik says... #6

That would take you quite a while and it'd be difficult to note interactions between cards in different sets/blocks. I would look up some decklists for other Riku builds and get an idea of what is most immediately available in those colors. This limits your focus to the more usable cards in your colors and is much easier and faster to read.

April 29, 2012 1:58 p.m.

TylerJohns says... #7

Ah, thanks a lot mate!

April 29, 2012 2:32 p.m.

Atsuma says... #8

Riku is notorious for utilizing (abusing) come into play effects on creatures and giant nasty spells. Time StretchMTG Card: Time Stretch, Primeval TitanMTG Card: Primeval Titan, MulldrifterMTG Card: Mulldrifter are all great examples of things to abuse, and a special note on things with evoke like Mulldrifter, if you copy it after evoking, the copy stays. Gilded DrakeMTG Card: Gilded Drake and BriberyMTG Card: Bribery get a mention as well. fun thing with bribery is you can copy it twice, and then copy the creatures when they come in. with all the big spells you will be casting, having some massive ramp sure won't hurt, and things like CultivateMTG Card: Cultivate and Explosive VegetationMTG Card: Explosive Vegetation are always fun. all in all, you can get some nasty control, card draw, and copy effects from blue, ramp and huge creatures from green, and burn and more copy stuff from red. i think Wild RicochetMTG Card: Wild Ricochet could be a fun card.

April 29, 2012 6:40 p.m.

Epochalyptik says... #9

Going off what Atsuma said, Riku decks are typically built around a two-stage strategy. The first involves quickly ramping into a large amount of mana with everything from ramp spells to mana rocks and doublers (Doubling CubeMTG Card: Doubling Cube, Mana ReflectionMTG Card: Mana Reflection). The second involves abusing Riku's copy abilities to build an intimidating field presence very rapidly or even combo off.

Speaking of combos, PalinchronMTG Card: Palinchron + Riku/Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger MTG Card: Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger is an infinite mana combo. Once set up, you can CapsizeMTG Card: Capsize your opponents' boards, Blue Sun's ZenithMTG Card: Blue Sun's Zenith them all out of the game, or Comet StormMTG Card: Comet Storm them to death.

April 29, 2012 7:01 p.m.

This discussion has been closed