Tag: Magic the Gathering

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The Great EDH Challenge: BUG – Volrath’s Infect

Decklist: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/volraths-infection-1/

Power Level: 3.25

Ah, Infect. EDH players love to hate Infect. You should see the amount of panic that ensues once people realize that I have brought an infect deck to the table…

I’ve always had a soft spot for Volrath since first reading about him. He is the sort of colorful villain that makes stories worth reading. A rather despicable sort, he makes the perfect representative of the Phyrexians’ powerful keyword, Infect. It also helps that he is a 7/5 that can become a copy of an infect creature while still remaining a 7/5, hehe. The deck is mainly built around having him do just that.

There are only a handful of powerful Infect creatures worth running in Commander, as many are otherwise vanilla creatures with a slight upside. Creatures like Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon and Phyrexian Crusader are better than most, and play invaluable roles in making sure our opponents get to 10 poison counters, since they are reasonably evasive. We usually want counters to be placed on non-legendary creatures though so that Volrath gets the most value. Blighted Agent is a great low mana creature to put a +1/+1 counter on, while Spinebiter is an absolute house to utilize as a copy target in the late game. We usually use Volrath’s -1/-1 counter ability to kill one toughness creatures out opponents control, not to put on our own creatures. We use effect such as a Master Biomancer and Experiment Kraj to put more beneficial counters on our own valuable infect creatures. There aren’t many of these effects in the deck, so you may have to use Volrath’s -1/-1 counter on your own creatures to utilize his copy ability. And don’t forget; you can have Volrath become a copy of your opponents’ creatures if they have any kind of counter on them as well. This is helpful when you are playing against an especially powerful commander with abilities you could benefit from.

There is a clone subtheme to the deck that keeps it quite interesting. Cloning your opponents threats is always fun, especially if you neutralize that effect at the same time with cards like Wall of Stolen Identity. Both our Sakashima creatures allow us to make more Volraths, increasing both his ability to whittle away at our opponents weak creatures AND put pressure on our opponents. Remember, a 7/5 commander only has to hit 3 times for it to kill an opponent with commander damage. There are also effects that aid us in killing with even minimal infect on our opponents, such as Proliferate. Contagion Engine is a powerful threat when our opponents have any poison counters on them, even allowing us to degen their creatures at the same time. Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider is a bit of a win-more card that doubles the amount of poison counters we give to our opponents. Giving him Infect with Grafted Exoskeleton can definitely kill an opponent, and is quite flavorful!

Being BUG, we have to run plenty of removal. And hey, there is plenty of fun removal in Golgari colors. Culling Ritual has been a blast to play with since its release. This card really punishes efficient decks, destroying their mana rocks and dorks while ramping us into Volrath most of the time. Soul Shatter is a great threat hoser, since it deals with each opponent’s biggest creature or planeswalker at once. Languish is a great mid-game boardwipe that doesn’t kill Volrath, and Maelstrom Pulse is incredibly versatile, albeit at sorcery speed. Corrupted Conscience just takes an opponent’s creature, usually their commander, and gives it infect! Some of my favorite games with this deck were when I killed an opponent with infect using their own commander.

As you can probably tell, this deck is a bit all over the place. Mixing Infect with Clone effects may seem strange, but it provides us to nearly double the amount of good infect creatures in our deck. And if the infect plan doesn’t work out, we can always use our opponents’ creatures as a way to beat them. And lastly, be mindful that despite this being an oft-feared Infect deck, it really is only about as powerful as an average Commander precon. With a few tutors and more draw power, it could be a lot more powerful. But I’m happy with my sole Infect deck being a bit underpowered. It makes most of the people I play with rethink their fear of the archetype!

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The Great EDH Challenge: Esper – Sen Triplets: Masters of Your Mind

Decklist: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/21-01-22-masters-of-your-mind/

Power Level: 6.56

Esper is my favorite color combination. The lore of the shard, the art direction they took with it…it all really wowed me. What especially wowed me was the etherium-laced humans that inhabited Esper. Whatever the opposite of “body horror” is, that’s what I felt when I saw them. I was captivated by the idea of such filigree beings. Cards like Master Transmuter and Filigree Sages enthralled me with their unique beauty. But the card that I fell in love with the most was Sen Triplets. I love everything about their card, down to the flavor text. After all, They are the masters of your mind.

This is a theft deck, themed after the Sen Triplets’ signature ability. We take pretty much every card type from our opponents, whether they be lands, sorceries, or whatever. I tried to keep a cliché Esper control theme going as well, so we have plenty of interaction. In the early game, we want to ramp using our talismans and other assorted rocks so we can play our mana-heavy theft effects early. Cards like Praetor’s Grasp and Mnemonic Betrayal are efficient theft cards, and are normally used to steal things like Sol Ring and other value pieces from our opponents. But the haymakers in the deck are costly, such as Blatant Thievery and Expropriate. These cards can usually win you the game, or put you so far ahead that your opponents scoop. Agent of Treachery is probably the best creature in the deck, since it is usually drawing us three cards each end step by the time it is played.

Never play Sen Triplets unless you can protect them. They are a kill-on-sight commander if you are playing with competent opponents, so you will need cards like Lightning Greaves and Fierce Guardianship to make sure they stick around for your next upkeep. Once they stick, the Sen Triplets warp the game around them. Our opponents will crap out their hands just to avoid having their cards stolen by us. Just be mindful that the Sen Triplets is an older card, so it doesn’t have that ubiquitous text of modern-day theft effects; “You may spend mana as though it were any color to cast that spell”. You will need the colors of mana of the card you want to cast from your opponent’s hand, so prioritize choosing opponents who are in your color first.

This is a pretty mean deck, and most people will not want to play against it if they are aware of what the Sen Triplets do. That doesn’t change the fact that this is a fun deck to play, though. Maybe it is the sadist in me, but I take such delight in playing theft effects. If you do as well, then this is definitely the deck for you. You can win with your opponents’ threats, which is always interesting!

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The Great EDH Challenge: Naya – Samut’s Anthem

Decklist: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/samuts-anthem/

Power Level: 3

I love commanders with haste. You know what’s better than a commander with haste? A commander with haste, double strike, and vigilance, that gives all your creatures haste!

I was amazed by Samut when she was first spoiled. This was a legendary black woman with a heck of a lot of power and utility. Plus, as an anarchist myself, “Voice of Dissent” sounds pretty badass. She wasn’t played much in Standard, but I knew that I wanted to make a commander deck with her at the helm someday. Well, that day came a little over a year ago. This deck has a special theme; it revolves around anthem effects, or effects that buff the power and/or toughness of all of your creatures. I originally wanted to make a voltron deck, but I figured that that would be a waste of Samut’s ability to give your other creatures haste.

This deck usually spends the first few turns ramping with cards like Three Visits and Into the North so that we can play our mana-hungry cards during the mid-game. This deck has a pretty high mana curve, so we usually need to spend longer setting up than our opponents. One spell a turn is what you should expect for the first seven turns. Because of this, this deck is really only suited to play with other casual decks, and makes a great companion to precons. If you don’t mind the slower pace of the deck, you will enjoy doing the math when you’re swinging a board with 4 or more anthem effects in play. Swinging a board with Iroas, God of Victory made a creature with devotion heavy lords like Balefire Liege and Angel of Jubilation is quite fun, but does take a bit of set-up.

All in all, this tends to be a battle-cruiser deck that sets-up to play a board of big creatures that empower each other for big swings. Samut can be a quick clock on her own, but is especially dangerous when you have a creature like Boartusk Liege out. And hey, our buddy Odric, Lunarch Marshal loves sharing her Double strike and Vigilance with the rest of the team. If you don’t want to get blown out shortly after playing a few creatures with this deck, hold back until you can make a decisively big swing against a problem opponent. This is generally a very weak deck, so choose your opponents wisely.

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The Great EDH Challenge: Bant – Derevi’s Evasive Stax

Decklist: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/derevis-evasive-stax/

Power Level: 6.2

I used to hate Derevi. I used to think that she deserved to be banned. Having the ability to always pay only 4 mana to put her onto the battlefield from the command zone at instant speed infuriated me. I thought that she violated the spirit of EDH, and that her insane value eclipsed all other commanders. She was the advent of the end of “EDH”, and the dawn of this corporatized version then officially dubbed “Commander”.

Then I built a Derevi deck.

So this deck is not as powerful as many of the Derevi decks I’ve seen over the years. It is a stax deck, so it is definitely still annoying to play. However, it always feels a tad bit slow and janky, so I think I have reached a casual-compromise, if that is possible with such a powerful commander. This deck plays a mix of evasive and value-generating creatures to put pressure on opponents. We hopefully lock our opponents out of playing a normal game by assembling a lock with combos like Heliod, God of the Sun, Stasis, and plenty of evasive creatures while Derevi is out. It is a simple mission, and one that I have rarely actually achieved with this deck.

This deck tends to durdle a bit, not having the tutors and sheer draw necessary to get the pieces we need consistently. This is intentional, as a consistent Derevi Stax deck is hell on earth. This deck takes it easy for the first several turns, as you play your unblockable, otherwise vanilla one-drops like Triton Shorestalker. We essentially slowly begin locking down the game and changing its rules by the middle of the game, playing cards like Hokori, Dust Drinker and the always-hated Static Orb. With Derevi out, we break stax parity with our opponents by using our attacking creatures to untap our own mana sources while sometimes tapping down our opponents’. This strategy is only good with cards like Brave the Sands out, which gives all of our creatures vigilance.

I leaned much more heavily into the blue/green side of things with this deck, enjoying the value Simic tends to generate. Cards like Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath and Oko, Thief of Crowns generate a ton of value all on their own. Speaking of Oko, we have a planeswalker subtheme, running powerful walkers like Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Tamiyo, Field Researcher to further outvalue our opponents. Since our deck is full of creatures, we oftentimes have little trouble protecting our planeswalkers. And hey, planeswalkers are pretty much unaffected by stax cards, making them even more powerful in breaking stax symmetry with our opponents. And speaking of cards that break symmetry, Narset, Parter of Veils is the definition of that concept.

I made this deck because I wanted to challenge my assumptions about the power level of certain cards. If anything, this deck has helped show me that it’s more about how you play certain cards that decide whether they are toxic or not.

This deck is what I’d like to call a “casual stax” deck, lacking many of the pieces that could make it far more powerful. I guess Derevi’s reputation has waned over the years, as I am rarely if ever complained to about running her. She tends to be a small bird that helps my creatures untap lands when they hit my opponents. Not very threatening sounding, is it? Well, looks can be deceiving.

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The Great EDH Challenge: Mardu – Kelsien Human Equipment Deathtouch Pingers

Decklist: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/kelsien-human-equipment-deathtouch-pingers/

Power Level: 6.5

Hey there, it’s been a while! I am finally playing EDH again, thank goodness! I will be back to writing a new deck article at least once a month again, hopefully!

The title is a mouthful, but it best describes the smorgasbord of stuff in this deck. You wouldn’t think such an “eclectic” mix of themes would mesh well together, but they actually do! This is a dynamic, powerful deck that assembles all sorts of pieces to gain a firm grip over the battlefield at all stages of the game.

Typically, this deck plays Kelsien as soon as possible, gives him deathtouch in a myriad of different ways, and starts attacking. It is usually best to ruthlessly go after problematic commanders shortly after they are played, so you can get the most out of Kelsien’s pinpoint removal ability. He permanently gets bigger when you do, after all. The fact that he has fast makes it hilariously easy for him to come out swinging if he gets killed. I have always had a love of hasty commanders, and Kelsien is one of the most versatile hasty boys! And hey, he was already masked up before mask mandates were being put in place!

So, let’s break down the 4 themes of the deck, and how they synergize.

Humans 

The bulk of our creatures are humans. A versatile and diverse lot, this tribe is known for being able to do pretty much anything. In the case of our deck, humans serve two purposes; pingers and support. Our best pingers are humans, including Kelsien. Jeska, Warrior Adept and her brother Kamahl, Pit Fighter are hasty pingers that come out swinging or pinging. General’s Enforcer gives those three indestructible, and Riders of Gavony protects them from a specific tribal deck that we may be going against. Species Specialist rewards us for going after tribal decks (or having our own humans die), and Magus of the Wheel refills our hand. Keeper of the Accord keeps us from falling behind everyone else, as does an early game Weathered Wayfarer. Puresteel Paladin massively synergizes with our equipment theme, while Onyx Mage turns on our deathtouch theme. Another fun fact is that Sun Titan gets back almost all of our humans from the graveyard, including Kelsien!

Equipment 

This deck boasts over 12 equipment cards, and 4 of the premium swords of protection. These equipment are normally used to voltron up Kelsien, but they can be slapped onto many of our creatures if we need to go wide. Otherwise bad equipment like Gorgon’s Head and Gorgon Flail turn on our deathtouch theme when we attach them to pingers, so they play an important role. When you combine them with Thornbite Staff, you have mass creature removal on a stick. Illusionist’s Bracers sometimes allows Kelsien to get double experience counters from killing a two-toughness creature. And hey, cards like Sword of Feast and Famine are just good. Stoneforge Mystic and Stonehewer Giant are great tutors for our equipment, and Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist saves us from spending lots of mana to equip multiple things.

Deathtouch 

Lest we forget, our pingers are pretty mediocre as removal unless we give them deathtouch. Weak cards like Aspect of Gorgon and Retreat to Hagra are only useful in decks such as this. Archetype of Finality and Zagras, Thief of Heartbeats give our whole team deathtouch, which is awesome when he have 3+ pingers out. Gift of Doom is one of my favorite deathtouch-enabling cards, as it also gives indestructible, and can be one heck of a combat trick! Vorpal Sword can straight up kill someone, and Quietus Spike is pretty vicious too.

Pingers 

This is lowkey the most important theme of the deck to me. For me, Kelsien is pinger first, and a human second. Spreading death with toxic arrows seems to be what he is all about. He is the Plague, after all. He is what these four themes are built around, and why giving my pingers deathtouch is so important. You usually aren’t killing creatures with one damage alone, after all. Deathbringer Thoctar and Goblin Sharpshooter are board-wipes on a stick when given deathtouch, making them the ultimate plague pingers. Blood Cultist gets bigger with each creature she kills, just like Kelsien. She also lookts like a vampire, though she is a human for some reason. And hey, Death Pits of Rath turns all our pingers into instant-speed murderers, so no need to jump through extra hoops to give them deathtouch.

This deck is a lot of fun, and is also very powerful. When you combine the machinery of assembling instant-speed pinpoint removal engines with efficient tutors, you are constantly dominating the board in each game you play. This deck has little problem winning against creature decks, and can even go low to the ground to put pressure on midrange decks. This deck struggles against removal and board-wipe heavy control decks, as it is a creature deck itself. In those instances, focus on going after the control player first, so they don’t dominate you later on when you’ve already killed the non-control decks. Kelsien has haste, and stays big thanks to his experience counters, so don’t be afraid to have him kill creatures and beat faces!

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The Great EDH Challenge: Grixis – Sol’kanar, Demon King

Decklist: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/solkanar-demon-king-1/

Power Level: 7.4

We are finally here….Three-Color Commanders! Let’s start with one of my old favs.

My main man Sol’Kanar…what a dirty boy he is. He is ordinarily the Swamp King, murking about in the marshes and mud. However, when he gets bored with that, he goes to Hell and recruits some of his old buddies to wreak havoc throughout the Multiverse. This is what this deck is all about; Sol’kanar and his Demon Entourage wrecking holes.

This is a Demon tribal Battlecruiser deck, where I play a bunch of really high-costed, powerful creatures that do all sorts of interesting things. There are a few low cmc creatures in the deck, like Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire and Kardur, Doomscourge (thanks Kaldheim!), which are still quite powerful. I lean very much on my big boy demons to affect the board throughout the game, especially demons like Dread Cacodemon and Razaketh, the Foulblooded , who can be game-winning plays in the late game.

The high-cost of most of my spells really slows down the deck, so we spend the first four turns mainly ramping with artifacts. We usually play Sol’kanar on turn 5, and begin controlling the game in the following turns while playing bigger and bigger demons. Sol’kanar acts as a five-turn clock, especially when I’ve got Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or Blanket of Night out. He may seem underwhelming, but never underestimate a five-power beater. However, once Sol’kanar is killed, there are plenty of other ways to win without him. Remember, most of our creatures are big, 6+ power flying beaters! You’d be amazed how few commander players actually use creatures that have flying.

And lest you forget, I am a Johnny at heart! There are 2 combos in this deck, if the beater plan fails:

Nexus of Fate + Planar Portal + 13+ mana each turn = Infinite Turns Liliana’s Contract + 4+ Demons with different names on your upkeep = You Win

All in all, this is a pretty casual deck that lets you sit back, relax, and play big stuff to win. There are plenty of tools to help you manage your opponents while you develop your board, and plenty of ways to shift the game in your favor when you fall behind. And don’t forget about the gleeful delight you’ll get from spitefully making an opponent take damage and discard their hand with a big Rakdos’s Return !

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The Great EDH Challenge: Dimir – Silas & Keskit Take Turns

Decklist : https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/silas-keskit-take-turns/?cb=1624308316

Power Level: 9

So, this is basically a Time Sieve deck with plenty of interaction and ramp. The goal of the deck is to assemble a Time Sieve combo that allows us to take enough extra turns to win. Time Sieve is my favorite non-creature artifact, so I’ve always wanted to build around it in EDH.

Silas and Keskit are at the helm due to their sheer utility. Silas Renn, Seeker Adept lets me recast useful artifacts that have probably been destroyed by my opponents or sacrificed by myself. Sometimes he is just a good blocker too, haha. Keskit, the Flesh Sculptor lets me dig three cards deep to find key combo pieces and interaction. He often sits there to sac things that my opponents are about to destroy. Sometimes I cast Keskit when I’m desperate to find something integral in the late game, or when I find myself with a board full of mana rocks and not much else. These two synergize very well together, though Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator might be a good replacement for either if mana acceleration is more your style.

There are numerous combos in this deck, as usual for me. Combining powerful, synergistic artifacts with versatile tutors makes for a very powerful, consistent deck. However, if you wish to simply play a long game with more casual friends, the deck can be played as more of a toolbox, slowly assembling value engines as you interact with your opponents. A few of the combos:

Chromatic Orrery + Filigree Sages = Infinite Mana and Unlimited Draw

Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth + Staff of Domination = Infinite Colorless Mana / Infinite Life / Mass Draw / Etc.

Thopter Foundry triggering on Upkeep then recasting it on Main Phase + Time Sieve = Infinite Turns

Silas Renn, Seeker Adept dealing combat damage + Myr Battlesphere in your graveyard and the mana to cast it + Time Sieve = Enough Turns to Kill Opponents with no blockers

It is also important to note that this isn’t just an Artifact deck, but a Creature deck as well. We use creatures to tutor, interact, and ramp. We have the full Tutor Mage suite here, getting us our most useful artifacts at all CMCs other than 4, haha. Creatures like Duplicant and Meteor Golem act as premium, repeatable sources of removal. Master Transmuter is a classic favorite, letting us cheat expensive artifacts into play while simultaneously saving others. Chief Engineer , Grand Architect , and Etherium Sculptor are excellent forms of artifact ramp. Vedalken Archmage acts as card advantage dynamite in our deck, while Muzzio, Visionary Architect gives us hilarious card selection in the mid and late game.

I love this deck, because it has almost all of my favorite artifacts and artifact interactions. It even has the three best Tezzerets in it! Despite it’s Time Sieve theme, there are many ways to play it, and each game tends to feel fresh.

Ah we finally made it through the 2-color commanders! Next time, we’ll be bumping up the complexity (and the jank!) a bit with my 3-color commander decks!

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The Great EDH Challenge: Gruul – Gallia the Party Girl!

Decklist: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/gallia-the-party-girl/

Power Level: 3.71

Yo, Gallia is lit! She’s got haste, and I love commanders with haste! She’s a lord for one of my favorite tribes, Satyrs! She even has inherent card advantage built into her, synergizing with her aggro strategy! Man, this card just oozes synergy, and I truly realized that when I built this deck. Most Satyrs are 2 mana, making it easy to have a bunch of small hasty bodies to put pressure on my opponents. The only downside is that most Satyrs are pretty bad, especially in a high-power format like EDH. But who cares, let’s party!

The gameplan is to play Gallia as early as possible, alongside as many Satyrs as you can. When you have three attacking creatures, always utilize her triggered ability to discard a card at random and draw two. This ability is really what makes Gallia shine, as she lets you replace Satyrs as your opponents increasingly chump-block and board-wipe the annoying hasty party animals. You will oftentimes discard a useful removal or buffing card, but it is best not to lament what you’ve lost, but instead be happy for the 2 new cards that you’ve gained!

Choosing one opponent and focusing them is usually the best course of action when playing aggro, but it is okay to change targets if your chosen opponent starts playing fat-bootied blockers, or has pillow fort up. The biggest problem with Gallia and the Satyrs is that they are so small. We get around this by playing anthem effects like Door of Destinies , Shared Animosity , and an actual anthem, Gaea’s Anthem . Eldrazi Monument is amazing in this deck, as Gallia’s triggered ability usually lets us get more Satyrs to sac to the monument. We have a few more evasive measures to help us out during combat, such as Goblin War Drums to give our boys and girls menace, and Dolmen Gate to help them survive uneven combats. We also protect our team with Heroic Intervention of course, and the card I played before that one came out, Wrap in Vigor .

And of course, winning with a top-decked Triumph of the Hordes is always funny!

There is plenty of interaction in the deck, because sometimes you have to blow stuff up to win. Star of Extinction is always funny, and does a good job getting rid of a battlefield full of too many blockers. There are many Satyrs that destroy artifacts, so I usually don’t have a problem against those sorts of decks. Decimate is probably my favorite RG spell, as it usually decimates my opponents in the early game, haha.

There is one infinite combo in the deck that I’m aware of. This is a classic RG one, and I’ve always wanted to run it:

Druids’ Repository + at least 5 attacking creatures + Aggravated Assault = Infinite Combat phases and Main phases

I have a habit of calling Druids’ Repository -> Druids’ Suppository , so yeah, it’s always fun to play that card. I think it is a busted card in go wide decks, to be honest.

All in all, this is a very fun deck to play, even if most of my playgroup laughs at low-power decks such as this. This goes up great against a precon, and I enjoy having a fun, chaotic deck to play a table of new players. One thing is for certain; I’m always doing something when I’m playing this deck, even if it’s just playing my party girl for the third time. 😀

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The Great EDH Challenge: Selesnya – Saffi’s Sacrifice

Saffi Eriksdotter

Decklist: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/saffis-sacrifice-4/?cb=1612205283

Power Level: 8.21

Little Miss Saffi just loves sacrificing herself for the Greater Good…if only she could tutor that card up all by herself!

This is a combo deck masquerading as a value deck, plain and simple. I think there are over 10 infinite combos in this deck…pretty strong eh? Yeah, this deck tends to win out of nowhere, especially if the game drags on. This deck is known to prolong the game until it wins using its wide selection of “combat denial” strategies, and it’s many forms of interaction. The sheer amount of interaction in the deck makes it a pleasure to play, as I’m always making an impact on the game.

What further pushes this deck’s power level is the sheer amount of tutors I run. Finale of Devastation, Woodland Bellower, and Eldritch Evolution are some of the best, as they put the tutored creature right onto the battlefield. The funny thing is that I could put even better tutors into the deck to further augment it’s power. Amongst all the other strengths that Green has, tutoring for creatures is one of it’s best.

The primary strategy of the deck is to play Saffi on turn two, and deal with opponents while you slowly assemble combo pieces utilizing tutors/draw. The deck has a mix of removal, hatebears, and fog-effects, to deal with the assortment of deck archetypes that one can expect to encounter in EDH. Peacekeeper laughs at aggro decks, stopping them from even getting attack triggers. Gaddock Teeg laughs at control and combo decks, denying them boardwipes and various infinite mana win conditions. Scavenging Ooze laughs at graveyard decks, as it eats their win conditions. Stopping your opponents from winning is merely half of the winning equation, as we must win ourselves. We do that using the numerous infinite combos in this deck.

Saffi can infinitely recur multiple creatures in this deck, with the help of a sac outlet like Altar of Dementia:

Renegade Rallier, Sun Titan, Reveillark, Timely Hordemate, Shepherd of the Cosmos and Karmic Guide

Saffi + any of these cards + a free sac outlet = Mass or infinite effects from the sac outlet you are using, e.g. Altar of Dementia allows you to mill all of your opponents out, while Phyrexian Altar gives you infinite mana.

The primary struggle in this deck is getting to a free sac outlet. Green/White doesn’t have many options for free sac outlets on creatures, only having Reaper of Flight Moonsilver if you have delirium. I tend to tutor for cheaper, non-free sac outlets such as Starved Rusalka if I have a recursive creature early on, as getting delirium tends to be a bit difficult in this creature-heavy deck.

Other combos utilizing sac outlets include:

Sun Titan + Angelic Renewal

Sun Titan + Fiend Hunter

Renegade Rallier + Angelic Renewal

Shepherd of the Cosmos + Angelic Renewal

Reveillark + Karmic Guide

Luminous Broodmoth + Solemnity + A creature without Flying

Vizier of Remedies + Woodfall Primus = Destroy all non-creature permanents!! (I sure do love destroying all of my opponents’ lands!)

And here are a few other fun combos:

Vizier of Remedies + Devoted Druid = Infinite Green Mana

Vizier of Remedies + Devoted Druid + Finale of Devastation = Any creature in your deck onto the battlefield + Infinitely Big Hasty Creatures

Boonweaver Giant getting Pattern of Rebirth + Boonweaver’s death = Tutor for any creature in this deck and put it into play.

So, all in all, this deck is all about sacrifice. Will you sacrifice your creatures just for value, or to win it all? Only time will tell. 😀

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The Great EDH Challenge: Boros – Gerrard’s Sunrise

Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero

Decklist: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/gerrards-sunrise/

Power Level: 7.1

Look at how handsome they made Gerrard! Our hero finally gets the busted card he deserves.

This is an “Eggs-like” deck, where my commander dies and brings back all of my other creatures and artifacts that went to the grave during the turn. This lets me get back mana rocks and artifact lands that I use for mana to then replay Gerrard, allowing me to repeat the process.

This is a value deck, with the potential to combo and win with damage-dealing cards such as Reckless Fireweaver and/or Impact Tremors. However, like many eggs decks, this is a time-consuming venture with the potential to whiff. We can instead draw lands when we’d rather draw more sources of mana or card draw. Because of how drawn out my turns can be when I am trying to loop Gerrard without Loyal Retainers out, I tend to simply use Gerrard as a value engine until I am sure I can tutor for combo pieces.

The most important combo pieces in this deck are sac outlets, such as Ashnod’s Altar and Thermopod. Our deck doesn’t function all too well without being able to sac Gerrard and our board to trigger his ability.

This deck lets you do mean things like continuously Oblivion Stone, since Gerrard will bring it back and all the mana rocks used to pop it. For the most part though, this is a sorcery speed deck, so we want to hold back our greatest plays until it is our turn. Gerrard can’t get things out of our graveyard that were put there during earlier turns, though we have a few spells that can.

Commander Legends granted this card an amazing combo piece that only requires my commander and a sac outlet to go infinite, Hellkite Courser. Courser yanks Gerrard out of the command zone when it etbs, and Gerrard brings it back after sacrificing them both, creating a loop. This loop occurs because Gerrard always ends up back in the command zone after bringing Hellkite Courser back. I was able to perform this combo in the first game after I put Hellkite Courser in the deck. It sure did feel satisfying!

This deck has the Station combo, utilizing Blasting Station, Salvaging Station, and Flayer Husk.

This deck also includes the Bomberman combo, utilizing Auriok Salvagers, Lion’s Eye Diamond, and Pyrite Spellbomb.

This deck compliments my Saffi Eriksdotter deck, as they both are janky combo decks that usually just play out like value decks. This deck tends to have me playing solitaire, as is the nature of eggs decks when they decide to “go-off”. Prepare to deal with impatient players complaining as you take a 15+ minute turn, as they have every right to. But like most solitaire decks, it sure is fun to tinker around with your board as your opponents sweat bullets, wondering if they still have a chance to win. shrug