The Devil On Your Shoulder - EDH Tempting Deals

Commander / EDH Budget Casual Group Hug Group Slug Multiplayer UBR (Grixis)

poorpinkus

Instant (19)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Counterflux
• 1x Crosis's Charm
• 1x Curtains' Call
• 1x Desertion
• 1x Electrodominance
• 1x Expansion / Explosion
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Insidious Will
• 1x Leadership Vacuum
• 1x Mindswipe
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Starstorm
• 1x Sudden Spoiling
• 1x Suffocating Blast
• 1x Time Stop
• 1x Undermine
• 1x Volcanic Offering
• 1x Wild Ricochet

Sorcery (14)

• 1x Beacon of Unrest
• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Crux of Fate
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Deliver Unto Evil
• 1x Fatal Lore
• 1x Hour of Devastation
• 1x Illicit Auction
• 1x Infernal Offering
• 1x Pain's Reward
• 1x Phthisis
• 1x Toil / Trouble
• 1x Yahenni's Expertise

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God

Land (38)

• 1x Akoum Refuge
• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Bloodfell Caves
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Darkwater Catacombs
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Dismal Backwater
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 10x Island
• 1x Izzet Boilerworks
• 7x Mountain
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Shadowblood Ridge
• 7x Swamp
• 1x Swiftwater Cliffs

Creature (15)

• 1x Ancient Stone Idol
• 1x Bladegriff Prototype
• 1x Bloodgift Demon
• 1x Body of Knowledge
• 1x Chasm Skulker
• 1x Combustible Gearhulk
• 1x Dack's Duplicate
• 1x Duskmantle Seer
• 1x Emberwilde Captain
• 1x Evil Twin
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Sin Prodder
• 1x Thief of Sanity
• 1x Torrential Gearhulk
• 1x Xantcha, Sleeper Agent

Commanders (2)

Artifact (8)

• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Cryptolith Fragment  ^Flip
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Spectral Searchlight
• 1x Thought Vessel

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Fevered Visions
• 1x Rite of the Raging Storm
• 1x Triskaidekaphobia

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Maybeboard

Creature (31)

• 1x Blood Tyrant
• 1x Chasm Skulker
• 1x Combustible Gearhulk
• 1x Conundrum Sphinx
• 1x Coveted Peacock
• 1x Deep-Sea Kraken
• 1x Diluvian Primordial
• 1x Etherium-Horn Sorcerer
• 1x Fumiko the Lowblood
• 1x Goblin Diplomats
• 1x Goblin Racketeer
• 1x Goblin Spymaster
• 1x Hypersonic Dragon
• 1x Indulgent Tormentor
• 1x Ingot Chewer
• 1x Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
• 1x Malfegor
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Nightscape Familiar
• 1x Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
• 1x Noble Benefactor
• 1x Perplexing Chimera
• 1x Prince of Thralls
• 1x Skyline Despot
• 1x Sower of Discord
• 1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
• 1x Treasure Nabber
• 1x Varchild's War-Riders
• 1x Vexing Scuttler
• 1x Witch Engine
• 1x Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow

Sorcery (26)

• 1x Acquire
• 1x Beacon of Unrest
• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Breaking Point
• 1x Browbeat
• 1x Call the Skybreaker
• 1x Choice of Damnations
• 1x Cruel Entertainment
• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 2x Do or Die
• 1x Endless Obedience
• 1x Infernal Offering
• 1x Invoke the Firemind
• 1x Last One Standing
• 1x Phthisis
• 1x Plague of Vermin
• 1x Rise / Fall
• 1x Syphon Mind
• 1x Tempt with Immortality
• 1x Tempt with Vengeance
• 1x Treasure Cruise
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Volcanic Vision

Artifact (5)

• 1x Howling Mine
• 1x Liar's Pendulum
• 1x Obelisk of Grixis
• 1x Veilstone Amulet
• 1x Well of Knowledge

Enchantment (15)

• 1x Battle Strain
• 1x Bloodchief Ascension
• 1x Curiosity
• 1x Deadly Designs
• 1x Dissipation Field
• 1x Enchanter's Bane
• 1x Heat of Battle
• 1x Impatience
• 1x Leyline of Anticipation
• 1x Mana Cache
• 1x Oath of Mages
• 1x Ophidian Eye
• 1x Rivalry
• 1x Shared Fate
• 1x Wound Reflection

Instant (10)

• 1x Aethersnatch
• 1x Capsize
• 1x Comet Storm
• 1x Commandeer
• 1x Expansion / Explosion
• 1x Lightning Storm
• 1x Release to the Wind
• 1x Skeletonize
• 1x Starstorm
• 1x Volcanic Offering

Land (1)

• 1x Reliquary Tower

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A different twist on politics in which the politics aspect of the deck is a side-effect of using cards that benefit oneself

I've had a lot of experience with playing group hug, politics, pillow fort, group slug and chaos archetypes in commander, and I have noticed that the same thing happens every time: Either your deck slows down the game to a grind, the board state becomes a stalemate, you end up giving far too many resources to one person (causing the rest of the players to get upset) or people find you to be a nuisance because you are taking the fun out of their deck by changing the game. Another big problem about these archetypes is that they end up being a fairly sizable trade-off between changing other people's board state and changing your own (i.e. you have no board presence because you were too busy putting vows on everything). This deck is an attempt at finding the optimal balance between politics/group hug/chaos/group slug and having a fun, fair game that you can still be a big player in.

If you were to look at this deck in the most basic form possible, it is obvious that it is a group slug deck; you're dealing damage to players every turn and drawing cards from it. But in practice this deck has much more finesse than most group slug decks.

The idea of the deck is fairly self-explanatory: Ping your opponents every once in a while with Vial Smasher the Fierce to draw cards from Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist, but offer everyone else most of the benefits that you are gaining. People tend to not like Vial Smasher the Fierce all that much, but if you are in a 4-way game, people tend to be willing to roll the dice and take about (on average) 4 damage (or more like 1 damage a round if there was no variance) in order to reap the benefits of Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist.

The thing that sets this deck apart from most group slug decks is that people are usually willing to take the damage that you are dishing out, and half of the reason for this is the fact that the deck works fairly gradually; If you are set out to do something, it is pretty obvious what you are trying to do. This makes you much less of a threat than, say, an infinite combo deck, because it is safe to leave you on the sideline while bigger threats are taken care of.

Another big thing about this deck is that a lot of the time the damage/detriment that is incurred on players is reasonably fair. With Vial Smasher the Fierce, damage is assigned at random, and it isn't all that big of a deal unless it was from a 7-drop. With Fevered Visions, Oath of Mages and Rivalry, damage is dealt to those who have the most resources (hence the reason why I am not including Spiteful Visions in the deck). Sure, Deadly Designs can kill two creatures, but the only time that it would actually be worth using is if there is a big threat on the board and other players agree to help you (otherwise it is a 12-mana Curtains' Call). Sure Fatal Lore, Browbeat, Pain's Reward, Plague of Vermin, Emberwilde Djinn and Vexing Devil can all hurt players pretty badly, but it will only do so if they so choose. In general, people don't mind taking damage or paying resources if they have a choice in the matter (and it isn't intrusive like Rhystic Study).

Anyways, in general, while it seems much more like a group slug deck initially, this deck is meant to be more of a compromise between getting the whole table to have fun and doing well in the game. I am trying to show that the two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, and that you don't need to lower yourself to making everyone else have a bad time in order to do well in a game.

Top Ranked	Achieved #6 position overall 6 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Budget 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Casual 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Group Hug 4 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 44 - 0 Rares 17 - 0 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.97
Tokens	Construct 6/12 C, Elemental 5/1 R, Squid 1/1 U, Monarch Emblem
Folders	Ideas?, Needs Work, Unique EDH, Interesting decks, Commander, Neat Stuff, Need to try!, Think about, Commander, Cool decks i've seen