EDH Ishkanah, Queen of Spiddies!

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Casual Multiplayer Theme/Gimmick Tokens Tribal

Bou

Land (36)

• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Dakmor Salvage
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 9x Forest
• 1x Foul Orchard
• 1x Golgari Rot Farm
• 1x Hissing Quagmire
• 1x Jungle Hollow
• 1x Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 5x Swamp
• 1x Swarmyard
• 1x Tainted Wood
• 1x Temple of Malady
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Tranquil Thicket
• 1x Tree of Tales
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of Whispers
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Artifact (11)

• 1x Blade of Selves
• 1x Coat of Arms
• 1x Conjurer's Closet
• 1x Doubling Cube
• 1x Illusionist's Bracers
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Rings of Brighthearth
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Slate of Ancestry
• 1x Strionic Resonator
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

Creature (20)

• 1x Arachnoid
• 1x Arachnus Spinner
• 1x Blightwidow
• 1x Giant Spider
• 1x Graverobber Spider
• 1x Jungle Weaver
• 1x Juvenile Gloomwidow
• 1x Kessig Recluse
• 1x Netcaster Spider
• 1x Nyx Weaver
• 1x Obelisk Spider
• 1x Oran-Rief Recluse
• 1x Penumbra Spider
• 1x Sentinel Spider
• 1x Silklash Spider
• 1x Skysnare Spider
• 1x Sporecap Spider
• 1x Stingerfling Spider
• 1x Swift Spinner
• 1x Watcher in the Web

Instant (11)

• 1x Arachnogenesis
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Eaten by Spiders
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Gloomwidow's Feast
• 1x Harrow
• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Naturalize
• 1x Putrefy
• 1x Second Harvest
• 1x Sudden Spoiling

Commander (1)

Enchantment (12)

• 1x Arachnus Web
• 1x Asceticism
• 1x Assault Formation
• 1x Black Market
• 1x Burgeoning
• 1x Doubling Season
• 1x Font of Fertility
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Parallel Lives
• 1x Primal Vigor
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Wound Reflection

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Explosive Vegetation
• 1x Gleeful Sabotage
• 1x Life from the Loam
• 1x Maelstrom Pulse
• 1x Spider Spawning
• 1x Sylvan Scrying
• 1x Treasured Find

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Maybeboard

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Benefaction of Rhonas
• 1x Commune with the Gods
• 1x Far Wanderings
• 1x Mulch
• 1x Nature's Spiral
• 1x Recollect
• 1x Regrowth

Land (5)

• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Verdant Catacombs

Instant (1)

• 1x Grapple with the Past

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Descendants' Path
• 1x Leyline of Vitality
• 1x Vessel of Nascency

Creature (2)

• 1x Archweaver
• 1x Tangle Spider

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Ishkanah! Legendary spider <3

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So pwetty :3

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Delirium Enablers

I've seen quite a few Deadbridge Chants and Mulchs and Grisly Salvages.. but I prefer selective or targeted Self-milling. It's not too bad if something gets sent to the graveyard, but I'd rather not have everything good in there as then I'd need to put recursion in the deck to get it back. That would mean less spiders!

Entomb: This card is amazing. Search for Arachnoid to quickly get artifact and creature in your graveyard, Nyx Weaver for enchantment and creature, or Life from the Loam or whatever you need.

Font of Fertility: While a bit expensive to ramp for Land, it is an enchantment. Otherwise I'd never have considered this card. Stumbled on it when searching my box for something else.

Harrow: Already quite common card in green as you get two new Lands untapped into play, it helps putting Land in your graveyard for Delirium

Life from the Loam: The Dredge on this card is insane for filling your graveyard, but as this deck does not have a lot of card draw, be careful not to use it too much after achieving Delirium.

Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds are also quite common in multi-color decks. Seeing as we use two colors only, normally you wouldn't need them for mana-fixing. But the fact that they need to be sacrificed is great for Delirium!

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After Delirium

Once you have your Delirium requirements met, its time for Ishkanah, Grafwidow to really shine! .. or chomp on enemies. Whatever she feels like.

Ishkanah, Grafwidow: Makes three spider tokens when she enters the battlefield. Naturally, you want to use these for her mana ability: - Target Opponent loses 1 Life for each Spider you control. So, we need things that help put as many spiders in play as possible!

Conjurer's Closet: At the end of the day (turn) Ishkanah hides in the closet, as spiders sometimes do. And when she comes back, she brings more tokens.

Illusionist's Bracers: Mastering the art of deception, Ishkanah magically conjures up illusions and deals double damage with her ability! Ishkanah also has the Rings of Brighthearth and Strionic Resonator lying around in her treasure pile.

Blade of Selves: Spiders with swords! Myriad makes a new Ishkanah, Grafwidow Token for each opponent, triggering Delirium again! If you have Parallel Lives and/or Primal Vigor as well, you get multiple Ishkanah tokens which spawn more and more spiders!

Panharmonicon: New, but can be very effective. Will try and see how this plays off with myriad triggers, and Conjurer's Closet. But is probably not that useful aside from these. Think of it as an extra Parallel Lives.

Spider Spawning: Is an old favorite, makes spider tokens based on how many creatures you have in your graveyard, and has Flashback. This is why people usually mill in spider decks, and as we use targeted milling it loses some play value. Still good though if your group has a lot of mass removal or if you block all your real spiders to their deaths.

Arachnogenesis: Spider-fog! Can win you the game if you use it after attacking with everything, leaving you "undefended", then pow! spiders everywhere~ Ishkanah approves.

Second Harvest: Token doubler, pretty straightforward. If they let you have enough tokens on the field in the first place, their loss. Parallel Lives and Primal Vigor are there for even more fun.

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Removal

There comes a time when Ishkanah will not be able to eat something. It happens.. for example, if you don't have your artifacts in play; Coat of Arms for example. Without these, your spiders will need some help.

Eaten by Spiders and Gloomwidow's Feast: While they specifically target flying creatures, I have had no issue with casting them so far, eating dragons and angels alike.

Putrefy, Gleeful Sabotage, Maelstrom Pulse and Naturalize: For when your Spiders need to put something in their mouths without checking if it's edible.

Hero's Downfall: For when there's something your spiders don't like eating but still need to get rid of, like those pesky heroes.

Arachnus Web: To save things for later, maybe eat it, maybe don't, we'll decide later. (My friend's Mayael the Anima makes an excellent preserved snack, he disagreed though.)

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Other

Asceticism: Gives all our spiders Hexproof, protecting them from opponents while still allowing our own tricks. While it has a higher mana cost than Steely Resolve, the crucial element here is the difference between Hexproof and Shroud. It is for this same reason that I prefer Swiftfoot Boots over Lightning Greaves, it takes a tiny bit more mana but allows for so much more.

Wound Reflection: Dealt combat damage? Deal it again. Ishkanah used her ability? Deal it again. Someone takes damage or loses life during multiplayer from anything else? Deal it again! (If you have the Illusionist's Bracers on Ishkanah or Strionic Resonator in play, you can further multiply the damage/loss of life).

Necropotence: Since we have plenty of life anyway as everyone fears our mighty spiderlings(!) we can sacrifice some to draw a few more cards.

Sylvan Library: Scurrying in the woods, our spiders see everything, including your next few draws! for a price.. you can get them in your hand faster. Works well with Abundance, might add that in later.

Cabal Coffers & Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: I felt like I needed more access to mana, so will try this combination. Will also add the reprinted Crop Rotation to help tutor.

Doubling Cube: What's better than having a lot of mana? - Right, even more mana! The above combo worked pretty well, and this card just improves that further. Even if you can't combo Cabal Coffers & Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, you can still double up at a mere cost. It can't be copied with the other artifacts, but meh - we gotta keep the game fun.

Black Market: Someone in my playgroup suddenly whipped this out onto the battlefield, gathered a huge stack of mana and proceeded to not do anything with it. I think we can find a use for all the mana this provides.

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Alternatives

Seeing as we've gotten a lot more competitive, I've begun building a new version of this deck.. it's got a lot more interactions with self-mill and the graveyard, but it should be considerably faster. I will keep it as a theoretical build for now.

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EDH Ishkanah, Queen of Spiddies! v2

Commander / EDH Bou

SCORE: 13 | 8 COMMENTS | 1816 VIEWS | IN 6 FOLDERS

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Top Ranked	Achieved #3 position overall 7 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	6 years
Exclude colors	WUR
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 31 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 27 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.44
Tokens	Copy Clone, Spider 1/2 G, Spider 2/4 B
Folders	Fun Decks, EDH, Ishkanah, Commander Deck, Stuff I like, Commander Decks, commander decks , edh, Builds I like, EDH
Based on	EDH Doran Spiders Bou EDH