Ezuri, Claw of Progress

Legendary Creature — Phyrexian Elf Warrior

Whenever a creature with power 2 or less enters the battlefield under your control, you get an experience counter.

At the beginning of combat on your turn, put X +1/+1 counters on another target creature you control, where X is the number of experience counters you have.

Tokens

• Experience Token

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

Coward_Token on Edge of Eternities Previews

3 months ago

Warping uses the original mana value right? Nice with e.g. OG!Rashmi (and e.g. Bygone Colossus)

I hope there'll be an MV 1 creature that makes a Lander on ETB. Anyway, I like being able to trigger landfall on other people's turns.

I like the design of Terrasymbiosis, it both rewards big piles of counters and putting out a single one each turn (e.g. Forgotten Ancient)

Ouroboroid is the new best friend of e.g. Ezuri, Claw of Progress and Jenova, Ancient Calamity

Archenemy's Charm: Kinda disappointed compared to Archmage's Charm & Archdruid's Charm. At least K'rrik is happy to have free removal

Genemorph Imago: I would appreciate the Metroid-esque art a lot more if it was stapled on a land-based burner. Guess it's basically blasting an ally with a enlarging ray?

Sunset Saboteur: Hmmm, any good group slug commanders for this?

Ragost, Deft Gastronaut: Nuka-Cola Vending Machine + Amulet of Vigor

Uthros, Titanic Godcore: Is it tiresome if I predict that the white land in this cycle will be the worst?

Timeline Culler: bratty Gravecrawler

artistickamenrider on WOTC announcement - All Commanders …

1 year ago

When I learned about this event, the first pair I thought of were Ezuri, Claw of Progress and Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon. That is mainly due to how fast it can get out of hand.

Neotrup on How does Ezuri, claw of …

2 years ago

The creatures enter with the counters. There is no point in which they do not have the counters, so Ezuri, Claw of Progress will not trigger. If the ability used the stack, they would be a 0/0 while waiting for the ability to resolve, which would make them go to the graveyard as a state based action.

Some spells or abilities create a token that's a 0/0 and then immediately give it power and toughness during the resolution. Key examples would be Fractals from Strixhaven or Germs from living weapon equipment. These do enter and exist as a 0/0 during the resolution of the spell or ability creating them, so they will trigger Ezuri, Claw of Progress even though they're larger when Ezuri's ability resolves.

Monomanamaniac on How does Ezuri, claw of …

2 years ago

If I have Ezuri, Claw of Progress in play and I play a Kalonian Hydra, do I get an experience counter? I thought that creatures that had counters on them as they enter the battlefield have those placed on them by a trigger on the stack that can be responded to, which would somehow give ezuri a window to see those creatures as 0/0 by having his ability resolve first. From what I have seen though it looks like those counters basically materialize out of nowhere and there is no way to make it work like that. How can effects like Hardened Scales be able to see the counters being put on the creature?

Maaloufler on Hive Mind! (+1/+1 / Tribal The Swarmlord)

2 years ago

Why not run Ezuri, Claw of Progress? It puts counters on your creatures every combat. Also with the {X} costs you can also run Rosheen Meanderer and Unbound Flourishing

Guerric on Need help with Simic Storm

3 years ago

That's a wicked cool combo Ramble! I'll remember it if I ever build Ezuri, Claw of Progress. If counter storm is what we are going with, cards like the aforementioned Ezuri, lots of proliferate cards likeEvolution Sage, Flux Channeler, and Karn's Bastion. Cards like Hadana's Climb  ^Flip, and payoffs like Sage of Hours, which goes infinite with Ezuri. Having sone ways to blibk Toothy like with Conjurer's Closet or Thassa, Deep-Dwelling are good too.

Guerric on Deck Archetypes in EDH

3 years ago

Hi all! There's an interesting question I've been pondering lately, and I thought I'd share some of my reflections on it and get input from all of you. In sixty card magic we have deck archetypes, namely aggro, control, midrange, combo, and tempo. In commander obviously things look pretty different, and several years ago on the Command Zone podcast they said that like in limited, there aren't really deck archetypes this way, just different flavors of midrange.

As the format has developed and changed a lot over the years I do think something like these archetypes exists in commander, they're just different. For those familiar with sixty card formats some of the hard and fast rules for those archetypes in sixty card magic do not apply, and there certainly is more fluidity on commander and other unique multiplayer strategies as well (ex. Group Hug). Nonetheless, I think the outline of most of these archetypes is still relevant. Here is how I think it plays out-

1) Aggro- I think something more like classic aggro has only become viable in commander in the past couple of years, but I think it is definitely a thing now. In sixty card magic, most creatures are in the one to three drop range, there is often no focus on card draw, and everything in the deck serves to get a single player to zero as quickly as possible. Obviously in commander we need raw engines, some ramp, and are going to play more powerful cards. That being said, I think strategies built around attacking with high value, low cmc creatures from the early game onwards characterizes aggro in commander. This wasn't viable a few years ago due to the lack of board state protection, and really only token pump decks and creature cheat decks tended to do well. But the printing of many premium white board state protection spells like Flawless Maneuver, Teferi's Protection, and Semester's End has changed up the formula a bit. Attacking low to the ground and early is a keystone of aggro strategies, but so are on attack triggers. We have so many of these now, and they incentivize keeping our force swinging every turn. Commanders like Akiri, Fearless Voyager and Trynn, Champion of Freedom incentivize attacking in order to draw cards, make tokens, or do other things the deck is going to want to do. Unlike sixty card magic, we will need to be able to draw cards, and play some removal and interaction, though we'll play fewer pieces of the latter here than in other decks since they compete with resources to keep up the attack. We also need to play one-sided board wipes wherever we have the option, because we can't afford to lose our own board state. We'll also need a way to get through for damage once our opponents' defenses are up, and as such things that give our creatures menace, landwalk, flying, deathtouch or indestructible are key as they help us keep up the assault. We're also very in favor of a few key pump spells to help us finish out the game like Jazal Goldmane or Coat of Arms.

2) Midrange- In sixty card magic midrange is characterized by playing some of the most powerful cards on every point in the curve, and play more removal than aggro decks. Oftentimes they are characterized as "the growing threat." A classic and famous example was the classic Modern Jund deck that Reid Duke piloted several years ago. One of its touchstones was playing Tarmogoyf on turn 2. The goyfs could attack or block where necessary, but they would grow more unstoppable as the game went on, until they were dropping haymakers like Liliana of the Veil. They would use cards like Dark Confidant to keep their hand full till they could inevitably win. In a way, these sorts of decks mirror something of what we see in all commander decks in that they play removal, draw, and powerful cards. Yet what I think sets them apart is this idea of the growing threat, and that they play more removal than aggro decks. One way in which I think some midrange commanders work is to have abilities that allow them to turn other cards into Tarmogoyf like threats. Ezuri, Claw of Progress and Giada, Font of Hope use +1/+1 counters to turn small evasive threates into significant ones. In this sense, I think a lot of counter decks fit well in the midrange categories. These decks will attack, but they don't have to like aggro decks, and are more willing to conserve resources and work on developing board state where feasible. They often have engines that benefit their board passively from the passage of time, and as such they can play more removal and let their board build itself. They still want to protect their board state, and some of the cards from aggro decks that do this or simply counterspells can help with this, and one-sided board wipes are usually th best kind for midrange decks as well.

3) Control- Control decks in sixty card magic are built on trying to shut down almost everything an opponent is trying to do via counterspells and removal until you can work towards a win con. This obviously is not possible in commander where you can not shut down three other players with just counterspells and removal alone, and isn't always necessary since opponents can also shut down each other. As such, controlling strategies fit into two categories: stax and regular control. With stax pieces that shut off lands and mana rocks, eEDH controlling strategies indeed can effectively shut down three other players, usually finding a way to work through it themselves in order to build towards a win con. In standard EDH, heavy land-based stax like that is frowned upon, but cards that disrupt play in other ways (ex. Blind Obedience as well as counterspells and removal are fair game. These decks are still building towards a win con by slowing opponents down, and will devote far more slots to disruption and removal than aggro and midrange decks. They may win with an infinite combo, a planeswalker, a few premium attacking creatures, or in other ways, but most of the deck is devoted to protecting themselves and disrupting opponents. Controlling decks are more likely to play reciprocal board wipes, and generally benefit from keeping the board clear of threats at most times.

4) Combo- Combo decks also exist along a spectrum in EDH, though this archetype is most similar to sixty card magic. The formula is almost unchanged for cEDH, where most of a deck is devoted to playing and protecting a single combo. Outside of cEDH, it is worth mentioning that infinite combos can be included in almost any archetype in the format as a backup win con when other plans go sideways. What makes it a combo deck is that the entire deck is focused on pulling out one of a variety of sometimes elaborate combos, and these decks are generally geared more towards Johnnies than Spikes. A good example would be combo decks built around Teysa, Orzhov Scion that can put together the Darkest Hour in a variety of ways, as well as play Reveillark + Karmic Guide and/or Sanguine Bond + Exquisite Blood in order to win. These decks play out as trying to put together a combo while fending off opponents with removal and interaction.

5) Tempo- Some might argue that there is no such thing as tempo decks in commander, but it's worth mentioning that they're pretty rare even in sixty card magic across formats. In sixty card magic tempo decks adopt a "disruptive aggro" philosophy, where they slowly chip away at an opponent's life total with small, cheap, evasive creatures, while always holding mana open to protect their board and disrupt threats. While "chipping away" life totals isn't much of a strategy in a multiplayer strategy, I do think there are decks that play out along the lines of this disruptive aggro strategy. As an example, Ranar the Ever-Watchful and Alela, Artful Provocateur can be played this way, where the flying tokens they generate are the main win con, and the rest of the deck is devoted to holding mana open to protect this main game plan and stop others from winning. Unlike in sixty card decks these may win all at once with token pump effects or other affects, but this is the main way.

What do you all think? Do you think there are deck archetypes like this in EDH? Why or why not? What qualifications would you add or take away about them if you do?

glhfJKiHax on glhfJKiHax

3 years ago

Been playing Magic since around 2016, exclusively commander, when a friend introduced me.

First deck that I owed was an Ezuri, Claw of Progress and I have had a soft spot for simic ever since.

Moving on from that I searched high and low for a deck to build and when I found Atraxa, Praetors' Voice I knew that the Praetors and the Phyrexians were something I was going to enjoy.

Just recently got myself all the Phyrexian Script Praetors from the secret lair and will be getting my hands on the new Jin the second I can.

Currently tryna slip at least one copy of a Praetor or Phyrexian themed card into everyone of my decks, even if it is just the swamp. Let me know if you have any suggestions on where to fit on in.