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Jhoira of the Ghitu; Marmite Chaos

Commander / EDH Casual Combo Multiplayer UR (Izzet)

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Instant (13)

Sorcery (9)

Enchantment (18)

Artifact (6)

Creature (18)

Land (35)

Commander (1)

Commander: Jhoira of the Ghitu

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Instant (8)

Sorcery (3)

Enchantment (1)

Artifact (4)

Creature (3)

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Sorcery (19)

Enchantment (28)

Artifact (26)

Creature (36)

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"Marmite: You either love it or hate it" is the famous catch phrase and this deck is that. People who play against it either love the wacky antics that will happen, or grudge it the whole way through sick of getting their plans interrupted. This is definitely not a deck that can be played every week every game, but it can be a great joy to pilot if you have a wicked cackle in your heart.

Chaos Control is one of my funnest archetypes and I feel it captures the spirit of commander well. It's all about ridiculous, infuriating things that hamper players until the point where you can do what you want to do. In this regards, it can be infuriating to play with, but when you explain to everyone that you're turning the entire field into lizards that will be under your control, which you then swing in for game, or that you're casting eternal dominion, but while it's on the stack you will copy it 5 times so it triggers 5 times each turns, it's something you can't help but smile at. This deck won't always win, but when it does it aims to leave your opponents stunned.

Jhoira at this point has become a symbol for this deck - I couldn't think of it in any other incarnation - but it could easily be replaced with something like Keranos, God of Storms. Equally this deck requires some self restraint. Over time there have been certain cards that my play group simply cannot stand, but they sit in the sidelines and can be found later on.

There are some rules I follow with this deck that fit my feel of the deck:

  • Counterspells are purposely removed. There used to be cheap "Friendly" counterspells like Arcane Denial and Dream Fracture in here, but I just didn't feel they fit with the deck. I want the control to come purely from what has been created; Players should sit in their hands with their game ending combo, but know that while Possibility Storm or Cowardice hang around, they just can't achieve it. The notable exceptions to this are Time Stop, Spelljack and possibly Counterlash as I like the "No I think I'll be having this" attitude they bring, and time stop fits in with the deck somewhat.

  • There are no infinite turn or infinite mana combos in this deck. I want the combos to have a focus on a "you're doing WHAT?" attitude. Sure, infinite mana and turns can enable these, but they don't give across the joy of an army of Chancellor of the Spires or stealing the entire field with Word of Seizing

  • There are very few board wipes in this deck. Again, it doesn't fit with what I'm going for; I want people to play things, I just want those things to be useless. The exception is fun/annoying things, like Whims of the Fates

Battle Plan

Wreck the game until it works in your favour. You want to draw into lots of cards that you need, use early Jhoira to suspend expensive things until you can hard cast them, and stall the game with aggravating enchantments that will hold everyone up. Then with one of your combos in hand, blow out the field. This deck can rely on biding your time until the right moment to strike.

Mana Base

The mana count in this deck is exceptionally low. You want to mulligan hard at the start to get ~4+ lands in hand to ensure things go smoothly, but somehow this has always worked out for me in the 10+ games that I've played. Too many lands and rocks can hinder our draws, which we need to be solid the whole way through. It can definitely deserve some +1/-1 tweaking around, but it seems to sit nicely where it is.

Chaos

This is the fun of the deck; It's throwing yourself into the pit and bringing all your friends in there too to see what happens. Sometimes you'll win. Sometimes someone else will win. Either way it's always funny when it happens. These are cards that aim to be hindrances, not only to opponents but to yourself, that can stall out a game until you can steal victory from death. I've noted some of the more fun cards and their wicked uses

  • Elkin Lair is a control player's nightmare. It slowly eeks away at their advantage and forces cards to get played. Didn't use that counterspell by the end of your turn? To the graveyard it goes. It'll force opponents into using their mana as they inevitably don't want to lose the card from their hand.
  • Eternal Dominion is the biggest gamble in this deck. To really get it going, you want to ensure you can cast it two or three times in the same turn with the likes of Twincast or Mirari. This can be the hardest trigger to pull as, when you do so you no longer have any control in the game, but get it cast early enough off of Jhoira with one of the doublers suspended too is living the dream.
  • Eye of the Storm is a huge gamble, but that's why it's in this deck; Sure not every player will want to cast the Scrambleverse that's stuck under there, but we want the player who feels he got ruined on the randomness to WANT to cast it again. Stick another spell under there. Go on, Fact or Fiction again, Rite of Replication another wurm. It's these kind of situations we want to encourage
  • Grip of Chaos can infuriate players when it comes down, and logistically it can be a nightmare. Randomly targeting any permanent from Capsize can take a while, so I advise if you know it going to happen to have dice and a system ready.
  • Ixidron is one of the few pseudo-boardwipes in this deck, and it's due to the harmful nature it can give us. While it can wipe out our Jhoira or Sphinx, it can also remove uncontrollable threats like Bruna, Light of Alabaster and on top of that, while turned face down, those generals no longer do commander damage.
  • Knowledge Pool is one of the most marmite cards of this deck. Some people love it, some people hate it. This is definitely a card that walks the line of being removed, but the fundamental thing I like is how it changes the way the game is played. Now we work from a group pool where turns need to be thought out; sure you can Path to Exile into an opponents Memnarch but you better have something else to cast to take out the removal spell. Equally, instants become king as they can cast anything anytime. As much as this can ruin games, I think it fits with Jhoira as she can allow us to continue to cast our cards as we want.
  • March of the Machines is a flavourful card that I just love; nothing makes me happier than a sensei's divining top that's come to life to ping you for 1 ickle damage before being blasted away with a lightning bolt. Equally, it ruins equipment based voltron decks or mana rock reliant ramp decks.
  • Perplexing Chimera is one of those headache inducing nightmare cards that are just horrible and wonderful at the same time. Ever since I saw it spoiled I knew that it deserved a place in this deck. Equally it can be fished up again with Skull of Orm for super value.
  • Possibility Storm can grind a game down slowly, but when you get big nasty spells off of cheap things it's always a laugh. This is a card at the heart of Chaos
  • Psychic Battle fits the theme of chaos really well; players want to hold onto their target spells until they can ensure that they will control the resolution
  • Radiate is one of those cards I feel is missed out by a lot of players; It can turn spot removal into board wipes; counter ever spell on the stack; turn Rise from the Grave into Rise of the Dark Realms; for us though, it's a main combo piece for Jhoira, and the amount of things it can do gives a devious glee to our twisted hearts.
  • Scrambleverse just HAS to be in this deck. The flavour text alone solidifies its position, but this card can completely change the course of the game or leave it untouched. True Chaos in action.
  • Sphinx Ambassador is a wonderful trick. Suddenly players are forced into remembering what's in their deck, and what will be taken too.
  • Warp World is the card this deck was built around. Throwing abandon into the wind, it can change winners and losers all at once; We don't get the greatest value out of it, but I can't an iteration of the deck where it's not in the deck list.
  • Wild Evocation is a great card for forcing things to move along and can ruin people who are trying to hold certain pieces for engines. On the other hand, it can ruin us if we hit a Eternal Dominion. But that's the fun of it

Control

To a certain extent, we want what's happening to go in our favour; Stop problems, remove loss, control opponents. This is why we need the Yang to Chaos' Yin. Here are a selection of our control cards that I feel may need a bit more explaining in the deck

  • Blatant Thievery can let us steal important and big problems. If the enemy's fields look to be becoming big problems, taking out key components can keep us safe for a while longer
  • Capsize is a dangerous card on it's own. With enough mana we can bounce many targets and keep players turns slowed down. In theory, along with Tortoise Formation and Radiate we could bounce the whole board except our own creatures and win out the game, but that's not something I've looked at before.
  • Clockspinning is an underrated and huge card in this deck; Continually speeding up our suspend cards, shock bringing in an card that players had planned around coming in on a certain turn or during their turn even, picking off unsuspecting planeswalkers sitting on low loyalty or even saving wins from cards like Azor's Elocutors or Darksteel Reactor
  • Cowardice can shut down voltron decks or anything that relies on targeting creatures constantly. It can definitely work against us in strong flicker decks or "any number of target" cards, but fits the bill
  • Djinn of Infinite Deceits is great for throwing around creatures. If someone is beating into an enemy with a voltron commander, give that enemy the voltron commander and (hope) they turn the tide against them. If you're smart you can play off people's emotions and take advantage of it. If you don't want to be smart, just switch your used/mediocre creatures with their big hitters.
  • Gather the Specimens can be an important play if someone is casting an eldrazi or entwined Tooth and Nail but for the most parts it's a great combo piece in this deck.
  • Propaganda doesn't need to be explained, but it's shocking how many people tap out or don't count it in the calculations when wanting to swing at you.
  • Risky Move throwing around creatures can be painful; often players won't want to target you as you're the one forcing them to give away creatures, but when it's a "Worst of a bad case" scenario you can eek out a wee bit of value. Another emotional player that can see chance throw creatures around.
  • Word of Seizing being able to grab target permanent can be wonderful if someone is getting an engine running. Grab a Darksteel Forge when an opponent is Nevinyrral's Disking a Mycosynth Lattice field; Gain control of the triggered ability of a Sword of Feast and Famine from an opponent swinging at someone; or simply cast it on your opponent's huge creature when they're swinging at you to remove it from combat during the declare attackers phase. This is something that people can miss the opportunities with, but with a little izzet style thinking you can really get advantage from this.

Combos

Synergies & Notable Cards

  • Djinn Illuminatus let's us copy a large amount of our spells that are in this deck. Also a nice body
  • Hellkite Tyrant - stealing artifacts is always great. This guy can present a real problem just on his own.
  • Insurrection and Mob Rule can end a game on its own. It's a hollow win but if you're in a nasty position, someone who's overstretched their creature base can allow you to blow out the game.
  • Interpret the Signs this deck is 5 mana+ mostly; this can draw into a fair number of cards just by itself and is a great suspension with Jhoira
  • Mnemonic Nexus can be nasty in letting you find that Warp World again. It can also save the game against someone who dredges heavily.
  • Paradox Haze can double trigger our suspended cards and effects like Wild Evocation and Thasa God of the Sea

Testing Out

  • Djinn Illuminatus feels like it will work well with the amount of spells cast in this deck, but want to see how I feel about it
  • Djinn of Infinite Deceits wants to trade around creatures, but we don't get a lot of value out of it
  • Eternal Dominion is so hard to pull the trigger on. I don't know if it'll hang around or not but still wanting to try
  • Hellkite Tyrant doesn't fit the theme of the deck great, but it is a nice thievery tool.
  • Interpret the Signs CAN draw a large amount of cards, but Flow of Ideas might fit nicer. Have to think about it
  • Ixidron is a neat board wipe but it feels really easy to get around it; want to see how I feel about it, especially with Khans Morph coming out.
  • Knowledge Pool is so hated that it's dithering whether it stays in or not. Need to think about it
  • Omniscience is in this deck purely as it fits the "big red ridiculous spell" ideas. It's one of those cards that isn't an insta win but also so feared that it can create problems
  • Risky Move can sit around and do nothing, but I like the idea of how it works. It's survived this long but might be cut eventually.

Notable Exceptions

  • Timesifter is HATED by my group; the fact that games dissolve into luck of who has the highest CMC on top. I love it and want to see it back but need to justify more scry cards in the deck.
  • Shared Fate is another loved card of mine, but it doesn't get a large success in this deck and can whiff hard depending on which game I'm in. Need to find somewhere else for this to work
  • Temporal Distortion slows down the game just too much.

Hillarious Situations from this deck

  • Rapid Hybridization + Radiate + Gather Specimens + Grip of Chaos meant that each lizard that came into the field was a valid target for the next rapid hybridization that resolved and each one had to be rolled before the board became half destroyed half lizard filled.

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Jan. 31, 2015
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Aug. 29, 2014
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Revision 19 See all

(8 years ago)

+1 Academy Ruins maybe
+1 Aethersnatch maybe
+1 Bane of Bala Ged maybe
+1 Blade of Selves maybe
+1 Blighted Cataract maybe
+1 Broodbirth Viper maybe
+1 Coldsteel Heart maybe
+1 Command Beacon maybe
+1 Desolation Twin maybe
+1 Doubling Cube maybe
+1 Dragon Mage maybe
+1 Etherium-Horn Sorcerer maybe
+1 Fellwar Stone maybe
+1 Hall of the Bandit Lord maybe
+1 Hedron Archive maybe
+1 High Market maybe
+1 Illusory Ambusher maybe
+1 It That Betrays maybe
+1 Jayemdae Tome maybe
+1 Magmatic Force maybe
and 41 other change(s)
Date added 10 years
Last updated 8 years
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

7 - 2 Mythic Rares

54 - 10 Rares

17 - 6 Uncommons

5 - 3 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 4.83
Tokens Copy Clone, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Kobolds of Kher Keep 0/1 R, Manifest 2/2 C
Folders Current EDH, Watch, Awesome Ideas, fun edh ideas, O-5, m, 121196, Decks I want
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