Summary

Lavinia, Azorius Renegade is here - no fun for you. Weekend EDH group is slowly getting more and more competitive - this is my answer.

Strategy

Early Game

Starting hand we're looking for interaction, mana base, and stax/taxes. Ideal hand would have both our colors and a rock - Lavinia shuts off fast mana for everyone else, which lets us get even more advantage out of an early Mana Vault , Sol Ring Chrome Mox or Mox Amber . Just remember a lot of our spells are colour hungry - double U is important to get ASAP.

Mystic Remora isn't always a snap keep...but it's close. The deck struggles a bit with card draw, so having tools to let us dig for answers in the midgame is important. Sensei's Divining Top is really great here, as our need for more stax pieces or more interaction changes pretty rapidly.

Getting Lavinia, Azorius Renegade out turn 1 or 2 is ideal here - she shuts down fast mana hard which gives us some breathing room. An early Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is also really helpful. The goal is to be the only one who can afford to cast more than one spell a turn for as long as possible. Be stingy with counterspells and such here; we need them to stay alive in mid-game, and make sure our lock out stays on the board late game.

Midgame

Midgame we walk a tight rope. We're looking to slow down the board and build up our lock pieces, but don't want to paint a giant target on ourselves. Armageddon is a great play once we have 3 or 4 up in rocks - the rest of the board can't cast spells if they don't have lands, which doesn't apply to us. Ghostly Prison or Propaganda buy time if someone gets a creature or two on the board. Lavinia is cheap, so don't be afraid to block with her if need be.

Really, we just want to slowly build up our mana base and increase the number of stax on the board, and NOT DIE so we're in a position to win once the late-game, and our lock(s), hit. Kill lands with Strip Mine and Wasteland , counter things that will give your opponent(s) too much advantage. Don't be afraid to let the board be wiped - we want everyone to have to start from scratch.

Late Game

Late game is a state of mind...more specifically, it's when you get a lock out, and we switch from being on the defensive to trying to win the game before anyone struggles out of the lock (generally by hard casting their commander and making bad things happen to us).

Helm of Obedience + Rest in Peace will one shot an opponent. Luminarch Ascension is great AFTER you've shut everyone else out - other wise everyone is going to start gunning for you. Dramatic Reversal + Entreat the Angels + Isochron Scepter is great...but doesn't work if you have pool out - cards cast from pool with X must choose 0 for X's value. Worst case, Cyclonic Rift (you CAN pay alternate costs when casting out of pool), and win with commander damage.

Future Plans and Upgrades

  1. More Land Destruction. Lavinia works best when everyone's working with fewer lands. card:Fall of Thran is a little expensive for the curve here, but could be good.
  2. Competitive Upgrades - faster lands, Force of Will , Mox Diamond , and fetches. Boring but good stuff.
  3. I haven't had a chance to look at the new set, I think the new Dovin could fit in here pretty well. EDIT He does.
  4. Replace Entreat the Angels with Blue Sun's Zenith . I just don't own it.
  5. Add more win conditions. Get Big Teferi. card: Jace Wielder of Mysteries + Enter the Infinite...hell, he can do it on his own, with a lock out we've got nothing but time.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Removed: Fact or Fiction Time Warp Cryptic Command Consecrated Sphinx Disallow

Added: Redirect Outwit Silent Arbiter String of Disappearances Wing Shards

Removed cards that sat in my hand the last few games, replaced them with lower cmc goodness.

Wing Shards and String of Disappearances

This deck wants to prevent cards from getting onto the field in the first place, but sometimes you've got to play removal, that isn't a board wipe. String of Disappearances should be good on that front, and Wing Shards gets around hexproof trickery cough cough Narset, Enlightened Master, as well as adding in some fun Storm mechanics.

Redirect is tutorable with Muddle the Mixture, and should make for some interesting answers to big splashy end-the-game-now plays. Outwit has been on my maybeboard for a while, we'll see how it plays out.

Silent Arbiter fits the theme of this deck a lot better than Consecrated Sphinx; at 6 CMC we want to be slamming down Knowledge Pool or closing the noose on our lock. The card draw is really nice, but Silent Arbiter does a better job of slowing the game down.

The only card I'm squiffy about cutting is Cryptic Command. Having options is good, and I've gotten a lot of value out of it, but 1UUU is a lot, and in a multiplayer game often gives the next player a worry free turn.

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Date added 4 years
Last updated 4 years
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

3 - 0 Mythic Rares

31 - 0 Rares

21 - 0 Uncommons

18 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.19
Tokens Angel 4/4 W, Bird 2/2 U, Treasure
Folders Competitive Multiplayer
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