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Diplomacy

Commander / EDH

AndrewJPF

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Land (33)

Instant (6)

Creature (27)

Artifact (7)

Commander (1)

Commander: Karona, False God

Enchantment (21)

Sorcery (5)

This deck wins by pitting your opponents against each other while making yourself the least appealing target for aggression. Cards like Propaganda and cards like Edric, Spymaster of Trest and Gahiji, Honored One make opponents more appealing.

Karona, False God is a powerful creature that is given to your enemies to attack each other with. Counters can be places on her to make her even stronger. Vow of Flight and similar cards that prevent the creature from attacking you can be placed on Karona for your own protection to ensure that she is only used against your opponents.

Some cards, such as Shieldmage Advocate benefit an opponent as well as you. In general, when doing this make sure that you benefit more than the opponent. For example, returning spot removal to an opponents hand can help you just as much as the opponent if a third player is likely to be the target of the removal and you also get the benefit of the card. This can also allow you to make deals and bargains. Note that the opponent you help does not always need to be the opponent you are hurting, which is especially relevant with Diaochan, Artful Beauty.

The hunted cycle, such as Hunted Dragon can be particularly effective because they can be used as a negotiating tool, but also provide you and the person you are working with creatures with which to attack a third party. In general, these cards should be used only on nonaggressors and particularly if the nonaggressor is fighting another a player.

Many cards such as Magus of the Disk and Seal of Doom act as telegraphed answers. While this may seem counter intuitive compared to traditional answers, there are many reasons for their use. First, if an opponent knows you have an answer to something important they have on the table, they are less inclined to provoke you or act aggressively towards you. Second, it allows you to make deals with other players as they can offer something in return for you using the answer. While you do those the element of surprise, you make up for it in negotiation power for these two reasons.

A few specific notes:

Bitter Feud does not need to include you as one of the players.

Duelist's Heritage can be activated on your opponents creatures during their combat step.

Sheltering Ancient does not need to put all of its counters on one creature. This may be useful if you want to buff multiple creatures your opponents control.

War Cadence and War Tax can be used to benefit opponents as well. War Cadence can allow an opponent the opportunity to finish off a third party.

Diviner Spirit is an excellent diplomatic tool that can sneak in a lot of damage without people realizing. It can be used on willing opponents to draw you cards and deal some damage.

Spectral Searchlight can give opponents mana if they need it to play an answer.

Head Games can be an amazing tool as you can give an opponent only cards that will benefit you and still keep the opponent happy.

Two specific cards were left out that others have told me I should put in the deck. The first is Cruel Entertainment. I have never seen this card not backfire. The two targets nearly always end up working together and getting angry with you. The second is Wall of Shards which was left out because the lifegain is counterproductive to the deck winning as you want your opponents to kill each other quickly.

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