Okaun and Zndrsplt were my first commanders, and they hold a special place in my heart. A big stompy creature paired up with insane card draw in the command zone? Yes please!
My first build of them was a pretty janky coin flip tribal deck. It was fun and swingy, but it didn't have a plan for closing out the game other than trying to beat down with Okaun. Untapping with Okaun was hard enough, and if I did manage to do so, pesky blockers tended to shut down the plan. I had a lot more success when I stopped waiting for combat, and just started
Fling
ing Okaun at people.
The Plan
Ramp
Our commanders are 5 CMC, and we have two of them. We're going to want to get them out early, and we're going to want to be ready to cast them multiple times from the command zone. We're running 38 lands and 18 pieces of ramp. Half of our deck is focused on mana production!
Flip Some Coins
Normally dedicating half of our deck to mana would be a recipe for flood. Fortunately for us, Zndrsplt is really good at refilling our hand. An opening hand of nothing but lands and ramp is perfectly keepable. Once we get Zndrsplt down and start flipping coins, with a little luck we're going draw into the rest of the plan.
Okaun and Zndrsplt are already pretty good at flipping coins, so we don't need to go all-in on the coin flip theme. That said, there are a few all stars that are just too good to leave out.
-
Frenetic Efreet
goes infinite with our commanders. We just activate its ability, hold priority, and repeat until we're satisfied with the number of activations on the stack. Be careful to not activate it too many times -- Zndrsplt's draw is not a 'may' ability!
-
Krark's Thumb
is insane with our commanders. Normally Krark's Thumb bumps the odds from 50% to 75% when you're flipping coins. Since our commanders flip coins until you lose a flip, Krark's Thumb is even better. With one of our commanders on the table, the chance of us winning four coin flips is 6.25%. Add Krark's Thumb, and the odds jump to 31.6%!
-
Karplusan Minotaur
lets us flip multiple coins per turn, which is exactly what we want to do. Note that if we can make a friend at the table, he has no downside. If we choose our friend every time we lose a coin flip, they can send the damage to our common enemy. Don't forget that like our commanders, the Minotaur triggers on every coin flip you win and lose, not just the ones you flipped for its cumulative upkeep.
- Since our commanders flip coins at the beginning of combat on our turn, our extra combat step cards translate directly into more coin flips.
Beat down with Okaun
Once we're flipping a few coins a turn, Okaun gets out of hand fast. Three wins pumps him up to a 24/24, ready to deal out lethal commander damage.
Throw Okaun at our Enemies
If we win four coin flips in a turn, Okaun becomes a 48/48, and
Fling
now reads "Destroy Target Player". Such a spell is the perfect target to be copied.
Fury Storm
is the perfect tool for the job. It counts each time we cast either of our commanders. If we've cast each of them just once, Fling + Fury Storm can take out three opponents at once.
The Downsides
What? This awesome pair has downsides?! Unfortunately so. As much fun as this deck is, it has a few glaring weaknesses.
Consistency
Sometimes life is good, and Zndrsplt is drawing us 3+ cards a turn. On the other hand, sometimes we're casting a vanilla 1/4 for 5. We're running a solid tutor package, but sometimes that consistency can't make up for a few bad coin flips on a critical turn.
If you're not comfortable letting fate decide the outcome of a game, this isn't the deck for you.
Vulnerability
Our deck plays as a combo deck that leans heavily on our commanders. If we look too threatening, our commanders can get removed beyond our ability to recast them and cast our other combo cards in one turn. An early
Darksteel Mutation
can take us out of the game entirely.
Thanks for reading! This is one of my main EDH decks, so I'm constantly tweaking it. Any feedback is welcome!
