Maybeboard


This is a mid-range enchantment token deck helmed by one of the coolest Abzan commanders printed: Anikthea, Hand of Erebos. This deck is focused around the commander's abilities and aims to do a few primary things: play enchantments, self-mill to set up interactions with the graveyard, and recycling enchantments to generate tokens for value (i.e. swarming the board, triggering ETB effects, and creating multiple instances of powerful/useful enchantments).

Because there's such a wide variety of fun cards to build with in these themes (see the Maybeboard for a "few" of those cards), putting this deck together has been a bit tricky at times. It's gone through countless small tweaks and revisions, and has been rebuilt completely 4 times now because there's a good number of different ways Anikthea could be built. This version of the deck (version 4) has removed a majority of the population, anthem, trample, and Zombie tribal effects I was tinkering with in order to play more cards like Grim Guardian and Mirkwood Bats in order to make it less reliant on alpha strikes. While mana-intensive and semi-convoluted, I've also opted to slot in the Three Blind Mice combo as well (for a complete breakdown of the combo, please reference the Wombo section of this primer!). Similar to version 3, I still wanted to lean into self-mill with some powerful and repeatable mill effects so that I have a good pool of cards to choose from when triggering Anikthea, Hand of Erebos' ETB and on attack ability.

On a semi-related note, while I still have not invested anywhere near as much time or energy into the zombie tribal brew of Anikthea that I've been tinkering with, you can check out the current draft of the deck here: Anikthea's Zombie Invasion.

-Anointed Procession, Parallel Lives, and Doubling Season:

Since the deck's main strategies utilize enchantments and tokens, Anointed Procession and Parallel Lives are MVP's, especially if able to create multiple copies of one/both of them in order to really shit out an absurd number of tokens. Doubling Season being five mana initially prevented me from including it in the deck; but it's a necessary component to the Three Blind Mice combo and also still synergizes very nicely with the deck's other strategies.

-Legion Loyalty:

This is an awesome card that can generate incredible value either by producing extra copies of important enchantment creatures, swarming the board to win the game, or by providing extra copies of Anikthea, Hand of Erebos' attack trigger. Because it costs a hefty amount of mana, recurring/reanimating this enchantment is preferred over hard-casting it.

-Ajani's Chosen and Archon of Sun's Grace:

These are two more awesome cards that help facilitate go-wide strategies in this deck and are perfect fits for this build since they specifically trigger when enchantments ETB rather than when cast. These two creatures can and will close out games all by themselves if allowed to get out of hand.

-Eidolon of Blossoms and Setessan Champion:

Originally these were the only enchantress-like effects left in the deck because they specifically provide card draw when enchantments enter the battlefield. Initially I had included a critical mass of the typical on-cast enchantresses, like Mesa Enchantress, but in this build I wanted to build around enchantments entering the battlefield more so than being cast, so I opted for more self-mill forms of card advantage instead. Eventually I caved and included arguably the best of the enchantress creatures, Sythis, Harvest's Hand, because it's just that good.

-Nyx Weaver and Mindwrack Harpy:

These lil guys fill similar niches in this deck. Both are enchantment creatures that can help block flying attackers. More importantly, both consistently put a chunk of cards into the graveyard on each of my turns. Nyx Weaver also offers a way to recur any card from the graveyard in a pinch. Cemetery Tampering is also a nice source of card advantage each turn and notably is a may ability that can be opted out of if the yard is overfilled; and the Hideaway ability is just extra value on top of everything else.

-Commune with the Gods, Grisly Salvage, and Vessel of Nascency are all nice sources of card selection as they allow for sculpting of both your hand and your graveyard. Vessel of Nascency Gets bonus points since it's also an enchantment.

-Hermit Druid:

Hermit Druid has the potential to be one of the most explosive self-mill pieces since I'm only running 8 basic lands in the deck (which can also make activating Hermit Druid be a bit of an ass clench). While I may only end up milling one or two cards with Hermit Druid, the potential to flip 90% of the deck into the yard is both extremely powerful but also makes the deck very susceptible to graveyard hate. With that in mind, and in consideration of the pace of this deck, I would recommend typically holding back playing Hermit Druid until closer to the midgame and are able to capitalize off of it's ability and/or with graveyard protection at the ready.

-Palantir of Orthanc:

This slot was initially filled by Mesmeric Orb; another really strong artifact that provides absurd card advantage via self-mill. Both Mesmeric Orb and Palantir of Orthanc fill similar roles in this deck, but Mesmeric Orb tends to draw a lot of hate and I was interested in testing out Palantir of Orthanc. Despite not being an enchantment, Palantir of Orthanc still synergizes nicely with this build of the deck. I especially enjoy that I get advantage from Palantir of Orthanc the same turn that it's played, rather than hoping Mesmeric Orb survives a turn cycle of pissing everyone else off. I have not yet had a chance to play test with Palantir of Orthanc in the deck so I'm excited to see what it can do!

-Life from the Loam and The Mending of Dominaria:

These two are included as they offer both repeatable ways to self-mill chunks of cards while also notably providing ways to get back lands that were milled in order to help hit land drops. The Mending of Dominaria offers additional utility as it's first two chapters help get creatures back into the hand that I don't want in the graveyard such as Setessan Champion and Underrealm Lich. Additionally, The Mending of Dominaria's third chapter also offers a much needed way to shuffle the graveyard back into our library, insulating us a bit from graveyard hate.

-Mirari's Wake:

Extra mana is always appreciated and Mirari's Wake also provides an anthem affect for all of the tokens the deck wants to be making; helping to close out games. With multiple token copies this card gets out of hand very quickly and oftentimes will need to be dealt with; which can draw removal away from more critical components of this deck.

-Shigeki, Jukai Visionary:

Is a card that, in my opinion, feels tailor-made for Anikthea. Shigeki is a toolbox in itself by providing a way to ramp, fuel the graveyard, and in a pinch lets me put cards back in hand from the yard if an opponent has graveyard hate and/or if I want to cast them from hand.

-Sanctum Weaver and Smothering Tithe:

Very cookie cutter and standard ramp options for an enchantress deck playing in white and green. Both have potential to generate very excessive amounts of mana; if allowed to do so.

-Jukai Naturalist:

Another common enchantress ramp option that helps with casting some of the higher costed enchantments, Jukai Naturalist most importantly also reduces our commander's casting cost.

-While I was initially trying to keep as many cards on-theme as possible with this deck, I eventually caved and included a few good, standard, non-enchantment pieces of ramp in the form of Arcane Signet, Sol Ring, Jeweled Lotus, Three Visits, and Nature's Lore.

-Aura of Silence:

One of my all-time favorite enchantments, Aura of Silence works as a stax piece, removal, and a way to get my own enchantments from the battlefield into the yard. Aura Shards can also do double duty in a similar way by acting as removal for my opponent's problem artifacts and enchantments, as well as serving as a way to get my own enchantments into the graveyard from the battlefield as needed.

-Doomwake Giant:

Wanna put a -1/-1 counter on all of your opponent's creatures? Wanna do it again? and again? and again? Doomwake Giant is another auto-include, MVP in Anikthea decks and can easily warp the game around itself if left unanswered.

-Pernicious Deed:

Pernicious Deed is another enchantment that I really enjoy playing. It allows for more flexibility with controlling what ends up dying when it gets popped, provides additional utility by offering a way to get my own enchantments into the graveyard if needed, and can act as a form of pseudo-exile protection if activated in response to something like a Despark targeting something important.

-Oubliette:

This is a really cool removal option in EDH because of the fun way that phasing works. I would recommend having the Gatherer page handy to help explain to newer players that, no, you can't put your commander back into the command zone when it's trapped in an Oubliette. Being able to make multiple copies of Oubliette with Anikthea is just extra icing on top. Seal of Cleansing is the other enchantment-based targeted removal option that allows me to destroy an artifact or an enchantment; while also sacrificing itself and setting me up to make multiple copies of it to use and abuse with Anikthea.

-EDH Staples: Originally I had only included one piece of off-theme, targeted removal, and one off-theme boardwipe; but eventually caved as I was finding myself wanting more cheap, instant-speed, flexible interaction options. Farewell is an absolutely disgusting, flexible (and expensive) boardwipe option. I'm also running Despark, Stroke of Midnight, Anguished Unmaking, and Swords to Plowshares because while playing the deck it felt way too light on interaction and these offer cheap, instant-speed, flexible options.

-Elixir of Immortality:

This is another non-enchantment card that made the cut. Similar to The Mending of Dominaria, Elixir of Immortality gives me a panic button to shuffle my graveyard back into my deck in the event of graveyard hate/milling myself too hard. Having multiple of these panic buttons has been critical as my playgroup has finally caught on to my graveyard shenanigans.

-Ephemerate:

While I initially include more ways to repeatedly flicker creatures in the deck, Ephemerate is the one remaining way to repeatedly flicker the commander and other utility ETB pieces such as Doomwake Giant, Archon of Sun's Grace, and Eidolon of Blossoms. Ultimately the majority of the flicker effect cards were cut in order to help focus the deck and try to prevent it from spreading too thinly across different strategies. Ephemerate survived the purge because it's instant speed with a cheap casting cost and because it also doubles as protection for Anikthea or other key creatures (as long as they aren't token copies of course!).

-Replenish and Phyrexian Reclamation:

These two cards provide the flexibility to reanimate/recur cards I've milled rather than having to exile said cards with Anikthea, Hand of Erebos. I am not 100% sold on if I'm running the right amount of recursion for this deck, and more playtesting will be needed.

-Sterling Grove:

Sterling Grove doubles as both a much needed protection effect for my enchantments as well as a way to grab what I need from the deck in a pinch. Since it sacrifices itself, Sterling Grove also sets me up for lines of play where I can further abuse it's tutoring ability by exiling it with Anikthea to make multiple copies of it. Idyllic Tutor, Demonic Tutor, and Entomb also provide some redundancy and additional ways to find whatever enchantment/card I may need from the deck.

-Teferi's Protection:

Pretty self-explanatory, very strong protection piece. The phasing with Teferi's Protection is very nice as it preserves all of my tokens. Similarily, Clever Concealment offers a slightly more expensive, (but can also be convoked!), flexible version of Teferi's Protection.

-Heroic Intervention and Flawless Maneuver:

Two more instances of instant-speed, staple protection pieces for my whole board.

-Mithril Coat:

This is a fun new toy I wanted to test out in this deck. Since the commander is necessary for my main lines of play, having the ability to make her indestructible at instant speed, for 3 mana, is very nice. I'm still debating putting in more targeted protection spells like Tyvar's Stand and Tamiyo's Safekeeping; more playtesting will be necessary.

-Ghostly Prison:

I went back and forth a few times with including effects like Ghostly Prison, Sphere of Safety, Norn's Annex, and Marchesa's Decree in this deck. I didn't want to water down my gameplan by leaning too hard into pillow-forting, so ultimately I opted for just Ghostly Prison. It's the cheapest option and 2 extra mana per attacker definitely hampers my opponents; especially if I can make multiple copies of Ghostly Prison!

-Weaver of Harmony:

This is another card that I feel was made for Anikthea and is an auto-include in this build. It's an enchantment itself so I can generate multiple copies, it provides an anthem effect to help close out games, and it also has an activated ability which lets me double up on Anikthea's triggered abilities. Amazin'. Flowering of the White Tree and Boon of the Spirit Realm are the other two anthem effects that made it into version 4 of this deck. Concordant Crossroads also supports my ability to alpha strike by letting me swing in with the bois ASAP.

-Hallowed Haunting:

This is a card I was initially hesitant to include as it cares about casting enchantments rather than enchantments entering the battlefield; but after playtesting the deck, oh boy am I glad I kept it in! There's a good chance the deck meets the 7 enchantment threshold and it definitely benefits from all of the creatures gaining flying and vigilance. Additionally, the spirits created can easily close out games all by themselves. Hallowed Haunting is a card that works well when played earlier in the game to sit around and be a slow burner. If needed Hallowed Haunting can be used to force my opponents to need to respond to it before transitioning to my main goal of utilizing Anikthea, Hand of Erebos to close out games; if not just close out games on it's own when the main gameplan gets disrupted.

-Grim Guardian, Bastion of Remembrance, and Mirkwood Bats:

These three make up a pinger package to help spice up the gameplay loops I'm looking to achieve. Pretty self explanatory, Grim Guardian and Mirkwood Bats are absolutely nuts once the deck starts to do it's thing. Bastion of Remembrance provides value when my enchantment creatures initially die, and also provide me with additional value when my board of tokens inevitably gets wiped.

-Doubling Season + Anikthea, Hand of Erebos, + Three Blind Mice offer us a semi-convoluted combo to help close out games. Please see the following Wombo section for a detailed explanation.

Anikthea, Hand of Erebos + Doubling Season + Three Blind Mice

TL;DR: bringing back Three Blind Mice using Anikthea, Hand of Erebos’ ability, with Doubling Season on the board, creates infinite creature tokens to swing out with (once they do not have summoning sickness).

-This combo requires: Either enough mana to cast Anikthea, Hand of Erebos from the command zone and/or hand or Anikthea, Hand of Erebos on the battlefield and able to attack, and Doubling Season on the battlefield, and Three Blind Mice in the graveyard.

-In order to end the game on the same turn this combo is activated, You will also need at least one of either: Concordant Crossroads, Grim Guardian, or Mirkwood Bats also on the battlefield. Please Note: Concordant Crossroads does not allow you to end the game on the same turn if you are starting the combo by attacking with Anikthea; as you will not have an opportunity to attack with your newly created token army until your next combat step.

Step 1: Either cast Anikthea or move to combat and declare Anikthea as an attacker in order to trigger her ability. Use her ability to target Three Blind Mice in the graveyard.

Step 2: Create two token copies of Three Blind Mice and put two lore counters on each thanks to Doubling Season.

Step 3: Due to both copies entering with 2 lore counters, you get both the first and second stage triggered abilities at the same time; resulting in four 1/1 mouse creature tokens (thanks Doubling Season!) and two instances of the Three Blind Mice “create a token that's a copy of target token you control” ability on the stack.

Step 4: Have each of the token copying abilities target one of the Three Blind Mice saga tokens, (or both them of if you're feeling special), resulting in four new copies of the Three Blind Mice saga entering, also with two lore counters each thanks to Doubling Season.

Step 5: Repeat from Step 3 until you've achieved some arbitrarily large number of token copies. At this point you can utilize the second stage of the Three Blind Mice sagas to make infinite copies of any other tokens you control as well.

When playing this deck I'm typically aiming to pop off with the gameplan(s) more so in the mid game. That being said, I still want to incrementally build my boardstate in the early game, keeping pace with opponents while also holding back key engine pieces and finishers. Cards like Nyx Weaver, Shigeki, Jukai Visionary, Cemetery Tampering, Bastion of Remembrance, and Smothering Tithe that incrementally accrue value are what I typically want to be playing early.

Hallowed Haunting, Ajani's Chosen, and Archon of Sun's Grace can also be great early game drops that can get out of hand all on their own without relying on Anikthea. Having the flexibility to utilize Archon of Sun's Grace, Hallowed Haunting, and Ajani's Chosen, alongside one or two finishers to threaten to close out games give me more lines of play while also preserving my main gameplan to fall back on; and vice versa.

I typically want to force a point in the mid game where my opponents have used a good amount of their interaction and/or wiped the board so that I can pivot into dropping Anikthea and rebuilding aggressively. Since I want my pieces in the graveyard I'll sometimes initiate a wipe with Pernicious Deed in the early game to also hamper my opponent's set up. Pernicious Deed is also a great piece to play earlier in the game just because it can be leveraged as a way to protect important pieces from exile-based removal by storing them in the graveyard instead.

A big part of piloting this deck (and honestly all decks) is attempting to influence the tempo of the game by reading your opponents and their boardstates in order to time plays appropriately. I typically don't want to dump my hand on the board ASAP, especially because most of my card advantage comes from getting cards into the graveyard, not my hand.

Notably, I also try to be mindful of The Mending of Dominaria's third chapter because, if I'm not careful, it'll shuffle my graveyard back into the deck when I still want access to those cards.

-Underrealm Lich: My beloved... Underrealm Lich made it through so many changes and can be really fun and explosive in this deck. I ultimately decided to cut it to make room for Sythis, Harvest's Hand. Sythis just fits better because it's an enchantment, draws you a card and gains you a life when Anikthea or any enchantment is cast, and is wayyy cheaper to cast. Underrealm Lich can still be a great card in this deck, (especially if you want to lean into zombie tribal), and may eventually find itself included again in the future.

-Calix, Guided by Fate: this card kinda does what I want to do, I was just unhappy that he triggers only once per turn. Room could definitely be made to include him if desired.

-Mesa Enchantress and friends: I'm purposefully not playing a ton of typical enchantress staples as a lot of them care about casting enchantments, and I'm trying to focus on playing them from the yard. That being said, the deck obviously is still going to be casting a good number of enchantments with this deck and, if desired, more enchantress effects can be slotted in over self-mill effects.

-Song of the Worldsoul made it through 3 versions of the deck but was ultimately cut in version 4. It is definitely a fun card as it provides an additional route to get multiple copies of key enchantments whenever I cast any spell. However, it has a hefty mana cost and typically felt like it either made too little of an impact too late, or was more of a ‘win-more’ card; so I ultimately decided that I'd rather replace it with something like Bastion of Remembrance to help close out games.

-Sigil of the Empty Throne was also in the deck for a good while before ultimately being cut because it cares about casting not ETB and I felt like I had enough 'win-more' cards in this build.

-Growing Ranks: This card made it through two versions of the deck before inevitably being cut for something else. While populating each upkeep is useful, oftentimes Growing Ranks felt like a dead card in hand/yard and did not do enough to justify spending 5 mana on it. That being said, this deck could easily be taken and focused more so on populating and I would totally slot Growing Ranks back in.

-Mondrak, Glory Dominus: I opted to keep Parallel Lives, Anointed Procession, and Doubling Season over Mondrak, Glory Dominus as it isn't an enchantment. Room could definitely be made to include it if desired. Along a similar note, Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation   does not have a home in this deck at this time. Tripling creature tokens is incredibly powerful, but a six mana non-enchantment does not make the cut as of version 4 of this deck.

-Typical aristocrats pingers such as Cruel Celebrant, Zulaport Cutthroat, and Blood Artist: These did not make the cut at this time as I didn't want to make this a dedicated aristocrat deck. Bastion of Remembrance made the cut because it's also an enchantment.

-Black Market Connections: A fun new black enchantment that does it all; there is rarely a turn where I don't want to choose at least one of it's options. Bear in mind that Black Market Connections' ability is not a may ability and having multiple copies of Black Market Connections will start draining your life total very quickly (but life is a resource!). Black Market Connections made it through 3 versions of this deck before ultimately being cut for more protection/interaction.

-Braids, Arisen Nightmare: While she isn't an enchantment and doesn't fit my main game plan, Braids, Arisen Nightmare provides another route to getting my enchantments from the battlefield into our yard; while also pressuring my opponents to either sacrifice their permanents or give me more cards and chipping down their life totals. She made it through 3 versions of this deck before getting cut; and I miss playing her dearly. She may eventually sneak her way back in but for now she's cut for more efficient, targeted interaction.

-Seal of Primordium: a green version of Seal of Cleansing, this card easily has a spot in this deck if desired. I opted for more instant-speed interaction over a duplicate of Seal of Cleansing; but Seal of Primordium may be slotted in at some point in the future. The utility of being able to use it to either blow up an opponent's permanent or blow up one of my own enchantments is pretty sweet with Anikthea; and the fact that it sacrifices itself so I can make more copies of it is great.

-Sanguine Bond + Exquisite Blood: While this is an enchantment-based combo, it does not synergize with the deck as a whole and would not be very efficient or worthwile without dedicated support in my opinion. This combo would only be slotted in as a way to end the game, and I'd rather do so more on-theme.

-Familiar Ground seems very, very good, essentially making our menacing enchantment creatures unblockable. Definitely has a spot in this deck if desired. I wasn't able to justify it in this version but it'll probably sneak it's way in for playtesting at some point.

-Out of Time is an incredibly spicy piece of tech in this deck. If I bring Out of Time back as a creature with Anikthea, Hand of Erebos, it effectively phases out itself and every other creature on the battlefield forever. It is not included in this build because of the feel-bads that inevitably will occur when commanders get phased out for the rest of the game.

-Darksteel Mutation and Song of the Dryads-type removal effects: While very powerful in EDH, I ultimately opted not to play these removal options in this deck (outside of Oubliette); since they're auras and cannot be abused with Anikthea.

-Anthem Effects like Starlight Spectacular, Collective Blessing, and True Conviction: This deck initially slotted in all three of these cards plus some in order to support ending the game with token alpha strikes. After playtesting with these cards I ultimately decided to not lean as heavily into them in order to make room for powerful pingers such as Grim Guardian, Mirkwood Bats, and Bastion of Remembrance.

-Trample effects like Glorious Sunrise, Song of Freyalise, Nylea's Forerunner, Nylea, God of the Hunt, and Primal Rage: This type of effect was initially included to support the alpha strike gameplan; although I was never fully sold on the idea that they were necessary since the Menace keyword provided by Anikthea supports getting damage in already. Ultimately these effects were cut for other finishers like Grim Guardian as well as more protection, interaction, and ramp options.

I'm running some very expensive lands in the manabase as my playgroup is very proxy friendly and enjoys having smoother-running manabases. These lands are by no means necessary for playing the deck and can easily be replaced with a number of different cheap dual lands or even more basics. Similarily, there are a few very expensive cards chosen for this deck's packages specifically because I am able to proxy them (looking at you, Hermit Druid, Replenish, Teferi's Protection), and are also by no means necessary for the deck to function; outside of Doubling Season if the Three Blind Mice combo is desired. I've packed the Maybeboard with a ton of other card options I've considered for this build which could be used to replace the more expensive picks (i.e. Sevinne's Reclamation for Replenish.

Because I wanted to build around Anikthea and her abilities specifically, the overall power level and speed at which this deck can win is limited. If you're looking for an Abzan deck jamming cheap and powerful combos to win quickly (i.e. Witherbloom Apprentice + Chain of Smog, Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista); then this list is not what you're looking for.

Further playtesting is being conducted to determine if the deck would benefit from adjusted ratios of graveyard and/or board protection, recursion, card advantage, and token support. Additionally, leaning into more of an aristocrat style deck (with more ETB/LTB pingers and sacrifice outlets) could result in quicker/more efficient wins with this deck; especially if leaning harder into token producing.

If you've somehow made it this far, thank you for your time and patience! I appreciate any and all questions, comments, and recommendations.

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92% Casual

Competitive

Date added 9 months
Last updated 1 week
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

10 - 0 Mythic Rares

55 - 0 Rares

15 - 0 Uncommons

12 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.91
令牌 Cat 2/2 W, Copy Clone, Human 1/1 W, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Mouse 1/1 W, Pegasus 2/2 W, Spirit Cleric */* W, Treasure
Folders GOATED, 1. Good Decks, Other Players Decks, neat decks
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