Anje, Dragon Tamer [[Primer]]

Commander / EDH BR (Rakdos) Competitive Infinite Combo Madness Primer

PlayingWithPowerMTG

Creature (26)

• 1x Anje's Ravager
• 1x Archfiend of Spite
• 1x Asylum Visitor
• 1x Azra Oddsmaker
• 1x Big Game Hunter
• 1x Blood Pet
• 1x Bloodhall Priest
• 1x Bloodmad Vampire
• 1x Brain Gorgers
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Gorgon Recluse
• 1x Grave Scrabbler
• 1x Incorrigible Youths
• 1x Insatiable Gorgers
• 1x Merchant of the Vale
• 1x Muck Drubb
• 1x Nightshade Assassin
• 1x Reckless Wurm
• 1x Simian Spirit Guide
• 1x Skirk Prospector
• 1x Stromkirk Occultist
• 1x Twins of Maurer Estate
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 1x Voldaren Pariah  ^Flip
• 1x Weirded Vampire
• 1x Worldgorger Dragon

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Gibbering Descent
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Senseless Rage
• 1x Strength of Lunacy

Instant (21)

• 1x Abandon Reason
• 1x Abrade
• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Comet Storm
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Dark Withering
• 1x Deadly Rollick
• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Fiery Temper
• 1x Fire Covenant
• 1x Imp's Mischief
• 1x Mogg Salvage
• 1x Psychotic Haze
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Shadow of the Grave
• 1x Slaughter Pact
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Violent Eruption

Sorcery (15)

• 1x Alchemist's Greeting
• 1x Avacyn's Judgment
• 1x Biting Rain
• 1x Call to the Netherworld
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x From Under the Floorboards
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Gisa's Bidding
• 1x Ichor Slick
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Malevolent Whispers
• 1x Murderous Compulsion
• 1x Psychotic Episode
• 1x Rite of Flame
• 1x Wheel of Fortune

Commander (1)

Land (24)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Badlands
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Emergence Zone
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 4x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 1x Sunscorched Desert
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Artifact (6)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Jeweled Amulet
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Sol Ring

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Maybeboard

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Forever Young
• 1x Magmatic Insight
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Tormenting Voice
• 1x Wild Guess

Artifact (2)

• 1x Mishra's Bauble
• 1x Urza's Bauble

Instant (5)

• 1x Bolt Bend
• 1x Corpse Dance
• 1x Deadly Rollick
• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Thrill of Possibility

Creature (4)

• 1x Azra Oddsmaker
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Merchant of the Vale
• 1x Street Wraith

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Introduction

Inspiration for this deck was taken from this list and this list.

I've playtested and goldfished both decks to ascertain strengths and weaknesses. The biggest flaws in most Anje decks is that at some point, you are stuck with a bunch of cards you don't want in your hand. This is usually land cards, so this deck took a stab at running an EXTREMELY low amount of lands. This deck also ran as many madness cards as possible to "reduce" the size of our decks.

Another flaw in a lot of anje decks is the commander being the crux of the deck. When you cannot cast her or something prohibits you from using her, you're dead in the water. This deck aims to have a couple of resources to win without Anje.

Gameplan

This is a Worldgorger Dragon combo deck. This deck does NOT win any other way. Much like Godo Helm, this deck doubles down on this strategy, so if this plan is disrupted, you will not win. Due to this built in fragility, we aim to win as soon as possible. This deck can win turns 2-4 very consistently.

The Combo

The worldgorger dragon combo works like this:

• Put the dragon into your graveyard
• use a reanimation aura (Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, Necromancy) to bring it out of the graveyard
• The dragon enters, exiling all permanents, including the reanimation aura
• The dragon must be sacrificed since the aura left
• Your permanents come back in, (including the aura)
• You target the dragon again with the aura, and the loop continues

In this loop, you can tap mana to generate infinite mana. You can stop this loop by targeting a different creature in a graveyard.

Main Wincons

After you have assembled the main WGD dragon combo, you can win a number of ways. I have built in multiple redundant wincons vs only one or two, to account for unforeseen issues.

Wincon #1

Comet Storm - We do not want to rely on having our commander in order to win. Comet storm can be done during the loop, so as long as it's in our hand, we don't need any other conditions to start the dragon loop.

Wincon #2

Avacyn's Judgment - Same as comet storm, but needs to be discarded in order to win.

Wincon #3

Sunscorched Desert - With this on the battlefield, start the WGD loop and it will flicker this land until everyone is dead.

Wincon #4

Fiery Temper + Kozilek, Butcher of Truth - With Anje out, discard Fiery Temper, cast it for madness with your WGD mana, continue to filter with anje, discard kozilek, shuffle your graveyard into your library (including Fiery Temper), then continue filtering and repeat this process until everyone is dead.

Wincon #5

Bloodhall Priest + Hellbent - During the WGD loop, cast Bloodhall for it's madness cost, then continue to filter and cast instant cards until you have no cards in hand. This will flicker the priest and do 2 damage to each opponent until they are dead. This should be your LAST resort, not first. This will completely cripple you because Anje is dead without a card to discard.

Strengths

This deck wins very quickly. Turn 2-4 on average. Some games go longer if heavy interaction disrupts us.

This deck can run and win with very little mana. As little as two on the turn you win.

The strategy is very linear. The lines are not complex, so it's easy to pick up and start playing. You aim to get the Worldgorger asap then use one of your wincons.

Weaknesses

The Worldgorger dragon combo is fragile. Its "all in" nature means that if you get interacted with, you're probably left with no permanents and effectively out of the game.

You can win the game without Anje, but it is WAY slower. There is no other draw in the deck except Anje, because she's so accessible and cheap. A Cursed Totem or Linvala, Keeper of Silence hurts our gameplan significantly.

Single Card Discussion

Notable Inclusions

Necropotence - In a discard deck, normally this card is VERY bad. However, madness discards into exile, not the graveyard, circumventing the Necropotence triggered ability. Entomb also gets around this effect since it's going into your graveyard from your library, not discarded from your hand. The upside of this card very much outweighs its downside. Finally, Necromancy can be done at instant speed. You can cast Necromancy in response to the exile trigger and bring the dragon out of the graveyard.

Mausoleum Secrets - This card can be cast at instant speed to tutor up your wincon. You can also fetch up Slaughter Pact in a pinch.

Shred Memory - Good at removing graveyard wincons from opponents decks and can be transmuted for a number of wincons (Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, Comet Storm)

Notable Exclusions

Doomsday - Too much setup to win the turn we cast it. Too mana intensive to win the turn we cast it, (). It also puts you into one wincon instead of multiple. It also announces to everyone that "you're about to win right now", which is painting a big target on our heads.

Demonic Consultation - Very good card, but selecting a card is very risky for what we want to do. We might end up exiling away our wincons trying to find it. Tainted Pact is better because it lets you make decisions as each new card is presented to you, so you can adjust to fit the needs of the game.

Plunge into Darkness - Very good card, but once again, like Demonic Consultation, we are not getting information before we commit to what we have to exile. Tainted pact is the better choice here.

Cut / Ribbons - This was removed as a wincon because it requires us to have it in the graveyard and it requires us to stop the dragon loop in order to cast it.

Songs of the Damned - Is dead as an opening ritual, and we need cards to be effective during all points of the game.

Dualcaster Mage + Twinflame Combo - We are all in on Worldgorger. Our deck size is effectively 40 cards, so we have no room for otherwise dead cards.

XYZ Removal Spell - The removal spells in this deck are flex slots. Feel free to adjust to your meta.

XYZ Madness card - The madness cards are irrelevant. They just need to have madness to continue to filter with Anje. Feel free to substitute certain madness cards. Make sure you are not swapping out too many creature for noncreature madness cards though. Certain cards like Mausoleum Secrets and Restless Dreams depend on creature cards in your graveyard.

Mulligan Guide

Priority of Importance in the Opening Hand

1. Mana (lands, fast mana, rituals)
2. Tutors or Combo pieces
3. Madness Cards
4. Wincons

Your mulligans needs to be aggressive for enough mana to cast Anje. Turn 1-2 anje is great. Turn 3 Anje is okay. You never want to keep only 1 mana source in your opener. This deck runs an extremely low amount of lands to keep gas going for Anje's filtering, so hitting land drops can be hard in the first or second turns of the game.

Simply put, if your opener does not have the mana for Anje, you need to mulligan. Once Anje is out, she can take care of finding what you want.

A good opening hand has enough ramp to cast anje turns 1-2, and a mix of tutors, interaction, combo pieces, and/or madness. It's okay to keep a hand with ramp and madness. It's NOT okay to keep a hand with all ramp. You will have nowhere to go once you explode your hand.

Matchups / Meta Swaps

Good Matchups

Opus Thief / Wheels / Breya - These type of decks are good matchups because of the amount of discard that happens as a result of their strategy. This allows us to get more cards in hand through Anje's triggered ability.

Selvala / Godo / Prossh / Animar - Other fast combo decks that don't seek to proactively interact are good matchups.

Bad Matchups

Stax - Rule of Law effects hurt us, GY hate hurts us, Cursed Totem effects hurt us. Swap in more artifact removal, and don't be afraid to cast your Madness creatures to put pressure on them.

Control - Heavy interaction decks / control decks hurt us. They have very cheap removal at all turns in the game that can disrupt our plan. Run Mana Web / Ricochet Trap / Price of Glory / Conqueror's Flail

Updates

Currently Testing

Dockside Extortionist - This will be an auto-include. Almost never a dead card.

Azra Oddsmaker - Very strong in initial testing. Will probably find a spot.

Bolt Bend - Very good at protecting the dragon combo mid-loop. Strong candidate.

Ricochet Trap - Good at protecting spells on the stack. Strong candidate, but bolt bend is currently ranking higher.

Merchant of the Vale - Only okay so far in testing. The adventure portion is nice to have it out in exile, so it cannot be removed in case Anje becomes inaccessible. Further testing required.

Corpse Dance + Dockside Extortionist + Viscera Seer - Exploring this combo as a backup in case WGD gets completely removed. Dockside is not dead on board. Viscera/Corpse Dance aren't great cards on their own, however. Further testing required.

On Deck

These cards are on deck to be tested.

Sensei's Divining Top - Smoothing out draws in early game is great.

Buried Alive - A great card to get the dragon into your graveyard. It costs 3, so it might be swapped with Sarkhan's Triumph.

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker - Can also go infinite with Worldgorger, but costs a lot more. Would have to be reanimated with something like Ever After. Unsure if this will see testing or not.

Necrotic Ooze - With Kiki, can do a lot of degenerate things. Buried Alive + Reanimation Aura + Blood Pet / Skirk Prospector can generate infinite mana. This combo seems a little convoluted, so testing will be required. Haste is required, so not sure if this will make the cut.

Rejected

Cauldron Familiar - Already enough WGD wincons in the deck. No synergy with food.

Scheming Symmetry - If plans are disrupted, you just gave an opponent the best card in their deck. Too many downsides for not enough upsides. This will be a good budget replacement for Imperial Seal.

Dragon Tempest - There are enough WGD wincons in the deck. No added benefit.

Top Ranked	Achieved #6 position overall 5 years ago Achieved #2 position in Commander / EDH 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH BR (Rakdos) 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Competitive 5 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Exclude colors	WUG
Key combos	Corpse Dance + Dockside Extortionist + Viscera Seer
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 35 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 26 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.91
Tokens	On an Adventure, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Saved Decks, EDH, Potential deck list., Not Budget, opp, CCMD, edh, Virtual Memory, EDH Decks, Decks of Interest