[PRIMER] Arixmethes Turbo Turns

Commander / EDH GU (Simic)

LPrats

Sorcery (24)

• 1x Careful Study
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Hunter's Prowess
• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 1x Natural Order
• 1x Nostalgic Dreams
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Rishkar's Expertise
• 1x Search for Tomorrow
• 1x Serum Visions
• 1x Sleight of Hand
• 1x Soul's Majesty
• 1x Temporal Manipulation
• 1x Temporal Mastery
• 1x Temporal Trespass
• 1x Time Warp
• 1x Traverse the Outlands
• 1x Traverse the Ulvenwald
• 1x Walk the Aeons
• 1x Whelming Wave

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Aqueous Form
• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Rancor
• 1x Utopia Sprawl
• 1x Wild Growth

Instant (20)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Dig Through Time
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Hunter's Insight
• 1x Impulse
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Narset's Reversal
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Nexus of Fate
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Opt
• 1x Peek
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Stubborn Denial
• 1x Supreme Will
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Thought Scour

Creature (10)

• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Grothama, All-Devouring
• 1x Kiora's Follower
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Prime Speaker Zegana
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Skullwinder
• 1x Voyaging Satyr

Commander (1)

Land (33)

• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 11x Forest
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 12x Island
• 1x Mosswort Bridge
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

Artifact (4)

• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mishra's Bauble
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Garruk, Primal Hunter
• 1x Garruk Wildspeaker

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Maybeboard

Creature (3)

• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Dosan the Falling Leaf
• 1x Eternal Witness

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Karn's Temporal Sundering

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Finally a version of this deck I'm happy with.

This is my personal take on a turns deck; a "Big Edric" deck that aims to take a bunch of extra turns fueled with tons of card draw.

The Game Plan

Phase 1: Try to ramp into Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle . Often enough you can get him out by turn 3, turn 2 with Sol Ring or Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl .

Phase 2: Try to remove all of Arixmethes' slumber counters, the deck has an extremely high density of 1 mana cantrips that should help facilitate this.

Phase 3: Try to chain your extra turns and mass card draw to kill the table with commander damage.

Tutor Targets

Crop Rotation : Reliquary Tower after a big draw spell or Mosswort Bridge if using it to remove counters off of Arixmethes (bridge has many high value hits in the deck, and has about a 55% chance of hitting either an extra turn spell or mass draw spell when there are 90 cards left in the deck). On the topic of lands, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx isn't actually a priority land in this deck, and I'd cut it for a basic island if you were having trouble acquiring a copy, as the deck's devotion doesn't really tend to get too high as we aren't running many creatures or enchantments. I would tutor for the other 2 before considering tutoring for Nykthos.

Natural Order : Prime Speaker Zegana or Grothama, All-Devouring

Merchant Scroll : Mystical Tutor or Nexus of Fate

Mystical Tutor : Temporal Mastery at opponents end step/ your upkeep, or Rishkar's Expertise if you have Time Warp in hand and vice-versa. On occasion I also use it to fetch Traverse the Outlands for that sweet sweet 12x rampant growth.

A Few Tips

A few tips:

1.) Mystical Tutor into Temporal Mastery feels like the most consistent way to get both an extra turn and a bunch of card draw (via Soul's Majesty , Prime Speaker Zegana , Garruk, Primal Hunter , etc.) in the same turn. The second most consistent is casting Rishkar's Expertise then casting a free Time Warp .

2.) If you can help it, save your cantrips and ramp until after you've played Arixmethes. An example would be a hand with a Elvish Mystic , Farseek , Ponder , Serum Visions , and a few lands. While you might be tempted to play the Elf on turn 1, it doesn't actually help you get to your commander any faster; you may instead opt to skip your play entirely on turn 1, play Farseek on 2, Commander on 3, and immediately have 3 spells in your hand (excluding any others you may have drawn over the past few turns) to remove slumber counters from our commander. Remember to plan ahead!

3.) It is easy to forget that Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle is also a mana source, and can be used as such. A big portion of phase 2 is trying to maximize the amount of mana you're spending. Do not be afraid to use Arixmethes as a mana source even when chaining your extra turn spells together, especially when you are just starting the chain off, as being able to cast both an extra turn and a mass draw spell in the same turn will immensely help your succeeding turns.

4.) It is sometimes correct not to remove slumber counters from Arixmethes in order to maximize your mana (as "untap target land" effects will no longer work on Arixmethes once he's a creature). Keeping Arixmethes as a land also protects Arixmethes from targeted creature removal; ideally, you are to keep Arixmethes at 1 slumber counter if you are not ready to "go off", and hold up any instant (such as Opt ) so that if Arixmethes becomes the target of noncreature destruction (such as Acidic Slime or Strip Mine ), you will be able to respond with your instant, removing the last counter and fizzling the effect.

5.) Prime Speaker Zegana is a great back up beater in case Arixmethes dies during your extra turns, as she is often a 13/13. The deck is fairly resillient to Arixmethes being removed as well due to the deck's ramp package. Do not be afraid to take it slow, chances are Arixmethes won't be removed twice in a single game since people have to hold up their removal until you remove all 5 counters again, and the odds of something more threatening popping up until then is fairly high.

P.S. NEVER use Part the Waterveil to awaken Arixmethes when he's a land, as he will not be a 12/12 with 6 +1/+1 counters, Awaken overrides his base power and turns him into a 0/0 first.

P.P.S. You can not target Arixmethes with Rancor and Aqueous Form if he still has 1 (or more, obviously) slumber counters on him, as these auras require a legal target as they are cast, not as they resolve.

Also, feel free to improve on the mana base and add more expensive cards like Capture of Jingzhou and fast mana. The deck is optimized to fit my budget :)

Top Ranked	Achieved #46 position overall 5 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 25 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 26 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.63
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Beast 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Wurm 6/6 G
Folders	Decks for Reference, Future Decks?, cEDH