Banned for a Reason

Commander / EDH Casual Combo Mono-Blue Multiplayer

BSP

Instant (18)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Commandeer
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x High Tide
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Misdirection
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Negate
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Pull from Tomorrow
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Supreme Will
• 1x Swan Song

Land (37)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 30x Island
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Riptide Laboratory
• 1x Tolaria West

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Mind Over Matter
• 1x Mystic Remora

Creature (18)

• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Azami, Lady of Scrolls
• 1x Clever Impersonator
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Fatespinner
• 1x Fatestitcher
• 1x Frost Titan
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Sakashima the Impostor
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
• 1x Temporal Adept
• 1x Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 1x Vizier of Tumbling Sands

Sorcery (7)

• 1x All is Dust
• 1x Bribery
• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Serum Visions
• 1x Time Stretch
• 1x Time Warp

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Teferi, Temporal Archmage

Commander (1)

Artifact (16)

• 1x Coldsteel Heart
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Sapphire Medallion
• 1x Sky Diamond
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

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Any feedback on cards that would be better is welcome.

Who Should Play this Deck? Show

This deck is built assuming a casual EDH environment, where the goal to have fun while still having a good shot at winning. This implies little to no target land destruction, mass land destruction, no excessive amounts of counterspells, removal, stax, and no infinite combos.

Play the deck if your meta is casual, you like drawing cards / having a hand, you don't want to miss land drops, you like having an answer for nearly any situation, you like the color blue, and you prefer playing the long game.

Don't play the deck if your meta is cutthroat with decks that win consistently on T3-T5, loads of LD and artifact hate, you don't like blue, or your meta hates it, you don't like having a hand / drawing cards (!?), you prefer turn sideways for combat every turn, or you don't like being somewhat vulnerable early game in return for a near guaranteed late game.

If you're curious about the deck's power level, it can usually find some game winning combo by at least T9 without disruption. However, it can go off much faster with the right starting hands. In terms of %, I'd say it's a 90% deck, with that last 10% being reserved towards decks devoting all resources to combo or stopping the other players from playing at all. If you need the deck to be stronger, run Azami combo instead.

Deck Explanation Show

Long ago a card named Ancestral Recall was printed. Drawing three cards at instant speed for 1 blue? Sign me up!

Wait, it's banned in commander? Lame. What if I want OP card advantage? Fortunately, I'm in luck. Wizards put the spell on a body. What could possibly go wrong? Yeah, it costs 6 mana and has to deal with summoning sickness...but it's ancestral recall on a body. Worth.

The goal of this deck is to win through sheer card advantage. With Arcanis the Omnipotent at its helm, the deck should rarely miss land drops and consistently pull out a victory if it makes it to late game. Bar heavy disruption, the deck will ultimately end up with an out of control board state that can win via combat damage or lockdown. TBH the idea for the deck stemmed from the fact that I hate missing land drops. I figured Arcanis would reduce that possibility to near zero, and it does so pretty well.

Why is Azami, Lady of Scrolls not at the helm? While the deck would definitely be stronger, that'd put a even bigger target on it and necessitate wizard tribal.

Strengths Show

-Card advantage! The deck is armed to the teeth with draw power.

-Answers: between counters, bounce, kills, and exile, the deck should be able to answer just about any situation given enough time.

-Synergy: I tried to focus on Arcanis' ability and card advantage in general when making the deck. It should run like a well oiled machine with no card feeling out of place.

Weaknesses Show

-Early game/Aggro: the deck is vulnerable to aggro decks. It can be tough to get the engine rolling if it's constantly swung at, and most of its creatures won't last very long in combat.

-Arcanis: the commander is a weakness? What? Yeah, unfortunately. As amazing as Arcanis is, it dies to removal just like any other creature. It's also the primary source of draw power in the deck. If you can't get it to stick, it will be pretty slow.

-Consistency: due to the card advantage of the deck, its late game prowess will be recognized fairly quickly. This means your peers will realize that this deck needs to die early, or else it will dominate late game. Do not be surprised if you get targeted first.

Iona, Shield of Emeria : the bane of mono-color decks everywhere. The deck's answers best answers to her are counterspells, All Is Dust , an already played Temporal Adept , and Duplicant . If you know she is a possible threat, find one these answers as soon as possible.

Heavy Control: already covered in the 'who should play this deck' section, but let me point out that this deck is not designed to handle being countered at every opportunity or having its resources removed instantaneously.

Win Conditions Show

Mind Over Matter : With Arcanis able to tap, lets you draw through your entire deck and basically do whatever you want in order to win the game. Very strong combo and likely wins on resolution via one of the below methods.

Deadeye Navigator + Frost Titan : with lots of mana, tap everything you don't control down in order to lock opponents out of the game.

Deadeye Navigator + Archaeomancer : great with any powerful instant or sorcery, e.g. Cyclonic Rift , Bribery , or time magic.

Cyclonic Rift : A late game Cyclonic Rift can be enough to make opponents scoop outright since you'll be so far ahead.

Time magic: Resolving extra turns while Arcanis is able to tap will likely win you the game.

Infinite Combos: There are a couple of infinites in this deck explained below. They all lead to a win very fast.

Synergies Show

Arcanis the Omnipotent + Deadeye Navigator + Thousand-Year Elixir / Lightning Greaves : 1U => draw 3 , although at sorcery speed for greaves.

Deadeye Navigator + Azami, Lady of Scrolls : 1U => draw a card, instant speed too!

Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar + Any Draw Engine: While not so threatening on its own, Tomorrow becomes quite powerful when it's backing other draw engines. Simply tapping Arcanis while it's out lets you see 9 cards.

Fatestitcher / Vizier of Tumbling Sands + Teferi, Temporal Archmage + Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx / Arcanis the Omnipotent : loads of draw or loads of mana

Minamo, School at Water's Edge + Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx / Arcanis the Omnipotent : similar to the above. Minamo targeting Arcanis = cast Ancestral Recall. Cheater.

Tolaria West targets: It can tutor for any land, but you're most likely going to grab-

Reliquary Tower : If you need infinite hand size

Minamo, School at Water's Edge : This is primarily to untap Nykthos and Arcanis.

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx : If you've got a field full of devotion, this thing will generate all the mana you need.

Academy Ruins : If you need to recur artifacts

Riptide Laboratory : This land is primarily for cheaper Arcanis and wizard protection, but it can also be used for Archaeomancer ETB reuse.

General Game Plan Show

T1-T4: I do not advise keeping any hand without at least 3 lands unless it's a godly setup. Your main plan early game is simple- use any present mana accelerators to get Arcanis or some other card advantage engine out on the field as soon as possible. I would prioritize getting Arcanis out first, as you need to access your card advantage ASAP before you're overrun.

T5-onwards: hopefully you were able to ramp some and Arcanis or some engine is out. Look for things to improve your own board state, and only address threats that are a serious threat to killing you soon. Don't bother holding up mana to bluff counterspells if there is something else you could be doing. This deck is aggressive, not laid back.

Infinite Combos Show

Temporal Adept + Teferi, Temporal Archmage + Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx => can lead to infinite mana and untaps with enough symbols.

Fatestitcher / Vizier of Tumbling Sands + Deadeye Navigator + Thousand-Year Elixir / Lightning Greaves + Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx / Gilded Lotus => Gilded Lotus with this setup goes infinite immediately, assuming lighting greaves are out, while nykthos does so with enough symbols on the field

Deadeye Navigator + Archaeomancer + Time Magic => infinite turns. Hard to not win from this.

Infinite mana easily leads to drawing the whole deck, then winning either via combat or locking down everyone else.

Notable Omissions Show

Omniscience : 10 mana enchant that doesn't win the game by itself on resolution.

Laboratory Maniac : This guy would be really strong, but he is also utterly useless I'm about to win. I may slot him in at some point but I do not want to currently.

With the right starting hand, you can see every card in the deck by T5 without infinite mana.

setup Show

Starting Hand: Island, Sol Ring, Sapphire Medallion, Minamo, Fatestitcher (or Vizier) , Teferi, Temporal Archmage, Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar

T1: Island, Sol Ring, Sapphire Medallion

T2: Minamo (5 mana up), cast Fatestitcher

T3: (effective 7 mana at least), cast Teferi, untap mana sources, then cast Arcanis

T4: Cast Tomorrow. You can get 4 Arcanis triggers with this board state, seeing 36 cards and putting 12 in your hand.

Your library has 88 cards in it when this first Arcanis trigger happens. 88 - 12 = 76 cards left in the library. 88-36 = 52 cards that you haven't seen.

T5: Tomorrow triggers, see 3 more cards (49 unseen), put one in your hand 1 (75 left total). You can now get at least 6 Arcanis triggers, which sees 54 cards (0 unseen).

Updated 5/21/18

Date added	8 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 29 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.37
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Emblem Teferi, Temporal Archmage, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Manifest 2/2 C
Folders	EDH, EDH, General, Joke, Project BLUE