Building a Better Rhino: Lockdown

Commander / EDH*

Indigoindigo

Land (32)

• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Brushland
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 2x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Horizon Canopy
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mystic Gate
• 1x Nimbus Maze
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Tarnished Citadel
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Tundra
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

Answers (6)

• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares

Locks (16)

• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
• 1x Ethersworn Canonist
• 1x Gaddock Teeg
• 1x Hokori, Dust Drinker
• 1x Kismet
• 1x Lavinia of the Tenth
• 1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1x Rising Waters
• 1x Root Maze
• 1x Rule of Law
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x Stony Silence
• 1x Tangle Wire
• 1x Trinisphere
• 1x Winter Orb

Utility (10)

• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Living Plane
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer

Tax (8)

• 1x Aura of Silence
• 1x Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
• 1x Kataki, War's Wage
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Sphere of Resistance
• 1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 1x Thorn of Amethyst

Untap (3)

• 1x Quirion Ranger
• 1x Scryb Ranger
• 1x Seedborn Muse

Commander (1)

Tutor (11)

• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Captain Sisay
• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Loyal Retainers
• 1x Sterling Grove
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Worldly Tutor
• 1x Yisan, the Wanderer Bard

Dorks (9)

• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Noble Hierarch

Rocks (5)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Sol Ring

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Maybeboard

Other (18)

• 1x Academy Rector
• 1x Caustic Caterpillar
• 1x Containment Priest
• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Elvish Spirit Guide
• 1x Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Null Rod
• 1x Qasali Pridemage
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Sanctum Prelate
• 1x Selvala, Explorer Returned
• 1x Shaman of Forgotten Ways
• 1x Slithermuse
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Tamiyo, Field Researcher

Locks (1)

• 1x Spirit of the Labyrinth

Tutor (1)

• 1x Fauna Shaman

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Roon of the Hidden Realm is one of the most popular commanders, ranked in the Top 20 All Time at EDHrec. Despite it's popularity I would argue that a truly competitive deck for him doesn't yet exist.

Note: This is not intended as a discussion on the best commander. It's Derevi, no discussion. The following is intended as a thought experiment on how to make an optimal shell for Roon - Building a better rhino.

This discussion is split into four parts:
1. Strenghts and weaknesses of Roon
2. Choosing a shell
3. Choosing a win condition
4. Other card-considerations

1. Strengths and weaknesses

Show

Weaknesses:

1. High CMC. Compared to commanders like Edric, Spymaster of Trest or Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, a deck piloted by Roon needs more lands and/or acceleration for Roon to be relevant in the early game. The biggest problem however is:

2. A slow ability that requires a specific board to be good. The ability is slow both in the sense that the enters-the-battlefield-trigger is delayed, and that it requires a turn / a haste-enabler to be activated.

Casting Roon of the Hidden Realm on turn 3-4 doesn't provide an immediate threat in itself, and without a blinking-target on board it doesn't serve any function.

There's other factors left to be desired with Roon as well. A commander like Edric affects the entire board as soon as it's in play. A commander like Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord has game-ending combos requiring just the commander and one more card. Roon has none of these benefits.

Other commanders struggle with some of these problems too. An example of #1 is Damia, Sage of Stone, but she has a powerful ability that is useful the same turn and every following turn. An example of #2 is Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, and while he struggles with a slow ability he's incredibly consistent and doesn't require a specific board to do something useful with the ability.

Strengths:

1. Roon's ability requires very little to function. Even with powerful locks like Blood Moon or Winter Orb in play, you'll still be able to activate his ability quite easily. We'll come back to how to do this.

2. Roon's ability is not affected by cost-increasers and tax, i.e. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. We can use this to our benefit.

3. Roon's colors. Being in green allows explosive ramp to negate his high CMC. Being in white gains us access to some good cards for i.e. prison and acceleration. Being in blue gains us access to card draw and counters. Bant also has decent tutors and removal.
   
   Summary:
   Taking Roon's strenghts and weaknesses into consideration, the best build for him should probably encourage a strategy slowing down the game until he has a chance to provide steady value.

2. Choosing a shell

The Basic Shell Show

The basic shell that I believe is the strongest for Roon of the Hidden Realm must be able to slow down the game, giving him time to grind out value.

We need prisons that slow down the game, coupled with cheap, synergistic ramp. Under a Winter Orb or similar lock there is still a lot of ways to activate Roon: land + dork, land + Utopia Sprawl, Sol Ring, Bloom Tender, et cetera.

The deck also need reliable engines, coupled with untappers. Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, Captain Sisay, Weathered Wayfarer, Selvala, Explorer Returned and Roon of the Hidden Realm are value-engines that get better with untapping, i.e. Seedborn Muse.

Finally, we must be able to abuse Roon's ability for maximal value. Notable cards that break parity in the basic shell is Lavinia of the Tenth, Hokori, Dust Drinker and Kataki, War's Wage. These are great cards in in competitive Derevi-lists, but I would argue that they're even more powerful with Roon in the command zone.

Now, on to different variations of this shell.

Tax and prison Show

The hard tax-route is the slowest, and perhaps the most punishing build for Roon. The main plan is to establish a lockdown of all lands, i.e. with Winter Orb and then follow up with one, two or more of the following taxers to make opposing interaction and plays next to impossible:
Cursecatcher
Judge's Familiar
Spiketail Drake
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Glowrider
Lodestone Golem
Vryn Wingmare
Patron Wizard
Sphere of Resistance
Thorn of Amethyst
Rishadan Cutpurse
Rishadan Footpad
Rishadan Brigand

Other prisons, denial and disruption can also fit into this strategy, i.e. Root Maze, Kismet, Frozen AEther, Arcane Laboratory, Rule of Law, Eidolon of Rhetoric, et cetera.

Strengths of this strategy:
Roon's ability functions well even with several taxers and locks in play. Another way of breaking parity is using Roon's or Yisan's ability to get an additional ETB-effect or creature in play when an Arcane Laboratory or Eidolon of Rhetoric is on the board.

Weaknesses of this strategy:
The main plan is to shut others out of the game, and so the main priority is putting prisons and taxes in place as soon as possible. That sometimes makes it harder to cast our own engines and abusing them. I've playtested this shell several times and had no problems slowing down games, but big trouble actually ending games. In several games I've had trouble casting Roon because I'm locked down myself.

Summary:
This strategy shows promise, but lacks a consistent way of ending games.

Artifacts Show

A lot of the effective prisons, taxers and locks available to this deck are artifacts. An artifact-strategy is a possible way of breaking parity, untapping only a land and one of the following artifacts to still be able to activate Roon's ability:
Talisman of Unity
Talisman of Progress
Selesnya Signet
Azorius Signet
Simic Signet

If going for a full artifact-strategy Mox Opal, Fellwar Stone, Mind Stone, Fractured Powerstone , Prismatic Lens , Grim Monolith, Chromatic Lantern and Gilded Lotus could be worthy of consideration as well.

Strengths of this strategy
An artifact-shell for our deck allows us to use Brago, King Eternal as a massive value-provider, and priory #1 should be to get him in play as soon as possible. Brago also greatly improve the value of Rishadan Footpad , Rishadan Cutpurse and Rishadan Brigand , and allows for more flickering than Roon.

Untapping with Seedborn Muse gets even better in an artifact-shell, and Tezzeret the Seeker should be considered as a powerful tutor for either acceleration or prisons. Running artifacts over dorks also makes opposing Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite or wraths less devastating. Lastly, a strenght of this strategy is being able to play powerful enchantment-hate, i.e. Back to Nature or Calming Verse.

Weaknesses of this strategy
Artifacts have no specific synergy or winconditions with Roon. The deck could end up as a very dependent on Brago, in other words a less consistent Brago-list.

Summary:
Talismans and Signets might be worthy of consideration, but I don't think an all-in artifact-theme is the right shell for Roon.

Enchantress Show

A lot of the effective prisons, taxers and locks available to this deck are enchantments. Argothian Enchantress, Verduran Enchantress, Mesa Enchantress,Eidolon of Blossoms and Enchantress's Presence is easy to activate for cheap:
Exploration
Burgeoning
Utopia Sprawl
Wild Growth
Carpet of Flowers
Root Maze
Reconnaissance
Mystic Remora
Concordant Crossroads
Mirri's Guile
Training Grounds

For more examples of good enchantments, have a look at cEDH Brew 5: Dankchantress

Strengths of this strategy
Notice that several of the enchantments above also produce mana to activate Roon while under a lock. An enchantment-theme provides a lot of alternatives for slowing down and disrupting the game, with Root Maze, Blind Obedience, Rest in Piece, Arcane Laboratory and even enchantment-creatures like Spirit of the Labyrinth and Eidolon of Rhetoric.

Sterling Grove becomes both important protection and a tutor, and Enchanted Evening + Aura Thief is a possible win-condition. Greater Auramancy is also good here.

Lastly, an enchantress-shell allows us to run a lot of artifact-hate, like Kataki, War's Wage, Stony Silence, Energy Flux and Null Rod.

Weaknesses of this strategy
Enchantments have no specific synergy with Roon. Yisan, the Wanderer Bard and Captain Sisay - very good engines in the basic shell - becomes less good without a large creature-base, and so does Roon.

Summary:
An enchantress-build shows some promise, being able to both draw cards and having a win-condition, while also providing various ways of shutting down opposing decks. A promising build could use enchantments to slow down the game and combine Roon with Hokori, Dust Drinker / Lavinia of the Tenth to lock opponents down even further.

Elves Show

Elves might seem like a strange choice, but considering Roon is mana hungry it's a logical alternative to pursue. A rundown of some possible elves at different CMC:
1. Arbor Elf, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Llanowar Elves, Joraga Treespeaker, Quirion Ranger, Wirewood Symbiote.
2. Bloom Tender, Fauna Shaman, Seeker of Skybreak .
3. Reclamation Sage, Selvala, Explorer Returned, Elvish Archdruid, Elvish Harbinger .4. Nullmage Shepherd.

Strenghts of this strategy
As mentioned earlier, untapping is important for our value-engines like Roon, Yisan, Sisay and Selvala. Quirion Ranger and Wirewood Symbiote fit well into this strategy. Elves set up some great Yisan-chains:
Quirion Ranger -> Priest of Titania -> Utility-elf -> Temur Sabertooth / Nullmage Shepherd -> Seedborn Muse.

A big elf, i.e. Priest of Titania or Bloom Tender, goes infinite with Temur Sabertooth and Lightning Greaves.There's also several available infinite mana-combos with elves + Staff of Domination / Umbral Mantle, outlined in this Reddit-post.

Weaknesses
Elves have no specific synergy with Roon. Getting a critial mass of elves can be hard.

Summary
An all-in elf-strategy is probably not the best way to utilize Roon's ability, but a few elves that have synergy with the deck as a whole - the dorks, Quirion Ranger, Priest of Titania and possibly Wirewood Symbiote - could be useful enough to warrant inclusion, and serve as a possible wincon.

Attacking Show

Roon of the Hidden Realm can flicker away blockers and/or trample through damage, enabling card draw with Edric, Spymaster of Trest, Bident of Thassa or Coastal Piracy . Godsend is expensive, but makes Roon into slow, repeatable removal. So does Containment Priest.

Couple Roon with evasive hatebears, i.e. Aven Mindcensor, Vryn Wingmare , Gilded Drake, Spiketail Hatchling , Judge's Familiar and Rishadan Brigand (and Brago, King Eternal and Birds of Paradise too) could be enough to warrant experimenting with a combat-based strategy.

Competitive games are rarely won by combat damage, and so this should not be the main theme for the deck.

3. Possible win conditions

Living Plane Show

Probably the easiest to implement. With Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite or Linvala, Keeper of Silence in play, Living Plane shuts down or kills all of our opponents lands.

Mass Land Destruction Show

Roon could utilize Cataclysm very well. With mana-engine or two in play Armageddon or Ravages of War could be

RiP + Helm Show

Another combo easy to implement. Rest in Peace is a lock by itself, shutting down graveyard-strategies, and can be worth including even if not running Helm of Obedience. Activate the Helm to exile an opponent's library, eliminating them from the game. The problem with this combo is eliminating the entire table, and it's hard (and slow) to pull off without a Teferi, Temporal Archmage, Seedborn Muse or Kiora's Follower + Quirion Ranger.

DEN + Palinchron infinite combo Show

All cards in this combo - Palinchron, Peregrine Drake, Deadeye Navigator, Ghostly Flicker, Eternal Withess, Phantasmal Image, Venser, Shaper Savant and even Riptide Laboratory can be useful in a deck with powerful ETB-effects / piloted by Roon.

Infinite mana combos:

1. Palinchron / Peregrine Drake + Deadeye Navigator

2. Palinchron / Peregrine Drake + Ghostly Flicker + Eternal Witness

3. Palinchron + Phantasmal Image

Win conditions:

1. Venser, Shaper Savant + Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron to bounce all permanents I don't control

2. Venser, Shaper Savant + Phantasmal Image + Palinchron + Riptide Laboratory to bounce all permanents I don't control

I've played this combo in 10+ games in a Tax + Prison-shell (see above) and was never able to consistently pull it off with the prisons and tax-increasers in play. For further explanation of the combo, the combo-pieces, setup and even additional pieces, read Epochalyptik's primer here.

Infinite turns Show

Loop Eternal Witness with either Roon of the Hidden Realm, Deadeye Navigator, Mistmeadow Witch or Eldrazi Displacer + Time Warp / Temporal Manipulation / Capture of Jingzhou / Time Stretch, et cetera. The extra turn-effects doesn't do much outside of the combo, though.

Aura Theft Show

If going with a heavy enchantment-theme, Enchanted Evening + Aura Thief is a possible win condition. If my Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is in play Opalescence destroys all but my lands.

Add Flash and/or High Market to ensure Aura Thief is put into the graveyard.

OmniRector Show

Academy Rector is without a doubt an important tutor for key enchantments, whether that is Sylvan Library or an important piece for our prison. Might as well add in Omniscience to it's targets. Add Flash and/or High Market to ensure Academy Rector is put into the graveyard.

With a haste-enabler and an untapper, the combo can probably be done in one turn with Yisan:
Weathered Wayfarer -> Grand Abolisher -> Academy Rector

Roonweaver combo. Show

Boonweaver Giant is a combo run with great success in Karador, Ghost Chieftain. The explanation below is borrowed from cobblepott's Karador-primer, slightly modified.

The Boonweaver combo goes as follows:

1. When Boonweaver enters play, find Pattern of Rebirth and attach it to him.

2. Sac Boonweaver to find Karmic Guide which returns Boonweaver and Pattern.

3. Sac Boonweaver again to find Fiend Hunter, who exiles Karmic Guide.

4. Sac Fiend Hunter to return Karmic Guide, who then returns Boonweaver and Pattern.

5. Sac Boonweaver again to find Reveillark.

6. Sac Karmic and then Reveillark to return both Karmic and Fiend Hunter.

7. Use Karmic to return Boonweaver and Fiend Hunter to exile Karmic.

8. Sac Boonweaver to go get anything.

9. Sac Fiend Hunter to return Karmic, which returns Reveillark.

10. Repeat

This sequence nets one creature from the library each cycle and can put all creatures from your library into play and win on the spot. The combo wins through any combination of Reveillark and Friends with Venser, Shaper Savant, Acidic Slime, or Altar of Dementia. Note that the order and pieces involved have some flexibility. For instance, Saffi Eriksdotter can be substituted in place of Fiend Hunter if he gets stuck in your yard or hand prior to the combo. Also, you don't need to go through the entire combo depending on your board state. If, for example, your sac outlet is Altar of Dementia you can stop once you have Karmic Guide and Fiend Hunter/Saffi Eriksdotter since you can just mill everyone with those pieces alone.

In addition to the Boonweaver combo, we can assemble any of the infinite pairs below with a sac outlet and win con and the game will be over:

1. Fiend Hunter + Sun Titan / Karmic Guide

2. Reveillark + Karmic Guide

3. Saffi Eriksdotter + Sun Titan / Karmic Guide / Reveillark

Without black, the best sacrifice-engines available to us is Altar of Dementia, Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod's Altar and Greater Good. With an infinite pair, do the following:

1. Altar of Dementia + Infinite pair = mill all opponents

2. Venser, Shaper Savant + Reveillark + Karmic Guide + Sac engine = bounce all opponent permanents.

3. Acidic Slime + Reveillark + Karmic Guide + Sac engine = destroy all opponent lands.

The Boonweaver-pieces has decent synergy with Roon outside of the combo, and even though there's many paths to victory there's a lot of pieces to fit.

Since the token-strategy below uses a sacrifice-engines too, there's a slight possibility these two strategies can be merged.

Token combo Show

Hornet Queen and Avenger of Zendikar are all-stars in casual Roon-decks, and with a few more pieces they could have some merit in a combo.

An example:
Token-producer + Ashnod's Altar + Eldrazi Displacer + Concordant Crossroads / Rishadan Cutpurse (or Footpad / Brigand)
Sacrifice the tokens at the Altar, use the mana to flicker the token-producer with Displacer for infinite mana and then loop the Rishadan-creature to clear all opposing permanents. Alternatively beatdown with infinite hasty creatures.

Skullclamp loves token-makers, and can possibly draw into another combo-piece. With Roon and Seedborn Muse in play you can make 16-24+ tokens in a turn cycle, possibly for 72+ damage with Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite.

Obvious downsides to this combo is the amount of pieces required, difficulty tutoring for Altar and the high CMC pieces. While Roon's ability makes the token-makers even better, I don't believe it makes them good enough.

Melira-combo Show

Melira, Sylvok Outcast goes infinite with a persist-creature, i.e. Woodfall Primus and a sacrifice-engine. The problem with this combo, as with the Boonweaver combo, is the lack of useful sac-engines.

Jin + Retainers-combo Show

Use Survival of the Fittest or Fauna Shaman to discard Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, cheating it into play with Loyal Retainers . Retainers could be relevant outside of the combo in a deck with this many useful legends.

Shaman-combo. Show

The basic idea is to bounce all opposing creatures and activate Shaman of Forgotten Ways for the win. With infinite untaps via Intruder Alarm, this combo can utilize Roon of the Hidden Realm and his ability, and it's the only combo I've found that do so in a meaningful way.

Key cards and interactions:

1. Bloom Tender + Temur Sabertooth + Lightning Greaves = Infinite U/W.

2. Priest of Titania + Temur Sabertooth + Lightning Greaves + 2 elves = Infinite G

3. Bloom Tender + Freed from the Real / Pemmin's Aura = Infinite G

4. Kiora's Follower / Voyaging Satyr + Freed from the Real / Pemmin's Aura + Utopia Sprawl / Wild Growth = Infinite G.

5. Kiora's Follower / Voyaging Satyr + Freed from the Real / Pemmin's Aura + [U devotion] + Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx = Infinite mana.

6. Any of the infinite-mana-combos outlined in the DEN + Palinchron-section.

A strength to this combo is that several the pieces do a lot for the deck outside of the combo too. Gaea's Cradle has several ways of providing infinite mana.
Krosan Restorer is a less consistent combo-piece and doesn't provide much utility outside of the combo, but it can make infinite mana with a combination of the auras.
Argothian Elder + Maze of Ith is another way of producing infinite mana. Attack with Elder, then during combat or main phase two you untap Elder with Maze, untap Maze + any other land. Elder also goes infinite with FftR / Pemmin's Aura, but neither Elder or Maze do much outside the combo.

With infinite mana / infinite G, do one of the following:

1. Activate Temur Sabertooth and flicker Venser, Shaper Savant infinite times to clear every permanent you want. Optionally activate Shaman of Forgotten Ways for the win.

2. Activate Temur Sabertooth and flicker Duplicant infinite times to clear every creature you want. Optionally activate Shaman of Forgotten Ways for the win.

3. Temur Sabertooth + Intruder Alarm provies infinite untaps. Use Roon of the Hidden Realm to exile your opponents creatures and either activate Shaman of Forgotten Ways or flash in Cointainment Priest to exile them permanently, if Shaman is somehow unavailable.

This combo can be included in either a DEN + Palinchron-shell, and Elf-shell, an enchantress-shell or a combination of these. An additional upside to the combo is the way Yisan, the Wanderer Bard helps setting it up:
2 Verse-counters: Bloom Tender / Kiora's Follower / Voyaging Satyr / Containment Priest
3 Verse-counters: Shaman of Forgotten Ways, possibly Heliod's Pilgrim to tutor for an aura.
4 Verse-counters: Temur Sabertooth / Venser, Shaper Savant.

Lastly, this combo could utilize of the combos in Tasigur Elfball or common infinite-chains used in Yisan-lists.

Flickerwisp-lock Show

Use Flickerwisp on your oppoents end step targeting Stasis. You get an untap step before the Stasis-lock is put back into place.Flickerwisp is one of the pieces used in Boonweaver combo, so consider combining these.

4. Other card considerations

Acceleration Show

Carpet of Flowers is great in blue metas.
Burgeoning is great for early game acceleration, putting an early lock in place, and makes Quirion Ranger even better.
Exploration is great early game acceleration, and allows more untapped lands each turn under a lock.
Cryptolith Rite turns hatebears into parity-breakers.
Oracle of Mul Daya is card-filtering and allows more untapped lands each turn under a lock.

Card Draw Show

Skullclamp is good with a lot of dorks and i.e. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or Spirit of the Labyrinth.
Mentor of the Meek is easy to activate too.
Slithermuse has proved very good in some games and doesn't make wraths that devastating.
Argothian Enchantress, Verduran Enchantress, Mesa Enchantress,Eidolon of Blossoms and Enchantress's Presence is easy to activate in an enchantment-heavy shell.

Untappers Show

Some number of untappers is essential to get extra use out of our engines, including Roon. Sorted by mana-cost, here's our best options:
1. Quirion Ranger, Wirewood Symbiote, Copperhorn Scout
2. Scryb Ranger, Kiora's Follower, Quest for Renewal
3. Village Bell-Ringer, Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
5. Seedborn Muse, Murkfiend Liege .

Tutors Show

Crop Rotation or Weathered Wayfarer for Gaea's Cradle, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, High Market or Ancient Tomb.
Others to consider are Bring to Light, Fierce Empath, Woodland Bellower, Idyllic Tutor, Captain Sisay, Loyal Retainers and Altar of Bone

Prisons Show

Grand Abolisher has a few cons: it doesn't win you the game and doesn't stop others from doing so. Fast locks/stax is a higher priority than protection.
Peacekeeper an similar effects has a big impact against Derevi, Narset or Brago.
Grafdigger's Cage against Yisan, reanimator or storm.

Utility Show

Sylvan Safekeeper for protection.
Whisperwood Elemental makes wraths less devastating, the manifestations can be flipped by Roon.Kamahl, Fist of Krosa can be useful either with infinite combo or as a backup in the living plane-combo.

Answers Show

Caustic Caterpillar or Qasali Pridemage answers Torpor Orb.
Reclamation Sage or Harmonic Sliver answers Cursed Totem.
Venser, Shaper Savant is important in several of the combos outlined above.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 65 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	101
Avg. CMC	2.29
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U
Folders	Roon of the Hidden Realm, EDH, inspirational decks, cEDH, make it, immediate make