This is a build i've been working on for Chulane, Teller of Tales. Because new Throne of Eldrain set is fairy tale based and this guy looks remarkably like Merlin, you will often here me refer to him as "Merlin", rather that Chulane. I've been brewing this since the day it was spoiled and am enjoying ever minute of it. The first time i read the rules text, i saw the "Whenever you cast a creature spell" part and thought food chain?!?!?!? Then i read the part about drawing a card and putting a land into play..... This guy is bonkers. WOTC has definitely pushed this this guy to the max. Especially for a Bant legend. So yes this is a brew that im working on. This is NOT supposed to be a balls out Food Chain Combo deck. My meta plays mostly high powered so i wanted to take this in the "disgusting value" direction rather than a "get to Food Chain as quickly as possible". I am running almost all the tutors Bant can provide. Some are taken out and replaced by things like Fauna Shaman because creatures synergyze alot more with Merlin than instants or sorcery's. I am running quite a bit a ramp in the form of mana dorks and a few staple artifacts. The land base is relatively on the budget side. Im not running any OG duals and am running plenty of basics but plenty of fetches to grab my shocks and such. Im am really avoiding anything that comes in tapped, as most of you should. You want to get Merlin out as quickly as possible so tapped lands only slow you down. As far as the creatures i am running quite a bit of solid value creature that synergize well with Merlin, like Karametra and God-Eternal Oketra. Some of these are a little higher on the curve than i would typically like but the ramp in this deck has made it for the most part, a non factor during play testing. The main strategy for this deck is the lowish CMC asymmetrical STAX creature suit. Because this deck is missing black, getting to food chain can be slow. So my work around for this is to run creatures to slow your opponents down. The big ones being Gaddock T, Thalia, Aven mind Sensor, Lavinia and if it comes to Grand Arbiter IV. Its crucial that you work in creatures that don't hose your game plan as well.
How does this deck Win?
Plan A:
This is more specific to my meta but the goal here is to out value the shit out of my opponents. Everyone in my play group runs infinite combos in all their decks, however were not trying to turn 3 or 4 each other during our Friday night magic with dirty Mike and the Boys. We enjoy commander and the nuances of playing the game. Also, my play group run a shit load of interaction anyway so turn 4 is usually difficult even with a balls out shuffle hulk build.
How do we out value everyone?
Get Merlin out as quickly as possible... If your opening hand doesnt have a way to get him out atleast by turn 4, you need to mulligan. If you can get him out and still have enough mana to cast a dork or something than even better. We want to abuse the cast trigger as early and as often as possible. If we see an opponent come out with a super fast and aggressive start, it will probably be wise to put Merlin off for a turn and get down Thalia or another STAX piece. If the game plan is to out value everyone, then the main goal should be to get plenty of creatures out and then drop Craterhoof for the win.
Plan B:
(A) Obviously, Food Chain is going to be the main strategy if your goal is to combo off as quickly as possible. This works by having Food Chain + a "cast from exile" creature out. Because of Merlins cast trigger of drawing a card and putting a land into play, you will theoretically draw your deck, have all your lands in play and have infinite mana to cast creatures. For this build, you will only need to food chain until you draw into Walking Ballista. Then you will cast walking Ballista for X= 1 Billion and shoot everyone in the face.
(B) If for some reason you cant cast your ballista, the obvious answer is to play Laboratory Maniac and deck yourself.
Something to be mindfull of is that the "draw a card" cast trigger from Merlin is NOT a "may ability". This being said, if your library is running thin and for some reason Ballista is the last card in your library, you will either need to play labman OR use Merlin's ability to bounce himself to your hand or you kill yourself.
How do we get there?
As mentioned above, I am running all of the enchantment tutors. I am aware there is more tutors i COULD be running but i wanted to get more creature value so i made to decision to go value rather than speed. There isnt many card draw spells other than Rhystic Study in here so most of the card draw will come from Chulane or in other forms of card advantage such as Ranger-Captain of Eos or Loyal retainers.
How does this deck interact?
Other than the Creature stax pieces, there is a suit of counterspells. Low CMC for these are important. You want to blow your wad on a 3 CMC counterpell when its your turn and you cant do Merlin "stuff". i am running Autumn's Veil and prowling serpopard for protection from opponents trying to interact with my creature spells. Still running things like Cyclonic Rift and Winds of Abandon (only because i have yet to use the card and the art is phenomenal) and path to exile. Sure, there is more that i could be running and will most likely be changing this list up a bit once he is actually released.
SO this is my primer so far. I am open to any and all suggestions. Ways to make it more efficient or ways to get more value out of it are always welcome. But before you suggest something to make this deck a fast foodchain deck, please remember thats not the point for this. I will most likely work a more optimized CEDH version at some point in time but for now this is what i got.
-Erik
