[[DEK.TEK v2]] - Raff Capashen, GRANDMASTER FLASH

Commander / EDH* Artifact Competitive Control Infinite Combo Primer WU (Azorius)

mtg_mykeg greel70

Land (35)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Eiganjo Castle
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Irrigated Farmland
• 4x Island
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mystic Gate
• 1x Nimbus Maze
• 3x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Seachrome Coast
• 1x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Snow-Covered Plains
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Temple of Enlightenment
• 1x Tundra
• 1x Windswept Heath

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Mystic Speculation
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Timetwister

Instant (22)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Comeuppance
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Delay
• 1x Disallow
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Oblation
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Rewind
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Whir of Invention

Creature (11)

• 1x Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1x Azami, Lady of Scrolls
• 1x Dragonlord Ojutai
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Memnarch
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Trophy Mage
• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Wurmcoil Engine

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Commander (1)

Artifact (19)

• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Amber
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Paradox Engine
• 1x Relic of Progenitus
• 1x Rings of Brighthearth
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Staff of Domination
• 1x Strionic Resonator
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thran Dynamo

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Copy Artifact
• 1x Mind Over Matter
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Treachery

---

Maybeboard

Instant (6)

• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Rapid Hybridization

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Mind Over Matter
• 1x Power Artifact

Creature (5)

• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Hanna, Ship's Navigator
• 1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
• 1x Torrential Gearhulk
• 1x Venser, Shaper Savant

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Karn's Temporal Sundering
• 1x Manifold Insights
• 1x Timetwister

Artifact (3)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Tormod's Crypt

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Raff Capashen, Grandmaster Flash

[DEK.TEK v2] - 2018 08 17

I thought to post some card selection changes from the baseline list to drop our curve lower and add some more powerful cards to see how that works from there:

• Tamiyo, the Moon Sage --> + Timetwister
• In Bolas's Clutches --> + Mind Over Matter
• Cryptic Command --> + Mana Drain
• Sphinx's Revelation --> + Blue Sun's Zenith
• Karn's Temporal Sundering --> + Rapid Hybridization
• Supreme Verdict --> +Force of Will

[DEK.TEK v1] - Baseline List

1x Academy Ruins 1x Adarkar Wastes 1x Arcane Denial 1x Arcanis the Omnipotent 1x Arid Mesa 1x Azami, Lady of Scrolls 1x Azorius Signet 1x Basalt Monolith 1x Brainstorm 1x Buried Ruin 1x Cavern of Souls 1x Comeuppance 1x Command Tower 1x Copy Artifact 1x Counterspell 1x Cryptic Command 1x Cyclonic Rift 1x Delay 1x Disallow 1x Dragonlord Ojutai 1x Dramatic Reversal 1x Eiganjo Castle 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion 1x Enlightened Tutor 1x Fabricate 1x Fellwar Stone 1x Flooded Strand 1x Flusterstorm 1x Gilded Lotus 1x Glacial Fortress 1x Hallowed Fountain 1x In Bolas's Clutches 1x Inventors' Fair 1x Irrigated Farmland 4x Island 1x Isochron Scepter 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor 1x Karn's Temporal Sundering 1x Laboratory Maniac 1x Lotus Petal 1x Mana Crypt 1x Mana Vault 1x Marsh Flats 1x Memnarch 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge 1x Misty Rainforest 1x Mox Amber 1x Mox Opal 1x Muddle the Mixture 1x Mystic Gate 1x Mystic Remora 1x Mystic Speculation 1x Mystical Tutor 1x Nimbus Maze 1x Oblation 1x Paradox Engine 1x Phyrexian Metamorph 3x Plains 1x Polluted Delta 1x Ponder 1x Prairie Stream 1x Preordain 1x Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage 1x Reality Shift 1x Relic of Progenitus 1x Reliquary Tower 1x Rewind 1x Rhystic Study 1x Rings of Brighthearth 1x Scalding Tarn 1x Seachrome Coast 1x Sensei's Divining Top 1x Snapcaster Mage 1x Snow-Covered Island 1x Snow-Covered Plains 1x Sol Ring 1x Sphinx's Revelation 1x Staff of Domination 1x Strionic Resonator 1x Strip Mine 1x Supreme Verdict 1x Swan Song 1x Swords to Plowshares 1x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage 1x Temple of Enlightenment 1x Thought Vessel 1x Thran Dynamo 1x Treachery 1x Trinket Mage 1x Trophy Mage 1x Tundra 1x Walking Ballista 1x Whir of Invention 1x Windswept Heath 1x Wurmcoil Engine

-----[Introduction]-----

This is my take on Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage aka 'Grandmaster Flash'. When Raff was spoiled, I imagined it would be fun to play a land-go strategy that also let you play mana(rocks) at instant speed to be able to give us the resources to interact. So, the deck focuses primarily on playing at the end of our opponent's turn and specifically artifacts to accelerate our game plan and win the game.

The deck has a few ways of for us to get infinite mana:

Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth --> Infinite colorless mana

DRAMATIC SCEPTER COMBO:

Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal + mana rocks that generate >3 mana --> Infinite mana (colorless or colored contingent upon the mana rocks used) + infinite untaps.

Paradox Engine in combination with some card draw engines or mana rocks can also get us into a good position for winning the game.

Once we have established an infinite mana loop or infinite untap loop, we have a few different avenues that we can take to end the game:

---

-----[Win-Con Strategies]-----

Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth + Sensei's Divining Top --> Draw our entire deck

Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal + Arcanis the Omnipotent or Azami, Lady of Scrolls --> Draw our entire deck

Walking Ballista --> Dump all our infinite mana into and ping the board and players to death (it's very important to ping the board while you ping your opponents. Sends them a message)

Memnarch --> With infinite colored mana, you can gain control of everybody's permanents.

Staff of Domination --> infinite mana, gain infinite life, draw your deck. Can be tutored out with Trophy Mage! Insane! What more can be said about this card.

Laboratory Maniac --> I've demonstrated there are many ways we can draw our deck. We can incorporate the Lab Man to win this way.

---

-----[Card Selection Explanations]-----

-----LANDS-----

Academy Ruins: Great land for recurring our artifacts that have been destroyed.

Buried Ruin: Another one-time use artifact recursion card.

Cavern of Souls: Great land for giving our Wizards uncounterable. It can also be circumstantial to name another creature type if you are trying to jam something into play like Walking Ballista for example.

Command Tower: Duh.

Eiganjo Castle: This card can be great at preventing some direct damage to Raff or another vital legendary permanent we might have. Might not be worth it, but it's nice to have utility options when we are playing a control/combo style of Magic.

Minamo, School at Water's Edge: This card may have better circumstantial application than Eiganjo Castle. This lets us untap a legendary permanent. The first thing I was thinking this being useful for would be untapping Arcanis the Omnipotent or Azami, Lady of Scrolls for the value. But there are some neat things you could do with it. For example, you could be attacking with Dragonlord Ojutai and then when someone targets him while he's tapped, you can be sly and untap him with this land to turn on his hexproof.

Inventors' Fair: Useful for us to tutor for our artifact combo pieces to win the game.

Reliquary Tower: Gives us no maximum hand size. That's pretty good from what I hear.

Strip Mine: Helps us interact with pesky lands that could cause us some problems down the line. We can also put out opponent's in a world of hurt if they are mana screwed.

Snow-Covered Island + Snow-Covered Plains: There is no significance in this deck for it to perform better or worse. Just made to tilt people who dislikes things that are out of place. Though if you have someone in your meta who is running Zombie Musher, then you might want to consider replacing these cards as they will make your deck worse if you have them in play...

Adarkar Wastes, Glacial Fortress, Mystic Gate, Nimbus Maze, Seachrome Coast, Temple of Enlightenment: These are some of our other lands that produce both colors of our mana.
- Adarkar Wastes is a dual land with a minor drawback to make our colors.
- Glacial Fortress should 99% of the time come into play untapped for us when we need it.
- Mystic Gate filters our colors to make any kind of combination we need for those more difficult color combinations (ex. , , or ).
- Nimbus Maze should always tap for its two colors. At worse, it will tap for colorless.
- Seachrome Coast is a fast land that comes in untapped for us early. Can slow our tempo down a little bit if we play it after our 3rd land drop.
- Temple of Enlightenment is a "scryland". It comes into play tapped, but the scry can help us smooth out our draw. It's a dual land as well, which helps us get our colors.

Tundra, Hallowed Fountain, Prairie Stream, Irrigated Farmland: These are our fetchable dual lands. Gives us our colors when we need them.
- Irrigated Farmland can be nice to give us that instant-speed card draw without having to cast a spell to do it. That could have important implications somewhere down the line if you combo early with infinite colorless mana and you run out of colors to cast your cantrips.

-----ENCHANTMENTS-----

Copy Artifact: This is a fun card. Being able to copy any of our mana rocks or our opponent's artifacts for just .

In Bolas's Clutches: This card is just great for taking our opponent's things at the end of their turn. It's cool that it can target their permanents and not just creatures. We can steal their commander, we can take their planeswalkers, we can swipe their mana.

Mystic Remora: A cheap card draw engine that can help us get card advantage early on in the game. Maybe even good late game.

Rhystic Study: Draw all the cards.

Treachery: This is our second "take our opponent's creature's card". The card can't be played at instant-speed with Raff, but the fact that when it resolves you can untap 5 lands, it's worth it's fine for us to play it normally.

-----INSTANTS-----

Arcane Denial, Rewind, Swan Song: Cheap counterspells

Brainstorm: Good for keeping your hand optimal. Be sure to crack a fetch after your Brainstorm to get rid of the trash off the top.

Comeuppance: FLEX SLOT. Really situational card. Haven't used it yet. Will find out if it's worth it.

Counterspell: Duh. We play blue.

Cryptic Command: Expensive counterspell, but provides with some utility to help combat certain situations we might be in. I've thought about possibly cutting this card and maybe some of the other more expensive counters to add cheaper/free counter spells, like Mana Drain, Force of Will, and Pact of Negation. I am interested in taking this card out and maybe testing a bounce spell with kicker->draw (Into the Roil or Blink of an Eye}.

Cyclonic Rift: Probably one of the best blue cards for dealing with troublesome board states. We should have plenty of mana to cast this without there being an issue.

Delay: A very undervalued counterspell in my opinion. It more or less gives them the card in three turns....that is if they remember to remove time counters at their upkeep.

Disallow: Counterspell/Stifle hybrid.

Dramatic Reversal: One of half of the Dramatic Scepter Combo. (Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter )

Enlightened Tutor: Tutor for combo artifact pieces.

Flusterstorm: Storm counterspell. Good conditional counterspell. As an opponent, it feels bad when your spell gets countered because you can't pay the tax.

Muddle the Mixture: This card is a versatile card for us. It's Transmute ability allows us to tutor for a 2 mana card (at sorcery-speed). This is great because it can allow us to tutor for either Dramatic Reversal or Isochron Scepter depending upon which piece we need. Or if there is some other critical 2 mana card we may need to get out of a jam (ex. Cyclonic Rift). Worst case scenario, it is a conditional counterspell for instants or sorceries.

Mystical Tutor: This lets us tutor for a key instant or sorcery. Don't be afraid to tutor for Enlightened Tutor. Everyone does it.

Oblation: FLEX SLOT. Good removal to deal with problem cards. It goes back into their library, so they can't use typical reanimation-like cards to get them back. They get two cards in the exchange, but that's okay.

Reality Shift: Exiles an opponent's problem creature. But hey, they get a 2/2 creature out of the exchange, so it's not too bad for them.

Sphinx's Revelation: This can enable us to gain a bunch of life and draw a bunch of cards when we got infinite mana. Can be used to set up a Laboratory Maniac win.

Swords to Plowshares: Cheap removal. We give our opponent a little extra life for the inconvenience.

Whir of Invention: The blue Chord of Calling to get our win-con combo cards at instant-speed.

-----CREATURES-----

(surprising how many wizards we are running to synergize Azami, Lady of Scrolls)

Arcanis the Omnipotent: Draw cards. He's a wizard. Legendary for historic, we can play it at instant-speed with Raff.

Azami, Lady of Scrolls: Lets us draw cards when we have untapped wizards. Conveniently, we have many wizards in the deck. She's a wizard. Legendary for historic, we can play it at instant-speed with Raff (Raff's a wizard too!).

Dragonlord Ojutai: UW Flying beater. Has hexproof when he's untapped. When he deals combat damage to a player, you Anticipate. Seems pretty good. Good interaction with Minamo, School at Water's Edge. Legendary for historic, we can play it at instant-speed with Raff.

Laboratory Maniac: WIN-CON when we have no library. He's a wizard, so with Azami, Lady of Scrolls, you can tap him to draw a card.

Memnarch: Big baddie. Can be a PSEUDO-WIN-CON if you have infinite colored mana. Make everybody's permanents artifacts and gain control of all of their things. He's a wizard. Artifact/Legendary for historic, we can play it at instant-speed with Raff. I put Memnarch in the deck for it's utility (and because I thought he would be fun), but it's possible Memnarch could be too cute for a more competitive setting. I could see switching this card out for Aetherflux Reservoir as well to just end the game with the Dramatic Scepter combo online.

Phyrexian Metamorph: Great copy creature/artifact card. Gets around choosing artifacts/creatures that have hexproof or shroud. Artifact for historic, we can play it at instant-speed with Raff.

Snapcaster Mage: Very versatile creature to cast instants/sorceries from our graveyard. These cards can include but are not explicit to: counterspells or artifact tutors. He's a wizard. He has flash.

Trinket Mage: Artifact tutor for artifacts CMC >1. Can pick up some ramp like Sol Ring or Mana Crypt. Can pick up Sensei's Divining Top when we have generated infinite mana with Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth . He's a wizard.

Trophy Mage: Artifact tutor for artifacts CMC=3. Great for picking up Staff of Domination when we have infinite mana. Yes. I know. Staff only costs 3 mana. INSANE. He's a wizard. Tap, draw a card with Azami.

Walking Ballista: WIN-CON. When we have infinite mana, just feed it into the Walking Ballista and just ping down the board and your opponents. DON'T FORGET TO PING THE CREATURES. Very important. Artifact for historic, we can play it at instant-speed with Raff.

Wurmcoil Engine: FLEX SLOT. I just wanted to have a big-body Ambush Viper that can gain us some life too. Artifact for historic, we can play it at instant-speed with Raff. Could be replaced with something better. I have been thinking about maybe running Torrential Gearhulk as a way to maybe replay some essential instants/sorceries that we could have in the graveyard.

-----PLANESWALKERS-----

(All can be played at instant-speed with Raff since the recent errata for planeswalkers. All planeswalkers are legendary).

Elspeth, Sun's Champion: FLEX SLOT. Let's us go wide with tokens. Can also be a wrath if we need to kill our opponent's big creatures. The ultimate isn't really relevant in our deck.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor: One of the best planeswalkers around. The 0 ability for us to Jace-storm is really nice. We can bounce creatures. We can add insult to injury by fatesealing our opponents with the Plus.

Tamiyo, the Moon Sage: FLEX SLOT. Not as relevant I don't think. But a fun one. Can tap down a pesky something or we can hurt our opponent's mana for a turn cycle. The neg. ability lets us draw cards. The ultimate may not be as relevant for our deck either.

-----ARTIFACTS-----

Azorius Signet: Signets are good. Gives us some colors if we need infinite colored mana to win, i.e. Memnarch

Basalt Monolith: Combos well with Rings of Brighthearth. Tap it for . Then use the to untap it, then copy the untap activated ability using Rings by paying . This lets you get two untap triggers. In between the untap triggers, tap the Monolith for mana. This process nets you . Rinse and repeat for infinite mana.

Fellwar Stone: Cheap mana ramp. Gives us colors.

Gilded Lotus: Mana rock that gives you lots of mana. It feels good casting this at the end of turn and then casting more things with it. If your style of deck is not looking to gain infinite colored mana, I could see cutting this card and adding a faster artifact that I could see being played over this would be Grim Monolith if going faster is something you are looking to do.

Isochron Scepter: Other half of Dramatic Scepter combo. {Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter ). Imprint Dramatic Reversal to this and gain infinite mana when you control artifacts that tap for > 3 mana. Don't be afraid to throw something other than Dramatic Reversal onto the Scepter. You can imprint other cards like Brainstorm or Counterspell onto the Scepter for value. Eventually, you could find Copy Artifact and copy Scepter so you can imprint Dramatic Reversal later on in the game.

Mana Crypt: Duh.

Mana Vault: Duh.

Mox Amber: Duh.

Mox Opal: Duh.

Paradox Engine: Abusable card that can let us get infinite mana if there is a way for us to play many spells. Mystic Speculation was added as a cheap way to loop untaps with this card. Other Buyback cards could be used too, like Capsize for example, but I felt that Capsize could be too much mana to get the loop going. Mystic Speculation only requires you have 4 mana your mana rocks can make to generate infinite mana.

Relic of Progenitus: FLEX SLOT. This card was a meta card. Good for exiling people's graveyards if they want to try to combo win from the graveyard or reanimate big baddies. At worst, it is a cantrip.

Rings of Brighthearth: Very good artifact. Copies all your activated abilities just at the cost of . Not only is this abusable with cards like Basalt Monolith and Sensei's Divining Top that I have mentioned earlier, but if you have the extra mana, you can copy your creatures activated abilities (Arcanis the Omnipotent), copy your fetch land activations, and your planeswalker activations. Great card.

Sensei's Divining Top: Duh. Commander staple. Smooth out your draws by activating at the end of your opponent's turn.

Sol Ring: Duh. Commander staple.

Staff of Domination: Another WIN-CON facilitator for us to use when we have generated infinite mana. We can gain infinite life, draw all the cards in our deck, and win from there, either through Walking Ballista or Laboratory Maniac. Staff costs , which allows it to be tutored in a pinch with Trophy Mage. So good.

Strionic Resonator: Lets us pay mana and tap to copy triggered abilities. Notably, it is good when you have Paradox Engine, as it allows you to copy the untap trigger from Paradox Engine when you cast a spell and if you have the mana rocks in play (rocks in total producing 2 or more mana), allows you to go infinite.

Thought Vessel: Mana rock that gives us no maximum handsize. Almost like a second Reliquary Tower.

Thran Dynamo: Similar thoughts as with Gilded Lotus. Fun to cast at the end of our opponent's turn or in response to a spell to jump us mana to play our interaction. A faster artifact that I could see being played over this would be Grim Monolith if going faster is something you are looking to do.

-----SORCERIES-----

Fabricate: Great artifact tutor.

Karn's Temporal Sundering: FLEX SLOT. Interesting card I thought. With Raff in play, it can act as an expensive bounce spell that you just so happen to get to take an extra turn as well! I wish it didn't exile itself.

Mystic Speculation: Acts like a Sensei's Divining Top almost. Great card to instigate Paradox Engine when you have the mana rocks to net mana.

Ponder: Cheap cantrip. Gives us some card selection. Can be used to get a shuffle from our deck to remove any trash we don't want.

Preordain: Cheap cantrip. Same as Ponder.

Supreme Verdict: Uncounterable board wipe when things get rough.

---

-----[Closing Thoughts]-----

If you have made it this far along in this write up, I appreciate your time taking a look at things. When I have more time, I'll try and find a way to make this write up more clean. I just put together the deck not too long ago, so I am still working on optimizing the list. But these cards were what I thought would be fun cards to play and the deck has been fun to play so far. I'll add more details and experiences to the description as I come across more games with the deck.

As I have already mentioned earlier, there was talk of it maybe being better to replace Wurmcoil Engine with Torrential Gearhulk as way to gain more value from the instants and sorceries I have cast prior in the game. I also wonder if the deck could use some more cheap removal spells. Maybe cutting some of the flex cards like Tamiyo, the Moon Sage or Elspeth, Sun's Champion to maybe put in removal like Pongify or Rapid Hybridization. This will lower our curve to operate a little bit better as well as providing us with some more interaction to deal with combo threats while using less resources. There could also be more changes to the list in order to generate card advantage (maybe cards like Manifold Insights for example). There's also an argument that could be made to add some of the better counterspells the game has to offer, including Force of Will, Mana Drain, and Pact of Negation. I have the cards, but at the moment, the decks I've played against haven't warranted the need for me to put them in. When our group starts playing more Tier 1 commanders or Tier 1 commander decks, then I would need to make the changes to add those to the list. Other cards that are posted in the maybeboard are other cards that have been suggested to me by friends and cards I have Pondered about. I am sure those cards can easily be slotted into the deck and the deck could either perform the same or could perform better depending on the playstyles of the players in your meta. Play around and have fun with it!

I'll post deck list changes and rationale as to why I made certain changes from games that happened in my area.

Feel free to give the deck an upvote +1 if you liked it and post your comments at the bottom of the list. I look forward to hearing your feedback and experiences with GRANDMASTER FLASH.

Thank you,

• mtg_mykeg

Top Ranked	Achieved #55 position overall 5 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Exclude colors	BR
Key combos	Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 47 - 0 Rares 17 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.60
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Manifest 2/2 C, Soldier 1/1 W, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Deathtouch, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Lifelink
Folders	EDH, commander, EDH Inspiration