Over months of playtesting this deck has developed from traditional stax to Bant goodstuff to a combo deck laser focused on ramping quickly, drawing your deck, and tutoring for infinite combo pieces. Designed to win 4-person pods at my local store.
Combos and general gameplay are based on graveyard recursion. Extra value is obtained from the easily abusable nature of your commander's flash ability combined with her ETB.
Commander
Derevi is a top notch commander and people know it. Expect heavy opposition, early attempts to exile target player, and lots of glowering stares. That's why this deck is called Empyrial Archenemy - it should be able to handle three opponents with some clever plays and subtle politicking.
Derevi ramps in the early game with ETB and combat triggers seeking out karoo lands and mana rocks. Then she transitions to a more controlling approach, all the while drawing to keep a handful of answers. Most turns you will tap out to drop a bunch of permanents main phase one, swing with evasive creatures or at defenseless opponents, untap your lands and keep mana up for instant speed interaction on your opponents' turns. Eventually you win by tutoring combo pieces.
But wait, there's more! Your commander is always willing to sacrifice herself for the war effort, because you don't... pay... commander... tax...
With each activation of these combos you also get a Derevi trigger which you could use to untap a mana source, effectively reducing the cost of the activation. Sacrificing the bird at instant speed also helps avoid
Confiscate
type effects while generating value.
Ramp
The key to going under battle cruiser style decks to win before they even establish a board presence is efficient ramp.
Mana Vault
,
Sol Ring
- Probably the most powerful thing to do with a Derevi trigger is untap a source that makes or more.
Bloom Tender
- Target with Derevi's ETB . In response tap her for then untap for another . 2/3 flyer + on turn three.
Noble Hierarch
,
Avacyn's Pilgrim
,
Birds of Paradise
,
Gemhide Sliver
,
Manaweft Sliver
,
Fellwar Stone
,
Talisman of Progress
,
Talisman of Unity
- Powerful color fixing.
Ashnod's Altar
- Can steal games unexpectedly by sacrificing the team for mana.
Draw
In the event you don't have what you need to win in your opening hand, you want to draw as much of your deck as you can, as fast as you can.
Looter il-Kor
,
Cold-Eyed Selkie
,
Nightveil Sprite
,
Ohran Viper
,
Smuggler's Copter
- These evasive beaters are the core of Derevi's strategy. They allow you to cycle through your deck quickly while generating mana.
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
- Incentivizes your opponents to attack each other.
Bygone Bishop
,
Mentor of the Meek
- Repeatable card draw with your commander.
Consecrated Sphinx
- Expensive but game breaking.
Sage of Fables
- We have Bird, Faerie, and even Cat Wizards.
Seaside Haven
- Don't forget
Birds of Paradise
.
Disruption - Creatures
Attacking every turn is of paramount importance. Creature based disruption allows you to build your board while preventing others from gaining a foothold.
First of all you need to handle opposing commanders.
Voidstone Gargoyle
,
Phyrexian Revoker
- Can turn off a single commander.
Ixidron
- Can turn off multiple commanders.
Sower of Temptation
- Can steal a commander. Also great for stealing things and then sacrificing them. Most commonly fetched 4-drop with
Birthing Pod
.
Second you need an out for problematic permanents.
Fiend Hunter
- Sacrifice in response to the first trigger to stack the second trigger so the second trigger resolves first and they lose their creature permanently.
Harmonic Sliver
,
Qasali Pridemage
- Narrow but efficient, with minor tribal synergies.
Finally you need to be able to handle spells on the stack, both reactively and proactively, especially if they would prevent you from winning.
Siren Stormtamer
,
Glen Elendra Archmage
,
Voidmage Prodigy
- Can be reset with a recursion piece.
Willbender
- Can be reset by
Ixidron
.
Venser, Shaper Savant
- "Counters" uncounterable spells.
Grand Abolisher
,
Shalai, Voice of Plenty
- Protect the combo!
Disruption - Noncreatures
Of course some of the best disruption in the format is Bant goodstuff. There are enough options in these colors that these can be considered flex slots to be populated with answers to the local meta.
Swords to Plowshares
- Best of the best creature removal.
Krosan Grip
- The counterspell. Get wrecked,
Isochron Scepter
imprinted with
Mana Drain
!
Cyclonic Rift
- In normal mode it hits annoying artifacts and enchantments and resets planeswalkers about to ultimate. Overload mode is also good.
Beast Within
- Destroys anything that can be destroyed.
High Market
- Doesn't combo but still great at generating value between a commander that never costs more than , various recursion pieces and some great ETB effects. Also short circuits
Confiscate
and
Clone
effects (the latter of which usually needs to be interacted with while the creature is on the stack since the effect typically doesn't target).
Arcane Denial
,
Pact of Negation
,
Swan Song
,
Dispel
- Simply the most efficient counterspells in the game.
Piracy
-
Silence
is easier to cast and doesn't require you to change phases to prevent interaction on your turn. But the wtf factor on this one is so high that you will find yourself netting mana on this more often than you think out of your opponents' sheer confusion. "What set is that from?" "Is that guy supposed to be a pirate?" "Why bother tapping my lands in response? You're just going to change phases and I'll lose the mana anyway..." You get the idea. Just remember you get priority back as soon as this resolves, so immediately tap any lands that weren't tapped in response.
Tutors
Tutors should be used to set up a win condition or find silver bullets.
Birthing Pod
- Especially potent when combined with your commander's flash and untap abilities.
Saffi Eriksdotter
is the hardest piece to find because of her low CMC. Keep in mind a face-down creature has CMC 0, and
Sower of Temptation
can steal something appropriately costed.
Congregation at Dawn
- Needs a draw engine to be fully effective. If you don't already have one, put
Mentor of the Meek
or
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
on top.
Tezzeret the Seeker
,
Enlightened Tutor
- Find
Birthing Pod
to get things going or an artifact combo piece to end things.
Trophy Mage
-
Blasting Station
or
Ashnod's Altar
.
Muddle the Mixture
- Transmute is an activated ability, not a spell, so it's very hard to counter. For CMC 2 you can get
Saffi Eriksdotter
,
Altar of Dementia
,
Grand Abolisher
,
Cyclonic Rift
or
Bloom Tender
. If you already have what you need this will protect the combo, and it also deals with opposing board wipes nicely.
Recruiter of the Guard
- As a creature this can be tutored by noncreature tutor spells, find a recursion piece, get sacrificed and then recurred to find another piece, etc.
Chord of Calling
- Instant speed and convoke allow for some surprise wins. Because of our amazing suite of creature based disruption this can also serve as spot removal, counterspell or even board wipe.
Eternal Witness
- Very important to be able to tutor a card from the graveyard when someone disrupts the combo by destroying a piece.
Protean Hulk
And then there's
Protean Hulk
, the top of the mana curve. If you can resolve this with
Ashnod's Altar
,
Altar of Dementia
or
Blasting Station
on deck, you probably win on the spot.
After this there are a couple of options depending on what's on the field and in your library.
- If you have
Blasting Station
or
Altar of Dementia
on the field, tutor
Saffi Eriksdotter
ftw.
- If you have
Ashnod's Altar
, tutor
Saffi Eriksdotter
and
Trophy Mage
. You now have infinite . Use
Trophy Mage
to find
Blasting Station
ftw.
If neither of these is an option (perhaps
Blasting Station
has been exiled) there are various ways to get there with
Reveillark
. For example:
Repeat the last five steps bouncing another permanent each time until you've sent all your opponents back to the Stone Age.
Combos
Blasting Station/Altar of Dementia kill
... +
Blasting Station
= infinite damage ftw
... +
Altar of Dementia
= infinite mill ftw
Reveillark infinite ETBs
Ashnod's Altar
+ ...
... + ...
Ashnod's Altar infinite mana
Ashnod's Altar
+ ...
... = infinite
... +
Mentor of the Meek
= draw your deck
Wizard tag team soft lock
Glen Elendra Archmage + Sage of Fables
= counter all noncreature spells for each
