Prime Speaker Zegana, Queen of Cards. [Primer]

Commander / EDH Casual Combo Counters GU (Simic) Infinite Combo

Kala

Instant (9)

• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Capsize
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Ghostly Flicker
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Plasm Capture
• 1x Scattering Stroke
• 1x Simic Charm

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Biomantic Mastery
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Recross the Paths
• 1x Rite of Replication
• 1x Spitting Image
• 1x Triumph of the Hordes

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Ooze Flux
• 1x Primeval Bounty
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Well of Ideas

Artifact (6)

• 1x Conjurer's Closet
• 1x Diviner's Wand
• 1x Simic Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Venser's Journal

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Kiora, Master of the Depths
• 1x Kiora, the Crashing Wave
• 1x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

Creature (34)

• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Champion of Lambholt
• 1x Chasm Skulker
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Fathom Mage
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Gyre Sage
• 1x Horizon Chimera
• 1x Kiora's Follower
• 1x Lorescale Coatl
• 1x Lotus Cobra
• 1x Manaplasm
• 1x Merfolk Sovereign
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Mystic Snake
• 1x Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1x Overbeing of Myth
• 1x Palinchron
• 1x Progenitor Mimic
• 1x Prophet of Kruphix
• 1x Psychosis Crawler
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Sage of Fables
• 1x Sagu Mauler
• 1x Sigil Tracer
• 1x Sphinx of Magosi
• 1x Stonybrook Banneret
• 1x Sturmgeist
• 1x Trygon Predator
• 1x Vendilion Clique
• 1x Wistful Selkie
• 1x Wolfir Silverheart

Land (35)

• 1x Alchemist's Refuge
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 6x Forest
• 1x Halimar Depths
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 8x Island
• 1x Lumbering Falls
• 1x Moonring Island
• 1x Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Riptide Laboratory
• 1x Simic Growth Chamber
• 1x Simic Guildgate
• 1x Temple of Mystery
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Thornwood Falls
• 1x Vivid Creek
• 1x Vivid Grove
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

Commander (1)

---

Sideboard

Instant (1)

• 1x Evacuation

Creature (18)

• 15x Ethereal Whiskergill
• 1x Sages of the Anima
• 1x Selkie Hedge-Mage
• 1x Winged Coatl

---

Maybeboard

Instant (2)

• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Hinder

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Green Sun's Zenith

Land (1)

• 1x Dryad Arbor

---

Note: spoilers are screwing up majorly, do not judge primer based on technical difficulties.

Primer Speaker Zegana.

If you're here, that must mean you are looking at how to build a good Zegana deck, or how I built mine. You've come to the right place! I hope to give you the most in-depth information you need to build your own, starting with the buttons right below you. Disclaimer: do not look here for building a tournament-level deck. This is for making a deck that is fun to play with and against, and lets you smack people with big creatures.

Open the Primer Show

Combos Show

Combos

The Combos are a very essential part of any deck built around Prime Speaker Zegana to maximize its effectiveness. The main combos are:

• Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron . This combo generates infinite mana and bounce that can be used with many helpful combos in the deck. It is necessary to fuel many instant win conditions.

• Infinite Mana + Capsize. With infinite mana, you can play and buyback capsize any number of times, wiping each opponent's board of all permanents. With enough damage on the board to kill everyone within a few turns, this is an amazing win condition and can lead to a win even if you don't have the necessary lethality.

• Deadeye/Palinchron combo + Prime Speaker Zegana. Using this combo, you can draw infinite cards, drawing into any other combo piece you could want. You generate infinite mana via palinchron, then play Zegana, then bounce Deadeye, soulbonding it to Zegana, then bounce Zegana for her enter the battlefield effect as many times as you see fit.

• Infinite Mana + Blue Sun's Zenith. Essentially, pay over ~90 mana for X and make an opponent draw their entire deck and then some. Can be easily tutored for via the previous combo.

More variable cards that can be used to good effect in combo are:

• Fauna Shaman. Shaman can be used to good effect in combo by being a Survival of the Fittest on a stick with a monetary value of 1/3 of the original, very budget-efficient.

• Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger , which generates infinite mana with Palinchron because of palinchron's cost to return to its owner's hand plus cost to cast.

• Phantasmal Image , which can copy Palinchron and generate infinite mana due to its CMC of 2, and return cost of 4.

• Fierce Empath, which can be used to tutor for Deadeye Navigator, then bounced by the navigator to search for Palinchron .

• One combo I did not use any form of is Deadeye Navigator, Eternal Witness, and Time Warp. This combo returns your extra turn spell over and over via Eternal Witness to generate any number of turns.

  Ramp Cards Show

  

Ramp

In a Zegana EDH deck, I prefer the inclusion of 10+ ramp cards. I'm sure some of you know this is subpar for commander, but with efficient ramp and Zegana's impressive card draw, ~12 cards seems to be enough.

• Cultivate/Kodama's Reach. These cards, identical in function, are revered as some of the best ramp cards for EDH. In Zegana, they can put you a turn ahead in land, and fix your colors.

• Birds of Paradise. Birds is an amazing turn one ramp source, worth the $5 in value it has amounted to through play in multiple formats.

• Carpet of Flowers. This one is situational and depends on you playgroup, but when it's good, it's good, generating, in some situations, three to four mana per turn.

• Lotus Cobra . Not only pretty cute and flavorful, but lotus cobra is also amazing at ramp, netting you extra mana each turn and even more mana when you cast a land ramp spell such as Cultivate.

• Green Sun's Zenith. Although GSZ isn't your typical ramp cards, it can amount to T1 land ramp with the special inclusion of dryad arbor, a zero-mana land creature, whose oracle text makes them green.

• Stonybrook Banneret . Another unconventional method of ramping. Banneret works very well in Zegana decks because she shares its creature types. In addition, many other cards in Simic are Merfolk/wizards, so it is incredibly beneficial to the deck.

Other Notable Ramp Cards:

• Greenweaver Druid
• Kiora's Follower
• Recross the Paths
• Oracle of Mul Daya
• Sakura-Tribe Elder
• Solemn Simulacrum
• Skyshroud Claim
• Farseek

  Power Cards Show

  

Power Cards

These cards are the powerhouses of the deck, the cards that make other players cringe, the Doom Blade bait, or even sometimes win conditions. This is one aspect of why Zegana is fun, and doesn't rely purely on combo to win.

• Prophet of Kruphix. The Prophet is an extremely helpful source, enabling you to cast one big creature from your probably sizeable hand each turn, including your opponents'.

• Progenitor Mimic. Imagine this. Opponent plays Godsire, and waits for other players' reactions. You hold a blank face. The Godsire player is bemused, holding a Not of This World in hand to prevent what measures you take. But what do you do? You copy it. And again. And again. And then procede to beat down the entire board with a ton of 8/8 vigilant beasties.

• Wolfir Silverheart. When soulbonded to Zegana on her ETB, before the trigger, Silverheart can draw you nine cards. Zegana gets four counters, and then you can soulbond before the ETB trigger, drawing you nine cards.

• Manaplasm. On Zegana's cast, Plasm is pumped to a 7/7, meaning eight cards for you!

• Triumph of the Hordes. Another powerful wincon. Forty life too hard to handle? Go for this.

• Maro-Style cards. Not all of these are included in the deck, but a Maro-Style card is a card with base power and toughness equal to the number of cards in your hand. Combined with Zegana, they more than double your hand size. Psychosis Crawler is an all-star in this area.

• Conjurer's Closet. A slightly toned down version of deadeye navigator. Can blink Zegana at your endstep for an enter the battlefield trigger and a whole ton of cards.

• All of the "no hand size" Cards are amazing in this deck, and almost necessary. Good cards include Thought Vessel, Spellbook, Reliquary Tower, Graceful Adept , Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, and Venser's Journal.

Other cards that could potentially fit into this category

-Any big creature. Zegana gets tons of value off of any high-powered creature. -Terastodon-Woodfall Primus-Elvish Piper- Garruk, Caller of Beasts

Utility Show

Utility Cards

Utility cards are in the deck to make gameplay easier; accelerate card draw, get that last bit of commander damage in, or prevent your opponent from keeping that annoying enchantment.

• Fathom Mage. Fathom mage is a great option for accelerating card draw, because you can stack the triggers on Zegana's ETB to trigger evolve every time. Also, if you choose to play cards that proliferate, or cards like Bioshift, then that also triggers the draw.

• Horizon Chimera. What's better than drawing seven cards? Drawing seven cards and gaining seven life. Chimera turns Zegana and every draw spell into a lifegain spell too.

• Merfolk Sovereign . You'll notice that this is the only merfolk lord I have in the deck, and that's because of its wonderful ability to make Zegana unblockable. After casting a huge creature, Zegana will be huge and therefore able to kill in just a few hits. But, without evasion, she might have trouble dealing damage to players. This is your solution. Thassa, God of the Sea works well in this situation.

• Sage of Fables. Sage is a great utility card, as the deck has a merfolk wizard subtheme. Zegana gets a boost, and so does every other wizard. Sage is also a method of card draw, and combos nicely with Fathom Mage.

• Sigil Tracer . Twincast on a stick, used by tapping two wizards. Pretty handy, as Zegana's a wizard, so if she hasn't been attacking she can serve as incentive not to doom blade your things.

• Consecrated Sphinx. Known as the best edh card draw spell, and for good reason.

• Rhystic Study . A staple, requires each opponent to pay taxes on every spell, entailing a lot of card draw because your opponents wont want to wait another turn to cast their bomb so they can pay your tax.

• Biomantic Mastery . Draws an average of about eight cards, very useful when you're topdecking.

• Krosan Grip . Naturalize with split second, enabling it to be cast without responses. Ideal.

Other great Utility cards

-Give / Take-Sphinx of Magosi-Beast Within- Nissa's Revelation - Soul's Majesty

Flex Cards Show

Flex Cards

These are cards that don't really have to be in the deck, but are included for personal taste.

• Simic Keyrune . Again, not the best at what it does, only included for the simic flavor. Could easily be replaced with a better mana rock.

• Scattering Stroke . This is a relatively inneficient counterspell, and could be replaced with a basic Counterspell.

• Recross the Paths . Not the best ramp, can easily be replaced with Kodama's Reach. I play it for its reusability and ability to get a land untapped.

• Winged Coatl. See above reasoning.

  Hand Disruption and Counterspells. Show

  

Hand Disruption and Counterspells

These are a very important part of your deck, usually keeping your opponent from casting their crucial overwhelming stampede to win the game, or ridding their hand of it before they can even cast it.

• Glen Elendra Archmage. A personal favorite, but also very effective. it can block or counter to a great degree, and -1/-1 counters just wash off if +1/+1 counters are added.

• Vendilion Clique. Vendilion Clique is a great card because not only is it a wizard, but it provides a way to rid your opponents of their best cards before they can even be played.

• Plasm Capture and Scattering Stroke . Counterspells that give mana. Scattering stroke is just for personal taste, and can be thought of as a placeholder for whatever counterspell you prefer.

• Cryptic Command. Mother of all counterspells! Counter, draw! Counter, boomerang! No, you can't attack me, suck it. All of this greatness packaged in one neat little instant.

• Pact of Negation . Force of will! Although it may be slightly worse, it is still a zero mana counterspell.

• Capsize and Cyclonic Rift. Although they don't technically fit into this category, they can bounce important threats and disrupt opponents' plans, which is very important.

Honorable mentions:

- Mystic Snake -Arcane Denial-Desertion-Rewind-Counterspell- Plasm Capture -Mana Drain- Draining Whelk

Land Choices Show

Lands

Lands are the most important part of every deck, and can be highly variable. These are some of the most important lands for Zegana.

• Lumbering Falls. Manlands are always an auto-include for me, as a crucial block after a boardwipe can come from one of these.

• Riptide Laboratory. Boardwipe? Bounce Zegana.

• Alchemist's Refuge. Pretty self-explanatory, an extremely powerful utility card in a land.

• Dryad Arbor. A great card that turns green sun's zenith into a turn one land ramp spell.

• Reliquary Tower. Exactly what this deck needs.If you enjoyed the Primer, make sure to +1.+1 Upvote

Note

Blatant Thievery, Wash Out , and Sages of the Anima are to be swapped out if someone dislikes combo. Take out Palinchron , Deadeye Navigator, and Capsize.

Music

Top Ranked	Achieved #11 position overall 8 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	8 years
Key combos	Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 44 - 2 Rares 22 - 16 Uncommons 12 - 1 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.69
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Copy Clone, Emblem Kiora, Master of the Depths, Emblem Kiora, the Crashing Wave, Emblem Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Kraken 9/9 U, Morph 2/2 C, Octopus 8/8 U, Ooze */* G, Squid 1/1 U
Folders	Commander Folder, Zegana, Reference Decks for Future Builds