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First Lord's Fury - Windgrace Primer

Commander / EDH* BRG (Jund) Combo Competitive Dredge Multiplayer

Ashen0ne

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Land (40)

Instant (16)

Artifact (15)

Creature (4)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Lord Windgrace

Sorcery (15)

Enchantment (9)

Maybeboard

Land (3)

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Enchantment (1)

Sorcery (1)

An Underdog’s cEDH Primer

The name’s Ashen0ne, obviously. I’m a newcomer to tappedout and the magic scene as a whole. I won't claim to be an expert in deckbuilding or cEDH because there are plenty of people on this site who have more experience and a general deeper knowledge or understanding of the game than I do. That being said I have been fortunate enough to associate myself and even become friends with the likes of Bad_Dog, n0bunga, Daedalus19876, Ender666666 and various other people just as talented as they are and just as in love with this game as I am. If you haven’t taken a look at any of their work yet you should. They’re great.

That’s honestly a long story. From a strictly strategic standpoint Lord Windgrace offers us a few things that are always greatly desired in many EDH decks as a whole even outside of the more competitive circles. These two things are Card Advantage, which is provided by his first ability, and recursion which he gives us in his second ability. His final and ultimate ability is largely irrelevant and will hardly ever be used at least in this version of the deck.

Mechanics and versatility aside I have walked away from and returned to Lord Windgrace several times. Each time I have convinced myself I am finished and moving on to other projects I am inspired by a new idea and I find myself back to brewing once more. This iteration is, by far, the most potent of brews I have assembled. For that I have to thank Bad_Dog. Not only is he working on this right beside me he is the reason I picked Windgrace up again and have gotten this far.

One of the first thing’s you’re going to hear when embarking on the quest to make Windgrace as competitive as possible is that The Gitrog Monster is better. I heard it many times both from local playgroups to personalities online. Enough so that I very nearly gave in and switched to him. I can’t argue the frog’s merits as a combo deck because he has long since proven just how versatile and powerful he is at the head of his own deck. That being said you’ll notice when looking at this list that The Gitrog Monster and Dakmoor Salvage are conspicuously absent. That is by design, because the long and short of the matter is that Lord Windgrace isn’t Gitfrog. So I stopped trying to make him act like it.

Introducing: Windbond

This iteration of the deck is essentially a land based combo deck. We want to play lands. A lot of them. Preferably at the same time. We accomplish this by utilizing what is arguably one of the most potent enablers to ever be printed: Ad Nauseam . You’ll notice that the deck’s average CMC is incredibly low. This is so that we can bring a critical mass of cards from our deck to our hand while sustaining as little life loss as possible. By the time we have reached our limit and can’t afford any more loss of life we should have a sizeable portion of the deck’s 40 lands in hand. From there we have a few options.

Prismatic Omen paired with Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle is the main goal of the deck. Because Omen makes every land a mountain that means that every single land we play after 5 will trigger Valakut to start bolting people. We use Azusa, Lost but Seeking , Exploration , Burgeoning , and even Summer Bloom to ensure that we can drop as many lands as possible on a single turn or rotation. The real power of this deck, however, comes when you Scapeshift everything to make as many lands hit the field as possible. This can be done even if you don’t have Valakut out yet, because Scapeshift allows you to grab any land, not just basics. As long as Prismatic Omen is on the field Valakut and everything else you scapeshift into will see one another and you’ll get a bolt trigger for each one. The damage starts to pile on quickly and if that isn’t enough to kill the table the deck also runs Splendid Reclamation to bring back everything you just sacrificed to Scapeshift That means more Valakut triggers, more damage, and even more mana available if by some miracle they aren’t already dead.

If lady luck is on your side your Ad Nauseam will find you with a hand full of lands, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle included, Prismatic Omen and a way to dump a bunch of lands onto the field whether its in the form of Manabond , Scapeshift , or Splendid Reclamation . If nothing else you'll almost always nab at least a tutor or two and then its up to you to decide which route you want to take. From what I've found in testing this particular combo makes the deck extremely versatile. The only really important piece to get the ball rolling is Prismatic Omen . Be creative, and never give up just because the route isn't obvious. That's what makes this deck so much fun to play!

Emergence Zone is another card worth mentioning. It gives us the ability to work on another players turn and Lord Windgrace can recur it with his second ability. This means that even if we Manabond and dump our entire hand either onto the field or in the yard we can use Past in Flames for its flashback cost and use Scapeshift and subsequently Splendid Reclamation from our yard. Even on someone else’s turn.

Plan B

This involves a combo that I believe ShaperSavant came up with. (At least so far as I’m aware.) It involves using Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth , Cabal Coffers , a utility land like Deserted Temple , and Rings of Brighthearth to create infinite mana that we can then dump into a massive Torment of Hailfire or various other life draining x spells.

How this works is by using Ring’s to copy Deserted Temple ’s untap target land ability. We then use the original activation to untap Cabal Coffers and the copy of the ability to untap Deserted Temple itself. Rinse and repeat. Alternatively this can be done with Shivan Gorge if you have no other options readily available. Just establish that you have infinite mana and then switch it up to start tapping and untapping a red source so you can then start using Shivan Gorge to kill everyone.

Azusa, Lost But Seeking: Strong Ramp on a creature that was an acceptably low casting cost. Easy include.

Lotus Cobra: Ramps us even as we hit our land drops. The Cobra especially shines when we Scapeshift or Splendid Reclmation when we don’t have our Amulet of Vigor out to ensure they come in untapped.

Orcish Lumberjack: More ramp with low cmc. The downside of having to sacrifice a forest for it isn’t as big of an issue here as it might be elsewhere.

Tinder Wall: A single that we can turn into for a quick burst when necessary. If any creature were to be cut in the future it would be this one, but I’m happy with it right now.

Burgeoning: Can be dropped as early as turn one and ramp us as our opponents try to play magic.

Carpet of Flowers: A staple in any green deck for a reason. You’ll have games where it isn’t as useful but more often than not it will put in work.

Exploration: Another green staple. Allows us to hit two land drops as early as turn 1. We like outpacing our opponents

Manabond: One of our main combo pieces. This unassuming little baby allows us to drop a handful of lands post Naus all in one go. Yeah we have to discard our hand to do it but the huge amounts of ramp are worth it. Ways to work around discarding our hand will be gone over below.

Prismatic Omen: Arguably the single most important card in the deck. It allows us to get an obscene amount of Valakut triggers. Play this only when we’re ready to go off. It won’t be allowed to sit once our opponents know what we’re planning.

Retreat to Hagra: 3 drop enchantment that serves the dual purpose of not only draining our opponents and lowering our total necessary Valakut triggers to win, but also bolstering our life total to either prepare for or recover from Ad Nauseam

Seismic Assault: Another source for damage output as well as a way to freely dump our lands into the graveyard so that we can prepare for a Splendid Reclamation . Like Retreat above it starts pressuring life totals so we require less Valakut triggers to win.

Squandered Resources: another source of ramp with the added utility of being able to put everything into our yard before we Reclamation

Sylvan Library: Provides card selection with the option of card advantage if we happen to find something we need. Be wary of paying the life too freely, however, for we need to be able to dig deep of our Naus

Amulet of Vigor: At the low low cost of a single mana we have the benefit of having everything we play come in untapped. This card really shines when we scapeshift or splendid reclamation because it allows us to use the lands we just acquired right away.

Chrome Mox: 0 drop mana rock. Pure value

Crucible of Worlds: Great recursion for our lands even when Windgrace isn’t around. Allows us to get back a key piece or just reuse fetches. Value either way

Grim Monolith: low cmc and mana positive when we use it. It’s a staple for a reason.

Lion’s Eye Diamond: Another bursty form of ramp to accelerate us past the competition. Gives us exactly what we need for a yawgmoth’s will. Discarding our hand isn’t so terrible a thing when we have ways to recur.

Lotus Petal: Incremental ramp for free. No reason not to run it.

Mana Crypt: Another 0 drop for more ramp. It’s damage can be problematic if you’re unlucky but the game shouldn’t last long enough for it to be too impactful.

Mana Crypt: 3 mana for the low low cost of one. Pure value

Mox Diamond: Same as Chrome Mox with even less downside for us because getting our lands back is trivial.

Mox Opal: Same as the other Mox’s. We run enough artifacts that this will be online almost every time we find it.

Ring’s of Brighthearth: Part of the Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + Cabal Coffers combo. Allows us to use them and Deserted Temple to generatte infinite mana.

Sensei’s Divining Top: Low cmc and it allows us to better sculpt the top of our deck for card selection. The added benefit of being able to swap it for a key card we need on the top of our deck is an additional bonus.

Sol Ring: Needs no explanation

Tormod’s Crypt: Graveyard hate is rarely a bad thing and this one costs us nothing.

Zuran Orb: Free to cast and it allows us to recover from an Ad Nauseam so that we can potentially do it again. Another utility to consider is to use it to sacrifice our lands right before a Splendid Reclmation so that we can his even more land drops in a single turn. Just be sure to have protection ready so you aren’t countered.

Cathartic Reunion: Card draw at a low cmc and we can use the discard to dump lands into the yard in preparation for our combo turn.

Demonic Tutor: Needs no introduction.

Exsanguinate: Originally this slot was filled with Torment of Hailfire . Both are good options but I am opting for this one mostly for the benefit of lifegain. It allows us to reuse ad nauseum a second time and draw the rest of our deck is necessary

Faithless Looting: The best loot effect red has to offer. Only costs 1 and recurs itself if we need it.

Gamble: We need as many tutors as are viable. Normally I’m against it because of the discard but in Windgrace we can recur anything we lose pretty easilly.

Green Sun’s Zenith: Ramps us turn 1 by casting it for x=0 to go and find Dryad Arbor . Additionally it can nab us Azusa if we want to hit land drops fast in preparation for our Ad Naus

Imperial Seal: See Demonic Tutor

Magmatic Insight: We run a lot of lands so it won’t be difficult to cast this for advantage. The fact that we can easily get back any land we pitch is icing on the cake.

Past in Flames: One of two ways to recur anything we have waiting in our grave. That it has flashback itself is especially noteworthy. Dump your lands and hand using Manabond and then crack Emergence Zone to combo off on our opponents turn.

Scapeshift: One of our key pieces. This little gem is limited only by the number of lands we have to sacrifice to it. With our other pieces on board you’ll be amazed at the kind of damage you can dish out with this single spell.

Splendid Reclamation: Our other big landfall enabler. Synergizes well with Zuran Orb , Seismic Assault , Scapeshift , and all of our looters. My current personal best is 28 land drops with a single cast.

Summer Bloom: 3 additional land drops on a single turn for only 2 mana is exactly the kind of value we need. No reason not to have it.

Vandalblast: Only pings us for one of Ad Naus and can optionally wipe out every rock our opponents are using to try and stay ahead of us. You’ll ramp to the overload coast quickly, trust me.

Wheel of Fortune: The best wheel ever printed.

Yawgmoth’s Will: The premier recursion engine in black. This and past in flames are our two greatest enablers for replaying Ad Naus or one of our other big combo spells.

Abrupt Decay: Can’t be countered and for 2 mana can hit any nonland permanent we want. It s a Golgari staple for a reason.

Ad Nauseam: The MVP of the deck! With our low curve you should be able to draw a huge grip of cards off a single cast, the majority of which will hopefully be lands. With a couple of ways to gain some life back we can even recur it and use it again!

Assassin’s Trophy: The newest addition to the list of great removal cards. 2 mana, hits anything, and we don’t care too much about the land it gives our foes. Whatever we got rid off was better anyway.

Autumn’s Veil: One of our best forms of protection. Use it before you sac all your lands for a Splendid Reclamation or before using any other key spell to ensure the blue player can’t stop you.

Cabal Ritual: Fast mana ramp is never a bad thing.

Crop Rotation: Allows us to trade a land for one of our key combo lands. That it only costs one also means we can even use the land we just tapped to go and get another one. Psuedo ramp.

Dark Ritual: Black’s best fast mana ramp card. Gives us early access to Ad Nauseam and allows us to cast something like Retreat to Hagra for essentially a single source of black.

Entomb:A tutor that can get us anything and puts it straight into the grave. Normally we’ll use this to go get a key land we need so we can get it back with Lord Windgrace but the options here are limitless.

Nature’s Claim: One of the best spot removal cards Green can offer us.

Noxious Revival: Can cast it for 2 life and allows us to return something we want back to the top of our library.

Pyeoblast: Protection from counter spells when we’re trying to win.

Rain of Filth: Ramp with the added bonus of providing us a cost effective sac outlet when we want to Splendid Reclmation

Realms Uncharted: Is possibly one of the most powerful cards outside our dedicated combo pieces. With Lord Windgrace ’s ability to bring back the two lands this puts into the bin this is essentially a Gifts Ungiven for us. It should also be noted that the Urborg+Cabal Coffers combo requires a total of 4 lands to pull off. This single spell can get us all of them.

Reclaim: A less advantageous Noxious Revival but the effect is still worth it.

Vampiric Tutor: Just a fantastic tutor as black is known to have.

Worldly Tutor: Gets us Azusa or one of our few other creatures fast.

Ancient Tomb: Pretty much a staple in any EDH deck. Careful dropping it too early because we want all the health we can get for our Naus.

Fetchlands: Too good not to run if you can afford them. They fix our mana, can be recurred easilly, and give us 2 land drops a turn on their own.

ABUR Duals: Much like Fetchlands these are undisputed if you can afford to pick them up.

Blast Zone: Comes in untapped and ready to hit Sol Ring and any other problematic 1 drop right out the gate. That it’s a land means it will be incredibly difficult to interact with outside of MLD decks and we can recur it to use it again.

Boseiju, Who Shelters All: One of our best go to ways to protect our big combo spells from those pesky blue counters that would seek to rain on our parade.

Cabal Coffers: Ramps us big time with Urborg or Prismatic Omen out and necessary for our infinite mana combo.

City of Brass and Mana Confluence: Fixes our colors early if we need it for the low cost of a single life. We don’t mind.

City of Traitors: Is solid ramp in any deck that can afford it even if you can’t get it back with ease. We can, making it even better for us.

Deserted Temple: Even outside of our big mana combo this thing can untap a lot of our utility lands. Boseiju for example.

Dryad Arbor: Needs no explanation.

Emergence Zone: One of the only ways we can play on our opponents turn. Use it to surprise the table and combo off when they think they’re safe.

Forest: The best basic land in green! (lol) These are the only basics we have in the deck. Largely because we are predominantly green.

Gemstone Caverns: Noticeably less useful outside of those rare games when its in your opening hand but when it is… Boy does it shine.

Gemstone Mine: Can only be used a few times but it gives us any color and we can bring it back with ease.

Glacial Chasm: Buys us some much needed time while we set up. We aren’t attacking with creatures anyway.

Luxury Suite and Spire Garden: These were pretty much made for EDH

Maze of Ith: Saves us or Lord Windgrace from getting punched by something big.

Shock Lands: Fetchable and with Amulet of Vigor we don’t even have to pay the life!

Shivan Gorge: Our damage outlet once we’ve assembled our Urborg+Coffers combo. This combo is especially powerful because the only piece that isn’t a land is Rings of Brighthearth . If they can’t remove that the moment this is online it’s over.

Strip Mine and Wasteland: Staples in any deck, really. They get rid of any utility lands our opponents want to try to use and in Windgrace we can recur them to ensure they never get what they want.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: The final piece to our land puzzle. Makes Cabal Coffers insanely good and with our other pieces allows us to gain infinite mana.

Valakut, The Molten Pinnacle: The inspiration behind this deck as a whole! It and Prismatic Omen can dish out more damage than you ever thought possible. Using lands. There’s just something so satisfying about killing people with the very thing we all need to play!

Vesuva: Can become a copy of Valakut to double up on any and all triggers and make sure our opponents are extra dead when we drop a bunch of lands at once.

That’s all I really have for now, ladies and gents! Much like the deck itself this primer is very much still in its infancy. Expect changes as Bad_Dog and I bounce ideas around and we tweak and fiddle with different card choices here and there. Speaking of Bad_Dog go and check out his version of this deck as well: Windbond.

Wanna get involved in our quest to make Lord Windgrace a cEDH powerhouse in his own right? Or maybe you just love the character and want to discuss ideas for your own direction? Join the Lord Windgrace Discord!

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Revision 12 See all

(4 years ago)

Top Ranked
Date added 4 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

16 - 0 Mythic Rares

54 - 0 Rares

16 - 0 Uncommons

10 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 1.62
Tokens Cat Warrior 2/2 G
Folders My builds, EDH, Other people's awesome decks, Deck References, Windgrace, Jund, Cool Decks I Like, Possible edh decks, Decks That I like, EDH
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