Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer (The Politics Master)
This deck is a blue-white control EDH deck, except instead of using gratuitous counterspells which aren't very effective in EDH, we're using other cards to help control the board. Unlike most Gwafa decks, this deck doesn't go all-in on enchantments, putting an even emphasis on both enchantments and creatures. If you like politics and feeling untouchable, this deck is for you.
Win Conditions
Azor's Elocutors
is our main win condition, and pretty much designed for this deck. It's pretty simple; just lockdown the boardstate to prevent your opponents from dealing damage to you, then play the Elocutors and stall for five turns to win the game.
We also have
Approach of the Second Sun
for a possible wincon, and it can be very easy to win outright with due to our powerful card draw.
Bribery
If neither of our previous wincons will work, we can always fall back on stealing our opponent's wincons. There are a number of cards that accomplish this, including:
Daxos of Meletis
,
Dominating Licid
,
Blatant Thievery
, and
Expropriate
.
Board Control
Obviously this deck wants to lock down the game and prevent your opponents from taking you out. It's okay to let them kill each other, but you can also use your ability to lockdown the board to participate in some politics, if desired. There are some subcategories for this section that I will go into detail about below.
Don't Attack Me, Bro
There are a total of 16 cards that either prevent or make it harder for your opponents to attack/deal damage to you. We have classic staples such as
Windborn Muse
,
Ghostly Prison
,
Propaganda
, and
Sphere of Safety
that all make it cost more mana to attack you for each creature attacking you, which most opponents won't be willing to pay. If they are willing to pay the mana, creatures such as
Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer
himself,
Ith, High Arcanist
,
New Prahv Guildmage
, and
Azorius Guildmage
, as well as support enchantment
Opposition
can lock down the few creatures that our opponents want to swing with and pay the mana for.
Kor Haven
and
Maze of Ith
are fallback lands that we can use in emergency situations to save ourselves in case things get dire.
We also have cards that heavily discourage our opponents from attacking us, such as
Angelic Arbiter
,
Isperia, Supreme Judge
,
Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker
, and
Dissipation Field
.
To prevent haste creatures from killing us outright, we have cards such as
Thalia, Heretic Cathar
,
Frozen AEther
and
Blind Obedience
to make our opponent's permanents enter the battlefield tapped.
Loss Prevention
Gwafa the Godfather doesn't like it when his opponents have more wealth than him, and dislikes when his opponents take his wealth even more.
Monastery Siege
,
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
,
Ertai, Wizard Adept
and
Grand Abolisher
+ both guildmages can prevent overwhelming losses and are the bodyguards for our value engine.
We also have
Diplomatic Immunity
and
Lightning Greaves
to protect particularly valuable assets, such as our general. Lastly, we have our only true counterspell,
Render Silent
, great for stopping someone from making a game-winning play or preventing an opponent from going infinite for a turn.
To bring back key cards into play,
Hanna, Ship's Navigator
is very useful.
Academy Ruins
and
Dusk / Dawn
also fit this category nicely.
Taxation and Cost Reduction
As the deck that's all about value, we know how to get the best deals around and control the market.
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
makes our spells cost less, and our opponents spells cost more.
Aura of Silence
makes our opponents artifacts and enchantments cost 2 more mana, and is a great piece of removal when needed.
Land Tax
doesn't really tax our opponents, but does ramp us when we're behind on lands, and
Training Grounds
makes our creatures with valuable activated abilities even better by reducing the abilitiy's mana costs.
Board Wipes and Removal
Sometimes simply controlling the board isn't enough to prevent your opponents from killing you, and you just need a swift reset to the game state.
Cyclonic Rift
is a great choice for a one-sided boardwipe and gets around indestructible/protection.
Supreme Verdict
is a boardwipe that can't be countered, great against other control decks.
Austere Command
and
Dusk / Dawn
can get rid of a variety of threats within certain ranges, and Dawn has the added benefit of bringing creatures with power 2 or less back to your hand from the graveyard.
If a boardwipe is too overkill for the threat, you also have some great single target removal to utilize.
Path to Exile
is a great staple to start with.
Grasp of Fate
is basically
Oblivion Ring
except it takes away a single threat from each opponent. Lastly, we have
Karmic Justice
, a card that is way too valuable not to play in this deck.
Note: This part of the deck is much smaller than most control decks, however due to the nature of out control spells, we don't need many spells that fit this category.
Card Draw
It's important to utilize our card draw properly in this deck, or else we won't be capable of getting ahead of our opponents.
Consecrated Sphinx
generates a lot of card draw really fast, but it's usually taken out pretty quick.
Sphinx's Revelation
is a good choice if you are sitting on a lot of mana and need to gain some life as well.
Mesa Enchantress
lets us draw a card for each enchantment we play. For sustained card draw,
Rhystic Study
,
Monastery Siege
, and
Dovin Baan
work very well.
Daxos of Meletis
lets us gain life and draw/play off the top of our opponent's library by hitting an opponent with him, which is pseudo card draw.
Reliquary Tower
and
Thought Vessel
makes our hand size unlimited, preventing us from being forced to discard.
Enlightened Tutor
is our only tutor, but has many good targets to put on the top of your library. To deal with your opponents tutor effects,
Aven Mindcensor
limits their search to the top four cards of their library.
Summary
I don't think everyone will like this deck, but if you do then odds are that you will love it. This deck can get hated out sometimes during games, but if you know how to maneuver politically in EDH then you can usually deflect some of the hate. This deck really compliments players that have minds for strategy and deception, and is quite the flavorful way to win a game of commander. Let me know what you think in the comments, and thanks for reading!
