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Jhoira of the Ghitu EDH Competitive Multiplayer

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Control Show and Tell UR (Izzet)

Whatever777


Sideboard


This is my favorite general to play, and this is my list as well as a general tutorial on how I pilot it. I'm currently working on making the description more helpful and detailed. The goal of this deck is to be competitive and consistent regardless of who I'm playing against which is quite challenging. I'll post cards I've tried previously and if you have any questions or recommendations let me know in the comments below. Also if you notice a typo please tell me so I can fix it. And if you like the deck list upvote it please.

Not sure of the dates and times of these changes but here's how the thought process went down at those times

Initial deck idea -> actually having a goal. This included the addition of extra turns, control, and MLD. The original deck list had just a bunch of big creatures, big enchantments, janky interactions (see Thran Turbine) and only won games when I got super lucky

Deck with a purpose -> Added better counterspells and rocks. Pretty straight forward, did research and found some rocks I liked and I thought would help me pump out big spells if commander didn't stick around. This included things like Sol Ring, Izzet Signet, Gilded Lotus, and Thran Dynamo.

Deck that actually won a good amount of games -> Deck that didn't fold to actually good opponents. This is where things got tricky, because for the longest time I was struggling in match ups where my opponents also had a clear goal and ran enough answers to stop me. So I had to cut more cards that were less useful like Bribery and cut some other cards that were just win-more type cards. I cut a bunch of eldrazi, cut planeswalkers like Tamiyo, the Moon Sage and Ral Zarek. I had to cut cards that weren't actually doing enough for me like Jhoira's Timebug and Clockspinning. I also took a serious look at my tutor suite, given that I had only run Mystical Tutor at the time. I got Fabricate, Personal Tutor, Muddle the Mixture, Gamble, and Merchant Scroll somewhere around this time.

Around now was nothing super important but I cut Blightsteel Colossus and Isochron Scepter which were kind of difficult calls to make. There was just minor tweaking other than that.

The deck as it was -> The deck as it is now. I took out all the MLD over a long period of testing, and I also lowered the cmc of a fair portion of my spells, and I added Intuition. This is when I cut most extra turn spells, under the premise that they only do above and beyond when I have a bomb in suspend, other than that they are just an Explore for a ton of mana and if they get countered it's a waste of a turn. So instead I've focused on doing more things with each turn than trying to take more turns. Also I turned Gilded Lotus and Thran Dynamo into Fellwar Stone and Mind Stone due to reduction in mana cost and they also just don't put such a big target on themselves. Was a great change wouldn't go back.

More minor tweaking, I have been testing most of the cEDH cards they have for Jhoira and I've been deciding which cards I like and don't like. And so a good portion of my now superfluous extra turns were used as testing slots for a bunch of different builds and I've come up with my next iteration of the deck as it is currently. Also added a changelog (lol)

->A whole host of changes, I've been trying out new packages including a crazy Intuition package that resulted in a guaranteed cast of Enter the Infinite using Mizzix's Mastery. I've been trying blue moon packages. (Blood Moon,Magus of the Moon, and Back to Basics) I have also added Blightsteel Colossus back into the deck, as well as my land destruction package. Because MLD is bae. The description is also getting an overhaul to more accurately reflect present day thought process.

Alright, I've brought the deck up to my current paper list, and I'm currently testing a couple new packages in place of 4-5 cards in this list. I will as always extensively test against multiple groups over a long period of time and decide whether or not I like the changes. Til then have fun killing people with what was my current list. Also fixed the sideboard.

Spruced up the description a little bit, brought it all up to date again.

Had a four month hiatus and came back to some heat for my colors. Obviously went straight to testing. Of course adding the new fetch, new Narset, Flood of Tears, and Dockside Extortionist, which in turn lead me to put Tidespout Tyrant back in.

20230814: Adding dates to the changelog to make it actually a log. Today I'll be updating the description to be more helpful. I ended up getting a new phone so my decklist got deleted and there have been quite a few sets since the last time I updated this so I will be adding some cards and adding my thoughts on some other includes in the deck. I will also be changing the art choices on a few of the cards, I know it may not matter at all but I do like to include my favorite copy of all these cards in the list. The only problem is that the Narset doesn't seem to have the JP alt art version I run in paper. I also wasn't seeing my decklist at first so I will have to delete a duplicate I made because I thought this one had been deleted somehow. Yeah lots of stuff this update but it won't be extremely obvious unless you read this change.

So my thoughts on competitive Magic are as follows. I try to do nothing but win the game. I chose to pilot Jhoira so that is my constraint. To do this I either have to win before my opponents or stop my opponents (whom I assume are also trying to win) and then once stopping them produce a win. I have tried many different options and ideas on strategies to consistently be a threatening board presence as well as have enough control to not lose to a deck designed to run faster. So I guess the closest thing to a synonym for competitive in my book is consistent. Be it slow or fast, you need to win and you need to have answers to not lose.
In addition, my card choices do not factor in cost, they are just best-in-slot for what I aim to do, and they don't factor in my opponents poor fragile feelings, because I love destroying lands, and I love devastating combos.
The current issue with balancing the deck that I run into is balancing the death by non-creature and death by creature answers. Counterspells are great but at the end of the day there are decks in competitive environments winning with combat nowadays. Najeela, the Blade-Blossom is probably the most impressive deck in terms of killing with combat or with combo, but that means I need to deal with things that aren't on the stack as well as things that are. Also the mana efficient counterspells typically don't stop creatures or if they do then they don't stop non-creatures and that's a pretty tough balance as well.

My thoughts on proxies Show

This is broadly considered a "combo-control" list. So the deck is designed to make sure it can ramp into winning with combo or bombs, or controlling the game until some better opportunities arise. Control decks are not as fast as other decks, and to make up for that lost speed you will need less acceleration and more answers to stabilize the game long enough to win. You'll find yourself holding up mana for counterspells while holding extra instants as more of an "if no one has anything I need to counter I'll do this instead" and it may take longer to set up but the idea is that you take the time to guarantee a successful outcome if at all possible at the expense of the lightning fast, glass-cannon approach.

This is the game plan.
The main win-cons of this deck are Enter the Infinite, or suspended threats + land hate.

Plan A goes like this:

  1. Enter the Infinite This draws the library. It can be done with or without lands and the result will still be fine.
  2. Generate Mana
  3. Play Omniscience or a suitable substitute
  4. Destroy all lands
  5. Play free cards including, but not limited to, threatening creatures.
  6. Prevent yourself from suiciding to no library left
  7. Swing for lethal at your opponents

If you cast Enter the Infinite you get to win the game. You will draw your entire library, with enough free mana rocks, to cast either Flood of Tears or card:Omnscience. If these cards are not an option, other lines you can take are casting Narset, Parter of Veils and a wheel, or just floating an obscene amount of mana and destroying your opponents board and repairing your own. Basically with your entire deck in hand it doesn't really matter how you win at this point, just know that the easiest way to do it and save your table some time is through Omniscience and Obliterate.

Why no Thassa's Oracle/Laboratory Maniac Show

This deck is able to win the game with zero mana on the board from a land-wipe and drawing the entire library. In addition it is necessary to be able to produce large amounts of mana to facilitate casting the high-cmc threats in the event that Jhoira gets removed.

If you have zero mana because you suspended Enter the Infinite and destroyed all lands then your goal once you draw all the cards in your library is to cast Flood of Tears. This deck is an Omni-Tell deck. Flood of Tears is a way to do this in EDH without risking giving your opponents an opportunity to put anything into play that could make the game harder for you, and it can also be cast pretty much risk free throughout the game, so this card has replaced Show and Tell in my list.

To get to the required mana you can use Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, and Lotus Petal to generate mana netting positive.
In the event you have the need to avoid enchantment hate you can use Tidespout Tyrant. He combos with mana rocks that have a total cost less than or equal to the mana they produce to provide infinite mana that can be used to win the game as well.

High Tide Show

Why not Palinchron/Power Artifact/Dramatic Reversal/rituals? Show

Why no Underworld Breach? Show

Timetwister or Time Spiral are how you are going to win with this list. I don't run Laboratory Maniac and I cut Beacon of Tomorrows as well. This part is where I lose most competitive players. I don't like drawing either of those cards unless I already have my entire library in my hand, meaning they are dead draws at any other time in the game, so then they always ask the same question, "How do you win?" and it is super simple. You have your entire library in hand and an Omniscience in play. Literally just use Omniscience to land wipe, play some big dudes and swing. Shuffle your hand and yard away with Timetwister or Time Spiral. You won't lose for decking and if Consecrated Sphinx is in play you'll sculpt a hand out of like 40 ish cards. Your opponents effectively lost the moment your whole library got picked up. If your opponents don't concede it only makes their life worse as you take the time to attack them and they can't play Magic.

That was plan A, in action it's pretty straight forward. Plan B is just as straight forward. The entire reason card:Jhoira of the Ghitu(FUT)|Jhoira has a reputation. Suspend some bad news, wait til the optimal time and destroy all lands. That's freelo. Extremely simple, extremely fun (for me at least).

So basically unless you get everything you want and your opponents have no answers you'll probably need other ways to win than just one card.

Assuming your opponents aren't cardboard cutouts this section is Plan C.

Wheels are plan C. The most mana efficient card draw our colors have to offer. We have a few ways to abuse them. First obviously: the commander. It is pretty easy to suspend a bomb then ditch hands and get more fuel or answers or whatever. Now WotC gave us Narset, Parter of Veils so that was an easy autoslot. Consecrated Sphinx is higher mana so you can suspend it and when it comes out drop a wheel and draw 49 cards, and the game is pretty much over. Winning becomes a formality at that point because drawing 49 cards wins the game I assure you. Then more subtle but still very powerful uses for wheels are cards like Cyclonic Rift.

The last section of combos involve High Tide. If you read the section on generating mana already, this is basically review. High Tide does a lot for a deck like this which has very mana intensive spells to resolve. There are plenty of ways to capitalize off of High Tide and net cards or mana to cast big stuff. High Tide can be used in conjunction with Frantic Search, Time Spiral, Snapcaster Mage, and Candelabra of Tawnos for big gains.

Also Tidespout Tyrant can go infinite in tons of ways, with mana rocks or cheap permanents. Once you have infinite mana cycling through the deck usually becomes easy, the Eldrazi can be bounced and re-cast for their on cast triggers to also close out a game. This package has come in and out of the decklist a few times, but since the printing of Dockside Extortionist it is currently in.


Tutors Show

Card Draw/Advantage/Selection Show

Ramp Show

Protection Show

This is a section of cards I have tried before, some go back in from time to time to test new builds of the general. I have taken out the reasons for cutting certain cards, so if you really wanna know you can comment and whenever I get on I'll get a notification and try to answer. Also some times I cut cards then think "Wow wtf was I doing when I cut that" when I look back on this list so I leave those cards on the cut list because I like to laugh. So you guys get to laugh at me for cutting cards like Intuition at one point or another. Also if you're ever in a rut, these can just be cards for you to try and see if they work for you or make your deck better.

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Date added 8 years
Last updated 8 months
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

29 - 0 Mythic Rares

38 - 3 Rares

13 - 5 Uncommons

7 - 2 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.26
Tokens Bird 2/2 U, Construct 0/0 C, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Manifest 2/2 C, Treasure
Folders edh, Inspiration, cEDH, Interesting decks, Projects, Deck, deckdraw, Edh
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