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UBG (BUG) Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer "Faceless Menace" Upgraded Precon Deck
Sultai Morph, the only one that could ever make Wolverine laugh...

Sleeves: Dragon Shield (Umber Matte)
Deck Box: Ultimate Guard Deck Case 100+ (Brown)


Morph creatures are what it's all about. You'll almost always play these creatures face-down as token: 2/2 morphs for two reasons. Firstly, turning them face-up is the only way to trigger most of their abilities, but mainly just because of Kadena's second ability.

Also, I typically always play Kadena first, before I play any morph creatures. That gets the Kadena-draw engine online by turn 4 at the latest, and can often keep you afloat from there for a while.

Morph (or Megamorph, which mechanically functions exactly the same) is what this deck is built around. Pay , put a creature from your hand face-down as a 2/2, then turn it over later for some mana to surprise your opponent with some trick of some kind.

  • First of all, you'll notice that most of the abilities morph creatures have are some kind of removal (Nantuko Vigilante), or some kind of counterspell (Stratus Dancer). That helps this deck naturally find answers to problems on the battlefield that arise
  • Hooded Hydra is the one possible exception to the "rule" that everything should be cast face-down. If you draw it late game, and you have enough mana to put more than 5 counters on it, or else you just need a huge creature right away, you can cast it straight up without feeling bad.
  • Zoetic Cavern and Gift of Doom are the only noncreature permanents with the Morph ability, so I'm including them for combat tricks. For instance, a creature with lifelink can't gain any life if there's nothing to deal damage to, so morph your Zoetic Cavern before the damage resolution step and leave that attacker stranded in the middle of a cave somewhere, clueless as to what just happened.
  • Vesuvan Shapeshifter and Chromeshell Crab are sneaky little tricks you can pull to steal somebody else's "BFC" and either just keep it away from them, or beat their own face with it.
  • Deathmist Raptor can recur itself, but Den Protector is the only actual, true recursion in the deck. So far I don't feel like that's a big deal, but being in colors means if I ever want to put some recursion in, I can. Advice in this regard would be much welcome.

Also, here's a list of cards that provide some sort of "tribal" effects for morph creatures:

Similar to Morph, but different in that anything can Manifested, even noncreature spells, like instants and sorceries. Manifesting a card means putting a card onto the battlefield face-down as a 2/2, usually from the top of your library. If a creature with Morph gets manifested, you can turn it face up for its Morph cost. A creature without morph can be turned face-up for its casting cost. Everything else has to stay a Manifested creature until it gets returned to your hand, or hits the graveyard. That's why the "Replay" category exists, which is discussed below.

Manifest works best with the ability to Scry, or otherwise manipulate the top of your deck, like with Brainstorm or something. Unfortunately, scry is the one thing this deck didn't seem to naturally want to do on its own. After some more games/playtesting, I'll see if A) Manifest is worth keeping, and if so B) if more Scrying is needed. Advice on the subject is of course greatly appreciated.

  • Cloudform, Reality Shift, Temur War Shaman, Whisperwood Elemental, Write into Being and Ghastly Conscription are all one-time effect cards. Temur War Shaman feels obviously worth it because it comes with the "tribal" effect, and Reality Shift can double as removal (sort of like Crib Swap) whenever necessary. Whisperwood Elemental seems okay because because it can be activated whenever _and_ has a _repeatable_ manifest effect, and Ghastly Conscription we'll discuss next. Meanwhile the other two may or may not be the most "optimal" choices, but the Vorthos in me needs to see the proof like an anti-vacc'er or flat-earther or something. Stay tuned, I guess.
  • Primordial Mist, Qarsi High Priest, Scroll of Fate, Whisperwood Elemental and Thieving Amalgam are all repeatable effects. Each of them only triggers once per turn, and Qarsi High Priest actually costs (but can be activated at "instant-speed," which is important), but the fact that they trigger multiple times seems relevant to me still. With Kadena on the field, each of these is also a free card draw also.
  • Ghastly Conscription could be pretty big, especially when drawn very, very late in the game. Not only could you draw it early and play to its effect, targeting yourself when you cast it, but you could also target somebody else, obviously. Somebody with a tasty looking graveyard, like a self-mill, death-matters or recycling strategy, or, you know, goodstuff. This card may also completely suck *** and ***** with *** all over them, we'll see.
  • Qarsi High Priest can be used to replace a creature that's gonna die. Before one of your creatures receives lethal damage from something, sac it to the Quirky High Priest and replace it with a manifested creature (and draw a free card if Kadena's on the field.
  • Scroll of Fate is pretty badass in combination with Kadena. You can turn an unwanted land or signet or anything in your hand into a face-down creature on the battlefield. I like to avoid putting instants or sorceries down as manifested creatures, just because it's much harder to get them back in order to use them properly, but, just in case, once again that is why the "Replay" section exists below.
  • Jeskai Infiltrator is some weird, janky piece of **** that I _want_ to be a good card in this deck, but my hopes aren't high. If I ever draw it, we'll see what the verdict is.
Kadena essentially ensures me one "free" Morph creature and one free card per turn. I want more than that. It costs to cast each and every morph creature, thus things that tap for 3 of any sort of mana are my main desire here. You also may notice that my ramp section in this deck is huge, 17% of the deck actually (compared to the usual 10% or so that I normally shoot for). That's because turning morph creatures over is expensive.
  • Basalt Monolith, Bounty of the Luxa, Circle of Elders, Gilded Lotus, Llanowar Tribe, Somberwald Sage and Thran Dynamo all add total. That means I tap one permanent, not three, and generate enough mana to cast a morph creature. This leaves my land-mana free for other purposes.
  • With Obscuring AEther out, Sol Ring, Worn Powerstone, Shrine of the Forsaken Gods and Temple of the False God, which all generate , would also be enough mana to cast a morph creature.
  • Speaking of discounts, Ugin, the Ineffable, whom it is impossible to "eff," gets you an even bigger discount on morph creatures because they are officially and technically colorless creatures.
  • Bounty of the Luxa is weird so I like it. It would alternate between drawing me a card and adding to cast a morph creature every other turn. Now I need to draw the freakin' thing.
  • Castle Garenbrig should mostly enter untapped, and is a four mana investment to generate right away. That's TWO morph creatures, and two more cards, of course.
  • Circle of Elders should be super easy to activate, even early on in the game. Since Kadena will almost always be out first, that means you'll also have played at least one morph creature this turn, and one on the turn before. That right there is a total power of 7, and casting Circle of Elders would raise that to 9, activating Formidable and the mana ability.
  • Dark Petition is cool because it tutors a card, and then allows you to play any morph creature "for free."
  • The basic guild signets (Dimir Signet, Golgari Signet and Simic Signet) are here just to push my ramp into overdrive, provide color fixing, and make damn sure I'm generating mana above expectations early on.
  • And finally Trail of Mystery doesn't add any mana, but it will keep lands in my hand for a while, ensuring I get land drops. The card also doubles as a tribal effect, so it does more than probably get me lands.
Sometimes you end up with something face-down on the battlefield that you don't want there, like an instant, sorcery or something getting manifested to the battlefield. Or maybe you just want to save something from dying, or draw a card when you cast it face-down again. For these circumstances, I'm including a handfule of "return to owner's hand" effects. That way I can also use them as a form of removal if I have nothing of my own I want to bounce.
  • Fumble, Peel from Reality, Icefeather Aven, String of Disappearances and Thousand Winds can bounce/rescue something at instant speed.
  • A classic blue trick is to Unsummon something, then Counterspell it when the opponent tries to recast it. Unsommon isn't included in this deck, but Counterspell is, as well as Familiar's Ruse.
  • Cunning Evasion makes attacking into something a way of rescuing your creatures. Anything that attacks and gets blocked can be brought back to your hand, recast using a bunch of mana rocks, meanwhile causing you to draw more cards. Anything that isn't blocked deals damage (or gets removed, but we'll talk defense soon).
  • Thousand Winds looks more like a weak board wipe than a bouncer, but if played right, you can tap something for another reason, like attacking, and then flip Thousand Winds and the thing (or things) you tapped and attacked with would get bounced to your hand. Not efficient, but worth mentioning.
Kadena is a draw-engine in a morph deck. Playing morph creatures draws you cards, some of which are more morph creatures, which keeps the whole train moving steadily forward. For this reason Kadena often becomes a target for my opponents' removal. To keep her safe, I've included a large defense package in this deck.
In addition to the bounce effects covered under the Replay section above, this deck also features actual removal, mostly in the form of morph abilities, like most things in this deck.
Kadena draws cards on her own, with very little help, and the rest of the deck is focused on keeping her alive and able to do her thing. As a result, card draw isn't really all that important to me yet. That being said, drawing more cards is never a bad thing, and so Kadena doesn't have to do all the work herself, here's what I got.
  • Secret Plans draws cards "on the other side" of the morph process. Kadena gets you cards when face-down creatures ETB, but Secret Plans keeps things going by drawing another card when you turn something over.
  • Bounty of the Luxa is another semi-repeatable draw-machine, but it alternates to providing mana every other turn, which is not bad either. Testing in progress.
  • Ugin, the Ineffable can also act as repeatable draw through the token: 2/2 spirits that he creates with exiled spells attached to them. There's not really enough room to include any sac' effects in this deck, but by attacking or blocking aggresively with them, you can force cards into your hand. Ugin's really here for the discount and removal though.
  • Fathom Seer and Sultai Charm are one-shot draw spells. With Kadena and Secret Plans out, Fathom Seer can draw you four cards.
  • Finally, Dark Petition can get you any card out of your deck (and even provides mana to cast it, if it's a morpher), and Den Protector can rescue any card out of your graveyard, not just a creature.
Most of this is self-explanatory, but I'll go over some highlights.
I don't generally have a specific plan for closing out games yet, but the following cards look pretty good for a big play that'll swing everything in my favor.
  • Obviously, the only reason anybody even plays Sultai colors in EDH is to play Villainous Wealth. This card is awesome.
  • Ghastly Conscription is better later in the game, or whenever an opponent has a full graveyard. There is no milling in this deck, so hopefully there's a graveyard to target when you draw this, otherwise you could play into it by attacking/blocking aggressively and then reanimating all your own stuff.
  • Overwhelming Stampede came with the deck, and so far I haven't taken it out. If I got a lot of morph creatures and Kadena out, it turns them all into 5/5 tramplers, and if I got a bunch of stuff right-side-up already, then that should be even more damage. Why not?

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Date added 4 years
Last updated 10 months
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

6 - 0 Mythic Rares

40 - 0 Rares

28 - 0 Uncommons

13 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.38
Tokens 2/2 G Token Creature Cat, Experience Token, Insect 1/1 G, Manifest 2/2 C, Morph 2/2 C, Snake 1/1 G
Folders Gattison's EDH/Commander Decks, Morph
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