Najeela cedh (aka eat that staple)

Commander / EDH* Aggro Competitive Control Five Color Infinite Combo Stax

loneu

Land (32)

• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forest
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 1x Tarnished Citadel
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Thran Quarry
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Bear Umbra
• 1x Druids' Repository
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Rest in Peace
• 1x Stony Silence
• 1x Sylvan Library

Instant (26)

• 1x Abrupt Decay
• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Daze
• 1x Delay
• 1x Demonic Consultation
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Fatal Push
• 1x Fire Covenant
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Izzet Charm
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mana Leak
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Silence
• 1x Spell Pierce
• 1x Summoner's Pact
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Tainted Pact
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Winds of Change

Commander (1)

Creature (14)

• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Boreal Druid
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
• 1x Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Elvish Spirit Guide
• 1x Faerie Macabre
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Phyrexian Revoker
• 1x Simian Spirit Guide

Artifact (12)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Damping Sphere
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Null Rod
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Tangle Wire

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Maybeboard

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Reconnaissance
• 1x Root Maze

Artifact (1)

• 1x Winter Orb

Creature (3)

• 1x Containment Priest
• 1x Ethersworn Canonist
• 1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

Instant (1)

• 1x Negate

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I originally did not want to make Najeela, the Blade-Blossom a competitive deck and gave her a warrior tribal. But when I played her it turned out that both her passive and activated ability are insane, its a built-in Krenko, Mob Boss on attack that can be activated repeatedly.. This commander does not need a combo to win in a competitive meta, make use of that!! (Really, I don't understand why so many people try to squeeze in a Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combo)

There are two 1-card-enablers: Derevi, Empyrial Tactician and Druids' Repository, both given 5 attacking creatures.

Bear Umbra and Sword of Feast and Famine also work for najeela's effect. However they require a mana base that can produce wubrg and therefore are more fit for late game. They are still run because both mostly refund themselves in the casting turn.

The cards in the maybeboard mainly consist of cards that might be meta-dependent, I am not really sure of that so far. I should add that I do not run the superexpensive cards like Timetwister. I think there is not much creativity needed to transform this list to a list without budget (change all painlands such as Battlefield Forge to classic duals and replace all staples with their expensive version..)

Stax and control is in because Najeela, the Blade-Blossom can win without any other card by just beating people given enough time. Also stax is the best tacticts right now.

Gameplan Show

The gameplan is simple: Drop a mana creature in turn one, Najeela, the Blade-Blossom follows in turn two. If there is extra acceleration in hand such as Simian Spirit Guide and you either have Derevi, Empyrial Tactician or Summoner's Pact in hand, you can try to finish in turn three. Sadly, only casting Derevi in turn three is not quite enough; you need 5 mana to acitvate the ability of Najeela, the Blade-Blossom. One comes from Derevi's ETB trigger, three from the turn one elf, najeela's and her token's combat damage trigger.

More likely, you will try to tutor or deny your opponent in turn three and go for a turn four kill.

If your opponent has a fast start (e.g. Mana Crypt in turn one) you might have to drop a hate piece such as Stony Silence or Null Rod in turn two. If you did so, you can consider not dropping Najeela for quite some time and focus on a control game (the deck should provide you the means for that) until you can produce wubrg from your landbase, drop Bear Umbra on a mana elf and cast najeela for the win.

Card Selection Show

Najeela has the wonderful advantage of only requiring one other card to enter a loop, making it the slimmest combo package possible. I chose 4 of those 1-card-enablers for redundancy,Derevi, Empyrial Tactician , Druids' Repository, Bear Umbra and Sword of Feast and Famine. This makes any form of recursion obsolete, the rest of the list has almost no restriction in card selection.

The remaining slots were filled with the best staples that MTG has to offer since all colors are available. First I chose tutors that at best can either tutor utility or one of the enablers such as Green Sun's Zenith; it either gets you a turn 1 dork in the form of Dryad Arbor or Derevi, Empyrial Tactician.

I then added a bunch of situational hate pieces such as Pithing Needle or Stony Silence. They are cheap and completely shut down a deck. Got a Captain Sisay? Shame its got a needle stuck to its neck! Flashing a hulk? Now he can Rest in Peace! Casting a The Chain Veil? I don't hear that stone do nothing..

This deck also has a bunch of counters since it wants to control the game in order allow for Najeela beats (to be honest, I always have been and will be a control-focused player). Cards like Noxious Revival went in because they are simply too handy.

I generally preferred creature stax pieces and creatures with nice effects such as Dark Confidant since they count for the 5-attacking-creatures-threshold that needs to be surpassed for Derevi, Empyrial Tactician and Druids' Repository.

Cards that did not make it Show

Ad Nauseam - I can't believe I am doing a competitive list that could run this card but doesn't. But it simply is too expensive and can't really find you an instant win.

Thoughtseize/Inquisition of Kozilek - Those cards can decide the game. But only in 1v1 games. In multiplayer rounds, it is just better to have a Flusterstorm up that effectively does the same.

Mana Vault - This card does not fit the gameplan; a mana dork ist better for a turn two Najeela, the Blade-Blossom drop since it also helps for card:derevi, empyrial tactitian triggers. And besides using it to cast najeela, there is no real use for it.

Laboratory Maniac - Most decks that run both Demonic Consultation and Tainted Pact also run lab man for the sake of a 2-card-combo. But we do not need that, our combo is redundant and easier to assemble.

Cyclonic Rift - This card is an excellent removal but is only really worth it if there is a realistic chance to overload it sometimes. In this deck, I don't see that chance so I replaced it with Fatal Push since it proved that some spot removal is very handy for the deck.

Zur the Enchanter - Zur can both fetch Druids' Repository and Necropotence making him a nice addition. However, he takes a turn to play, another to fetch repository and only in the third turn you might finish.Too slow.

Edric, Spymaster of Trest - This card is one of the first that comes to mind when thinking of a lot of attacking creatures. However, in a situation where you can tutor a 3-mana-creature, Derevi, Empyrial Tactician will definitely make the race.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 51 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 18 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.62
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Warrior 1/1 W