One For You, One For Me, But Not For YOU! *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH Battlecruiser Casual Control Mono-Blue Multiplayer

NV_1980

Creature (25)

• 1x Ancient Silver Dragon
• 1x Arbiter of the Ideal
• 1x Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1x Clever Impersonator
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Empress Galina
• 1x Fatespinner
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Hullbreaker Horror
• 1x It That Betrays
• 1x Jin-Gitaxias  ^Flip
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Master of Predicaments
• 1x Nezahal, Primal Tide
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Sakashima of a Thousand Faces
• 1x Sphinx Ambassador
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
• 1x Tidespout Tyrant
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 1x Vedalken Mastermind
• 1x Vodalian Illusionist
• 1x Void Winnower
• 1x Wandering Archaic  ^Flip

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Control Magic
• 1x Leyline of Anticipation
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Paradox Haze
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Treachery
• 1x Vanishing

Artifact (17)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Crystal Shard
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mirage Mirror
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Nyx Lotus
• 1x Sapphire Medallion
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sky Diamond
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Temple Bell
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Vedalken Orrery

Instant (8)

• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Repulse
• 1x Run Away Together

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Blatant Thievery
• 1x Bribery
• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Show and Tell
• 1x Wash Out

Commander (1)

Land (35)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Eye of Ugin
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Halimar Depths
• 1x Homeward Path
• 21x Island
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 1x Terrain Generator
• 1x War Room

---

Welcome to One For You, One For Me, But Not For YOU {U}!

Hi there! Welcome to the primer of my mono-blue, cheating and rollback deck, commanded by Braids, Conjurer Adept. It aims to create an unbalanced board-state by first granting everyone free boons and then taking away said boons granted to opposing decks. In other words, evil Santa is coming to town! I play this deck in casual formats. It’s not meant to be used in a competitive fashion, but of course I welcome anyone to try! Feel free to comment on anything you (dis)like throughout this primer; I hope you will enjoy it!

Why Braids?

Getting free stuff at the start of every upkeep is very appealing; especially when said stuff is powerful. The thing that makes Braids so great in this regard, is that she’s blue; the one color that contains a large number of bounce- and steal spells. This means that even though Braids grants bonuses to everyone, the deck benefits from blue’s vast arsenal of cards that minimize value to the opposition. Braids is also relatively cheap to cast and not (immediately) prone to removal, as in her vanilla state she will benefit all players.

Strengths and Weaknesses

I use the following ten parameters to determine the strength of the deck. For each, I allocate a score of 5 (very good), 4 (good), 3 (mediocre), 2 (bad) or 1 (very bad); when totalized this score represents the power rating of the deck (maximum score is 50 points).

• Mana: indicates the availability of mana sources within the deck.
• Ramp: indicates the speed at which mana sources within the deck can be made available.
• Card Advantage: indicates availability of filter- and draw resources represented within the deck.
• Overall speed: indicates the deck’s potential for pace, based on resource availability and mana curve.
• Combo: indicates the measure of combo-orientation of the deck.
• Army: indicates the deck’s creature-army strength.
• Commander: indicates how much the deck is commander-oriented/dependent (less dependency is better).
• Interaction: indicates how much this deck can mess with opponents’ board states and turn-phases.
• Resilience: indicates whether the deck can prevent and take punches.
• Spellpower: indicates the availability and strength of high-impact spells.

---

Mana: 3

Since blue does not have any direct ramping options, sufficient mana-rocks were added in order to maintain game-progress speed. This deck contains eight such rocks, as well as a card that will double my available blue mana and a resource that will allow me to cast blue spells cheaper.

Ramp: 1

This deck contains one ramp option.

Card Advantage: 5

Divided by category, this deck contains seven direct draw engines (without requiring preconditions), five draw cards dependent on preconditions, two filter- and draw mechanisms, two tutors, two top decking options and a whopping eight cards that allows me to steal cards. In all, plenty of methods to keep a steady supply of resources coming my way.

Overall speed: 3

No ramp, some mana rocks and a whole lot of draw. Combined, this gives me an average measure of speed (provided that the additional draw allows me to get to the mana rocks and the deck’s land-base at the appropriate time).

Combo: 1

Simply put, aside from including a few avenues to use Braids’s ability exclusively for myself, this deck is not combo-oriented at all.

Army: 4

Powerful sphinxes, djinns, shapeshifters and even Eldrazi. This deck features some crazy strong creatures; all packed with abilities to either provide card advantage or to inhibit the opposition in a serious way. As individuals, most of them are strong already. Combined into a host, they represent a threat that is very hard to deal with.

Commander: 2

The name of my game is to cheat stuff onto the field with Braids. Without her presence, I am left with having to hard-cast, which is a lot less efficient. Doesn’t make winning impossible, but an order of magnitude harder.

Interaction: 4

In order to ensure no-one truly benefits from Braids but me, I need to control the battlefield. This can be accomplished by using either one of the eight options to steal cards, one of five options to bounce permanents, a wipe or one of the three forced saccing options. Obviously, because it’s blue, I’m also using a few counterspells.

Resilience: 1

Aside from counter-spelling some harmful stuff, I can assist Braids with escaping from harm through the clever use of phasing or controlled bouncing.

Spellpower: 3

Obviously, most of the major spells included feature bounce and stealing mechanics, but there are also some other important game-changers in there involving free permanent casting and additional upkeeps (which allows for multiple uses of Braids' triggered ability per turn).

---

Total power score: 27

In terms of power, I score this deck as slightly above average. Its speed is mediocre on average, yet it packs quite a wallop at times. It’s of great use to players who care for the use of politics and it is able to interact very well with opposing board-states (or even library-states!). Its offensive power is truly stunning at times in both raw power and in the application of various different inhibitive techniques.

General strategy

This deck aims to provide the player with as much good-stuff as possible, in exchange for as few resources as possible; thereby outgunning opposing decks in terms of value on the battlefield. The deck needs to be handled aggressive early, in the sense that its need to maximize the effectiveness of early good-stuff. Generally, my game phases will look like this:

1. Obtain enough resources to summon (and if possible keep) Braids.
2. Summon Braids, drop a fatty, nullify the value of drops of my primary targets.
3. Increase Braids’ power and/or add more free value engines to keep dropping value.
4. Overwhelm opponents.

Keep in mind that a large part of playing a Braids deck, should be focused on politics. Braids can help allies (which are left alone (temporarily)) and she can help my primary targets (which are then targeted by bounce/capture spells). Playing in a partial group-hug way dramatically increases the survivability of this deck. It sometimes leads to opponents actually protecting (again, temporarily) the player using this deck.

Starting hand

At least three cards in the starting hand ought to be lands (or two lands and a Arcane Signet, Mox Opal, Sapphire Medallion, Sky Diamond or Sol Ring). This is a must; I am not going to start a game without this hand (even if I have to mulligan down to three cards). The ideal hand would also contain some additional ramp and/or draw options.

Early game

My first order of business is to get Braids available to strut her stuff. Before I cast her, I need the resources to do so AND I need some spells that will inhibit my primary targets from benefiting of Braids’ ability. The first few turns should therefore prioritize the dropping of mana rocks like Mox Opal, Sol Ring or Thought Vessel. Casting cheap draw/filter options like Ponder, Scroll Rack and Sensei's Divining Top are of secondary importance. I'll try to gather a bounce spell (like Cryptic Command, Repulse or Run Away Together), an inhibition option (like Gilded Drake, Propaganda, Vanishing, Vodalian Illusionist) or an option that will increase Braids’ usefulness (like Paradox Haze) before actually summoning Braids. This in order to maintain the advantage over opponents. Please note that by casting Vedalken Orrery/Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir/Leyline of Anticipation first, I will be able to summon Braids in my (last) opponent’s turn, so that no-one is able to benefit from Braids arrival before I do.

Mid game

Now it’s time to start dropping fatties, steal/inhibit whatever the opposition gets and increase the value I can put out per turn as much as possible. The first fatty to be dropped, is something that should either inhibit the opponents’ advantage (gained through Braids’ last drop) or something that drastically increases the value per turn I can get. In terms of inhibition, a drop like Empress Galina, Hullbreaker Horror, Steel Hellkite, Tidespout Tyrant or one of the Eldrazi would be most effective. Value increase can be facilitated by dropping Arbiter of the Ideal, Master of Predicaments or Sphinx Ambassador. With none of these drops costing any mana, I still have enough energy to focus on casting inhibitive stuff like Bribery, Control Magic, Cryptic Command and Treachery. Then there’s opportunities to use mana for gaining more card advantage (and thus more drop choices) like Arcanis the Omnipotent, Jin-Gitaxias  , Rhystic Study or even Consecrated Sphinx. I can also try to copy my opponents' instants and sorceries with Wandering Archaic  .

End game

By this time the deck should have out-valued its opposition; even those decks of (temporary) allies. Should this not be the case, there are still pretty easy ways to rake in a win. First and foremost, are wipes that are either one-sided or can be made to affect mostly opposing forces. This includes Cyclonic Rift and Wash Out. After that it’s a matter of attacking my foes until nothing is left.

Combos and synergies

• Braids, Conjurer Adept + Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir/Leyline of Anticipation/Vedalken Orrery + Crystal Shard/Repulse/Run Away Together/Vedalken Mastermind; summon Braids during the last opponent's turn, use her cheat-ability during the opponent’s turn and use a bounce-spell/ability at the end of my turn to prevent anyone else from using her cheat-ability. Rinse and repeat the next turn.

Card Choices - mainboard

Lands

My reliable sources of mana, and some utility:

• Academy Ruins: a great facilitator to recur the deck’s artifacts.
• Eye of Ugin: cheaper Eldrazi, but more importantly, an opportunity to tutor for one.
• Flooded Strand/card:Misty Rainforst/Polluted Delta/Scalding Tarn: land-filters.
• Halimar Depths: land that adds a one-time scrying opportunity.
• Homeward Path: added as a precaution to get back Braids, Conjurer Adept in case someone manages to steal her.
• Maze of Ith: meant as inhibition in case a boon granted by Braids to an opposing player decides to go for me.
• Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: staple land in a single-color, permanent-rich deck, in which it is easy to reach high levels of devotion to the deck’s color.
• Reliquary Tower: combines well with the card-advantage this deck can generate.
• Seat of the Synod: helps to obtain metalcraft for Mox Opal.
• Terrain Generator: the deck's single ramp card, though it can only use land cards that are already in my hand.
• War Room: another little draw resource.

Rocks & Mana Acceleration

The cards I use to accelerate mana-availability:

• Arcane Signet: a simple mana rock that provides an additional {U}.
• Caged Sun: allows me to tap islands for {U}{U} and empowers my creatures to boot!
• Gilded Lotus: solid mana rock that can be tapped for {U}{U}{U}.
• Mox Opal: CMC0 that gets me a mana of any color on tapping IF I can achieve metalcraft.
• Nyx Lotus: a mana rock that works very well in a permanent-rich deck; offers even better returns than Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx as it doesn’t require mana to activate.
• Sapphire Medallion: cheapens every blue spell in this deck by 1.
• Sky Diamond: comes to me tapped, but delivers a nice {U} when I need it.
• Sol Ring: a CMC1 artifact that comes into play untapped and grants 2 colorless when tapped; almost the best turn 1 start-up card anyone could wish for.
• Thought Vessel: not in here for the mana primarily, but for the unlimited hand-size it grants.
• Thran Dynamo: a perfect source for colorless mana.

Card Advantage

The main focus of this deck; advantage it can obtain for free:

• Ancient Silver Dragon: an amazing combatant and an even more spectacular draw-resource.
• Arbiter of the Ideal: this deck contains 74 lands, creatures and artifacts. Dropping one for free by untapping this creature has therefore a 74% success-rate. All it requires is that I first tap Arbiter, which I can do by simply attacking with it.
• Arcanis the Omnipotent: draw three cards by tapping this; good enough for an auto-include.
• Consecrated Sphinx: this card is crazy strong in an EDH group (4-6 players). In a single round of turns, it can easily yield 10-20 additional draws, which offers a great selection for Braids’ drop shenanigans.
• Fabricate: recommended to be used to find either one of the bigger mana rocks or one of the cards that really empowers Braids like Vedalken Orrery.
• Jin-Gitaxias  : a valuable new addition that provides some conditional draw, and in its transformed state a down-right killer, game-ending cheat ability.
• Master of Predicaments: get good at playing chicken. Those that do, will gain some serious card advantage from this card when it hits for combat damage.
• Mystic Remora: very cheap (to cast) draw engine that no opponent is willing to prevent because of the high tax. Lasts as long as I’m willing to pay its upkeep, but easily returns its cost.
• Mystical Tutor: mostly in here to search for bounce- or steal spells.
• Nezahal, Primal Tide: an immensely powerful draw-enabler and strong combatant.
• Ponder: Scry and draw for a little mana.
• Rhystic Study: get an extra draw (and thus an extra Braids drop option) whenever an opponent does not pay a casting tax.
• Scroll Rack: excellent filter that basically extends the size of my hand; I try to include this card in all of my decks (with the exception of decks built around drawing lots of cards).
• Sensei's Divining Top: I pay 1, I get to look at and rearrange the top three cards of my library. For a tap, I can then even draw a card (provided that I put Top on top my library). Useful in any game-phase and therefore great value.
• Show and Tell: not exactly a provider of card advantage, but still a pretty cheap way to put expensive stuff on the battlefield. Especially effective when some of my opponents' hands are empty.
• Sphinx Ambassador: massive fun to use against creature decks. Make sure to steal not too obvious a target and this will almost be guaranteed additional value.
• Temple Bell: my opponents need to keep drawing and casting, so that I can steal their permanents.

Inhibition, Copying and Theft

The deck’s supply of cards that reduces the value of my opponents’ field:

• Bribery: one of the most evil, non-black tutors in MTG’s existence. Especially fun if it can be used to steal a key-card to a strategy of an opposing deck.
• Clever Impersonator: able to copy any permanent that is the deck’s most valuable online asset at the moment.
• Control Magic: the most standard thievery spell.
• Cryptic Command: one of the most versatile inhibition/card advantage cards.
• Cyclonic Rift: in its overloaded form, it is untargeted mass-bounce, which is ridiculously strong. The ultimate spell for this deck to reduce opposing value.
• Empress Galina: the ultimate thief of commanders.
• Fierce Guardianship: great counter that can potentially be cast for free, when ol' Braids is around.
• Gilded Drake: a very cheap way to steal a key creature from an opponent; especially useful after Braids’ drop-ability has granted something exceedingly powerful to one of my opponents.
• Hullbreaker Horror: every spell casting bounces an opposing permanent.
• It That Betrays: one heck of a powerhouse with annihilator AND an exceptional steal ability based on opposing non-token sacrifices (one that can completely disable a whole variety of decks). The ability is especially impressive when one considers that it does not just target creatures, but ALL non-token permanents.
• Kozilek, Butcher of Truth/Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre: granted, by not casting these creatures and having Braids drop them, I take away some of their impressive power. However this shortcoming pales when compared with the annihilator ability on these creatures that can still be used to increase the deck’s advantage over others.
• Lightning Greaves: stops opposing spell casting at Braids.
• Mana Drain: high-powered counter that also grants me some colorless mana.
• Mirage Mirror: very multi-functional copying mechanism that can adept to the current situation whenever I have the mana available.
• Phantasmal Image: cheap-ass copying is awesome.
• Propaganda: Braids may have granted some boons in the form of creatures, but said boons are going to be taxed if they’re thinking about crossing this deck.
• Reality Shift: screws up an opponent's creature (in exchange for an unknown manifestation).
• Repulse: bounce and card advantage rolled into one.
• Steel Hellkite: a wipe on wings; especially great against token armies.
• Tidespout Tyrant: a bounce with every casting, auto-include.
• Treachery: the ‘free’ version of Control Magic.
• Wandering Archaic  : nice spell! I'll have one.
• Wash Out: this spell can grant such an advantage, that timing its casting correctly becomes critical in order to maximize its value. It works especially well during a combat phase or when, due to circumstances, opposing players will be forced to discard a lot.

Utility

Mostly cards that increase Braids’ (and some other spells’) effectiveness on the battlefield:

• Crystal Shard: very multi-functional card, can be used to dodge spells on my permanents by returning them to my hand, or annoy the opposition by returning their permanents to their hands.
• Paradox Haze: gives the deck’s wielder an extra upkeep phase, which means Braids’ ability will trigger twice.
• Leyline of Anticipation/Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir/Vedalken Orrery: gives a great tactical edge by letting the wielder choose the most opportune moment to cast whatever spell that is required. Teferi also hamstrings many storm/spell-slinger decks.
• Vanishing/Vodalian Illusionist: meant to phase out Braids after we’ve used her during an upkeep; prevents her from being killed/used by opponents.
• Vedalken Mastermind: meant to return Braids to my hand.

Card Choices – sideboard

My meta allows for a sideboard in the EDH format (maximum 10). These are the cards that are in there at the moment, giving me a better measure of control. More ideas are of course appreciated:

• Curse of the Swine: this is popped in the deck when it faces a lot of indestructible creatures.
• Inundate: great mass-removal that I sometimes add, depending on the colors this deck is facing in the opposing decks.
• Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur: great card that prevents opponents from using Braids’ ability effectively. I deploy this when facing reactionary decks or card-advantage strategies. Replaces Tidespout Tyrant when deployed.
• Opt/Brainstorm/Preordain: these are sometimes added (replacing some bounce) in case the deck plays within a faster meta.
• Venser, Shaper Savant; in case I need just a little more multi-functional bounce.

Notable exclusions

This deck is still evolving. The following cards were considered but not added (yet):

• Many Eldrazi: this deck sported more annihilators in the past. I felt it more fun if the deck established control over my opponents’ boons instead of sending them to the graveyard. Hence a fair few of Eldrazi were traded in for additional theft cards.
• Blightsteel Colossus: my meta frowns on infect.
• Kira, Great Glass-Spinner: excellent deterrent against those who try to mess with my board-state, but unfortunately it cuts on Braids' interaction with some of the deck's other content.
• Quicksilver Amulet: not in this deck because its use is restricted to creatures, and there are more fun (and free) ways to increase value on my side of the battlefield.

Thank you for reading!

I appreciate the time you took to read my primer. Hopefully it was entertaining and useful to you. If so, feel free to leave a +1 and/or feedback of any kind in the comments below. Thanks again!

Date added	6 years
Last updated	4 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 0 Mythic Rares 36 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.06
Tokens	Manifest 2/2 C
Folders	Piliferate, TTS