pie chart

Smeagol Gets Tempted

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Control Landfall Mill Ramp Sacrifice

dannyrosey

Upvote 0
0

Creature (33)

Land (30)

Instant (9)

Enchantment (7)

Commander (1)

Commander: Smeagol, Helpful Guide

Sorcery (13)

Artifact (7)

Maybeboard

Sorcery (29)

Creature (14)

Land (5)

Instant (8)

Enchantment (6)

Artifact (3)

Planeswalker (1)

Smeagol, Helpful Guide -- Give into temptation, steal lands, play big spells.

v.3 == 8.15.2023.

"Naughty little fly. Why does he cry? Caught in a web. Soon you'll be... eaten."

This deck aims to be a mid to high power semi-casual EDH build that controls the board and buys time until it can pop off a massive mana combo around turn 6-8 or sooner if you get lucky.

Early Game:

Our main goal in the first few turns is ramping as much as possible. Look for mana dorks like Birds of Paradise, play Smeagol, Helpful Guide on or before turn 3, and then ramp big with cards like Dawntreader Elk (which trigger Smeagol's land mill ability), or early combo pieces with Bloodghast or Ashnod's Altar. We should constantly be keeping in mind our win conditions: either go infinite with Gravecrawler, or with Dunedain Rangers.

Smeagol, Helpful Guide will at first appear like a complete non-threat to your board, and I would be remise to not mention the hint of politics to the deck. Much like the commander's character, you will benefit greatly from downplaying your deck's power. That is, until you take every land from someone's deck, or drop a Torment of Hailfire for X=15.

Mid Game:

By turn 5-6, you should be a few lands ahead of everyone (or, everyone not playing green) and holding a few if not all of your combo pieces. From here, focus on using removal cards like Caustic Caterpillar, Assassin's Trophy, or Profane Command to buy your time until you have what you need to end the game, or bring the game to it's final breath.

Late Game:

Your late game strategy is to win via these ways:

A) Go infinite with Smeagol, Helpful Guide and Dunedain Rangers to steal every land from someone's deck, using that insane mana stockpile to drop a massive X-cost spell and win. (SEE BELOW FOR FULL COMBO)

B) Go infinite with Gravecrawler and Bog Initiate to drop a massive X-cost spell and win. (SEE BELOW FOR FULL COMBO)

C) Mill someone out with Bloodchief Ascension and Mindcrank

D) Sacrifice Protean Hulk and drop all your sub-6 CMC cards onto the battlefield for a combo win or just a full swing win with a bunch of huge Nazgul.

Combos:

Smeagol Goes Infinite

  1. Smeagol, Helpful Guide + Dunedain Rangers + (SOMETHING TO SACRIFICE) + (SOMETHING THAT SACRIFICES)
  2. Have either a land or a way to use the Ring Tempts You Ability (ie: something like Sam's Desperate Rescue) in your hand and ready to play.
  3. Play the land, or tempt Smeagol, Helpful Guide.
  4. This causes three(ish) triggers: A) Some kind of token is created (usually) B) Dunedain Rangers tempts Smeagol, Helpful Guide (as long as you don't already have a Ringbearer) C) Smeagol, Helpful Guide mills for land.
  5. All we need is Smeagol, Helpful Guide's first trigger, everything else comes from Dunedain Rangers, so:
  6. Name your Ringbearer as whatever you're sacrificing, sacrifice it on the stack (holding priority), let Smeagol, Helpful Guide resolve (causing a land to fall), which restarts your combo, causing both your sacrifice generator and Dunedain Rangers to re-trigger.

Example: On the battlefield: Smeagol, Helpful Guide + Dunedain Rangers + Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer + Ashnod's Altar

In hand: Forest

Turn: Play Forest for turn. Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer creates a creature token. Dunedain Rangers triggers. Name the token as your Ringbearer. On the stack, sacrifice the token with Ashnod's Altar, leaving you without a ringbearer. Smeagol, Helpful Guide mills an opponent for a land. The land enters your battlefield tapped. Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer creates a creature token. Dunedain Rangers triggers. And so on and so forth until your opponent (or opponents, if you're feeling evil) runs out of lands.

SOMETHING TO SACRIFICE: - Bloodghast - Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer - Sporemound - Rampaging Baloths - Zendikar's Roil - Field of the Dead

SOMETHING THAT SACRIFICES: - Carrion Feeder - Viscera Seer - Woe Strider - Altar of Dementia - Ashnod's Altar

Gravecrawler goes infinitely colorless

  1. Gravecrawler + Carrion Feeder + Bog Initiate + Ashnod's Altar on the battlefield.
  2. Sacrifice Gravecrawler with Ashnod's Altar, giving you two floating colorless mana.
  3. Use Bog Initiate to wash one of the floating colorless into black mana.
  4. Pay for Gravecrawler to return to the battlefield. Carrion Feeder allows this because it is a Zombie.
  5. Repeat the process, netting one floating colorless mana each time.

Mindcrank mills infinitely

  1. Mindcrank + Bloodchief Ascension + SOMETHING TO DAMAGE THE OPPONENT on the battlefield.
  2. Bloodchief Ascension has three or more quest counters on it.
  3. Damage the opponent any amount.
  4. Mindcrank mills the player for that amount.
  5. Bloodchief Ascension damages the player because they milled.
  6. Repeat the last two steps until death.

And that's it! Thanks so much for reading. I'll be updating this list regularly as I am actively playtesting it.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Comments

Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!

Become a supporter of TappedOut and hide ads for only $3/month!

Important! Formatting tips — Comment Tutorial — markdown syntax

Please login to comment

95% Casual

Competitive