Introduction:
This was a deck idea I came up with when Ravnica Allegiance announced Smothering Tithes. As a lover of white decks, I was excited for white to finally get a very good ramp card. As I was brainstorming on how to abuse the card I quickly came to the conclusion for Smothering Tithe + Wheel effects = lots of mana. The original idea was to run Boros, to use the mana for angels and dragons, and thought the overall idea was kinda boring. later on I read about
Approach of the Second Sun
's interaction with
Remand
and thought that was a cool idea, but trying to have 16 mana to do all that in 1 turn seemed like a very slow win-con, and not worth the investment. Then it clicked, I had an idea already for something to give explosive mana, and a win-con that required all that mana, put the two together and this was the freak child that was brewed.
I originally built the deck for fun without thinking it could possibly work, it was very fragile, with a single key card, and without it the deck pretty much collapses. when I began testing the deck with some friends the deck was winning and quite quickly at that. From there I have been testing it often, and tuning the deck, taking out a lot of the "fun" and jank cards out, and speeding it up, and increasing it's consistency.
Strategy:
The linchpin of this deck is
Smothering Tithe
(ST) without it you pretty much have no real consistent way to win. Thus the choice for
Hanna, Ship's Navigator
to helm this deck with recursion in the command zone. Along with
Pull from Eternity
when ST gets exiled. If your meta plays cards like
Praetor's Grasp
this deck will likely crumble to it, making this deck cap out in the "High Power" class at the very best, and will never be in the cEDH. (Zur was a consideration to helm the deck, but as ST is cmc4 it unfortunately didn't make it) Possible future Commander swap may occur with Lanvina, Azorius Renegade as it helps prevent pact and
Force of Will
from stopping us combo off.
Win Con:
Main win-con (worst, slowest, and my personal favorite):
Smothering Tithe
+ all the "Group Draw" spells = lots of mana. From there you can cast
Approach of the Second Sun
then on the stack
Remand
or bounce the spell back to hand, or let it resolve and cast another draw spell enough to draw into it, then recast approach for the win. [Note: only the second cast has to resolve, the first cast only checks for 'on cast'; but the win con is to have the spell cast AND resolve]
Second Win-Con:
Laboratory Maniac
just cast the big draw spell enough to deck yourself. if you don't have lab man out, you can get to it by drawing exactly how much cards in your library, cast labman, then another draw spell. (Possible addition of
Enter the Infinite
?)
Third Win-Con:
Psychosis Crawler
+ "Big Draw" spells. This only really works if you're not playing against any heavy life-gain decks that has been accumulating life up till now.
That said, now how do we reliably get ST consistently in this deck? Well I'll now go through all the tutor chains in this deck to get there starting from the shortest to longest:
Smothering Tithe
in hand (Total cmc: 4)
Idyllic Tutor
> ST to hand (Total cmc: 7)
Enlightened Tutor
> ST to top of the deck, then draw (Total cmc: 5 + draw)
Plea for Guidance
> ST to hand (Total cmc: 10)
Now we're Pod racing:
Transmute
Drift of Phantasms
> Idyllic tutor > ST to hand (Total cmc: 10)
Transmute
Dizzy Spell
> Enlightened tutor to hand > ST on top (Total cmc: 8 + draw)
Mystical Tutor
> Enlightened tutor to top of the deck > ST to top of the deck (Total cmc: 6 + draw x2)
Mystical Tutor > Idyllic Tutor to top > ST to hand (total cmc: 8 + draw)
Merchant Scroll
> Dizzy spell transmute > enlightened tutor > ST to top (Total cmc: 10 + draw)
Spellseeker
> Enlightened Tutor > ST to top (Total cmc: 8 + draw)
Merchant Scroll > Mystical Tutor > Enlightened tutor to top > ST to top (Total cmc: 8 + draw x2)
Recruiter of the Guard
> Spellseeker > Enlightened Tutor > ST to top (Total cmc: 11 + draw)
Muddle the Mixture
> Merchant Scroll > Dizzy spell transmute > enlightened tutor > ST to top (Total cmc: 13 + draw)
There's a few more chains, but those are even worse than these last few, and not worth mentioning. As most of these chains are not dependent on getting it all done in a single turn, don't let the total cmc intimidate you too badly.
Side Note:
Further Budget options:
Sensei's Divining Top
can be replaced with
Crystal Ball
, costs more mana, but scry 2 is a great alternative when trying to dig for the 3rd card with
Long-Term Plans
.
Cyclonic Rift
can be replaced with
Austere Command
this is important as you'll end up against several enchantments or artifacts that can stop your combo and you'll want a way to clear the board than just creature board wipes.
Other grave yard hate alternatives to
Rest in Peace
:
Tormod's Crypt
,
Relic of Progenitus
,
Silent Gravestone
, or
Sentinel Totem
each having their own pros and cons.
Cards that didn't make it:
Forced Fruition
and
Teferi's Puzzle Box
: generally this deck is going off the turn ST is in play, not the following turn, making these card too slow to be of value and the cmc isn't worth the slot.
End Notes:
This Deck is very glass-cannon similar to elfball, if you get wiped before you can resolve your smothering tithe and wheels, you'll be spending several turns trying to recuperate otherwise dying in the process as this deck has very few creatures for blocking and heavily reliant on reading the board and knowing when and what to counter to stay alive.
