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The "A" Team (Tayam Rube Goldberg Combo)

Commander / EDH BGW (Abzan, Junk) Combo Counters Sacrifice

Gidgetimer


Thank you for taking the time to look at my deck. The deck is supposed to be powerful, but I am not trying to build cEDH Abzan Stax with just the Devoted Druid combo. I enjoy all of the different combos with lots of moving pieces instead.

The basis of the deck is to use engines to repeatedly activate Tayam in order to find and return combo pieces CMC 3 or less. Animate Dead and Dance of the Dead can be used to reanimate creature combo pieces with higher CMCs. It is possible to draw into combos naturally or be able to tutor them without use of the engines. We take those wins when they appear, but the most consistent way to get to the combos is by establishing the engine.

The engines are used for Tayam, Luminous Enigma activations, as such many of them use the vigilance counters he provides. Many of the engines also use Ashnod's Altar or Phyrexian Altar these are used to completely power the ability. You can use another sac outlet to make a "counters only" version of the engine when digging for other pieces. If you are able to establish a counters only engine Lotus Bloom can provide mana until you find all of the pieces to a line that will return other cards.

Tayam, Luminous Enigma, Ashnod's Altar, and Caller of the Claw: Requires 4 of your creatures to have died this turn, or 3 additional mana and 2 of your creatures to have died this turn to start. Caller of the Claw enters with a vigilance counter and creates 2/2 bear tokens equal to the number of creatures that have entered your graveyard this turn that each enter with a vigilance counter. Sacrifice creatures until you have 3+ mana. Activate Tayam, Luminous Enigma removing counters from among the tokens and Caller, if you do not have at least three counters left among your creatures and Caller was not one of the creatures you sacrificed for mana, sacrifice it in response to Tayam. If Caller is in the graveyard return it with the Tayam activation, otherwise return one of your other permanents CMC 3 or less.

Tayam, Luminous Enigma, Phyrexian Altar, and Caller of the Claw: Requires 5 of your creatures to have died this turn, or 3 additional mana and 2 of your creatures to have died this turn to start. Caller of the Claw enters with a vigilance counter and creates 2/2 bear tokens equal to the number of creatures that have entered your graveyard this turn that each enter with a vigilance counter. Sacrifice creatures until you have 3+ mana. Activate Tayam, Luminous Enigma removing counters from among the tokens and Caller, if you do not have at least three counters left among your creatures and Caller was not one of the creatures you sacrificed for mana, sacrifice it in response to Tayam. If Caller is in the graveyard return it with the Tayam activation, otherwise return one of your other permanents CMC 3 or less.

Tayam, Luminous Enigma, Ashnod's Altar, and Hallowed Spiritkeeper: Requires 2 creatures in your graveyard and 1 mana to start. Sacrifice Hallowed Spiritkeeper making 2 additional mana. Hallowed Spiritkeeper will make tokens equal to the number of creature cards in your graveyard that each enter with a vigilance counter. Activate Tayam, Luminous Enigma removing counters from among the tokens. Return Spiritkeeper with the Tayam activation. Sacrifice Spiritkeeper and/or tokens for mana. Once you have more than 2 other creatures in the graveyard you will not have to sacrifice Spiritkeeper unless you need more counters to keep the engine going. At this point you can start returning other permanents CMC 3 or less.

Tayam, Luminous Enigma, Phyrexian Altar, and Hallowed Spiritkeeper: Requires 2 creatures in your graveyard and 2 mana to start. Sacrifice Hallowed Spiritkeeper making an additional mana. Hallowed Spiritkeeper will make tokens equal to the number of creature cards in your graveyard that each enter with a vigilance counter. Activate Tayam, Luminous Enigma removing counters from among the tokens. Return Spiritkeeper with the Tayam activation. Sacrifice Spiritkeeper and/or tokens for mana. Once you have more than 2 other creatures in the graveyard you will not have to sacrifice Spiritkeeper unless you need more counters to keep the engine going. At this point you can start returning other permanents CMC 3 or less.

Tayam, Luminous Enigma, Ashnod's Altar, and Weaponcraft Enthusiast: Requires 3 mana to start. Make the tokens with fabricate. Weaponcraft Enthusiast and each token will enter with vigilance counters. Activate Tayam, Luminous Enigma removing the three counters. In response sacrifice Enthusiast, then tokens until you have 3 mana. Return Enthusiast with the Tayam activation. This engine will not return any other permanents. It is used to find one of the other engines and then you leave Enthusiast in the graveyard and start the other engine.

Tayam, Luminous Enigma, Phyrexian Altar, and Weaponcraft Enthusiast: Requires 3 mana to start. Make the tokens with fabricate. Weaponcraft Enthusiast and each token will enter with vigilance counters. Activate Tayam, Luminous Enigma removing the three counters. In response sacrifice Enthusiast, then tokens until you have 3 mana. Return Enthusiast with the Tayam activation. This engine will not return any other permanents. It is used to find one of the other engines and then you leave Enthusiast in the graveyard and start the other engine.

Tayam, Luminous Enigma, Ashnod's Altar, and Promise of Bunrei: Requires 1 creature on board and 1 mana to start. Sacrifice the creature for mana triggering Promise of Bunrei. Four tokens are created and enter with vigilance counters. Activate Tayam removing three of the counters. Return Promise with the Tayam activation. Sac tokens until you have three mana, triggering Promise again. Once you have enough extra tokens with vigilance counters on them you can return other stuff with Tayam and leave Promise in the graveyard until you need counters again.

Tayam, Luminous Enigma, Phyrexian Altar, and Promise of Bunrei: Requires 1 creature on board and 2 mana to start. Sacrifice the creature for mana triggering Promise of Bunrei. Four tokens are created and enter with vigilance counters. Activate Tayam removing three of the counters. Return Promise with the Tayam activation. Sac tokens until you have three mana, triggering Promise again. Once you have enough extra tokens with vigilance counters on them you can return other stuff with Tayam and leave Promise in the graveyard until you need counters again.

Tayam, Luminous Enigma, Ashnod's Altar, and any two persist and/or undying creatures: Sacrifice the two recursion creatures for mana. Each will return with a vigilance counter and a counter from its ability. Activate Tayam, Luminous Enigma removing one vigilance counter and the two from the abilities.

Tayam, Luminous Enigma, Phyrexian Altar, and any three persist and/or undying creatures: Sacrifice the three recursion creatures for mana. Each will return with a vigilance counter and a counter from its ability. Activate Tayam, Luminous Enigma removing the three from the abilities.

Tayam, Luminous Enigma, Ashnod's Altar, Luminous Broodmoth, and any two non-flying creatures: Sacrifice the two non-flying creatures for mana. Each will return with a vigilance counter and a flying counter. Activate Tayam, Luminous Enigma removing one vigilance counter and the two flying counters.

Tayam, Luminous Enigma, Phyrexian Altar, Luminous Broodmoth, and any three non-flying creatures: Sacrifice the Three non-flying creatures for mana. Each will return with a vigilance counter and a flying counter. Activate Tayam, Luminous Enigma removing the three flying counters.

Tayam, Luminous Enigma, Ashnod's Altar, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, and any two non-human creatures: Sacrifice the two non-human creatures for mana. Each will return with a vigilance counter and a +1/+1 counter. Activate Tayam, Luminous Enigma removing one vigilance counter and the two +1/+1 counters.

Tayam, Luminous Enigma, Phyrexian Altar, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, and any three non-human creatures: Sacrifice the Three non-human creatures for mana. Each will return with a vigilance counter and a +1/+1 counter. Activate Tayam, Luminous Enigma removing the three +1/+1 counters.

Tayam, Luminous Enigma, Devoted Druid, and Gift of Granite: Tap Devoted Druid for mana. Put a -1/-1 counter on it to untap it via its ability. Repeat 3 times. Activate Tayam by removing the -1/-1 counters.

Tayam, Luminous Enigma, Devoted Druid, Luminous Broodmoth, Thousand-Year Elixir: Tap Devoted Druid for mana. Put a -1/-1 counter on it to untap it via its ability. Tap Devoted Druid for mana. Put a -1/-1 counter on it via it's untap ability. Devoted Druid dies and is returned with a flying counter and a vigilance counter. Tap Devoted Druid for mana. Put a -1/-1 counter on it to untap it via its ability. Activate Tayam removing the flying, vigilance, and -1/-1 counters.

Any of the token producing engines can be repeated for infinite death triggers.

Any of the token producing engines besides Weaponcraft Enthusiast and Phyrexian Altar can be repeated for infinite mana and tokens.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, a persist creature, and a sacrifice outlet gives infinite ETB/LTB/Dies triggers and infinite sac outlet effect. The persist creature returns with alternating -1/-1 and +1/+1 counters and can be infinitely sacrificed.

Luminous Broodmoth, an undying creature, and a sacrifice outlet gives infinite ETB/LTB/Dies triggers and infinite sac outlet effect. The creature will return with alternating +1/+1 counters and flying counters and can be infinitely sacrificed.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Luminous Broodmoth, a non-human non-flying creature, and a sacrifice outlet gives infinite ETB/LTB/Dies triggers and infinite sac outlet effect. The creature will return with alternating +1/+1 and flying counters and can be infinitely sacrificed.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Devoted Druid provide infinite death triggers. Kill Devoted Druid by putting -1/-1 counters on her with her untap ability. She will return with a +1/+1 counter. You can activate the untap ability even when druid is untapped and has sommoning sickness. Remove the +1/+1 counter by putting a -1/-1 counter on Druid. Repeat.

Karmic Guide, Reveillark, and a sac outlet return all creatures power 2 or less from the graveyard to the battlefield, gives infinite ETB/LTB/Dies triggers, and infinite sac outlet effect. Karmic Guide ETB returns Reveillark to the battlefield. Sacrifice Karmic Guide and then Reveillark. Reveillark LTB returns Karmic Guide and another creature. Repeat.

After we have comboed off we need to do something with the resources in order to actually win the game. Most of the time you will have your choice of finisher because many of the combos create multiple infinites.

With infinite mana, return Walking Ballista to hand with Buried Ruin. Cast for arbitrarily large value of X and ping down all opponents.

Finale of Devastation X>=10 with infinite tokens gives the tokens haste. With infinite mana it allows for an arbitrarily large value of X. You need one creature that can connect with each opponent for the infinite mana win.

Geralf's Messenger as part of a sacrifice loop causes opponents to lose life.

Zulaport Cutthroat and a sacrifice loop causes opponents to lose life.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Walking Ballista and a sacrifice outlet: Sacrifice Ballista, it returns with a +1/+1 counter on it. Remove the counter to deal 1 damage to an opponent. Repeat.

Protean Hulk provides a 1-card combo provided that we have the correct cards still in the library. There are three basic Hulk lines in this deck. I have arranged them in increasing order of complexity.

Primary line:

Tutor Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Walking Ballista for the combo.

Modification for no sac outlet: Tutor Karmic Guide and Carrion Feeder.

Return Hulk with Guide and proceed with the line.

Secondary line:

Tutor Karmic Guide (you will have 1 MV of tutor left Carrion Feeder is the choice if you have no sac outlet).

Return Hulk with Guide.

Sac Hulk to tutor Saffi Eriksdotter and Zulaport Cutthroat (with the remaining 2 MV of tutor Grand Abolisher is usually the correct thing to grab, but is not necessary for the combo line).

Sac Saffi to return Guide.

Sac and return Guide to return Hulk.

Sac Hulk to tutor Luminous Broodmoth and Young Wolf or Strangleroot Geist.

Sac undying creature and it will return with alternating +1/+1 and flying counters. This causes infinite drain with Zulaport.

Tertiary line:

Tutor Karmic Guide (you will have 1 MV of tutor left Carrion Feeder is the choice if you have no sac outlet).

Return Hulk with Guide.

Sac Hulk to tutor Saffi Eriksdotter (with the remaining 4 MV of tutor Grand Abolisher and Zulaport Cutthroat are usually the correct things to grab, but are not necessary for the combo line).

Sac Saffi to return Guide.

Sac and return Guide to return Hulk.

Sac Hulk to tutor Reveillark.

Sac Guide.

Sac Reveillark to return Guide and Saffi.

Return Reveillark with Guide.

Sac Saffi to return Reveillark.

Sac Guide.

Sac and return Reveillark to return Saffi and Guide.

Reapeat Saffi/Reveillark/Guide loop using the Guide ETB triggers to return any creatures from your graveyard and repeatedly return Hulk to tutor creatures out of your library.

Proceed with any creature based win.

Suggestions

Updates Add

I hadn't updated this decklist since before I built the physical deck a couple of years ago. The deck was doing what I wanted of it and trafic was low, so what was the point. I recently posted my list to a thread in appreciation of convoluted combos. This had the unintended consequence of driving more traffic here and some more knowledgeable users who seem to appreciate Rube Goldberg Combo (shoutout to jaymc1130, AstroAA, and DrukenReaps) So I have updated it so that any suggestions given are looking at a more up-to-date decklist and am going to feature to intentionally drive more traffic here.

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Casual

99% Competitive

Top Ranked
Date added 3 years
Last updated 1 year
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

9 - 0 Mythic Rares

55 - 0 Rares

22 - 0 Uncommons

8 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.70
Tokens Bear 2/2 G, Servo 1/1 C, Spirit 1/1 C, Spirit 1/1 W
Folders Fun Commander Decks, X - EDH Inspiration - GOLGARI GRAVEYARDS, Tayam Inspiration, Cool EDH Decks
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