The Gathering Swarm

Commander / EDH Casual Control Multiplayer Tokens UR (Izzet)

MrTomDawson

5 drop (5)

• 1x Alhammarret's Archive
• 1x Coat of Arms
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Mindmoil

0 drop (40)

• 1x Ancestral Vision
• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 17x Island
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 9x Mountain
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Spellbook
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfur Falls

2 drop (19)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Baral, Chief of Compliance
• 1x Battle Hymn
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Magmaquake
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Memory Lapse
• 1x Molten Disaster
• 1x Negate
• 1x Pull from Tomorrow
• 1x Remand
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Thassa's Oracle
• 1x Thought Vessel

6 drop (3)

• 1x Arjun, the Shifting Flame
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Deepfathom Skulker

3 drop (10)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Chasm Skulker
• 1x Disallow
• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Shared Animosity
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Worn Powerstone

4 drop (8)

• 1x Bident of Thassa
• 1x Coastal Piracy
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Distant Melody
• 1x Mana Echoes
• 1x Slate of Ancestry
• 1x Teferi's Puzzle Box
• 1x Thran Dynamo

1 drop (13)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Serum Visions
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swan Song

7 drop (1)

• 1x Windreader Sphinx

Commander (1)

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Come on, I had to. The Locust God is just too OP not to build! Please don't hate me.

The name of the game is ramp, card draw and counterspells. Some small tribal synergies with Shared Animosity and the like, just to turn my swarm of tokens into lethal damage, but mostly the aim is to generate a massive army of weenies and swing.

The deck by sections:

LAND - 35 cards Show

Land choices are mostly self-explanatory, though I'll run through them quickly anyway;

Dual lands

• Cascade Bluffs - can cast Sol Ring first turn, can filter mana later. Picks up quite a lot of slack with the ability to filter into 4 different combinations.
• Shivan Reef - painlands are one of the best land cycles in EDH, let nobody tell you different. An ETB untapped dual that can produce colourless when you don't need coloured mana? Staple.
• Spirebluff Canal - before now I've never really rated fastlands in EDH due to the vastly reduced chances of drawing them early enough, meaning that in the majority of cases they're just a Guildgate. However, since this deck really craves speedy starts and has no way to ramp out extra lands, I figured I'd give this one a try and see how it performs.
• Steam Vents - no explanation required. It's a shockland.
• Sulfur Falls - checklands seem a bit underplayed in the format, which is a shame, because on pretty much any turn after the first these are just ETB untapped duals with no cost attached.

Utility lands

• Scalding Tarn - because duh.
• Command Tower - again, duh. One of the best lands in any non-mono colour EDH deck.
• Ancient Tomb - it's a risky play in the early turns, as the damage adds up pretty fast, but the acceleration is so good it's almost always worth it.
• Reliquary Tower - unsurprisingly, this deck draws a lot of cards. If possible, I prefer not to discard them.

Basics

• 17 x Island
• 9 x Mountain

The count for Mountain is actually higher than the deck probably needs, given that there are relatively few cards with in the casting cost, but I decided to err on the side of caution. Being stuck without the right colours to play the commander early on can be a death sentence.

RAMP - 10 cards Show

This is, as the deck is , almost entirely artifact based, with occasional exceptions like Battle Hymn or Mana Echoes that'll come in handy once a flood of tokens are on board. They aren't included as ramp because on an empty board they achieve nothing, but in the mid to late game they can provide extra mana to they go under "Utility cards".

CMC = 0 - these are among the best card in an opening hand, for obvious reasons. Getting The Locust God out on turn 3 or even 2 makes an insane start, and without a board wipe it's hard for opponents to come back from such a speedy start.

• Chrome Mox - generally used to exile a card as those are most likely to be in the opener, though if it can be used to get this is generally the better play in terms of fixing.
• Mana Crypt - fast mana is broken.

CMC = 1 - also good for a starting hand, particularly for opening up a follow-up 2CMC rock

• Sol Ring - see above re Mana Crypt . Super broken.

CMC = 2 - mostly colour fixing or other utility like increased hand size

• Fellwar Stone - in most games this will be an extra source of , but there will be times when I get lucky and can use it to access either of my colours. Even on occasions that I can't get either, it's still an immediate ROI of 50% on mana invested, so it's good acceleration.
• Izzet Signet - standard fixing is standard. Probably the best turn 1 follow-up from Sol Ring , should I be so lucky.
• Thought Vessel - as well as meeting the Golden Rule Of Mana Rocks and giving 50% ROI, the unlimited hand size is really useful in this deck, for obvious reasons.

CMC = 3 - getting into tricky territory here, and there aren't many rocks at this CMC that can justifiably be included. Both the 3CMC rocks break the 50% rule, but have upsides too

• Darksteel Ingot - mostly for the indestructibility, dodging most artefact wipes that can really set the deck back.
• Worn Powerstone - enters tapped, but still represents a decent amount of acceleration on the next turn. If I can find a better rock (at any CMC) then Powerstone is the first on the chopping block.

CMC = 4 - at this point ramping is less necessary, but the immediate ROI on Dynamo is good enough to justify the inclusion

• Thran Dynamo - 75% ROI is way above the expected, so this one manages to justify itself easily enough.

CMC = 5 - CMC5 rocks are pretty hard to justify, hence the inclusion of only one in the deck

• Gilded Lotus - 60% ROI so still above "curve", but it's the ability to make triple coloured that matters. Good for fixing, good for casting Enter the Infinite late, there's no point in the game when I don't want an extra 3 coloured mana of my choice.

DRAW - 24 cards Show

The meat & potatoes of the deck. A fair few of these cards have secondary uses or benefits, but primarily they're just here to fill my hand and keep up a steady flow of insect tokens;

CMC = 0

• Ancestral Vision - turns out Ancestral Recall is still a good card even if you have to wait a few turns for the cards. Who knew? In fact, it's better here than elsewhere, as we can cast it one or two turns before casting The Locust God and then reap the rewards once the general is in play.

CMC = 1

• Brainstorm - one of the best spells in the deck, as it actually draws the cards before replacing. Creates 3 tokens, puts a card in my hand, and sets up my next draws. Useful at any point of the game.
• Faithless Looting - not particularly happy about it, but it's still two cards/tokens for a single mana, and the Flashback makes for added utility. As a general rule I'd rather not discard - which is why the deck lacks traditional wheels like Wheel of Fate - when I can keep the cards instead, but this card is cheap enough that I let it slide.
• Ponder - less good Brainstorm . Still card selection and a draw for a single mana, so no complaints.
• Preordain - see above.
• Serum Visions - one of the worst of the bunch, due to the draw happening before the scry, but it's still a single-mana cantrip with upside.
• Skullclamp - so utterly, ridiculously busted in this deck. Goes infinite if you have some tokens and Ashnod's Altar . Goes crazy with just tokens and mana. Doesn't even need to go infinite to draw a shedload of cards. If the ramp is already on board, this is the primary Fabricate / Trinket Mage target.

CMC = 2

Date added	6 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 32 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.64
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Insect 1/1 UR, Squid 1/1 U
Folders	EDH Decks (Others), edh decks, Ex-decks, Commander