Najeela's Hulk Pod Project (cEDH Primer)

Commander / EDH* Winterblast

SCORE: 184 | 141 COMMENTS | 37061 VIEWS | IN 84 FOLDERS


Tournament results (October 25th) —Oct. 29, 2018

We organised a tournament last Wednesday, to try out a multiplayer tournament plan and to promote our weekly EDH evenings. People were interested but eventually it was basically our core group +/- 2 players and we played with 6 people. It was interesting to see what everyone plays when it's even more about winning than usual. All decks except Najeela were blue dominated, no green at all.

After three rounds the ranking was: 1. Najeela (3 wins) 2. Jhoira (1 win) 3. Teferi + Breya (1 win) Zur and Aminatou didn't win any round.

The tournament plan worked well, but with so few players the system doesn't deliver a clear ranking on 3rd place. Next time we hope that more of the known players can actually attend and that unknown guests drop by as well so that we can have 4 player tables and/or 3 tables in total.

The first round (vs Zur/Animatou) was excruciatingly long, with Chains of Mephistopheles and Counterbalance stalling everyone. Eventually I was able to win that after 1.5 hours with manual beatdown only coming from Najeela and tokens.

2nd round (vs Teferi/Zur) was a t2 kill with Flash, 3rd round (vs Jhoira/Breya) also t2 kill with Entomb/Necromancy. I really love every time when all the early game kill talk is not just theory but actually works in a setting where no one would like to keep joke hands. For real life play I definitely need to get good at reading people's faces to guess if they kept greedy hands or if they just bluff interaction...it's hard to learn though because usually we are joking around a lot in the games and concentrate on the game alone instead of how the opponents look when drawing their cards.

Anyway, I'm satisfied that we took the first step in establishing a local EDH tournament scene and that the deck didn't let me down.

TzickyT says... #1

i see u added Goblin Cratermaker to your deck could i ask whats the reason behind it ? also the Summoner's Pact would u consider this card being playable in this deck or is it to fragile.

October 10, 2018 6:21 a.m.

Winterblast says... #2

TzickyT I think it's a great card because you can jam it on curve and activate it for colorless mana when needed. For example to blow up a Magus of the Moon, which is pretty hard to get rid of otherwise. Also removes Torpor Orb, Laboratory Maniac, The Chain Veil, Grafdigger's Cage,...I like it because you don't need to keep certain coloured mana open for interaction but just play it when it's easily possible and let it stick around for when it's needed. Until then it's also a warrior for token production and Mindblade Render. Being a creature makes it easier to find (Pod, survival...) and it is also fodder for Pod. The cut was Fire Covenant for now because I rarely needed to remove more than one creature and the 3 mana were hard to keep open for instant speed reactions.

Summoner's Pact is interesting but it's also risky because you have to win in that turn and if you go for it on turn 2 or 3 you can get blown out when your win con is stopped or just delayed for a turn. It could go in the deck but I would have to find something to cut for it (maybe Tymna because it's a reduction in cmc and a swap between slow draw and fast tutor). Targets for pact could be Hulk and also Derevi but for now I rather use Eldritch Evolution as an additional tutor. As it is, the deck has a really strong mid and late game because it doesn't go all in with the fast kill atempts. If something gets countered or destroyed, there's usually a way to go for another kill attempt in the following 1-2 turns without having to worry about getting killed by my own setup...playing pact would work but you have to be aware that it's a one way ticket in the early game.

October 10, 2018 8:04 a.m.

PIZZ_PAZZ says... #3

I know you mention the Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Karmic Guide combo but there's another pretty cool combo that might be worth your consideration.

The combo uses the cards Cephalid Illusionist, Nomads en-Kor, Dread Return, Narcomoeba, Laboratory Maniac, and optionally Hapless Researcher. There are a couple ways to do the combo, but the gist of it is when protean hulk dies, get the illusionist, the nomad, and the researcher. With the remaining to mana to search for there are a couple things you can get, but I would recommend Grand Abolisher to secure your victory. Then target the illusionists with the nomads enough times so that it mills out your library. The first thing that happens is Narcomoeba. Then flashback Dread Return and sac the illusionists, the nomads, and the Narcomoeba, to return lab maniac. Then just sac the researchers to deck, and win the game.

October 27, 2018 7:30 p.m.

Winterblast says... #4

PIZZ_PAZZ you just explained how breakfast hulk works and it's already been addressed in the primer in the section "why 5c?". It uses more dead pieces and isn't a reason for adding red. It also doesn't go along well with what Najeela does and the other cards you want to play because of that. If you want to play that hulk combo, stay in 4c and focus on that.

October 27, 2018 8:01 p.m.