Najeela's Hulk Pod Project (cEDH Primer)

Commander / EDH* Winterblast

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mtg_shit_post says... #1

is so funny how outrageously expensive land are I mean this deck is a perfect example of this 4400 dollar deck 2400 dollars islands i mean seriously

November 12, 2017 8:07 p.m.

Winterblast says... #2

mtg_shit_post it's not really possible to save on the manabase in a 5c deck. Luckily the lands were not always so expensive and I bought most of my duals around 10 years ago. If you want to buy them today I suggest you watch out for ignored auctions on ebay or buy them from Europe. The prices on TCG are ridiculously high, you should be able to get all duals for around 1000 Euro if it doesn't have to be all near mint

November 13, 2017 4:02 a.m.

mtg_shit_post says... #3

thanks Winterblast I will do i have a few that I have gotten into my possession but i have made this same kind of deck with only a few lands I have and it did very well but i just sucks that whenever I build an EDH deck I actually want to get in paper I cant build it without spending all that time and money just for lands but that is why I like queen Marchesa so much because if you take out the three swords its super cheap and with a little tweaking can be decently competitive

November 13, 2017 1:54 p.m.

As a frame of reference, what turn do you usually win buy? And is there anything that you would recommend for people making budget versions of this deck to keep it competitive?

February 24, 2018 11:10 p.m.

Winterblast says... #5

Chainsawbear in goldfished games it's turn 2-5,depending on how aggressive the opening hand is. The fastest way is of course to tutor for Flash and hulk, but often you would rather drop some hate pieces and then go for buried alive/entomb or the birthing pod combo. In stax/control matchups I find myself using JVP more, even Ramos to set up a winning turn with lots of mana...that's usually when notion thief plays a role.

As for budget, you could probably cut some of the more expensive lands. You could cut the turbo thief approach and throw out twister and wheel and replace that all with brainstorm, ponder, preordain...I don't do much top sorting, mostly tutor, draw/discard and wheel but on a budget I wouldn't recommend that. You might not be able to play razaketh with LED either, that's also an expensive one.

February 25, 2018 4:10 a.m.

Kiyomei says... #6

For just those few red lines I still feel like the "Relic Seeker Raza Hulk" is way more consistent as you really don't need to add redundancies with red that just slow you down and focus more on winning the game when someone already won before you did...

Don't really think this commander adds what is necessary really for 5c hulk but can serve as a good test until something actually good comes out.

May 27, 2018 10:55 a.m.

Winterblast says... #7

It's not "a few red lines" but the overlapping pieces of an instant speed kill (flash or necromancy hulk) and a grindy pod game that turns random hatebears into the very same combo. Now with a commander that uses pieces that are already there for possible infinite combat phases...it has to be noted that this alternative bypasses the weaknesses of the main plan.

I mean if you want to play with 4c there are plenty of different strategies, but in 5c you want to use the 5th color and the overlapping pod and hulk lines are the most reasonable way to make good use of having all colours. I'm also rather fond of Meltdown, which blows out quite a few decks I'm frequently facing (arcum, teferi for example...artifact heavy stuff) and gets rid of all the hate that stops me at once.

In my meta chances are high that games end up being a staxy puzzle and the different ways of using the same key cards for winning have helped me a lot so far. I see what you mean with redundancy but the thing is it doesn't take dead slots to add the redundancy here with all colours. It's basically trading a more secure post-hulk-death line (like anything involving grand abolisher would be) for a better adaptability and resilience in turns 3+.

May 27, 2018 11:35 a.m.

Kiyomei says... #8

then it is definitely aiming for the end of mid to late game more so than other hulk decks plan to do which is fine! Just seems like a lot of hoops to go through to get where you want to be without really too much protection (very disruptable and very all in late game), to be honest...

But yeah in your meta it might be better to aim for that with all the staxy decks

May 27, 2018 1:34 p.m.

Winterblast says... #9

Kiyomei I wouldn't say it's aiming at the mid/late game at all, just that it gets stronger there compared to hulk decks that try to go all in with early game kill attempts. Since xmage has already implemented Battlebond I've tried my new commander in a few games and had one t2 hulk kill and 2 other wins with birthing pod. I've started to take notes on my game results a while ago and I want to calculate my average win turn in practice when I've got some more data...I'm pretty sure that I've got some t2 and t3 noted there but on average it's probably between 4 and 7 I guess. In goldfished games it's more between 2 and 4 but that's obviously without interaction.

I've even thought about adding a grand abolisher line (would even be possible with spellseeker for reanimate, abolsiher, sac outlet - the place of abolisher would now take gilded drake or leonin relic warder in anti-totem/linvala-lines) to the deck because it's appealing that people can't do anything after the first hulk search. However, it would again take one slot and I haven't seen much reactions to a resolved flash or necromancy in practice. Most often the attempts are stopped before hulk eters play and dies, not afterwards. Abolisher is a bit hard to cast with WW but would be also a starting point for the pod combo...it could be included if you feel like you need it. it's definitely not that important here compared to builds that blow out their whole library in the kill attempt because I won't die to my own gameplan if I get stopped. My only problem then is that someone else might win before I can reload and try again but at least I'm not in such a vulnerable spot as a milled breakfast hulk deck that has been faerie macabred. If these decks didn't have the post-hulk-protection they would not be worth the risk.

May 28, 2018 7:28 a.m.

Kiyomei says... #10

wouldn't really agree with stronger right now but sure... as early as it is without any real playtesting apart from you (Like try goldfish 100 games and write down the turn you would win on honestly) and even then it will still be pretty good at "tier 2" if you believe in fiction.

Memory's journey and timetwister battle very well with faerie macabre in actual hulk decks. But yeah if your hulk line is open after you have let it die you are at a pretty bad spot to still eat something you normally wouldn't with abolisher so deffo try that out!

Not trying to bash your ideas at all, just challenging you to take it perhaps a step further :)

May 28, 2018 12:06 p.m.

Winterblast says... #11

What I meant is that it's not that important to protect the hulk lines if the combo doesn't get you in a spot where you would lose if people prevent your next few actions. Like, if my hulk line gets stopped, I don't need to get cards back in my library again to avoid losing, so dedicating slots to make the post-flash game 100% safe is a sort of waste here.

The deck isn't new btw, I've played it since the Hulk unbanning first with Sliver Queen, then with Ramos and now the only change is that the Commander actively helps the deck. So, there's no lack of actual playtesting on my side, even had the chance to take it to 2nd place in a tournament last year. What needs to be tested now is how and when to use the commander and if the cards I use for the alternative win are working as planned. That's something I obviously didn't have the chance to explore in the 3 or 4 games I managed to play yesterday.

Btw, if you want to watch us play, my playgroup is trying to set up a stream of our edh evening on Wednesday...I just don't know yet where it can be watched then

May 28, 2018 1:06 p.m.

Kiyomei says... #12

well second doesn't mean anything, it still needs very strong statistics and an overall good performance with a proper playgroup (which is unknown to us for now :) ) and highly doubt they are all CEDH players playing 100% optimized decks, But anyhow still pretty sure it needs a good ton of playtesting before anything certain can be said. would deffo love to see it in action if the group is somewhat on a proper level :)

Just don't take tier list serious as it's all personal opinion and nothing more really. keep up the great work and keep me updated on the stream if you can!

May 28, 2018 2:23 p.m.

Winterblast says... #13

We usually have at least 3 competitive decks at a table, occasionally a troll or meme deck if someone feels like it or maybe we have someone visiting who isn't fully competitive...our core group currently has a few decks per person and the ones I face most often are Teferi, Arcum, Thrasios/Tymna Scepter+Bomberman, Gitrog and BUG Sidisi. But it's important to test against rogue decks too...in that most recent online torunament there must have been 3 Godos and a Jodah deck has won the final round, lol.

May 28, 2018 3:35 p.m.

TzickyT says... #14

would love to see a more budget version of the deck if that would be possible. otherwise nice solid deck u have here

May 29, 2018 6:05 a.m.

Winterblast says... #15

TzickyT the 5 colour manabase is what is expensive here. If you replace all duals with shocks you save several hundred bucks. Another cut would be the notion thief/3 wheels package if you want to leave out timetwister.

May 29, 2018 6:23 a.m.

TzickyT says... #16

for me the mox and the lions eye are the worst cards in my opinion that i have to deal whit stil i could change one of them int o a lotus petal but the other one i wouldn't even know what ot change it to

also as u said a timetwister is also not in my bucket list to get the rest i already have tbh

May 29, 2018 6:57 a.m.

Winterblast says... #17

You can probably leave them out completely. I'm missing Elvish Mystic in my list, so you could add that one instead. Just note that LED opens up a lot of mana efficient options for Razaketh. Without LED you can still play him but he's going to be a lot weaker especially in situations when you are short on mana and creatures...I would exchange Razaketh with Jin-Gitaxias then. Loyal Retainers also isn't that important if Razaketh isn't that strong anymore, so you could cut them too.

May 29, 2018 7:17 a.m.

TzickyT says... #18

am building my version of the deck poorly enough these are the cards i am kicking out of the deck

  • Dark Confidant
  • Chrome Mox
  • Lion's Eye Diamond
  • Mox Diamond
  • Survival of the Fittest
  • Wheel of Fortune
  • Timetwister
  • Mana Drain
  • Imperial Seal

becous i don't have the money for them what would u suggest to change them into ( my budget is lesser then 100 dollar a card basicly)

May 31, 2018 1:38 p.m.

Winterblast says... #19

I'm getting back to you on discord, real time chat is easier for that.

May 31, 2018 3:26 p.m.

GregariousG says... #20

Great deck, first of all. I ended up making the switch to Najeela from Ramos as well for my 5 color Kiki-chord deck. Najeela provides plenty of utility and Ramos costs to much. However, did you remove Tymna the Weaver? I would think that Najeela and Tymna had excellent synergy. Is there a particular reason why she was removed? Have a good one.

June 1, 2018 12:15 p.m.

Winterblast says... #21

GregariousG Yeah I have removed Tymna but that was already before Najeela was spoiled. My issue with her was that she didn't often felt like the best play when she just comes up randomly with the draws. She might be better now with the new commander though.

Another problem I have is that being able to damage multiple opponents is often not possible because it's often one player that has no defense, two at best and one or two have creatures you just can't get past. Maybe the warrior tokens solve that issue because I wouldn't care about losing these as long as one gets past blockers.

June 1, 2018 12:34 p.m.

I am building the same deck. Having the same flash hulk line and pod line, I have some recommendation here based on my playtests. MLDs are extremely powerful in this deck.Rushing commander and casting a timely Armageddon afterwards is basically game, as the scaling of Najeela is so absurd. After a couple tests, I've kicked out the buried alive/reanimation line, which takes up to 10 cards. Instead of that, I added more counterspells and 1-2 cc point removals. There are also some juicy cards to consider: Breath of fury; Edric, Spymaster of Trest; Purphoros god of the forge.

June 13, 2018 12:47 p.m.

tayrog77 says... #23

In your primer you say that if you have mana dorks that can produce all five colors, you can go infinite combat steps with no other cards, but Najeela only untaps attacking creatures. Thus, your mana dorks won't uptap to provide another combat. Just seeing if you were aware of this. Obviously with Derevi or Druid's Repository, this is moot. However, just wanted to see if I were missing something, misinterpreting your comments, or something else. Either way, like the deck. I'm going to change my Sidisi, Brood Tyrant over to this five color list.

June 21, 2018 4:58 p.m.

Winterblast says... #24

tayrog77 you need to attack with the dorks, then use Najeela to untap the attacking dorks and then the dorks will untap themselves because they are still attacking creatures as ling as it's the combat phase...you can repeat this as often as you want tgen, even before blockers are declared, so you collect infinite combat phases. It's a bit clunky because you need to have the mana to use Najeela once without the use of these dorks, but as a backup it's good to know that it works.

June 22, 2018 10:35 a.m.

tayrog77 says... #25

Sweet. That makes total sense. Missed that until now.

June 22, 2018 10:56 a.m.

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