I feel that. What do you think about Gaddock Teeg against storm? I have found their payoffs like Aetherflux Reservoir or Tendrils of Agony suck against him.

I feel like Summoner's Pact is an easy inclusion here. It turns Spellseeker into an extra copy of Hulk and can also search for Derevi in order to go infinite with our Warriors. Would probably cut Brainstorm for it, unless Brainstorm's been doing serious work in the list; you already run Edric, Spymaster of Trest, Mindblade Render, Mystic Remora and Dark Confidant so I can't imagine we're hurting for card draw too badly.

ChaosHazard brainstorm is important to shuffle back cards I don't want in hand, too good to remove. I'm also not a big fan of pact in this deck (had it in the deck at some point) because it's built to proceed with killing attempts even if it runs into counters early. Pact doesn't go along well with that because you blow yourself out with it if you use it in t2 or 3 and then don't actually win. As I've said, I'm looking critically at Tymna though...it's an option

I mean, yeah, Summoner's Pact is fine, but wouldn't Chord of Calling or Sylvan Tutor have more value here?

Sylvan is too clunky with sorcery speed to top and chord is too expensive. If I wanted another tutor it would probably be pact

Also, do you know there is an interesting line to get any combo-creature from your hand into play with Apprentice Necromancer, Sootstoke Kindler, and Hapless Researcher to discard it, and reanimate it at the cost of and 5 Protean Hulk CMC, which is equal to Karmic Guide's CMC for many lines. It leads to a lot of dead combo-cards, but is a interesting thing.

Also, I have found that Apprentice Necromancer allows the deck to go off with a Survival of the Fittest alone, by discarding a creature for hulk, discarding the hulk for the apprentice, and casting the apprentice, sacrificing it the next turn to bring back and sac the hulk on endstep, winning with a Karmic Guide line on end step.

The tuning of the past months was all aimed at trying to find out which combo pieces can be left away while keeping enough redundancy to play around certain boardstates. Adding more back in isn't a trick.

The necromancer line works but with Survival I rather use Razaketh and Loyal Retainers, which doesn't have to wait a turn. Necromancer was in the deck last year but removed for being too slow.

While I love Retainer, but as you said yourself white is a harder color to get, and I would argue that if you don't have enough creatures to Razaketh away, the Necromancer would still be a better line. I run both, but it is up to you.

SynergyBuild white isn't hard to get, the issue was just the double color. There's absolutely no problem in casting any colored spell with only one colored mana symbol in the costs. Double color and multicolor costs need to be evaluated carefully, that's all I said.

SynergyBuild on a side note, I have a critical mass of creatures here and no carddraw in the command zone, so while Tymna might be the hardest to cast among my combat based draw engines, it's still a possible and often realistic +2 or even 3 cards per turn effect. She definitely can't be cut because of a vague feeling that the cost might be restrictive.

I think in a list like this, card draw is secondary to tutoring. In terms of outcome, this list can be good w/o tymna. I don't run her in my mtgo varient of this, however my tana/tymna blood pod is running it as the commander, so it definently depends.

I feel like you missed to opportunity to call this deck "Najeela Podracing". Think that'd be a nice name to make it popular in the cEDH community with.

Love the list, might copy some things. If it came to changes, I'd probably try Saffi Eriksdotter. I know you briefly touched on her in the description. Given that you have Karmic Guide and Loyal Retainers in the deck already (both of which combo with Saffi), I'd give it a shot.

Auronit does someone else already use that deck name? I believe there's no other Hulk/Pod deck around anyway...I already changed the name once (see the deck url)

As for saffi, that would be for decks like Razaketh's Reign in which you don't have Felidar or Kiki and don't share a winning line with hulk and pod. I already have lines without either kiki or felidar, so I think adding saffi would be unnecessary redundancy. You can't put that loop together without 2 hulk searches, so it's not a way around a lost karmic guide. Which situation would need that line in which the already existing ones won't help?

I honestly have no idea what to say about this deck. It looks cool thou and I gave you an upvote.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I'm working my way towards cEDH and put together a budget-ish (a bit over $500 I think) version of your list and wanted to ask your thoughts. I read through your primer and kept the base of the deck the same, just swapped out the mana and tutors mainly but think it would still get the job done with relative consistency. I really dig the gameplan and prefer this to the other hulk/pod combos, really well done primer also!

Budget Najeela

Hi, I was trying out different theoretical builds for Najeela, and found yours to be the best possible option, really well-written primer as well. Have you considered adding skullclamp as a draw engine, or would it be too unreliable? Also, would Dryad Arbor be a dead inclusion, or do you think it will have enough synergies with other effects to work, say Razaketh, etc...I considered adding Dryad Arbor in an Aggravated Assault-based deck, but the power level just wasn't high enough lol.

Thanks for that Barbola! I had Skullclamp in the deck once and it's ok. Not like Edric, Spymaster of Trest but you can turn tokens into some cards. However, I found it is useful only when I have creatures that could just attack as well and for these situations Mindblade Render, Azra Oddsmaker and Tymna the Weaver provide more long-term value without having to sac your whole board. It's more problematic to get cards when you have no board, which is why I have added Wheel of Fortune again. I would probably use Skullclamp when it's not sure your creatures go unblocked frequently. My meta is very low on creatures, so there's much more value in keeping creatures and getting draws off combat based abilities. It's also not often happening that a creature is destroyed or killed by dmg (most often it's counters/bounce here because everyone is heavy on blue), so Skullclamp would only be used to kill off tokens and dorks and they help more when they are still alive. Manual beatdown is indeed a realistic option sometimes so I rather keep my warrior tokens.

Dryad arbor feels unnecessary because it's just a land that can't be used immediately and only produces one colour. Because of that, Razaketh kills won't get faster with a t1 Dryad arbor, especially since you can't calculate with "1 creature, 2 lands, 1 green mana" when one creature is also a land. Having creatures for Razaketh is usually not a problem at all and maximising the chances of getting opening hands with the correct colours on lands is really important.

Fair enough, that's a good point, I had cut Tymna the Weaver might put her back in for Skullclamp. Wheel of Fortune definitely feels like home, my other cEDH decks being Kess/Jeleva storm :D. My meta is also not creature heavy, but it's more of a "creatures matter" like Narset, Enlightened Master and Zur the Enchanter. What would you suggest for dealing with Narset especially, her being hexproof (having first strike also matters sometimes). The deck in question usually goes for t1-2 Narset with haste and just wins from there if it doesn't brick on 4 lands. Any input would be very much apreciated, been trying to punish this deck for so long, still failing to do so consistently haha.

Barbola I would say just win faster or try to destroy the ramp Narset needs to be cast that early t1/2 seems pretty unrealistic, at least not consistently. Meltdown can ruin a fast start pretty easily because the used rocks must all be cmc 0-1 so you just spend 2 mana and destroy all the acceleration. Mental Misstep is also important against such decks and Manglehorn is also strong, if cast early enough (t2 with a dork or maybe even with mana crypt on t1). Another option is to counter the most important spell(s) Narset reveals because then the whole table gains more time. usually it's in everyone's interest to prevent Narset from casting big stuff for free, so you shouldn't be alone there. This deck can exploit such a situation easily and force the opponents to deal with the visible threat while you collect the cards in hand that win the game for you.

As for Zur, Gilded Drake is very useful. The high number of Ux commanders in my meta made me add Red Elemental Blast instead of dedicated creature removal.

Trust me, it's not uncommon, Narset, Enlightened Master is very underappreciated. Lion's Eye Diamond and Need for Speed with only one land and a couple of mana rocks turn 1 is a pretty scary thing. Fortunately, it leads to scooping to Force of Will.