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Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer is a rather undervalued Azorius Commander with quite a bit of political potential. He's not as blatantly unfun as Derevi, Empyrial Tactician paired with stax effects, or as target-paintingly restrictive as Grand Arbiter Augustin IV , but he still allows you to control the board in a way that won't make instant enemies with your opponents. Because of his apparent inferiority to other similar commanders, you can use him to your advantage in political plays, shutting down problematic creatures while refunding your opponent with his bribing ability. In any typical commander match with three or more players, this can create temporary alliances, allowing you time to build up your defenses while the more aggressive players vie for dominance. A classic pillow fort style decklist seemed best to complement the political strategy you'll be using to protect yourself into the lategame.

The general strategy is to use Gwafa to handle a few major powerhouses in the early-to-midgame while using removal and counterspells for additional policing. Classic pillow fort style enchantments protect you from swaths of creatures, and generally make you an unfavorable target to attack. The key is to be as defensive as possible, instead of actively restricting opponents, in order to keep everyone else off your back. Once the aggressive players are burnt out, a few powerful creatures at your disposal can be used to dominate the endgame board and finish off opponents.

Deck Breakdown

Archangel of Tithes and Windborn Muse are the two Ghostly-Prison-on-a-stick creature variants in this list. Both are great cards that dissuade opponents from attacking you in the early game, and come with decent evasive bodies, but be careful. As creatures, they are also more vulnerable to traditional removal.

Silent Arbiter is a nice backup standalone creature in case your enchantments are wiped. Careful when you play him, though; if you're already well-forted and the aggressive players are having at each other, putting him on the table will usually draw their ire.

Crawlspace is comparable to Silent Arbiter in many ways, but the most important difference is that it only restricts the number of creatures that can attack YOU. It allows two creatures into the red zone instead of one, but it also draws less hate.

Aurification is one of the most annoying enchantments this deck has access to. Its effect punishes attackers by turning them into defenders, and the flavor of transforming your opponents' attackers into golden statues is spectacular with your bribery commander.

Blind Obedience shuts down haste, mana rocks, and other artifacts with tap abilities. The extort mechanic is a nice addition for the lategame when you have extra mana to spend and you're attritioning out opponents.

Ghostly Prison and Propaganda are the bread and butter enchantments of this decklist; their simple function is to convince opponents to attack elsewhere. In EDH, when everyone's up against several players, allocating mana becomes a critical issue, and using it to attack the player who has other punishing defenses puts you at a disadvantage.

For the longest time, cards like Purphoros, God of the Forge were the bane of the pillow fort deck's existence; no amount of taxing enchantments would keep away the monstrous amounts of direct face damage every turn. Now with Gideon's Intervention , that commander will no longer be able to touch you, or even be able to be cast again.

Lightmine Field prevents sneaking damage in via tiny creatures, and is less painful for us since most of the wincons we're beating down with are pretty beefy. Great to hold up until after someone wipes our enchantments, so we protect ourselves from a go-wide strategy that would otherwise kill us.

Norn's Annex is a powerful pillow fort artifact that is an absolute pain against anyone who isn't a white player or has access to lots of lifegain. Forcing opponents to pay life to attack into you usually makes them vulnerable to counterattacks from other players, which provides a huge deterrent to keep your opponents off of you.

With enough enchantments in play, Sphere of Safety can be one of the most powerful pillow fort enchantments in your toolbox. Playing this on top of a Propaganda or Ghostly Prison and one other random enchantment means players will be paying for every attacking creature. A bonus is that it also protects your planeswalkers.

Consecrated Sphinx absolutely pumps out card advantage if no one has an immediate response. In a four-player match, you'll refill an empty hand by the time your next turn comes around. It's also a fairly decent evasive attacker, but the card draw is where it's at.

Brainstorm is one of the best cantrips ever printed in Magic: The Gathering. Instant speed just makes it so much more versatile; opponent forcing you to discard cards? Use Brainstorm to put goodies on top of your deck for safekeeping, and give you a bigger pool of cards to pick jank from. Cast it during an end step for last-minute value, or to try and pull a counterspell/removal off the top.

Blue Sun's Zenith is really great for the fact that it's instant-speed. You can pass the turn with counterspells in hand, and have something to do if nothing gets cast your way. X spells that's draw cards are really good when topdecking for gas.

Dig Through Time powerfully scours through the top of your library to draw your answers; a great card advantage tool. This decklist doesn't doesn't run much recursion, so often you'll be able to delve away quite a few cards to cast this on the cheap during an end step.

Fact or Fiction is especially great if you can create a political ally to cozy up to and convince to give you extra value. Most other times, though, you'll be drawing two-three cards from a decent pool at instant speed at only 4 cmc. Forcing opponents to make tough decisions is always great.

If your opponents didn't want to attack into you before with all your costly enchantments, Isperia, Supreme Judge certainly makes attacking you unfavorable now. She buries you in card advantage against token strategies if she isn't removed immediately, and in the late game she's a decent finisher.

Ponder is a great cantrip card that rearranges the top cards of your library, or shuffle them away if they're all bad options. Lots of card advantage tools are necessary in a control list; I wasn't running nearly enough before.

Rhystic Study is probably the card in this decklist that draws the third most hate, behind Stormtide Leviathan and Jace, Unraveler of Secrets (still haven't actually played the Grand Arbiter yet). Your opponents now face a difficult problem indeed; grant you card advantage, and hope you don't counter/remove the spells they're playing, or get taxed to the point where it will be near-impossible to attack you. Either way, it keeps you safe and healthy.

Sphinx's Revelation is an excellent lategame topdeck that refills your hand and buffers your life total. Being an instant, it allows you to leave your entire mana pool open for a turn before casting it during an endstep for maximum value.

Tamiyo's Journal takes a while to set up, but the payoff over the long run is incredible. You can either pay two extra mana each turn to draw an additional card off the Clues, or save them in order to tutor every third turn. Hopefully, your other pillow fort effects should be up by now, so you can safely wait out those turns without getting assaulted.

Arcane Denial is super cheap and easy to cast, but it comes with the additional text that you and that player will get to draw cards during the next upkeep. Since the effect is delayed, I've found that most opponents will forget to draw (yay for the 'may' clause!), and it becomes an excellent upside.

Counterspell comes as advertised. It counters a spell. Not much else to say here. :/

Disallow is a newly printed Cancel variant that is essentially a strictly better, monoblue version of Voidslime. Of course, it can be used normally as a generic counterspell, but it also can counter planeswalker ultimates, and powerful enters-the-battlefield or dies triggers.

Negate is simple and powerful; it hits a lot of valuable EDH spells, and it's cheap to cast. Not strictly worse than Counterspell, but it has proved its usefulness.

Render Silent is a Counterspell with a Silence tacked onto it. It's one of the best ways to punish opponents who are obviously playing smaller cards just to bait you out.

Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares make up the suite of 1 mana spot removal. They are two of the most defining removal spells in their respective formats; no reason not to run them.

Cyclonic Rift is the fifth most played card in Commander, and the most played colored card, according to statistics from edhrec.com, so of course I was eventually obligated to include it. And for good reason; it removes almost anything that doesn't have hexproof for a reasonable cost, or completely obliterates everyone else's board state. Versatile and powerful no matter how you use it.

Day of Judgment is no Wrath of God, but it still nukes the board for a comfortable 4 cmc. I run both though, because a control deck that plays into the lategame can never have too many panic buttons.

Descend upon the Sinful is a strictly better Final Judgment that refunds you with a 4/4 Angelic beater if you have delirium. Generally, getting four different card types in your graveyard won't be an issue, especially once you reach six mana, so this card has some pretty powerful advantages.

Detention Sphere is an Oblivion Ring variant whose true power shines against token hordes. Did a green player just play Avenger of Zendikar , and is preparing for a kill next turn? Just use the Sphere to get rid of all those plant tokens, never to be seen again.

Return to Dust permanently gets rid of artifacts and enchantments and has the option to two-for-one. It is especially powerful against indestructibility, which a lot of artifacts seem to have in EDH.

Supreme Verdict is one of the best boardwipes for when you're playing against other blue decks that somehow have regained the upper hand (maybe an overloaded Cyclonic Rift). Boardwipes, in general, are essential to control strategies in EDH, but don't get cocky. Playing a Verdict at the wrong time when you're already ahead might cement that coalition against yourself.

Wrath of God is the O.G. of all boardwipes. Wizards may have done away with regeneration when printing new sets, but it is still a relevant ability in EDH, which makes this card all the better.

Aura of Silence serves a dual purpose. Firstly, it taxes opponents playing artifacts and enchantments, thereby making mana rocks more inefficient and absolutely crippling certain deck archetypes; secondly, it's a Naturalize hanging out as a lingering threat. Nobody wants to spend the extra mana on a card that could get immediately destroyed if you don't like it.

Aven Mindcensor is a pretty brutal control card in EDH. Flash him in in response to an opponent casting a tutor spell, and effectively counter whatever it is they were looking for. Great against combo or just decks that search their libraries a lot.

Fog Bank is an excellent early drop with value that extends into the later portions of the game. Blocks fliers, and can't be killed by anything combat related.

Grand Abolisher prevents opponents from messing around during your turn. This way, none of your costly finishers can be countered, and there are no surprises during your combat phase.

Grand Arbiter Augustin IV is guaranteed to draw a lot of hate, but luckily with his abilities you'll find ways to counter whatever your opponents play. Making your spells cost up to less while forcing opponents to pay more creates huge tempo advantage, and allows you to drop your bombs while leaving mana open for removal and counterspells.

Jace, Unraveler of Secrets is my planeswalker of choice for this list, and all of his abilities are incredibly relevant. Repeatable topdeck filtering and card advantage is always excellent, his minus ability removes something Gwafa can't bribe, and the ultimate leads to metaphorical (and in one case, actual) table-flipping. Wasting a spell and mana in order to be able to cast anything else is a humongous tax on your opponents' resources, and will consistently win you games.

Thalia, Heretic Cathar is truly amazing in Commander, where all your opponents are playing a menagerie of nonbasic lands. As a budget player, it's very satisfying to see all those expensive shocklands and fetchlands delegated down to taplands. She also is an effective counter to haste creatures and unearthing.

Wall of Denial is one of the best walls available in Magic. It can block fliers, can't be interacted with, and comes with a generous amount of toughness. In my experience, there is a huge difference between 7 power and 8, which means this wall will protect you from even the most beefy creatures your opponents have to offer.

Azor's Elocutors is an alternative wincon that synergizes well with all of the pillow forting enchantments. Also, it's a flavor win since it's literally a political card. But beware of sources of indirect damage such as Purphoros, God of the Forge and Nekusar, the Mindrazer .

I like to believe that Stormtide Leviathan is more powerful than Blazing Archon, since it deals more damage per swing and is always unblockable, but its board shutdown ability works in a different way. A staple card that's been in the list from the beginning and one that I would almost never consider removing.

A kicked Rite of Replication targeting a sufficiently gigantic creature will win games. Targeting Stormtide Leviathan, you'll have enough unblockable damage on the board to just simply kill opponents one by one. One of the best targets I've had was a Hamletback Goliath , which ate up every d20 I owned after resolution.

Note:

I have purposely decided to not include cards like Arcane Laboratory , Rule of Law and Eidolon of Rhetoric to combo with Jace, Unraveler of Secrets 's ultimate, not because I can't reliably pop the ultimate, but because this is politics deck, and goes against the idea of hard-locking opponents out of the game. Also, I like having friends.

Chopping Block:

Azorius Guildmage , Medomai the Ageless , Void Shatter , Dissipation Field , Monastery Siege , Coastal Tower , Lonely Sandbar , Ghost Quarter

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Date added 7 years
Last updated 5 years
Exclude colors BRG
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

7 - 0 Mythic Rares

39 - 0 Rares

26 - 0 Uncommons

16 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.44
Tokens Angel 4/4 W, Copy Clone, Emblem Dovin Baan
Folders Interests, other peoples decks, COMBO, interesting, Commander, EDH interests, EDH, Resource, Interesting Commander Decks, Interesting Decks
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