Paradox Scepter Storm: cEDH Primer

Commander / EDH* Lilbrudder

SCORE: 107 | 225 COMMENTS | 44159 VIEWS | IN 57 FOLDERS


Big Breakthrough —Feb. 3, 2017

Alright folks I went for it.  I cut every expensive card in the deck except reservoir, engine, and ad naus. I did this to see if I could consistently win off a main phase ad nauseam.  The results were so much better than I could have possibly imagined.  I goldfished 15 games after a few practice hands to get the hang of the changes.  While I got some favorable top deck draws in a few of the games, most the wins required no ridiculous plays to secure victories.

11 turn 3 wins

1 turn 4 wins

2 turn 5 win.

1 turn 7 win (Mana flooded)

In that span I attempted 6 main phase Ad Nauseam's on turn 3 and all 6 were successful.  One of them was a thing of beauty.  I had 3 cards in hand and drew 22 after tapping out completely for ad naus.  I had no good tutors among my 25 cards and no engine so I played a Lotus Petal Sol Ring and Mana Crypt and used my 4 mana to cast a Windfall with one colorless floating to draw a new 21.  I drew into a Mox Diamond, Gamble, Mana Vault, Lion's Eye Diamond and Isochron Scepter.  I used the one floating to cast Mana Vault and a mox to cast Gamble for Dramatic Reversal I cast Isochron Scepter imprinting reversal.  I am one mana short so I crack LED go infinite cast thrasios, draw into Yawgwin cast aetherflux reservoir from the yard GG.

What did I cut from this list? Force of Will; Notion Thief; Dark Petition; Winds of Change; Whispering Madness

What did I add?

Kiora's Follower: I think I may have dismissed this card too quickly.  When I tested it in Leo it was very good so to increase my concentration of ramp and decrease my combo threshold with Engine and top I brought it back.  It has done well.

Culling the Weak: You may think with only 7 creatures in the deck besides Thrasios that this would be a dead card at times.  So far this has not been the case.  I drew this off ad naus 4 times and it always had a relevant target to get me to a critical threshold of mana.  Its insane with yawgwin btw.

Urza's Bauble: Free spells are very useful in this deck.  Of my 11 turn 3 wins, 4 were the direct result of casting a 0 mana spell right after tapping out for engine.

Candelabra of Tawnos: I wanted more rocks and color fixing so this fit the bill.  It directly contributed to 2 turn 3 wins.

Transmute Artifact: with more rocks in the deck, this card is far better the second time around.  It won one game on turn 3 where I had very little going for me otherwise.

These changes got me down to an avg cc of 1.65. Going this low to the ground has also allowed me to make some ridiculous early plays.  For instance, I was able to play every card in my hand and timetwister back to 7 on turn 1.

The cost of this update is I lose my Notion Thief+Winds of Change combo, which is a very nice control element and alternative path to victory.  However, this can easily be brought back if I find that some of my new additions underperform.

enpc says... #1

In answer to your question regarding Praetor's Grasp - you already run Tainted Pact and while you don't run Labman there are a lot of other decks who do. The other thing is that a lot of fast combo decks don't run a huge amount of redundancy on every piece of their combo so while they might have multiple win conditions, removing a particular card makes it very difficult (or even impossible) to get to said win conditions. I think its inclusion is valid as a bit of proactive hate and could be quite valuable.

February 1, 2017 1:27 a.m.

Lilbrudder says... #2

enpc: I totally agree. As always your perspective is helpful and much appreciated. I think I am going to replace Grape Shot with grasp, since it is way more useful. If my reservoir gets exiled and I can't exile all opponents libraries with reality shift+scepter+engine I can just steal someone elses win condition. Having another "tutor" which replaces itself is a nice power boost.

February 1, 2017 10:24 a.m.

zfuqua91 says... #3

Put in Muddle the Mixture. It tutors for Isochron Scepter as well as every spell you could want to put on it.

February 1, 2017 11:40 p.m.

DimirAgent8 says... #4

Aside from it being an instant, why do you run Fire Covenant over Toxic Deluge? If that is the only reason, have you ever tested with Toxic Deluge and can you give a specific situation where is Fire Covenant better?

February 2, 2017 12:49 a.m.

enpc says... #5

DimirAgent8: The conversation I think was archived but the long and short of it is that you don't lose your creatures. And while you don't get rid of everything, you can deal with the pesky stuff which is why you'd be wiping in the first place.

February 2, 2017 2:21 a.m.

Lilbrudder says... #6

zfuqua91: Muddle is a very good card for this style of deck and is a great budget replacement for decks that cant afford the big money tutors. It has gone in and out of the deck. My only issues with it is that it just grabs my scepter combo and I prefer tutors that grab stuff for many different situations.

DimirAgent8: as enpc explained it is a more specific type of "board wipe" and at instant speed. These things definitely matter to me. It is very much a meta call though. In casual circles Toxic Deluge is almost strictly better. I once lost to an angry omnath deck with my zurgo voltron deck because I couldnt wipe his army of 5/5 elementals before they got out of hand without dying since I had Fire Covenant in play. In ultra competitive circles, hate bears and dorks are more prevalent than bigger creatures so I can usually kill most the board for a minimal life loss. This is also an all in combo deck. If I take out an opponents best creature or commander with deluge but lose my birds of paradise that may set me back a turn or two. The instant speed is very important because lets say I pass turn with mana up. My opponent drops a Kataki, War's Wage on thier turn. With deluge I will likely either lose many artifacts or tap myself out on my next turn and be able to ONLY cast deluge. With covenant I can take out war wage on their end step along with other offensive cards, and have all my mana available on my turn to win. If I dont need fire covenant I can use that mana to tutor or use Thrasios' ability. The specificity is important because I can kill a card that stops me cold (i.e Spirit of the Labyrinth) while sparing a card that doesnt hurt me at all but holds another deck in check (i.e Containment Priest).

February 2, 2017 11:05 a.m.

zfuqua91 says... #7

But you're seeing Muddle the Mixture as only a tutor. But its a negate with a secondary tutor effect. It fills the spot of Swan Song far better. Yea swan song is one mana but muddle does the same thing only hit also hits your combo. There's no reason not to run it.

February 2, 2017 1:29 p.m.

Lilbrudder says... #8

One colored mana is a huge difference in cEDH. It is truly the difference between winning and losing most games. There is a reason Swan Song is a staple in cEDH and Counterspell and muddle sees limited play. In a 4 color deck I even sometimes cringe when I see Mana Drain, but it at least ramps me. This deck is very aggressive, so I will rarely use it as a counterspell. With that being said I agree its a powerful effect in a low cost card and I have had success with transmute tutors in the past. I am not cutting Swan Song. Are there cards you would consider expendable as I want to find room for Copy Artifact too.

February 2, 2017 2:34 p.m. Edited.

iamyoona says... #9

Swan Song hits Nether Void, Rule of Law, Back to Basics, Stony Silence and that's to name a few of the enchantments that are incredibly hard for this deck to deal with. As Lilbrudder mentioned, UU is far to expensive a cost for the affect the card does. There exists a flurry of counterspells that are superior to Muddle the Mixture so there many reasons not to run it. There exists enough tutors in this game that a conditional 3 mana tutor is not making the cut for this list.

Lilbrudder: I think some lands worth testing are Spire of Industry and Tarnished Citadel. The latter is a 5 color land while the former is great after turn 1. The only downside is you cannot cast an elf turn 1 which is less relevant for this deck than most other elf ramp decks.

As for Copy Artifact, I've been thinking about it. Let me know how it goes. I still hold Preordain/Ponder are some of the weaker cards in this list. Past those, Mystic Remora, Whispering Madness, and Llanowar Elves are only passable.

February 2, 2017 2:47 p.m.

Lilbrudder says... #10

Preordain is definitely cuttable especially since Thrasios is so effective mid combo and copying a 2-3 mana rock is very relevant most of the time.

February 2, 2017 3:15 p.m.

Lilbrudder says... #11

iamyoona: I have been testing main phase Ad Nauseam's to try and go off a turn earlier and the deck is close to being able to pull it off most games. I am loathe to cut any card advantage, but I am starting to see the disadvantages of a spell like Whispering Madness, which is fairly bad a good proportion of the time. I agree with most of the cards you mentioned as weakpoints in the deck. What would you add in thier place?

Copy Artifact has been very good by the way and stealing an ad naus from an opponent with Praetor's Grasp is pretty incredible too. Literally just target the blue or black mage and you are golden with that card. Soo many goodies to choose from.

February 2, 2017 9:39 p.m.

enpc says... #12

As somebody who has never actually played Ad Nauseam in really life, realistically how many cards do you normally see off of it?

February 2, 2017 11:37 p.m.