Token Storm Zada

Commander / EDH* RUG (Temur)

hubatish

Creature (23)

• 1x Baral, Chief of Compliance
• 1x Beamsplitter Mage
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Cloud of Faeries
• 1x Dreadhorde Arcanist
• 1x Dualcaster Mage
• 1x Elvish Visionary
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Gelectrode
• 1x Goblin Instigator
• 1x Looter il-Kor
• 1x Mirrorwing Dragon
• 1x Mogg War Marshal
• 1x Orvar, the All-Form
• 1x Quandrix Apprentice
• 1x Radiant Performer
• 1x Storm-Kiln Artist
• 1x Stormchaser Drake
• 1x Thermo-Alchemist
• 1x Willbreaker
• 1x Wort, the Raidmother
• 1x Young Pyromancer
• 1x Zada, Hedron Grinder

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Braid of Fire
• 1x Cryptolith Rite
• 1x Exploration

Artifact (1)

• 1x Skullclamp

Land (37)

• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Copperline Gorge
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 5x Forest
• 1x Frontier Bivouac
• 1x Gruul Turf
• 9x Island
• 1x Izzet Boilerworks
• 1x Karplusan Forest
• 1x Khalni Garden
• 1x Kher Keep
• 5x Mountain
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Temple of Abandon
• 1x Temple of Epiphany
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse

Sorcery (19)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Chatterstorm
• 1x Cloak of Feathers
• 1x Echo Storm
• 1x Enter the Unknown
• 1x Explore
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Genesis Storm
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Irresistible Prey
• 1x Land Grant
• 1x Mizzix's Mastery
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Regrowth
• 1x Renegade Tactics
• 1x Rite of Replication
• 1x Slip Through Space
• 1x Throes of Chaos

Commanders (2)

Instant (15)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Artifact Mutation
• 1x Battle Hymn
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Cerulean Wisps
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Crimson Wisps
• 1x Expedite
• 1x Fists of Flame
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Leap
• 1x Lightning Bolt
• 1x Manamorphose
• 1x Shadow Rift
• 1x Snap

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Maybeboard

Creature (15)

• 1x Beamsplitter Mage
• 1x Bedlam Reveler
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Den Protector
• 1x Elvish Pioneer
• 1x Fireslinger
• 1x Gelectrode
• 1x Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
• 1x Guttersnipe
• 1x Memnite
• 1x Naru Meha, Master Wizard
• 1x Razorfin Hunter
• 1x Silverfur Partisan
• 1x Tireless Tracker
• 1x Willbreaker

Instant (2)

• 1x Cackling Counterpart
• 1x Panic

Land (2)

• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Saheeli's Artistry
• 1x Tempt with Reflections

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I love Zada, Hedron Grinder, but I don't want to build mono-red. I'm mostly set on blue-red to get a bunch of Slip Through Space effects. Those all go crazy with Zada, Hedron Grinder, Mirrorwing Dragon, Radiate, or even Precursor Golem! Obviously I also want some creatures (and tokens) to go along, so blue-red tokens is the deck I'm trying to build.

Then, add green, white, or nothing? Tough questions.

Here's a link to my white (red-blue) version: America Pumps it up I played with that one a good bit but it had trouble drawing enough cards as well as winning. Lots of interaction though.

Adding green gives access to mana ramp, pump spells, and recursion. The two most powerful cards have been: - Cryptolith Rite, which creates tons of extra mana with tokens. - Eternal Witness, which aside from just great value & recursion, combos with Zada + clone effects & Snap.

The partner commanders have also given good this color combination some good choices. This deck can keep the cards combing with Thrasios, Triton Hero and Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist tag teaming. The commanders don't synergize that much with the deck, but they provide a reasonable if slightly unpowered plan B.

I usually play the deck very linearly: 1. Tutor up or draw Zada + targetting spell. 2. Play some 2+ non-Zada creatures. 3. Play Zada, cast 1 mana cantrip, draw 3+ cards. Hopefully draw into (and cast) additional cantrips and creatures. Depending on starting mana and creatures you can draw 10+ cards in one turn. Likely have to wait & pray to keep your board an additional turn unless you draw some mana generators: - Snap. 2-4 of any color for each creature, possibly minus cost to replay them. As mentioned above, this can create tons of mana. - Enter the Unknown. Max of 1 mana of any color per creature, with other limit of number of lands in hand. But when going off, likely have lots of lands in hand. - Battle Hymn. 1 red mana for each creature. - Cryptolith Rite. 1 mana of any color for each tappable creature. Expedite and Cerulean Wisps can increase this number. Thermo-Alchemist can chain cantrips.

Smaller generators can include: Baral, Chief of Compliance + Manamorphose, Frantic Search, the above Snap/Battle Hymn. Bounce lands + Cloud of Faeries or the above Frantic Search/Snap.

Once going off & chaining mana & cantrips, you can draw into one of the infinite combos: - Rite of Replication (or other clone spell) + Dualcaster Mage gives infinite tokens. - Clone spell + Zada + Eternal Witness gives exponential board growth & can go infinite with ways to generate mana. I'll let you figure it out the rest! - Snap + Zada, Hedron Grinder + Eternal Witness + enough other cheap creatures gives infinite mana. Creatures that cost less than two mana (through CMC, land untaps, or tokens) generate mana during this loop. Replaying Zada, E Wit & casting Snap costs a net -5 mana per loop. Bounce lands help a lot and mean only two 2 drops are required.

To actually kill opponents Impact Tremors, Thermo-Alchemist, and Confront the Unknown will turn infinite creatures/spells into damage.

Some other notes and synergies:

Low casting cost of creatures & the amount of mana they generate with Snap influences my deckbuilding to a surprising degree. I vastly prefer 2 mana creatures to 3 mana ones, and I'm considering playing many one or zero mana cards. Luckily optimizing this mana -> creature ratio generally helps with building a board state for Zada anyway.

Evasive creatures with 2 CMC or less also help me trigger Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist on turn 3. Thermo-Alchemist, Impact Tremors are good as they double as win-cons and reliable ping. Looter il-Kor helps me dig. However, the Ludevic plan never feels very strong.

Braid of Fire & Mana Echoes generate large amounts of awkward red & colorless mana. Thrasios, Triton Hero is a great mana sink for these two cards.

Radiate + Beast Within is interesting. Only good with more permanents than other players or enough lands in hand to recover.

Advice appreciated! I appreciate cards with high mana efficiency, synergy, or consistency. However, the deck could also use help interacting with opponents and/or stronger backup plans. Please help me weed out sub-par cards and make this a great deck!

When dismantling the deck Jan 2024, two cards were missing.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	3 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 29 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 31 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.43
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Copy Clone, Elemental 1/1 R, Goblin 1/1 R, Goblin Warrior 1/1 RG, Kobolds of Kher Keep 0/1 R, Plant 0/1 G, Saproling 1/1 G, Squirrel 1/1 G, Treasure
Folders	EDH