Uro Genesis Combo

Commander / EDH* Combo Control GU (Simic)

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Instant (40)

• 1x Blink of an Eye
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Complicate
• 1x Condescend
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Crop RotationGC
• 1x Cyclonic RiftGC
• 1x Daze
• 1x Engulf the Shore
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Force of WillGC
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Gigadrowse
• 1x Growth Spiral
• 1x Gush
• 1x Impulse
• 1x IntuitionGC
• 1x Logic Knot
• 1x Long-Term Plans
• 1x Mana Leak
• 1x Memory Lapse
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Miscalculation
• 1x Mission Briefing
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical Dispute
• 1x Negate
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Opt
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Repulse
• 1x Spell Pierce
• 1x Spell Snare
• 1x Stubborn Denial
• 1x Supreme Will
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Think Twice
• 1x Veil of Summer
• 1x Wilt

Land (43)

• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Castle Vantress
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dust Bowl
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Field of Ruin
• 1x Field of the DeadGC
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 4x Forest
• 6x Island
• 1x Lonely Sandbar
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Mystic Sanctuary
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 4x Snow-Covered Forest
• 6x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Temple of Mystery
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Tranquil Thicket
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

Commander (1)

Sorcery (14)

• 1x All is Dust
• 1x Crush of Tentacles
• 1x Genesis Storm
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Hour of Promise
• 1x Life from the Loam
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Regrowth
• 1x Sea Gate Restoration  ^Flip
• 1x Sleight of Hand
• 1x Sylvan Scrying
• 1x Temporal Mastery
• 1x Walk the Aeons

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Thought Lash

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Maybeboard

Instant (2)

• 1x Capsize
• 1x Stroke of Genius

Land (1)

• 1x Alchemist's Refuge

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Heavy control deck which closes with a "draw from empty library" combo or by accumulating zombies with Field of the Dead. Tuned for 1v1 matches, working on a general 4 players version too.

Introduction Show

The basic combo is to remove your library with Thought Lash and then win via Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, how do we reach our winning game state? Why is Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath a solid commander for this strategy? This section addresses such questions.

Why Uro ..Combo?

Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath is a huge advantage machine which complements perfectly a heavy control shell. To kill EDH players with Uro beatdown, though, is not an option. Even at the most casual of the tables you'll find enough removals or blockers, therefore, we need an efficient and game ending mechanics.

You will enjoy this deck if

• you like to shape your perfect turn to close the game, every action you take from turn 1 counts toward checkmate
• you like to stop people from killing you as late as possible, you need the most time you can buy to setup your own kill-turn.
• you like to see people playing their decks, this is not a stax shell, people will hate you, but not so much!

You will ~not~ enjoy this deck if

• You like to combo out fast, there is nothing beyond turn 5 in your book
• You are not comfortable in letting people play their decks, you will say "yes" to a lot of things because you just need to barely survive until your combo turn

Gameplan

Mulligans

• Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and Thought Lash should be mulliganed away
• 3 lands, even 4 is good
• at least 1 hard counter to stop very fast decks

Early turns

Play lands and cast Uro on turn 3 only if you have some interaction available that can be played with the land you'll drop with Uro's trigger. This is important because t3/t4 the fastest decks start doing work, you are the blue player so you have to represent Counterspell and have them respect it.

You need to cast Uro at least 1 time for the combo to work, usually I play it only once, if the table is slow, I try to play it twice at 3 mana and at 5 mana.

Midgame

You'll have to understand if you can go the combo route or the value route.

• Combo: you need 6 mana for Genesis Storm and other resources for possibly 2 counterspells. In this scenario the permission should just be saved to protect your combo.
• Value: put Field of the Dead in play and follow up with fetches and land-related spells. With Uro and 43 lands the number of zombies grows quickly out of hand. In this scenario the permission should be saved for mass removals or to stop someone trying to stop your Life from the Loam loops.

Lategame

The shell does not have many card advantage engines, luckily, Uro itself is one of the best engines and it's available from the command zone. The lategame resolves around beating and casting Uro to generate value and eventually resetting the board with one of the mass spells: Engulf the Shore, All Is Dust, Crush of Tentacles.

Arriving into the lategame probably means the combo route is unavailable, therefore Field of the Dead is key. Protect it at all costs.

Combo and Interactions Show

How does the deck works exactly? Here we give a look at the main interactions and the infamous Intuition piles!

Jace + Though Lash

This is the main kill condition, it uses Thought Lash ability to remove each card in the library and finally Jace, Wielder of Mysteries ability and static to win. You can cast the cards individually or use Genesis Storm to tutor for the only two nonland permanents of the deck.

• cast Uro at least 1
• cast Genesis Storm
• put in play Thought Lash and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
• use Thought Lash ability
• use Jace ability

To protect the combo the tools available are:

• open with Veil of Summer
• have a free or 1cmc counterspell ready to go on top of another regular counterspell
• take an extra turn or even better two with Walk the Aeons when the table looks almost tapped out

Field of the Dead value

Sometimes the combo won't be available, either a piece is disrupted or the table is too control heavy to push it through. Then Field of the Dead comes into play.

Tutor package:

• Sylvan Scrying, Crop Rotation, Hour of Promise
• see Intution section for the piles which work with lands

Recursion:

• Life from the Loam, I prefer to recur Loam with the draw triggere by Uro, but that depends on the situation

Double Value:

• Thespian's Stage, double zombie for each land is pretty tough to deal with

Intuition Piles

Intuition is the most powerful tutor of the deck and deserves a dedicated section to describe the most useful piles.

Generic piles

• EOT with 3 islands and a fetch in play: desired spell (e.g. Genesis Storm), 2 counterspells. Whatever the opponent's choice, fetch for Mystic Sanctuary and put the desired spell on top. You'll begin the turn with the desired spell and a counterspell.
• without Mystic Sanctuary available in the deck: desired spell, Noxious Revival, Mission Briefing/Regrowth. You can then play the Noxious Revival EOT or main phase Regrowth/Mission Briefing.

Counterspells piles

• of course you can just pick 3 counterspells
• pick 2 counterspells that fit the situation and Mission Briefing
• whenever the desired counterspells are in the graveyard: Mission Briefing, Noxious Revival, Crop Rotation. You'll need a Brainstorm/Think Twice/Opt/Veil of Summer/Wilt or anything else that draws at instant speed. If they give you Crop Rotation, fetch Mystic Sanctuary and put the desired card on top; if they give you Noxious Revival just put on top the desired counterspell; they shouldn't give you Mission Briefing because it's obvious that you can reach for the counterspell that way. Finally use the instant speed draw to reach the card.

Land piles

• Life from the Loam, desired land, Think Twice/Opt/anything that draws to trigger the dredge ability
• easy three tutors: Crop Rotation, Hour of Promise, Sylvan Scrying
• desired land in the graveyard: Regrowth, Noxious Revival, Life from the Loam
• general draw value pile: Tranquil Thicket, Lonely Sandbar, Life from the Loam. This allows you to trigger the dredge ability of Life from the Loam, play LftM, get the two cycle lands back, use one to draw, the other to trigger the dredge ability.

Turn pile

• Temporal Mastery, Noxious Revival, Crop Rotation, you'll need 3 islands and Mystic Sanctuary available in the deck, so that by fetching it with Crop Rotation you can put Temporal Mastery on top.

Protect combo pieces

• you'll need a fetch available to get Mystic Sanctuary: Thought Lash, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Noxious Revival. If they give you a combo piece just Noxious Revival the other, if they give you the revival, use it on one combo piece, fetch Mystic Sanctuary and put Noxious Revival on top. This looks iffy but you are hiding the combo in two consecutive draws from the top of your library.
• anti discard piles: Brainstorm, Veil of Summer, Mission Briefing. If they give you Brainstorm just hide the important pieces on top of the library, Veil of Summer will stop the black discard cold, finally Mission Briefing lets you play one of the two solutions above.

Card Choices Show

The current deck list, which has been tested in 1v1 matches, is investigated card by card. Most of the choices are dictated by the 1v1 format, which is the one for which we have local tournaments. The overhaul for the 4 players version is in Deck Variants.

Permission

Free counterspell

jack of all trades, they can really catch an opponent off guard at some cost for you

• Force of Will, card disadvantage to stop anything anytime. Super powerful
• Daze, tricky card not very powerful per se, but late game it allows you to get a Mystic Sanctuary back and that's why it made the cut even if comparable to Force Spike

Maybe board:

• Force of Negation, I have it but I don't like the card disadvantage, also, works for free when it's "not" your turn, so it is awkward using it to protect the combo, it works only to stop the opponent, whereas Force of Will works well also in protecting our combo turn.
• Fierce Guardianship, Pact of Negation these cards look useful to protect our combo turn but a little less powerful to stop the opponent. I don't have them, so I couldn't really test, they could be meaningful indeed.

1 cmc

these counterspells are the key for a turn 3 Uro play, especially in 1v1 you must represent the counterspell even with a single U available. It's important to counter non-creature spells that deal with the graveyard, the worst case scenario are creatures that deal with the graveyard or block you from casting sorceries, in that case you'll need to tutor an answer.

• Mental Misstep, Stubborn Denial, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, Swan Song, Flusterstorm
• Veil of Summer, needs a special mention as it's not really a counterspell but works wonders at protecting the combo turn

Maybe board:

• Force Spike, it's very powerful in the early game but 1v1 is rarely resolved before turn 5/6 so the likelihood of it being just a dead draw is pretty high.
• Annul, pretty strong but we want to stop Planeswalkers or other type of global effects that hinder our plans

2 cmc

The workhorses of any counterspell suite!

• Counterspell
• Condescend, Logic Knot, not really costing 2 but they start operating at 2, they both scale well into the late game and can counter anything. Top notch.
• Mana Leak, Miscalculation, very flexible but lose power in the lategame, Miscalculation fixes this by allowing to cycle itself away
• Memory Lapse, this card is a 1 for 1, it's basically another Counterspell, very underrated
• Muddle the Mixture, Negate, non-creature specific, Muddle the Mixture can also tutor for a Regrowth, Life from the Loam or a Mission Briefing. In extreme cases you can look for removal too: Reality Shift

Maybe board:

• Mana Drain, I don't have it but it's certainly powerful, the free mana can be used on Genesis Storm which looks a great setup.

3+ cmc

• Mystical Dispute, blue is the main color of 1v1 so this card will most of the time work for a single U!
• Supreme Will, the flexibility to use it as Impulse when it's no longer relevant is super good

Maybe board:

• Cryptic Command, it's a strong card and I've played with it, but it feels cluncky, this is a combo deck and we should defend our combo turn or just stop what is killing us. If you know the meta is slow it's definitely a power house, it can be clunky though.
• Mystic Confluence same as above, probably this is good to have in a 4 players table?

Interaction

What tools do we have to deal with resolved threats?

Creatures

• Engulf the Shore, since we don't run creatures, this instant mass bounce is neat
• Repulse, Reality Shift point removal, repulse replaces itself which is really relevant and reality shift instead is one of the few "remove from the game" spells that we can run.
• Maze of Ith, avoiding one big hit can be relevant when you need to survive

Enchantments and Artifacts

We rely on catch-all spells mostly, we use just one point removal

• Wilt, mostly due to its cycle ability which let's you change it when the card is not relevant

Catch-all

We can't counter everything, therefore sometimes we need to push the reset switch

• Crush of Tentacles, All Is Dust, clear everything and sometimes even create a phat octopus, doesn't really matter but still very strong
• Blink of an Eye, point bounce that can replace itself.
• Cyclonic Rift, the usual EDH bomb

Notable Exclusions

• Capsize: this deck can't consistently run a capsize lock but it can happen, especially in 1v1 you can keep on bouncing a land and something else. It's a iffy late game, but it works.

Card Advantage & Selection

Due to the nature of this 1v1 permanent-less build, draw spells and cantrip take up a huge chunk of the pile:

Cantrip

• Brainstorm, draw 3 and then try to shuffle away 2 cards you don't need. Breaking magic since ice age.
• Growth Spiral, simic trademark, sinergyzes well with our land subtheme
• Impulse, Opt, Gitaxian Probe, Ponder, Preordain, Sleight of Hand, very useful in the early turns to smooth out the draws, late game they replace themselves with something better. Especially powerful in 1v1 where you don't need top keep up with other 3 players but you just can focus on drawing better than 1 opponent.

Draw & Tutor

• Fact or Fiction, this is a 1v1 signature spell
• Gush, a draw 2 spell which let's you replay 2 islands, a relevant feature for the Field of the Dead scenario
• Intuition, see the dedicated section, one of the reason I like this deck is that it has many meaningful Intuition piles!
• Long-Term Plans, probably thee weakest of the tutors, should be replaced by a Personal Tutor. It's net card disadvantage, with Uro though you can dig through the other 2 cards quickly
• Mission Briefing, Noxious Revival, Regrowth, the recursion from grave package
• Muddle the Mixture, transmute for any 2 cmc spell
• Stroke of Genius, another late game bomb let's you replenish you hand, it could be switched for a Pull from Tomorrow which can be tutored with Muddle the Mixture or the new Sea Gate Restoration   which acts as a land eventually.
• Hour of Promise, Life from the Loam, Sylvan Scrying, the land tutor package to assemble and recur our Field of the Dead plan.

Taking Turns

• Gigadrowse, wait what? Yes basically in their upkeep you tap everythin, has some flexibility to tap down blockers in the zombie scenario too.
• Temporal Mastery, works wonders with Noxious Revival and Mystic Sanctuary! Topdecking Time Walk is just the best feeling in the game!
• Walk the Aeons, this spells allows you usually to take 2 consecutive turns, which is the finishing blow for our horde of zombie tokens

Lands

The back-up plan is flooding the table with Zombies, so different and powerful lands are an important part of the list.

• Island, Forest, Snow-Covered Island, Snow-Covered Forest a good mix which helps to arrive to the magic "7" different names threshold.
• Wooded Foothills, Windswept Heath, Prismatic Vista, Fabled Passage, Flooded Strand, Polluted Delta are my fetches, of course if you have more add:) too strong to be true. Also the fetches for Islands can tutor Mystic Sanctuary which is part of many Intuition shenanigans
• Ash Barrens works almost as a fetch, probably should be replaced by Misty Rainforest
• Breeding Pool, City of Brass, Command Tower, Exotic Orchard, Flooded Grove, Temple of Mystery, Yavimaya Coast a classic pile of U/G lands
• Castle Vantress nice mid/late game value with the scrying ability
• Mystic Sanctuary absolutely broken
• Field of the Dead and Thespian Stage, our secondary win condition. Complements really well any Uro shell.
• Tranquil Thicker, Lonely Sandbar useful cycle lands that synergyse well with Life for the Loam
• Field of Ruin, Dust Bowl my choice for land hate, should be complimented by Strip Mine and Wasteland, thanks to Life from the Loam we can setup a pretty nasty lock
• Maze of Ith especially powerful in 1v1 it stops large threats and commander damage

Deck Variants Show

This list is mostly thought for 1v1 EU centurion commander banlist - which is a slower 1v1 format, fast mana and black tutors are banned. 25 starting life. How would this fare in a 4 players table? Let's discuss!

1v1

In 1v1 the deck can exchange card for card and rely on Uro to provide card advantage and eventually submerge the opponent. This setup allows us to play some cards that are not usually found in normal EDH decks. The deck feels like a modern control deck and I'm really enjoying it.

Some examples would be:

• 1cmc conditional counterspells, e.g. Spell Pierce, are quite strong when you need to interact after your turn 3 Uro, but in a 4 players table it's best to ramp mana and have more solid options available
• Fact or Fiction is a 1v1 bomb, all other blue draw spells are also very powerful as they help you keep hands, keep in mind that the free-mulligan does not apply in 1v1 Commander, so mulliganing has to be taken more seriously. Playing Opt and all it's variants is very important
• Repulse, Blink of an Eye, Cryptic Command exchange 1 for 0, which is huge when you have to care about 1 opponent, but when there are other 2 of them, they loose a bit of the appeal

Fixed and Flex Slots

Fixed

~70 fixed slots, counting the fact that the list should run 42+ lands, to play this strategy (combo into field value plan)

• Genesis Storm, Thought Lash, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
• Intuition, Noxious Revival, Mystic Sanctuary, fetchlands
• Field of the Dead, Life from the Loam, Crop Rotation, Growth Spiral
• All Is Dust, Crush of Tentacles, Engulf the Shore
• a hefty 42+ land count

1 cmc counterspells, very important to protect our early turns

• Stubborn Denial, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, Daze, Veil of Summer

Strong 1v1 blue cards which are in most competitive decks:

• Complicate, Miscalculation, Counterspell, Force of Will, Swan Song
• Ponder, Brainstorm, Preordain, Think Twice, Fact or Fiction

Flex

Spot removal and the rest of the counterspell suite can be tuned according to the meta or preferences. Finally also the taking turns sub-theme can be removed or adapted at will.

With roughly 30 flex spots you can customise the feel of the deck, in particular the high flex count should allow us to create a 4 players list which will not run Genesis Storm but run all the UG advantage house bombs.

4 Players

4 players is a whole different story, all the cards that exchange 1:1 are no longer that useful, an exception being counterspells that are still necessary, but Uro alone cannot be the only recurring card advantage engine. In UG there are the most powerful enchantments to draw cards, when we use them though, we can no longer rely on Primal Storm to tutor out combo. Moreover single "draw spell" are also less appealing, something like Fact or Fiction pulls your forward against a single opponent but not against 3 of them.

Basic Setup

This step simply removes the weakest cards and adds UG staple bombs to the list,

OUT

• Primal Storm, Fact or Fiction, Frantic Search, Impulse, Think Twice

IN

• Sylvan Library, Rhystic Study, Mystic Remora, Search for Azcanta  , Oko, Thief of Crowns

Faster mana

in a 4 players-table fast mana is usually key, so we'll switch out some lands and the Field of the Dead package to insert explosive starts. I just like to have Crop Rotation around to play with Mystic Sanctuary

OUT

• Field of the Dead, Thespian Stage, 2Island, 2Forest, Dust Bowl, Field of Ruin, Temple of Mystery
• Hour of Promise, Sylvan Scrying

IN

• Birds of Paradise, Llanowar Elves, Noble Hierarch, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Carpet of Flowers, Arbor Elf, Utopia Sprawl, Chrome Mox, Elvish Mystic, Wild Growth

New tutors and new kill conditions

When introducing all the powerful permanent based advantage engines we lose Genesis Storm. So we'll have two main objectives:

• find new ways to tutor our wincons
• find redundant wincon pieces

----- New Tutors -----

We already run Intuition and Long-Term Plans, we should find ways to leverage Transmute so that it can fetch wincons. There are no U only 4cmc transmute cards, so we'll have to manage with Muddle the Mixture.

UG is famous for its creature tutors, so while looking for new wincons we should pay attention to creatures so that we can run cards like Neoform, Finale of Devastation, Eldritch Evolution..

Finally, Though Lash can remove as many cards from the library as you want, on top of that our commander also removes cards from the game. This makes Riftsweeper incredibly powerful, turning it into a semi-tutor.

----- Additional Wincons -----

Thought Lash+Jace, Wielder of Mysteries are "fine", but when we inspect the win from empty library, then two cards immediately stand out:

• Thassa's Oracle
• Hermit Druid

Those are creatures and cost 2, making them tutorable with the UG toolset and with our transmute.

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Top Ranked	Achieved #4 position overall 4 years ago Achieved #2 position in Commander / EDH 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Combo 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Control 4 years ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 29 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 24 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.61
I Token	Bird 2/2 U, Manifest 2/2 C, Octopus 8/8 U, Zombie 2/2 B