Vannifar, Combo Queen™

Commander / EDH Combo GU (Simic) Infinite Combo Multiplayer Pillow Fort Toolbox

LemonBird1

Instant (23)

• 1x Arachnogenesis
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Capsize
• 1x Constant Mists
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Daze
• 1x Foil
• 1x Growth Spiral
• 1x Lull
• 1x Moment's Peace
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Nourishing Shoal
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Pull from Tomorrow
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Snag
• 1x Stroke of Genius
• 1x Trickbind
• 1x Voidslime
• 1x Whispers of the Muse
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Artifact (4)

• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Simic Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

Creature (20)

• 1x Bounding Krasis
• 1x Breaching Hippocamp
• 1x Coiling Oracle
• 1x Deceiver Exarch
• 1x Disciple of the Ring
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Grand Architect
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Patron of the Orochi
• 1x Pestermite
• 1x Pili-Pala
• 1x Protean Hulk
• 1x Quirion Ranger
• 1x Scryb Ranger
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Vizier of the Menagerie
• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Wirewood Symbiote
• 1x Wolfbriar Elemental
• 1x Woodland Bellower

Land (37)

• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 15x Forest
• 1x Glacial Chasm
• 14x Island
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Temple of Mystery
• 1x Wirewood Lodge
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

Commander (1)

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Animist's Awakening
• 1x Braingeyser
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Gelatinous Genesis
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Stream of Life
• 1x Urban Evolution
• 1x Wildest Dreams
• 1x Wurmcalling

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Collective Restraint
• 1x Concordant Crossroads
• 1x Energy Field
• 1x Future Sight
• 1x Propaganda

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Basic Concept

The deck's goal is to chain together Vannifar activations to eventually sacrifice Protean Hulk

Chain Links

These are the cards you'll get with Vannifar

1. Quirion Ranger or Wirewood Symbiote
2. Scryb Ranger
3. Bounding Krasis , Pestermite or Deceiver Exarch
4. Breaching Hippocamp
5. Disciple of the Ring
6. Woodland Bellower which should/could get any of the aforementioned cards (usually a 3 drop)
7. Protean Hulk Lastly, find a way to sac the hulk (usually untapping Vannifar) then you're in business

Combo

After protean hulk dies the cards you'll get are the following: Grand Architect and Pili-Pala Simply activate GA's first ability and make Pili-Pala blue and you now have infinite mana in any combination of colors since Pili-Pala can tap for then untap for and add a mana of any color

Mana Syncs

The biggest problem with a deck seeking to make infinite mana is that infinite mana doesn't win the game by itself rather, it requires X spells that can do the things other decks want to do. The main win condition is Blue Sun's Zenith since we draw our whole deck, it shuffles back, and we make all opponents deck themselves. The rest of the spells either draw us cards or do other things like gain life and deal damage.

Braingeyser

Stream of Life

Pull from Tomorrow

Wolfbriar Elemental

Stroke of Genius

Walking Ballista

Whispers of the Muse

Capsize

There are a few more, however, these are the ones I felt necessary to show

Pillow Fort/Fog

The deck's early game really sucks, it can't do much until t4 when you can actually play Vannifar and she is unlikely to survive a full rotation and 3 separate turns so staying alive until you get to the turn where you can go off is important. In addition playing a commander that is literally a more busted Birthing Pod is like painting a giant bullseye on your forehead. We have 2 ways to stave off attackers, pillow fort and fogs

Forts which require opponents to pay mana to attack

1. Glacial Chasm
2. Propaganda
3. Collective Restraint
4. Energy Field

Fogs which prevent damage but, since regular fog kinda sucks, all of these have added effects

1. Snag can usually be cast for free
2. Moment's Peace has flashback so we can cast it twice
3. Lull cycles late game if we need a mana sync
4. Constant Mists can be bought back really easily allowing us to fog multiple times
5. Arachnogenesis which makes a bunch of blockers for a next attack

Ramp

Ramp is always important in EDH. Even though the deck can technically win t5, Vannifar will most likely die before you untap with her, so being able to cast her at all stages in the game is important

Sol Ring

Hedron Archive

Growth Spiral

Urban Evolution

Cultivate

Kodama's Reach

Rampant Growth

Simic Signet

Card Draw/Tutor

Even though we win by drawing cards, regular card draw is still important to draw anything that isn't part of our combo

1. Brainstorm
2. Coiling Oracle
3. Vizier of the Menagerie
4. Worldly Tutor
5. Mystical Tutor
6. Future Sight

Removal/Counters

Lastly, we gotta protect the combo both before and after we execute it. We run 2 free counterspells which our only real way to interact and only one of them is a hard counter, I'll get to upgrades in another section

Cyclonic Rift

Daze

Foil

Voidslime

Trickbind

Pongify

Rapid Hybridization

Upgrades/Cuts

When upgrading decks I would usually put cuts or upgrades into categories based on price versus functionality, so here are a few.

1. Glacial Chasm for Force of Will if you can afford it, Force of Will is always a great card to have. We're already running 36 lands since the chasm doesn't tap for mana so cutting it won't cost anything except for a bit of longevity

2. Vizier of the Menagerie for Cryptic Command Cryptic is probably one of the best blue cards legal in EDH. Again, it comes down to price, Cryptic is 20$ while Vizier is a buck. The Vizier helps play creatures in a pinch (if you need something to untap Vannifar to sac Hulk) but, Cryptic Command might work better overall

3. Genesis Wave for Fatestitcher This is the hardest one to judge. Genesis Wave doesn't do a lot to win the game on its own with infinite mana it's a "win more" card. On the other hand, the Stitcher is pretty useless without Concordant Crossroads however, it's a card that ensures (if it's in the yard) that you can sac Hulk the turn it comes in.

Other upgrades would just be mana base or more interactions

Parting Tips

Vannifar seems simple, just sac your stuff and get bigger stuff but, there's actually a lot more than that.

1. DON'T PLAY CARDS WITH SHROUD. You probably think a card like Lightning Greaves would be fantastic in this deck but, it just sucks. Shroud means you can't untap Vannifar with the creatures. Same goes with pro green and/or blue

2. Mull if the opening has both Breaching Hippocamp and Disciple of the Ring . You don't wan't any combo pieces in your hand unless they're finishers but, seeing as these cards fit an important role (following 3 and prefacing 5) means having at least one to hard cast is fine but having both means your combo stops halfway

3. Keep a 1 or 3 drop untapper in your hand. This is a stark contrast to the last tip but, it's probably more important. The deck doesn't run sac outlets so keeping one of the untappers that has other untappers in that CMC slot in your hand would be a really good idea.

I'm always open to suggestions, leave comments about what cards you think I should put in the deck and/or which cards I should cut

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 29 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.62
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Beast 3/3 G, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Ooze */* G, Spider 1/2 G, Wolf 2/2 G, Wurm */* G
Folders	decks