Venser, The Human Superball

Commander / EDH Mono-Blue

IQuarent

Instant (20)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Capsize
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Disallow
• 1x Evacuation
• 1x Forbid
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x High Tide
• 1x Long-Term Plans
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Pull from Tomorrow
• 1x Snap
• 1x Stroke of Genius
• 1x Turnabout

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Concentrate
• 1x Devastation Tide
• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Flood of Tears
• 1x Lorien Revealed
• 1x Plea for Power
• 1x Solve the Equation

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker

Creature (18)

• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Azami, Lady of Scrolls
• 1x Baral, Chief of Compliance
• 1x Barrin, Tolarian Archmage
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Dreamscape Artist
• 1x Fog Bank
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Naban, Dean of Iteration
• 1x Palinchron
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Trinket Mage

Land (37)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x High Market
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Mystic Sanctuary
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Riptide Laboratory
• 1x Sanctum of Eternity
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 28x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Terrain Generator

Commander (1)

Artifact (12)

• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Crystal Shard
• 1x Endless Atlas
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Extraplanar Lens
• 1x Gauntlet of Power
• 1x Meekstone
• 1x Sapphire Medallion
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Rhystic Study

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Sideboard

Instant (11)

• 1x An Offer You Can't Refuse
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Dissipate
• 1x Mission Briefing
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Sublime Epiphany
• 1x Swan Song

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Crush of Tentacles
• 1x Finale of Revelation
• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 1x Recurring Insight
• 1x Sea Gate Restoration  ^Flip

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Confounding Conundrum
• 1x Equilibrium

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils

Creature (5)

• 1x Aether Channeler
• 1x Displacer Kitten
• 1x Hullbreaker Horror
• 1x Malevolent Hermit  ^Flip
• 1x Sower of Temptation

Artifact (1)

• 1x Diviner's Wand

Land (1)

• 1x Scrying Sheets

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Maybeboard

Instant (3)

• 1x Disappearing Act
• 1x Rewind
• 1x Unsubstantiate

Artifact (2)

• 1x Coldsteel Heart
• 1x Elixir of Immortality

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Bribery
• 1x Mind Spring
• 1x Wash Out

Creature (3)

• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Peregrine Drake
• 1x Spellskite

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I accidentally deleted the original version of this deck, which means all of the updates and the original description have been yeeted into the void. While I am sad about that, I finally got around to rewriting the description, so here we go.

This is a mon-blue EDH control deck. While it's gone through many changes over the years, I would say Venser has easily been, consistently, one of my best performing decks. Now that I have a real Force of Will, the only thing this deck is really missing is Mana Crypt. This deck is not meant to be cEDH, but it could be with no budget and a handful of changes. Currently it is simply high power, I'd say an 8/10, perhaps pushing a 9/10.

So what is our gameplan with this deck? Throughout it's many changes the win condition has always been the same: Go Infinite with Palinchron. We have a few ways of going infinite with Palinchron, namely one of our four mana doublers, but there are ways without them, such as Deadeye Navigator and Phantasmal Image, and ways without Palinchron, such as Archaeomancer, Turnabout, Riptide Laboratory and enough mana to continue a loop. The typical way it uses infinite mana is to use a draw X spell to draw my entire library and then deck everyone else, but bouncing everyone's permanents, including their lands, usually provokes concessions. This can be done with Riptide Laboratory of Sanctum of Eternity with Venser and infinite land untaps, Venser with Deadeye Navigator and infinite mana, or Venser and Naban with infinite mana.

Until then, we play evasive. The deck runs quite a few ways of bouncing all nonland permanents, not only to make use of our many etb creatures, but primarily to slow down our opponents because there are very few strategies that are not hosed by bouncing their entire board repeatedly. While this deck is strong, and has quite a few good card draw spells, it's usually not good enough to control three player by itself, so often politics are required to keep people from ganging up on it. Propaganda and Maze of Ith are also good for this. Counterspells are used to prevent people from getting their game winning plays, but typically it's not a permanent solution and only good to stall for time, because this is a combo deck at it's heart.

The deck has been build with some ramp, but not enough ramp to get out of the gate fast consistently, which I'd say it probably it's biggest weakness. It does have quite a bit of synergy though, and can do a lot of tricks with Venser as the commander. With two lands that can return Venser to hand, Crystal Shard and Naban, if we ever run out of cards, Venser is a pretty reliable way to keep people off us long enough to get card draw or a way to win the game. Overusing Venser is only when we draw the set of cards that do this and we are required to to not die, because overusing the commander can mean we are appraised as a higher threat. Generally though, the deck tries to lay low and counter the right spells and bounce permanents long enough to go infinite.

Date added	1 year
Last updated	2 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 3 Mythic Rares 34 - 13 Rares 19 - 8 Uncommons 12 - 2 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.05
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Bird 1/1 W, Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Manifest 2/2 C, Octopus 8/8 U, Treasure
Folders	8-Deck EDH Pod, All Commander Deck I Actually Own IRL