Vorel's Counter Cocktail

Commander / EDH Counters GU (Simic)

UnlimitedFlour

Creature (35)

• 1x Aquastrand Spider
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Bloodspore Thrinax
• 1x Chasm Skulker
• 1x Cytoplast Manipulator
• 1x Cytoplast Root-Kin
• 1x Cytospawn Shambler
• 1x Draining Whelk
• 1x Enclave Cryptologist
• 1x Epochrasite
• 1x Fathom Mage
• 1x Fertilid
• 1x Forgotten Ancient
• 1x Gilder Bairn
• 1x Gyre Sage
• 1x Kalonian Hydra
• 1x Managorger Hydra
• 1x Master Biomancer
• 1x Mindless Automaton
• 1x Mold Adder
• 1x Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
• 1x Mycoloth
• 1x Plaxcaster Frogling
• 1x Primordial Hydra
• 1x Realm Seekers
• 1x Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Scrounging Bandar
• 1x Scute Mob
• 1x Sekki, Seasons' Guide
• 1x Simic Manipulator
• 1x Trygon Predator
• 1x Viridian Joiner
• 1x Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
• 1x Zameck Guildmage

Land (38)

• 1x Alchemist's Refuge
• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Command Tower
• 11x Forest
• 1x Halimar Depths
• 1x High Market
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 7x Island
• 1x Llanowar Reborn
• 1x Lumbering Falls
• 1x Mosswort Bridge
• 1x Novijen, Heart of Progress
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Simic Growth Chamber
• 1x Temple of Mystery
• 1x Thornwood Falls

Instant (6)

• 1x Fuel for the Cause
• 1x Inspiring Call
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Mutant's Prey
• 1x Solidarity of Heroes
• 1x Steady Progress

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Tezzeret's Gambit

Commander (1)

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Bounty of the Luxa
• 1x Bred for the Hunt
• 1x Evolutionary Escalation
• 1x Hardened Scales
• 1x Hibernation's End
• 1x Inexorable Tide
• 1x Ordeal of Nylea
• 1x Ordeal of Thassa
• 1x Predatory Hunger

Artifact (9)

• 1x Astral Cornucopia
• 1x Contagion Engine
• 1x Darksteel Reactor
• 1x Eternity Vessel
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Lux Cannon
• 1x Otherworld Atlas
• 1x Power Conduit
• 1x Sol Ring

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Maybeboard

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Doubling Season
• 1x Simic Ascendancy

Instant (1)

• 1x Essence Capture

Land (1)

• 1x Guildmages' Forum

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We serve only one drink: Vorel's Counter Cocktail. It's one part Forest , one part Island and one part bucket of counters. Hope you're good at maths.

Joking aside, I started this deck shortly after a dozen-year hiatus from Magic. I'd jumped into blue and green (more out of style than any particular function), and once I'd gathered enough spare cards a Commander deck seemed like the natural next step. I chose Vorel of the Hull Clade simply because he's cheap, blue-green and good at pumping counters. I then proceeded to fill the deck with all sorts of fun counter-based spells and voilà, Vorel's Counter Cocktail was born.

Wincons

I feel like I should talk about win conditions first since that is what all decks (except maybe certain themed ones) boil down to. At its core, the Counter Cocktail wants something very simple: to have big creatures that smack opponents for lethal damage. I've made the methods for achieving this goal somewhat diverse, but the primary plan is to use consistent counter doubling. A list of these doubling engines are as follows: Kalonian Hydra , Gilder Bairn , Primordial Hydra and, of course, the commander Vorel of the Hull Clade . Important to note that while Solidarity of Heroes also doubles counters, it is single-use and so used to help achieve the Wincons rather than act as a Wincon itself.

All of these cards have their pros and cons. Kalonian Hydra doubles the counters of all creatures but must be attacking. Primordial Hydra 's doubling is free and automatic every upkeep but can only double itself. Gilder Bairn 's doubling needs mana and tapping before use but it theoretically can be used multiple times per turn in the right circumstances (like with Rishkar, Peema Renegade ). Lastly, Vorel of the Hull Clade has a simple activated ability, though it does have strict tapping and mana requirements. As the Commander, Vorel of the Hull Clade is no doubt the easiest method of getting counter doubling out, but I have included several creature tutors to make finding the others easier.

This is neglecting to mention the multitude of other ways to achieve a winning board state. Mycoloth can, with enough counters, repeatedly flood the board with tokens (which works especially well with Bloodspore Thrinax or/and Master Biomancer ). Forgotten Ancient , Managorger Hydra , Scute Mob , Predatory Hunger and/or Evolutionary Escalation (perhaps in conjunction with other cards such as Hardened Scales ) can result in lethal, game-winning creatures even without counter doubling. Not to mention Cytoplast Manipulator and Simic Manipulator can steal other players' wincons.

The final wincon I'd like to bring up is Darksteel Reactor . If combat appears unfeasible for whatever reason (pillowforts spring to mind) then I can fall back on this card. In this scenario my big beatsticks become more about blocking than anything else and the doublers Gilder Bairn and Vorel of the Hull Clade become repurposed to push up the number of charge counters as fast as possible. Thanks to indestructible this is suprisingly reliable and it can very easily win the game if left unchecked.

Tutors

In order to bring out the creatures I want at the right time I need tutors, and ones that can have a recurring effect so I can stay afloat. The first one that I want to mention is Momir Vig, Simic Visionary . A lot of my creatures are green and blue to utilise him for his maximum potential, but even without them I can guarantee a good draw next turn with a green creature or potentially draw one right away with a blue. The main problem is that he's not very good in a vacuum, but when I have a few more creatures in hand he works wonders.

The next two tutors have even better deck synergy. They're Hibernation's End and Yisan, the Wanderer Bard . Both have somewhat similar mechanisms in that you normally can't go back to pick up a creature that has a lower CMC than you have counters. However, I have included Power Conduit , meaning that the ability to jump back is possible (albeit rare). This card, along with other tools like proliferate, mean that we can also bump up the counters to find a bigger creature without waiting too many turns. Yisan, the Wanderer Bard is especially good with Vorel of the Hull Clade . If Yisan, the Wanderer Bard has two verse counters then I can double them with Vorel of the Hull Clade and then activate the tutor ability to pull out Kalonian Hydra without waiting another two turns.

The last one is Green Sun's Zenith . It's a staple of EDH for good reason as you're only paying an extra mana to bring a creature straight onto the battlefield from your deck. It's green and colourless mana only, so if I didn't have blue mana for Trygon Predator then it doesn't matter. Plus, Green Sun's Zenith gets shuffled back into the deck after it's done, potentially to be reused again.

Aggro

The deck (if it works) leans towards a handful of high-powered creatures that can get swiftly outnumbered by token-heavy decks. Thus, the need to break through blocking is obvious. Crowned Ceratok , Champion of Lambholt , Cytospawn Shambler and Herald of Secret Streams are the chief breadwinners here, but cards like Rhonas's Monument and Ring of Kalonia also help. Other cards like Avatar of the Resolute , Kalonian Hydra and Managorger Hydra can fend for themselves.

Ramp

Ramp is covered by creatures like Rishkar, Peema Renegade and Gyre Sage and artifacts like Everflowing Chalice . Most of these have good synergy with Vorel of the Hull Clade and others in the deck. I know more ramping is popular, but I think the mana curve is low enough to get by. Meanwhile, drawing cards is covered by Bred for the Hunt , Sphinx of Magosi , Zameck Guildmage and a couple of one-offs Tezzeret's Gambit and Steady Progress (both of which have a neat dual function). Not much to add to this except I was thinking about squeezing in Opt but didn't really find the room.

Protection

A few notes on protection. Plaxcaster Frogling has been my MVP ever since I started with a casual modern deck thanks to his shroud ability, but here he's backed up by Plaxmanta , Alpha Authority and Simic Charm . I think this area could be better with things like Heroic Intervention for blanket survival or Sporeback Troll for regeneration, but I'm not sure what to cut. Also want to point out Aquastrand Spider , Longshot Squad and Bow of Nylea as key flying protection.

Control

It wouldn't be a blue deck without control! Counterspell-wise, Fuel for the Cause and Mystic Snake are present because of their dual-functions, the former helping build counters and the latter giving a blue-green creature. The deck has a few singular removal choices, with cards like Mutant's Prey , Simic Charm and Lux Cannon . However, what it does lack severely is mass removal, the only one here being Wash Out (and Contagion Engine to a degree). I also have Devastation Tide and River's Rebuke spare but I only had room for one of them and the former requires me to be in a bad position (in which case it's barely saving, just equalising) whilst the latter only targets one opponent. That said, Wash Out is terrible if my opponents are playing blue or green. Cyclonic Rift is a popular choice and if I was to expand on the mass removal section then I'd certainly pick it up.

Combos

The deck has a lot of synergy, to the point that it would be a bit ridiculous to list all the possible combinations. I've tried to design it so that no card would be a dud draw in any board state.

There's an infinite combo, performed by Gilder Bairn + Rishkar, Peema Renegade + Training Grounds or Cryptolith Rite + Gilder Bairn + Training Grounds . If it's not obvious, Gilder Bairn is able to tap for a single mana, but since his ability now only costs an untap and a single mana, he's able to double counters on anything to infinity. Since a lot of the deck contains trample (either by itself like Kalonian Hydra or by effect like from Tuskguard Captain ) then the game might end there and then. It's also possible to obtain infinite mana this way from Gyre Sage or Viridian Joiner , though currently there's not really anything that takes full advantage of that.

Hardened Scales + Managorger Hydra + Predatory Hunger is another combo that I want to mention. For only two green mana the two enchantments pump out an absolutely mad number of counters in large games, but throw in Managorger Hydra and that's four counters every time a play casts a creature. Not only that, but the Hydra comes standard with trample! It's not a game winner by itself, but players have to quickly address it before it gets out of hand. Similar results with Forgotten Ancient . No trample, but he can pass the counters on to others that can make better use of them.

Just two more combos that I want to talk about. Chasm Skulker + Otherworld Atlas work excellently together and can lead to a load of counters and tokens. Ivy Lane Denizen + Mycoloth makes a beautiful cycle; more green creatures leading to more counters leading to more green creatures, etc.

Thanks, if you read all that! I'd be very happy to take any comments and criticism (hopefully constructive!) that you want to throw my way.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	5 years
Key combos	Cryptolith Rite + Gilder Bairn + Training Grounds Gilder Bairn + Rishkar, Peema Renegade + Training Grounds Chasm Skulker + Otherworld Atlas Hardened Scales + Managorger Hydra + Predatory Hunger
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.21
Tokens	Saproling 1/1 G, Spirit 1/1 C, Squid 1/1 U
Folders	EDH ideas, Atraxa