What can I say except, “you’re welcome”

Commander / EDH* Combo Enchantment Infinite Combo Lifegain RUW (Jeskai, America) Stax

CnickC

Land (36)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Glacial Chasm
• 1x Hall of Heliod's Generosity
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 6x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 2x Mountain
• 6x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Serra's Sanctum
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Approach of the Second Sun
• 1x Day of Judgment
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Replenish
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 1x Windfall

Enchantment (23)

• 1x Aura of Silence
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Boon Reflection
• 1x Darksteel Mutation
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Greater Auramancy
• 1x Humility
• 1x Illusions of Grandeur
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Mind Over Matter
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Paradox Haze
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Pyromancer's Swath
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Rising Waters
• 1x Rule of Law
• 1x Smoke
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Solitary Confinement
• 1x Statecraft
• 1x Stranglehold
• 1x Test of Endurance

Instant (11)

• 1x Capsize
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection

Commander (1)

Artifact (14)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Alhammarret's Archive
• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Crown of Doom
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Temple Bell
• 1x Torpor Orb

Creature (6)

• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Bazaar Trader
• 1x Felidar Sovereign
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Humble Defector
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker

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This Stax Zedruu deck has been my pet deck on and off for as long as I’ve played commander (Not too long only about a year). I do love it and am planning to bling it out slowly.

If you like stax and control but also jank then Zedruu has to be the go for you. Other stax commanders like your classic Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, Brago, King Eternal and Derevi, Empyrial Tactician are fun to build, can be near impossible to stop if tuned well but always leave your pod in a feel bad state. I came so close to buying a list I made for each of them but again, too mean for my liking. Zedruu the Greathearted is the only stax commander where you can play some mean stuff, but because the giving away ability is so foreign and unique to people, they usually look past it or think it’s hilarious with cards like Illusions of Grandeur only hurting the one person.

Win Cons:

A. The most reliable is Mind Over Matter + Temple Bell combo (that’s why you’ll find Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre in this list to stop us from decking ourselves). The combo works by having temple bell and mindover matter on board.

1. Tap Temple Bell to draw a card
2. Discard a card to mind over matter choosing the mode to untap temple bell
3. Tap temple bell....

Through the loop our opponents will draw their entire deck milling themselves. If were worried about interaction from one of our opponents we do have multiple counterspells along with cards like Grand Abolisher

B. Another line for our deck that is far more of a challenge and funnier to pull off is a Felidar Sovereign / Test of Endurance win.

These cards both have the text that in our upkeep we win if we have 40/50 life respectively. We can achieve this through Zedruu herself. We make the game go on long, giving away our stax pieces and speeding things up with Boon Reflection and Alhammarret's Archive (the last of which will be added to the list as soon as I pick it up). Once we’re set up a bit, we will be consistently gaining large amounts of life and drawing into protection with Zedruu’s draw clause. It’s important to note as well, we can stack the triggers so Zedruu’s ability resolved first, meaning if we’re close to finish line we can give away random permanents at the very end just to sneak a win, gaining that extra bit of life before the Felidar Sov or Test of Endruance triggers happen.

C. We can play out Illusions of Grandeur, donate it, then Capsize it with buyback. This not only gains us 20 life but also whacks our opponent for 20 life as well. This can be repeated as much as we need. Also helps with the next win con

D. Aetherflux Reservoir provides an obvious win that is still fun. We don’t use the Storm ability but rather than straight forward ‘mono-red’ ability of just doming someone.

At this point there is but one more win con, and usually it may worry people to see this many lines of play. In other decks, some win con pieces are otherwise useless outside of just winning the game- but in this deck that’s not the case. Anyway...

E. There is one last line to win the game and is just as likely to happen as the others. Approach of the Second Sun which is always so fun to cast and always seems to be in my opening hand.

You’ll love playing this list if you enjoy stax but do feel bad (sometimes) for your pod. Giveaway good stuff like ramp, giveaway bad stuff like Pyromancer's Swath, Zedruu is still great fun to play. So if you feel like mixing it up, she can very easily be made into group hug by swapping out our stax pieces for group hug pieces. The GH stuff can almost always be donated away, leaving most of our win cons surrounding Zedruu intact.

Thanks for reading and again, if you have any suggestions or queries about why I have one card over the other, leave a comment.

You actually read this far wtf

Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 53 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.88
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Spirit 1/1 C, Treasure
Folders	Built in Paper