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Welcome to my Casual Vial Smasher // Kydele deck! I have been playing this deck for a few months now and am ready to share it with the world. I used to run Maelstrom Wanderer but found him to be a little too overbearing for my playgroup and also very one-note. Thus Vial Smasher // Kydele was born.

I generally lean towards certain types of decks and had a few goals in mind when creating this one:
  • I wanted to create a deck that was versatile and plays out differently every time. I don't like decks that are on trick ponies. Something like kaalia the vast is not my jam.

  • My meta is pretty casual for the most part so this deck needed to fit in that power level. The deck does win quite frequently but not always so I think it is at a good spot.

  • I love this 4 color combination and wanted to include as many cool/flashy spells as I could get away with. The ultimate goal here is to have fun, not necessarily to win.

You will like this deck if

  • You like decks that have different lines of play and require preparation

  • You enjoy ramping and drawing a lot of cards

  • You like burning people out with spells and Vial Smasher

  • You like playing with cool legendary creatures and flashy spells

You will not like this deck if

  • You just want to play straight combo

  • You want a more creature combat focused deck

  • The deck has a hard time dealing with certain strategies like hard-combo and mass life-gain. If these are in your meta it might need adjustments

Early Game

Early game is all about ramping and staying alive. With all the X and high CMC spells in the deck, it can get very mana intensive so ramping is important. I usually mulligan anything that is not ramp or great early game plays like Baleful Strix or Sylvan Library .

Having 2 commanders is almost like having a 9 card hand at the start. Vial Smasher the Fierce and Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix are both great early game plays as well if you have nothing else to do.

Mid Game

Mid game is all about drawing cards, interacting with your opponents, beating people down with Vial Smasher, and setting up for an explosive finish. There is plenty of draw and value generation in the deck so you will almost never run out of gas.

Vial Smasher the Fierce can be a menace during the mid game if left alive. Bashing people for 4-6 every turn adds up. He has amazing reach as his damage gets past creatures and many pillowforting strategies. He can redirect the damage to planeswalkers which is just nasty. I tried to include a lot of flash and instant speed spells in the deck to work with him as his ability resets each turn.

Wheeling is an important aspect of the deck and turns on Kydele as well as other support creatures. Wheeling and creating a bunch of mana with Kydele can result in explosive turns that put you far ahead. Wheeling can also disrupt your opponents game plan by forcing them to discard cards that they have been holding onto.

X-spells are another important part of our game plan. They provide outlets to dump all the mana we create with Kydele. While on the stack, an X-spell's CMC is equal to it's casting cost PLUS what you paid for X. This means casting an Exsanguinate for x=18 will result in Vial Smasher hitting someone for 20 in addition to the 18 they will take from the spell.

Endgame and Winning

Hopefully by this point Vial Smasher has done some damage and everyone at the table is getting low. Most of my wins come from the following ways:

Winning with this deck requires preparation and set up. Scroll Rack and Jace, the Mind Sculptor are all-stars here as it allows you to save certain cards before you wheel by putting them on top of your deck. One you pull it off though, it is very satisfying.

Azusa, Lost but Seeking - I like having extra land drops in a deck where you can draw and wheel a lot. Azusa can put you far ahead.

Oracle of Mul Daya - The best ramp spell IMO. Gets out of control with all the top-of-the-deck manipulation we have going on.

Nature's Lore , Cultivate , Skyshroud Claim - Standard spell based ramp

Chromatic Lantern , Fellwar Stone , Sol Ring - Mana rocks. I like Chromatic lantern and Fellwar Stone a lot in a 4-color deck.

Deathrite Sahamn - Amazing mana dork in EDH.

Many of the wheel effects in the deck could also be put in this section but I have a separate section for wheels.

Arcanis the Omnipotent - This guy is ridiculous if left alive. Works really well with Kydele. Can also be untapped with Kiora's Follower and Minamo, School at Water's Edge .

Nekusar, the Mindrazer - Draws you an extra card every turn and is also an alternate win-con.

Shadowmage Infiltrator - Awesome early game play. Great value if left alive for too long.

Dig Through Time - Amazing in this deck. Vial smash someone for 8, draw 2 good cards, almost always only costs 2 blue, and is an instant to boot.

Pull from Tomorrow - A great X draw spell that is instant speed.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor - Being able to brainstorm every turn is amazing here. You draw each card which turns on Kydele and Psychosis Crawler . The deck also has a couple miracles so brainstorming is key to setting these up.

Sylvan Library - Green staple, amazing with Kydele as you draw each card, top-of-the-deck... you get the idea.

Scroll Rack and Sensei's Divining Top - Staple cards that belong here.

Consecrated Sphinx - One of the most bonkers creatures in the format if left alive. Not much more to say.

The deck is very light on tutors. I feel that adding more will make the deck too powerful for my meta. As a result I just included a few:

Vampiric Tutor - I would rather run this than demonic tutor in this deck. Being able to put the card on the top is very helpful when setting up wheels or miracles.

Mystical Tutor - 1 blue to go fetch Cyclonic Rift , not bad.

Spellseeker - Not only can tutor any of our wincons but also gets Curse of the Swine , Reanimate , Winds of Change , and a couple of our counterspells.

These cards help us get to where we need to go.

Glen Elendra Archmage - My playgroup always groans when this card hits the table and for good reason, really hard to deal with.

Boseiju, Who Shelters All - Very useful for making sure our big spells go off without interruption.

Venser, Shaper Savant - A pet card of mine. Super versatile.

Beast Within - Catch-all removal.

Cyclonic Rift - It's here. Unfortunately, when overloading this spell, it's CMC is still only 2 though.

Krosan Grip - Great enchantment/artifact removal.

Mystic Confluence - I like this card a lot. Pretty versatile and easier to cast than Cryptic Command .

Swan Song and Pact of Negation - I really like low cost counters in EDH. These two are great.

Disallow - Versatile counterspell for any situation.

Curse of the Swine - Highly underrated card IMO. X spell that works well with Kydele. With enough mana it is a one-sided board wipe.

In Garruk's Wake - Expensive but you can generate the mana to cast this pretty easily.

Vedalken Orrery - Being able to play everything at instant speed is so powerful, especially with Vial Smasher out.

Lightning Greaves - Great protection for our high priority creatures.

Damnation - Standard black board wipe.

Minamo, School at Water's Edge - Can untap Kydele to create more mana or Arcanis to draw more cards.

I like having a handful of graveyard recursion in a wheel deck where you are going to be dumping cards in the yard.

Eternal Witness - Great for bringing anything back.

Kess, Dissident Mage - I like her a lot. She will do work if left alive.

Animate Dead - I love this spell, so versatile in multiplayer EDH. I try to run it as much as possible.

Rise of the Dark Realms - Finisher spell that I recently added. Graveyards should be full of targets after making your opponents wheel a bunch.

Deathrite Shaman - This is just a great card. My meta runs a lot of fetch lands so there is always a target to create mana.

This is the business right here. These spells turn on our whole deck. If this deck needs any changing it would be to add more wheels and windfalls.

Reforge the Soul - Probably my favorite wheel. With all of the card selection and deck manipulation we have, it's very easy to miracle this.

Windfall - Standard.

Memory Jar - Being able to wheel at instant speed is very powerful. You also get to keep the cards that were initially in your hand if you want to save something.

Jace's Archivist - Windfall on a stick, excellent in our deck. Can be untapped by Kiora's Follower to wheel twice in one turn for 2 blue.

Wheel of Fortune - The original wheel.

Time Spiral - Technically a free wheel if it doesn't get countered, really powerful.

Teferi's Puzzle Box - The wheeling every turn makes the game very chaotic. Your opponents usually can't stick with a game plan if their hand is constantly changing.

Winds of Change - One mana wheel.

Now that we've wheeled let's talk big mana and doing damage.

Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix - Once it hits late game she is our highest priority creature. I feel that people get distracted by Vial Smasher hitting them in the face easily. However, most of our game will be won with Kydele.

Vial Smasher the Fierce - Vial Smasher brings the pain if left alive. He will chip away at people during the mid game. Can pop easily someone for 15+ in one turn if used with Kydele and a big X spell.

Kruphix, God of Horizons - If Kydele is not sticking, Kruphix can accomplish the same goal. Gets out of control with Seedborn Muse .

Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre - Mana dump.

Comet Storm - This card is just absurd with enough mana. Can also be used as spot removal if needed.

Torment of Hailfire - Another big X finisher.

Exsanguinate - Another big X finisher. Also one of our only ways to gain life in the deck.

The Locust God - Wheel synergy/alternate win-con. Flying locusts are great for defense as well.

Nekusar, the Mindrazer - Wheel synergy/alternate win-con.

Psychosis Crawler - Wheel and Draw synergy/alternate win-con.

Rise of the Dark Realms - Another big spell finisher.

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Revision 27 See all

(3 years ago)

Date added 5 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

14 - 0 Mythic Rares

65 - 0 Rares

8 - 0 Uncommons

3 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.26
Tokens Bird 2/2 U, Boar 2/2 G, Emblem Dack Fayden, Insect 1/1 UR, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders Retired/Outdated Decks, best of edh
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