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Zacama, King of the Monsters

Commander / EDH RGW (Naya)

Gundam-Tyrfing


Hello and welcome to Zacama, King of the Monsters. Once again I'm back to bring you another decklist! As always here I'll discuss the pros, the cons, and why you should play Zacama, Primal Calamity . Of course lets discuss the history as always I have with the General of this deck.

We're gunna have to go way back in time though about 4-6 years when I first got hardcore back into Magic. Around that time I decided to make a Naya deck or for those of you now super into the lore! These were the colors that together interested me the most, now this deck went through heavy revisions, first its General was Rith, the Awakener it was a token deck and she didn't perform the great she was alright at first but definitely not very powerful. I then changed the deck to a Gahiji, Honored One continuing with the Token theme and the deck performed better but still not super well.

I eventually decided to take apart my first deck and rebuild it into my Ulasht, the Hate Seed deck but I always wanted to go back to Naya, I thought about Marath, Will of the Wild but at that time my friend had a Marath deck. Then I thought about the Dinosaur Tribal General Gishath, Sun's Avatar and well I bought all the dinosaurs I could I just felt I couldn't get behind another tribal deck. Then though came Rivals of Ixalan and with it a beast I knew was my General, and it was Zacama, Primal Calamity , now Zacama is one of my favorite decks and well I could build Marath now since my friend took his apart I can't change from the Primal Calamity.

I think he's powerful, awesome, but also underrated.

"The top of the Primordial Ecosystem, a God for all intents and purposes" - Dr. Vivienne Graham Godzilla 2014

Who is Zacama? Well I'm not super versed on Ixalan lore so I can't inform you there but Zacama, Primal Calamity is a 9 cost 9/9 with Vigilance, Reach, and Trample costing .

Zacama has three activated abilities.

: Zacama Deals 3 damage to target creature : Destroy target Artifact or Enchantment : Gain 3 Life

Now none of these abilities are bad or anything but for a 9 cost kinda meh right? But Zacama has an ETB effect, which checks to see if we cast Zacama and if we did, untap ALL our lands! That's insane, that means when Zacama enters he pays for himself and can use any of his three abilities or make other plays.

But what this really shows is that Zacama can set off some mean combos, something most people don't expect from the big guy.

Pros: -Resilient

-Can deal with all types of Permanents

-Many lines to go infinite

Cons:

-Can be disrupted

-Need to ramp hard

-Can be slowed down

"A living Nuclear Weapon destined to walk the Earth forever. Indestructible" - Dr. Hayashida Godzilla 1984

Zacama lends naturally to combos, with the untap shenanigans and numerous tech he's even the heart of several combos.

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts one of the standard red combos, costs a lot to hard cast but it does swarm the field with infinite Conscripts tokens, luckily we're playing Naya so we can also use, Tooth and Nail allowing us for 9 mana to entwine and drop both of these on the field! Can add Impact Tremors for infinite damage.

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Village Bell-Ringer same as Conscripts above but costs less to hard cast! Can also be Tooth and Nail entwined to get both to the field from deck.

Karmic Guide + Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts this combo requires both Kiki and Conscripts in grave we cast Guide, get Kiki, who taps to make a Guide token, who grabs Conscripts who untaps Kiki which then begins to make infinite Conscripts. Can add Impact Tremors for infinite damage.

Karmic Guide + Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Village Bell-Ringer same as the combo above but with Bell-Ringer.

Impact Tremors + Karmic Guide + Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts Infinite damage and Infinite Conscripts.

Impact Tremors + Karmic Guide + Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Village Bell-Ringer Same as above but with Bell-Ringer

Karmic Guide + Mirror Entity + Reveillark + Impact Tremors this is infinite LTBs and ETBs triggering infinite damage from Impact Tremors this is due to Mirror Entity's effect essentially working like a mass sac outlet.

Ashnod's Altar + Melira, Sylvok Outcast + Woodfall Primus or Goblin Bombardment this is infinite ETBs with Woodfall destroying everything your opponents control that isn't a creature, can add Impact Tremors for infinite damage. Can also add Fecundity for infinite draw!

Food Chain + Eternal Scourge or Squee, the Immortal + Impact Tremors Food chain the bread and butter of this deck, it allows us to get infinite mana to cast any creature and allows us to infinitely cast either Scourge or Squee, adding Impact Tremors into this allows us to deal infinite damage as well.

Food Chain + Eternal Scourge or Squee, the Immortal + Zacama, Primal Calamity why not have infinite mana for not just creatures but for every spell? This combo lets us etb Zacama as many times as we want blow up every artifact and enchantment, burn down every creature and gain infinite life. A couple other cards can add to this as well, things like Genesis Wave for getting our whole deck on the field, or Beast Whisperer for infinite draw.

Food Chain + Eternal Scourge or Squee, the Immortal + Walking Ballista This allows us to drop an infinite power Ballista which annihilates all our opponents.

Food Chain + Eternal Scourge or Squee, the Immortal + Aetherflux Reservoir This creates infinite life which allows us to use Aetherflux to slam 50 damage into every opponent.

Food Chain + Eternal Scourge or Squee, the Immortal + Zacama, Primal Calamity + Mycosynth Lattice This makes Zacama's destroy target artifact or enchantment into destroy target everything an opponent has an be the only one standing.

Birds of Paradise + Zendikar Resurgent + Cloudstone Curio + Zacama, Primal Calamity This is a strange combo and I bet you're thinking when has Birds EVER been a combo piece? Well you're seeing it now! Simply put lets say Resurgent is on the battlefield but we only got 9 mana, we have 9 lands though I know we'd realistically have 18 mana but this is just for this example.

Birds is untapped, you tap Birds for one then cast Zacama, now we have all 9 lands untapped and we draw a card, and bounce Birds from Curio. We use the floating to cast Birds draw a card, and bounce Zacama to the hand and recast Zacama we now have 9 floating mana and untapped our lands again. As you can see this combo lets us draw our entire deck well gaining us infinite mana!

Temur Sabertooth + Zendikar Resurgent + Zacama, Primal Calamity similar to the above combo but require less pieces I think this is probably the most optimal version of the combo since it has less pieces although Sabertooth draws hate quickly and can get removed hard. Not that Curio doesn't draw hate but in my experience people tend to disrupt a creature quicker then the Curio. Same outcome as the Combo above since you cast Zacama, have 18 mana bounce him recast and then draw the deck.

Personally I think the Birds combo is flashier and much more humorous since, you know Birds as a combo piece but this once is reliable and gets the job done.

There are a few combos here where if you add Temur Sabertooth or Cloudstone Curio the same effect happens I did not list those but they are there!

"Tsunami, Earthquake, Hurricane, Typhoon he's a force of nature he's completely immune" - Up From the Depths

So now that we know our combos how do we assemble them, well we have things like Eldritch Evolution to grab us a creature we need, we also have things like Genesis Wave and Rishkar's Expertise to either put things onto the battlefield or add things to our hand and cast something. We also have other sources of draw and deck thinning, although our Tutor library is limited by this list we do have a lot of value on the field and we can quickly ramp into some big plays to keep us in the game.

I do think adding Worldly Tutor would be a good idea to get us a combo creature otherwise were relying a lot on a lot of deck thinning and card draw.

We could put things like Ring of Three Wishes in the deck but I've honestly found that the deck is pretty fast as is and Ring would likely slow it down.

"People will be illin when they messin with Godzilla he's a Big Green Mean Radioactive Monster Killer" - Up From The Depths

So now to walk you through a typical game of Zacama.

Now you have to hope you're opening hand opens with a couple lands and something like Cultivate or Kodama's Reach we need to quickly start slamming lands onto the field, Sakura-Tribe Elder and Wood Elves also are great in an opening hand. Once we start to power out lands we gotta start dropping some value that Zacama can abuse, things like Impact Tremors , or something like Mirari's Wake . Wake gives a TON of value from playing Zacama and can allow Zacama and Food Chain to combo off just themselves if you have enough lands!

Once we have our pieces starting to be assembled its time to Eldritch Evolution out a creature we can abuse we'll pick Beast Whisperer , since we have a lot of mana and hopefully by this point a way to abuse Zacama's etb we drop Whisperer and start drawing.

Now three things can go with this, we know about Chain, but Cloudstone Curio , or Temur Sabertooth also let us get more Zacama effects, and trigger Whisperer. By this point game's over and you have won from drawing your whole deck and making infinite mana!

"Even when he's beaten you know he's coming back no Oxygen Destroyer is gunna change the fact" - Up From the Depths

Now to discuss my card choices and how they factor into our gameplan! Some cards may not be mentioned here if you have a card you'd like to here my thoughts on please say so in the comments!

Aven Mindcensor Good hate card that stops are opponents from searching, should be in every white deck!

Eldrazi Displacer This thing is great, can be used in some many ways sorta functions like a pseudo Temur Sabertooth just needs Colorless mana!

Karametra, God of Harvests big body, land ramp on creature casts, including Zacama giving us an additional land untap! Great value card!

Hour of Promise As you can see we are running a lot of land ramp, but sometimes you need a bit more, and this card delivers, what you would think as being a bad card I've found as an all star, it can get us Temple of the False God and Reliquary Tower or other value tech lands!

Cauldron of Souls Not really sure why I'm running this card considering I didn't have Purphoros, God of the Forge at the time which might have been a factor, I now have an extra Purph lying around so gunna try the deck with him in the deck see how it goes!

Mimic Vat Good way to create value off Land Ramp targets or just something with a good effect, like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Mycosynth Lattice I don't really think I have to explain this one but I want to, great card allows Zacama to bomb everyone's stuff!

Personally I find Zacama to be decently optimized but there is always room for improvement!

I don't have Purphoros, God of the Forge in this deck which I mentioned but I do have a copy and I'm gunna do some test runs with it in the deck instead of Cauldron of Souls see how it does!

I also don't have Worldly Tutor which I will most likely pick up not sure really what to cut for it but it would help us Tutor for pieces better.

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds was another card I was looking into, but I don't think she'll make it in Beast Whisperer has performed amazingly and that was my replacement for her.

Well there you have Zacama, King of the Monsters. I hope you enjoyed reading through this list and I can't wait to hear everyone's feedback thank you!

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Date added 5 years
Last updated 5 years
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

6 - 0 Mythic Rares

51 - 0 Rares

16 - 0 Uncommons

12 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.58
Tokens Beast 3/3 G, Copy Clone, Zombie 2/2 B
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