⚡⚡⚡ INSTANT SPEED TRIBAL ⚡⚡⚡

Commander / EDH Combo Control Infinite Combo Multiplayer Primer WU (Azorius)

Enral

Land (37)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dust Bowl
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Irrigated Farmland
• 7x Island
• 1x Kor Haven
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 3x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Port Town
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Riptide Laboratory
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Seachrome Coast
• 1x Temple of Enlightenment
• 1x Tolaria West
• 1x Tundra
• 1x Windswept Heath

Tutor (8)

• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Long-Term Plans
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Planar Portal
• 1x Tolaria West
• 1x Whir of Invention

Draw (6)

• 1x Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1x Azami, Lady of Scrolls
• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Staff of Domination
• 1x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

Interaction (22)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Capsize
• 1x Crush Contraband
• 1x Disallow
• 1x Dust Bowl
• 1x Empress Galina
• 1x Ertai, Wizard Adept
• 1x Kor Haven
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Memnarch
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
• 1x Tormod's Crypt
• 1x Torpor Orb
• 1x Unstable Obelisk
• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Whir of Invention

Ramp (13)

• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Coldsteel Heart
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Honor-Worn Shaku
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Prismatic Lens
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Unstable Obelisk

Boardwipe (7)

• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1x Fated Retribution
• 1x Oblivion Stone
• 1x Rout
• 1x Settle the Wreckage

Commander (1)

Utility (16)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Codex Shredder
• 1x Elixir of Immortality
• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Mirage Mirror
• 1x Nexus of Fate
• 1x Paradox Engine
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Sakashima the Impostor
• 1x Search for Azcanta  ^Flip
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Staff of Domination
• 1x Thought Vessel

Win Condition (9)

• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Capsize
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Memnarch
• 1x Nexus of Fate
• 1x Paradox Engine
• 1x Staff of Domination
• 1x Walking Ballista

Protection (4)

• 1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1x Hammer of Nazahn
• 1x Neurok Stealthsuit
• 1x Riptide Laboratory

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LITERALLY Everything Can Be Cast At Instant Speed!

Keeping Up With The Speed

Introduction

Welcome to my optimized (or some would describe as 75%) Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage control/combo deck with an instant tribal theme where doing nothing is doing something! With a healthy mix of permissions, draws, and removals, this deck can basically control the entire board without breaking a sweat! Nothing is better than sitting on a fat stack of cards while just doing things on your opponent's EOT. The cards in my decklist are mostly either historic, instants, or cards with "flash" for the instant speed tribal theme. As my list evolves, some cards listed in the primer will not be reflected in my decklist.

Rafwyn "Raff" Capashen is a distant relative of Captain Gerrard Capashen. He became the ship's mage of Jhoira's crew on the rebuilt Skyship Weatherlight. Rafwyn is a young illusionist with unruly brown hair who has studied at the Tolarian Academy. He is the son of Aron Capashen, who is the head of the highest house of Benalia. Despite his noble heritage he prefers to go by the name of "Raff". Raff offered to join the Weatherlight after his older sister Danitha refused.

Too Fast Too Furious

General Strategy

This is primarily a control/combo deck. The deck direction is fairly straightforward, which is to survive the game long enough through permissions and interactions to eventually assemble our win condition. Early game is basically ramping with the plethora of mana rocks included in the deck and only answer any threats directed at us when necessary. Mid game is where we start deploying some of our bigger threat and start drawing a bunch of cards. We should be at a commanding position late game if we are able to survive long enough to win.

The Commander

Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage is a four mana human wizard with flying and flash. This allows us to hold up our mana and cast him at an opportune time. His second ability is similar to a Leyline of Anticipation effect for historic spells (artifacts, legendaries, and sagas) which gives us an option of a reactive draw-go gameplan while we let the table duke it out. What this means is that traditionally proactive historic cards with interactive effects like Tormod's Crypt are given a fresh new way to play them when the ability to play them at instant speed is introduced. Artifacts that traditionally come in tapped or with an upkeep clause like Nevinyrral's Disk / Worn Powerstone / Scourglass are also much better now since you can just flash them in at opponent's EOT. The same can be said about legendary creatures like Empress Galina , Arcanis the Omnipotent , or Ertai, Wizard Adept that can't activate their abilities on the turn them come into play but with flash makes them playable by essentially giving them pseudo-haste.

Historic Spells (when given Flash)

The following are traditional proactive historic spells that are given a totally new way of playing with the ability to cast them at instant speed:

• Tormod's Crypt = Instant speed graveyard hate
• Torpor Orb = Instant speed Stifle effect on creature ETB
• Codex Shredder = Instant speed top deck library manipulation hate (including tutors like Vampiric Tutor )
• Dispeller's Capsule = Instant speed artifact/enchantment removal
• Mirage Mirror / Sakashima the Impostor / Phyrexian Metamorph = Instant speed clone shenanigans
• Avacyn, Angel of Hope = Instant speed boardwipe protection
• Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker = Instant speed "attack regret" effect
• Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite = Instant speed small creatures boardwipe
• Padeem, Consul of Innovation = Instant speed artifact protection
• Vedalken Shackles = Instant speed creature steal effect
• Oblivion Stone = Instant speed boardwipe
• Orbs of Warding = Instant speed player protection
• Expedition Map = Instant speed land tutor
• Duplicant / Meteor Golem = Instant speed removal

Unlimited Reusability and Never Decking Out

This deck is designed to never ever deck out by ourselves and having unlimited spells reusibility. This means that the removal or counterspell we just used will come back to our hand later. All this is achieved with the following engine:

• Elixir of Immortality = Puts any spells back to library
• Planar Portal = Recur anything in conjunction with Elixir of Immortality
• Nexus of Fate = Makes sure that we'll never deck out

With a draw mechanic like Azami, Lady of Scrolls or tutors like Mystical Tutor , we will always be able to quickly get our spells back to our hand and use it all over again ad naseaum. Chromatic Lantern turns all of our fetchlands into usable lands once all of the possible lands are in play. This also helps thin out the deck even more to get to our spells easier.

The Theory of Relativity

Notable Synergies

• Minamo, School at Water's Edge = Doubles legendary permanent's utility (e.g. Ertai, Wizard Adept , Empress Galina , Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin , Azami, Lady of Scrolls , and Arcanis the Omnipotent ).

• Avacyn, Angel of Hope = Destroys all nonland permanents I don't control with Oblivion Stone . Do it ad nauseam with Academy Ruins .

• Whir of Invention = Pulls out artifacts from our library like Torpor Orb and Tormod's Crypt to answer various threats at instant speed.

• Elixir of Immortality = With Planar Portal or our draw engine in play , we can essentially reuse all of our spells over and over again.

Isochron Scepter Imprint Targets

• Cyclonic Rift = Bounce on a stick

• Arcane Denial / Mana Drain / Muddle the Mixture = Permission on a stick

• Path to Exile / Swords to Plowshares = Creature removal on a stick

• Brainstorm = It's like a mini JTMS on a stick that can draw the deck with Paradox Engine to win

• Mystical Tutor = Instant/Sorcery tutor on a stick and with a draw engine/enough mana, take infinite turns with Nexus of Fate

• Enlightened Tutor = Artifact/Enchantment tutor on a stick

Becoming One With Speed

Win Conditions

Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter + mana rocks tapping for a combined or more = Infinite mana

1. Play Isochron Scepter and exile Dramatic Reversal.

2. Tap any nonland mana source(s) to produce 3 or more mana.

3. Pay 2 of that mana to tap Isochron Scepter and cast the copy of Dramatic Reversal.

4. When Dramatic Reversal is cast, untap Isochron Scepter and your nonland mana sources.

5. Repeat steps 2 and 4, making infinite mana and untapping of nonland permanents.

After generating infinite mana and untapping of nonland permanents, we can then proceed to draw our entire deck with Arcanis the Omnipotent / Azami, Lady of Scrolls / Blue Sun's Zenith / Staff of Domination and win with:

• Blue Sun's Zenith = Force everyone to deck out (target an opponent and after BSZ is shuffled back to the library, tap Azami, Lady of Scrolls or cast Nexus of Fate to take an extra turn till we draw it again to continue on another opponent till we win)
• Capsize = Return every permanent to opponents' hand forever
• Nexus of Fate = Infinite turns (never deck out and casting this forever with this being the last card of the library)
• Memnarch = Steals everything
• Swan Song = Creates infinite 2/2 bird tokens by first countering a spell you cast
• Codex Shredder = Mill everyone's entire library
• Walking Ballista = Infinite damage

Alternatively, as mentioned in the section above, imprinting Mystical Tutor with at least and a draw engine like Azami, Lady of Scrolls available will enable us to take infinite turns with Nexus of Fate and draw into our win conditions eventually. If our combo pieces are removed or we can't combo off for some reason, the following are alternative win conditions to help us get to the promise land:

• Capsize + Paradox Engine = With enough mana rocks to tap for we can bounce everyone's permanents forever.

• Nexus of Fate + Planar Portal = This is a late game win condition when we can generate to take infinite turns.

Speed Into The Dumpster Fire

The following are cards I've considered/tested but have decided to exclude:

• Linvala, Keeper of Silence : This is a control deck and linvala breaks the spirit by being more of a death and taxes/stax creature.

• Mindslaver : Becomes too clunky early to mid game and only useful when opponents have a good boardstate (which is rare when I'm piloting this deck).

• Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir : The sorcery speed clause for my opponents is actually a double-edged sword. I sometimes need my opponents to shore up answers when I do not have one.

• Kira, Great Glass-Spinner : Interferes with too many of my stuff that targets my own creatures. Also doesn't save creatures from targeted removal with Raff's flash due to the way it is worded.

• Urza's Ruinous Blast : It's unfortunate that it exiles artifacts since I need them for Paradox Engine . Would have to give this a pass.

Can't Afford To Be THAT Fast?! (Budget Version)

Visit this link for the budget version. The guide on upgrading it to the tuned version will be out soon!

+1 for some Raff Capashen love

Top Ranked	Achieved #1 position overall 5 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Key combos	Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter Capsize + Paradox Engine Nexus of Fate + Planar Portal
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 54 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.17
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Emblem Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Soldier 1/1 W
Folders	My EDH Brews, Interesting Ideas, Cool Ideas, Decks I can afford, Deck Ideas, Competitive EDH, Great Ideas, Maybe next, Commander, Interesting Commander Decks