[Competitive] Tainted Shimmer Zur

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Multiplayer WUB (Esper)

syjte

Instant (32)

• 1x Ad Nauseam
• 1x Angel's Grace
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Demonic Consultation
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Drown in the Loch
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Hurkyl's Recall
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Opt
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Quicken
• 1x Repeal
• 1x Scout's Warning
• 1x Silence
• 1x Spell Pierce
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Tainted Pact
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Creature (5)

• 1x Baral, Chief of Compliance
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Shimmer Myr

Land (30)

• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Emergence Zone
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Gemstone Mine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Scrubland
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Tundra
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Counterbalance
• 1x Grasp of Fate
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Rhystic Study

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils

Commander (1)

Artifact (17)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Progress

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Timetwister
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

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You flex slots in this deck are:

Perilous Research Snapcaster Mage Voltaic Key Dark Confidant Negate Spell Pierce

Everything else is effectively core, and should never be replaced unless you are transitioning back to traditional Shimmer Zur or Doomsday Zur.

There are already detailed writeups for this deck that you can find here:

user:bolsheviktory's original shimmer zur primer: Shimmer Zur Storm

Alexdagreat's brief writeup on tainted zur: Shimmering Tainting Controlling Zur

As for me, I'm more concerned with testing out fringe cards and trying new strategies. I'll continue updating this with various strategies I'm trying out, and my opinions on them.

Doomsday

Doomsday is 50/50. I don't hate it in the tainted builds, but I don't love it either. Since you don't really want Gush or LED in this deck, I believe that Unearth is the best Doomsday pile you can build, since Unearth still functions as a cycler during your Shimmer lines, and allows you the sweet sweet line of using Quicken to reanimate a Lab Man in response to Necropotence's Exile trigger. Perilous Research and Frantic Search are your go to draw-2 effects for the Doomsday pile, with Thought Scour and Predict being very very weak 3rd and 4th options that I don't think are worth it.

Paradoxical Outcome

Win-more card for sure. Sometimes it's good because in our deck it's often just a better time spiral. But generally, when you have that much mana you only really want to be Necro-ing or casting Ad Nauseam. A cute card when it resolves, but not really necessary.

Stifle

This feels like a very meta call. Shuts down Protean Hulk, and buys some turns against Bomberman and Isochron Scepter lines. If you time it well, can interrupt Paradox Engine lines as well, and also delay CVT lines. I might test it since my meta is mostly Hulk and Paradox decks, but I think you're better off playing just Counterspell here.

Praetor's Grasp

A decent Grim tutor impersonator. However, we don't even really want Grim Tutor, and the only advantage this has over Grim Tutor is the potentially to cheese someone out of the game by taking their win conditions. Overall, not really worth the cost as there are better things for you to be doing. Sorcery Speed really hurts this.

Perilous Research

I believe this deserves it's own panel because of how impressed I've been with it. being able to draw two for 2 mana at instant speed is definitely work sacrificing a permanent, and this helps you to streamline your shimmer lines. I believe this is close to core in the deck, even more so if you like to jam Doomsday in the deck as well.

Jace, Vryn's Prodigy

This is too slow for our deck, which is arguably the fastest Zur variant there is. Looting is not really what we want to be doing, and the flashback is too slow in my opinion. This deck wants to be able to operate at instant speed as much as possible, so I believe Snapcaster should get the nod over this if the recursion effect is what you're looking for. Spending 2 mana on a looter that needs a couple of turns to even generate an advantage is suicide in a Flash Hulk world.

Dark Confidant

I'm still a fan of bob in slower, stax heavy metas as a way of grinding through when Necro isn't that reliable sometimes. A strict meta call, and one that I don't think is necessary in my meta since Necro tends to stick.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 0 Mythic Rares 50 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 17 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.76
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Spirit 1/1 C
Folders	OG, CEDH, EDH, cEDH decks, Take Note, decks i want, EDH, cEDH, cEDH Primer decks, Zur Decks