Thrasios & Vial Smasher - Ancestral Curiosity

Commander / EDH

LabManiac_cobblepott

Land (28)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Badlands
• 1x Bayou
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forest
• 3x Island
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Taiga
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Creature (11)

• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Etherium Sculptor
• 1x Gorilla Shaman
• 1x Guttersnipe
• 1x Kederekt Parasite
• 1x Nightscape Familiar
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Reckless Fireweaver
• 1x Tandem Lookout
• 1x Thermo-Alchemist
• 1x Tunneling Geopede

Instant (24)

• 1x Abrupt Decay
• 1x Ad Nauseam
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x High Tide
• 1x Hurkyl's Recall
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Snap
• 1x Spell Pierce
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Artifact (13)

• 1x Candelabra of Tawnos
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x Paradox Engine
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence

Commanders (2)

Sorcery (13)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Summer Bloom
• 1x Time Spiral
• 1x Timetwister
• 1x Transmute Artifact
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Windfall

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Burgeoning
• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Curiosity
• 1x Exploration
• 1x Keen Sense
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Ophidian Eye
• 1x Sigil of Sleep
• 1x Snake Umbra

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Maybeboard

Creature (5)

• 1x Eidolon of the Great Revel
• 1x Firebrand Archer
• 1x Harsh Mentor
• 1x Scab-Clan Berserker
• 1x Zo-Zu the Punisher

Artifact (1)

• 1x Basilisk Collar

Instant (3)

• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Negate
• 1x Stifle

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 1x Winds of Change

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Glistening Oil
• 1x Phyresis
• 1x Vampiric Link

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This list is deprecated.

Continued refinement of the design is happening in a Nekusar shell.

Game plan is straight forward. Charge forward with typical Ad Nauseam lines, generating large amounts of mana, draw lots of cards (off Thrasios if necessary), and kill opponents off of cumulative ping effects. Don't worry, I'll explain in a moment.

A refinement of the broader plan above is the idea of composing events that occur very frequently with effects that exploit those events taking place. The glue that holds this together is the 'deals damage' trigger.

Damage Dealers

• On casting instants or sorceries - Guttersnipe, Thermo-Alchemist
• On artifacts entering the battlefield - Reckless Fireweaver
• On lands entering the battlefield - Tunneling Geopede
• On opponents drawing cards - Kederekt Parasite
• On casting your first spell each turn (opponent turns count) - Vial Smasher the Fierce

Damage Exploiters

• Draw cards - Curiosity, Keen Sense, Tandem Lookout, Snake Umbra
• Bounce opponent creatures - Sigil of Sleep
• Under consideration: Infect - Phyresis, Glistening Oil
• Under consideration: Life Gain - Vampiric Link, Basilisk Collar (Mainly to allow for Eidolon of the Great Revel or Zo-Zu the Punisher)

So for example, suppose you get Guttersnipe + Curiosity on the board. Every instant or sorcery you cast will deal damage to each opponent. Assuming a typical 4-pod, that's an Ancestral Recall every time you cast a spell. It doesn't take much imagination to realize how quickly that produces a win.

Or maybe you assemble Kederekt Parasite + Sigil of Sleep . Add an asymmetric board wipe to all your wheels? Seems good.

Reckless Fireweaver does well with Curiosity effects too. Lots of people really wanted Paradoxical Outcome to be good. To be honest, Hurkyl's Recall on yourself and then recasting all your artifacts for net positive mana and draw 3 for each one feels better on some level.

Or perhaps Tunneling Geopede + Keen Sense. Again, Ancestral Recall every time a land enters the battlefield under your control (fetches trigger twice of course). Burgeoning and friends allow for meaningful exploitation of this. It stands to reason your likelihood of having lands to drop as the turns pass around the table goes up if every land you drop draws three cards. Many of those cards will be ready for casting since they come off the backs of untapped lands entering play. Lotus Cobra makes life even easier if you're mana hungry somehow.

You get the idea. Take an event that occurs a lot (casting spells, playing lands, casting artifacts, opponents drawing cards, etc) and bind a beneficial response to that event taking place. And don't forget, the reason all those things are taking place is because opponents are taking damage. Thus by simply chaining along, your opponents will die.

How do we ensure perpetuation of the chain? Well, we've got the card draw part of the equation covered. Now for mana.

There are myriad land drop augmenters in Summer Bloom , Burgeoning, Exploration, Thrasios, Triton Hero , etc. Couple those with untap effects (Paradox Engine, Frantic Search, Turnabout, etc) and Regrowth / Timetwister effects, you'll be able to storm along for an arbitrary amount of time.

A satisfying nuance of this architecture is that the engine pieces compose without loss of functionality. There are many types of combos in the meta where redundant pieces yield either diminished or no return. Not so here. Did you suit up your Thermo-Alchemist with three Curiosity effects and Sigil of Sleep ? That's fine. You'll bounce creatures and draw 9 every time you cast a spell.

That's a whole lot of draw. Make sure you plan out a Timetwister loop or bounce/kill your draw engines when you've reached critical mass.

By the way, having a spread of triggering events is useful. If you're playing against stax/prison, casting instants and sorceries may be lots of work. In that case bind to lands entering or your opponents drawing cards. Play to the texture of the board.

Top Ranked	Achieved #28 position overall 6 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 43 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 22 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.72
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U
Folders	cEDH Spice, Cedh, cEDH, cEDH, Competitive, LabManiacs Decks