Prime Speaker Zegana

Legendary Creature — Merfolk Wizard

Prime Speaker Zegana enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it, where X is the greatest power among other creatures you control.

When Prime Speaker Zegana enters the battlefield, draw cards equal to its power.

Discussion (51)

SplendiferousPotato on Windgrace Landscaping Company, Inc.

5 days ago

It makes me happy that my ideas for cuts are echoed in your suggestions.

• I had been suspecting that I could cut one of my two "has P/T equal to the number of lands you control" big beaters, and the better one is definitely Ulvenwald Hydra. It fetches any land straight to the battlefield, and has reach. Trample would be nice, but I remove threats so well that I will always have a target.
• I've had a Rogue's Passage out in time for a big swing with a Multani or Ulvenwald Hydra, and in fact, I used to run RP just for those conditions, but I no longer think it is necessary. If the only beefy creature in the deck is Ulvenwald Hydra (assuming I cut MYA, which is likely), I think I will put Valakut in for Rogue's Passage. Doesn't make sense to run an evasion utility land for one creature, and if I need to tutor a win condition in the late game, it sure as hell won't be a big creature. There are too many other easy ways to win.

- If I make the following cuts . . .

1. Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar comes out, Dread Presence goes in.
2. Rogue's Passage comes out, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle goes in.
3. Nissa, Vastwood Seer  ^Flip comes out, Prismatic Omen goes in.
4. Wayward Swordtooth comes out, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove goes in.

. . . it actually solves a lot of the problems I used to have with the Valakut win condition. I used to have such a hard time achieving Valakut triggers because I didn't have enough ways to stick the "all lands are mountains" effect necessary. But with these cuts, I have redundant Prismatic Omen effects, and I may be able to just accomplish it incidentally by playing the Dryad as a normal Wayward Swordtooth "extra lands" effect.

I also want to thank you for your advice. You clearly know what you are doing, and this deck has been my pet project (and also the first EDH deck I've taken seriously and built entirely myself). I appreciate your input greatly, and I hope you bring your insights to any decks of mine you find interesting!

• (Stay Tuned - I am in the initial stages of a Prime Speaker Zegana Hydra tribal deck that may end up being better than I initially planned)

Marcolokvenvan on Summon Bigger Fish

5 days ago

How about swaping souls majesty for Prime Speaker Zegana Cost 1 more to cast for drawing 13 cards and is a 13/13 body

And she is a fish

Meeknomore on Churnin' Chulane

2 weeks ago

Goretast, thank you for the suggestions!

I did a bit of research ahead of putting the deck together, and all of these were mentioned and were on my list. I noticed however, that this approach leaned more on the competitive side, and while its fun to win a lot, my playgroup is not competitive at all. I'd like to keep the power level hovering around the 6-7 range. For that reason alone I had scratched Mana Breach from my list, and Cloudstone Curio is a bit out of my budget right now.

As for the creatures you suggested, well, the only real reservation I have about them is that the bounce effect is permanent, by which I mean the creature doesn't immediately return to play. I'm forced to recast it. I understand that the idea is that these creatures are cheap and can bounce them selves and be cast repeatedly. Value noted. My preference for a bounce effect in the deck is of immediate return so that I can utilize them on larger, more expensive creatures like Tishana, Voice of Thunder or Prime Speaker Zegana. To get the effects I'm looking for, returning them to my hand would slow me down to much.

They are great suggestions and I appreciate the input, however I don't feel that they are a good fit for the deck at this time. If I take the deck to a local league or tournament, then I will most definitely incorporate these.

Lemky24 on Bant Flicker/Blink

3 weeks ago

Cards I would remove:

AEtherling Does not combo with much and is not a huge impact for the cost

Deputy of Detention you are not able to pull off anything crazy like Oblivion Ring Oblivion Ring has two seperate abilities. The first ability is an enters the battlefield ability and the second ability is a leaves the battlefield ability. Because of the way to stack works, one can target a permanent with the first ability (EtB trigger) but then force the second ability (LtB trigger) to occur (through sacrificing, bouncing, blinking, or exiling Oblivion Ring) before this first ability resolves. This means that the clause where the target will be returned by Oblivion Ring will occur, but at this point Oblivion Ring has not exiled anything. Then the EtB ability resolves, exiling a permanent under an Oblivion Ring that no longer exists

Fierce Empath I would rather have straight card draw or ramp as this guy only finds 6+ costs

Gigantoplasm I would limit the clones in the deck to only Clever Impersonator as most of the time it is going to be a Win-More card but would not actually swing the game into your favour if drawn alone

Mirror Image See above

Phyrexian Metamorph See above

Nezahal, Primal Tide He is a big bomb but doesnt fit the theme of the deck, most of the time I would rather a token maker or card draw.

Restoration Angel A 1 time use, I would rather a tutor to find Deadeye Navigator

Wall of Omens I would limit the amount of walls as they can not attack

Wall of Blossoms See above

Cards I would add:

Tutors: lets you find any missing piece as most of your best stuff is creature based

Eladamri's Call

Chord of Calling

Finale of Devastation

Green Sun's Zenith

Ramp:

Cultivate Ramp and thin your deck

Kodama's Reach Ramp and thin your deck

Wood Elves can abuse with blink

Farhaven Elf can abuse with blink

Peregrine Drake Infinite mana with most blink enabling cards like Deadeye Navigator

Recursion: a couple more options to return things from your graveyard

Sun Titan

Reveillark

Good value:

Elvish Visionary Card draw that can attack

Avenger of Zendikar Generate a lot of tokens plus with Farhaven Elf you can make them huge

Mulldrifter Card draw, plus you can evoke and save him with a blink effect.

Hornet Queen Generate a lot of flying deathtouch tokens

Prime Speaker Zegana Card draw

Sunblast Angel A reusable semi board wipe

Seedborn Muse Allows you to play out your hand and untap on their turns for counters or blink effects

Leyline of Anticipation Combos great with Seedborn Muse and lets you react to your opponents moves easier

Slithermuse Can lock down the game and force your opponents to draw the same mana rock for the rest of the game

LGMR on Animar Cheepo Combo

1 month ago

Thanks for the tips! I'll look at your deck too. I suppose you're right about Neoform , it's just such a, cheap combo. I'd like to add Bloom Tender but it's an expensive card. I may use both Tishana, Voice of Thunder and Prime Speaker Zegana if I take out Neoform .

TheMazter13 on Temur Smackdown

1 month ago

Having played Animar, it sucks having to tap 3 lands to play a 4 mana spell. Avoid pips and low Pip:Generic Ratios if possible . Every pip is mana you have to pay and we don't want to pay much. But cards like Surrak Dragonclaw and Maelstrom Wanderer are both good even though they have a full RUG in their cost

Also, you have a lot of value engines that work off creatures ETBing. However, Animar is your value engine. Why play Rhystic Study for 2U with a chance to draw cards when you can play Mulldrifter for U to get a 2/2 Flyer and 2 cards? Noncreature spells have to paid for in full, so they should probably interact with your creatures more. Mana doublers like Zendikar Resurgent are way too big to be worth much. Why double your mana when everything is basically free on turn 7 anyway.

Maybe more artifact creatures? X spells? Hangarback Walker ? Wurmcoil Engine ? More valuable Single Pip cards like Mulldrifter or Peregrine Drake . I know your degenerate self loves 2-3 card combos well Deadeye Navigator + Peregrine Drake = Infinite Mana and Infinite ETB if something cares about other creatures. Also, probably should play Deadeye Navigator if you're playing Panharmonicon and maybe add some value ETB like Eternal Witness or Mulldrifter and Navigator can flicker Prime Speaker Zegana or Tishana, Voice of Thunder and get some insane card draw

AnonymouSAvatar on arixmethes underwater

1 month ago

Cut Kraken Hatchling , Scattering Stroke , Thassa's Rebuff , Bident of Thassa , Kruphix, God of Horizons and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx .

Return of the Wildspeaker , Prime Speaker Zegana , Rishkar's Expertise , Rush of Knowledge , Shamanic Revelation , Finale of Revelation , Praetor's Council, Feed , Soul's Majesty , Colossal Majesty , Elemental Bond , Guardian Project are good at drawing cards in this deck.

Your deck wants to ramp heavily, try adding a balance of early game ramp that costs 2-4 CMC and late game ramp that costs 5+ CMC, some good early ramp options include Farseek , Rampant Growth , Grow from the Ashes , Skyshroud Claim , Circuitous Route , Myriad Landscape , Burgeoning , Blighted Woodland . Good late game ramp options are Traverse the Outlands , Boundless Realms . Since your commander is CMC 4 you want any 1 or 2 CMC ramp to get it out on turn 3 at the latest but after that artifact ramp is much more fragile than land ramp so try to avoid it.

Note that Simic Guildgate is a good addition if you include Circuitous Route.

Fierce Empath can tutor any of your giant creatures.

Elvish Piper is another Quicksilver Amulet and Mosswort Bridge is a free addition that can cheat in a lot of big creatures.

Displacement Wave and Inundate are both other synergistic board wipes.

Lurking Predators can make it really scary for opponents to play any spells.

Leyline of Anticipation , Alchemist's Refuge and even Yeva, Nature's Herald are really good since they give your creatures pseudo-haste and protect them from sorcery speed removal for 1 turn.

With enough ramp, X spells can be particularly impactful, Finale of Devastation can search for any creature and it's not hard to get X=10+ to win the game, Genesis Wave is one of the premier green X spells,

Freed from the Real and Pemmin's Aura both create infinite with your commander. It's your choice if you want to include these cards though, they're not for every playgroup and don't fit the theme of your deck.

Here is the gatherer search for sea monsters there are enough of them that you should be able to have all of your sea monsters have some impact on the board, there are also some that might be better than the ones you currently have.

Yotian_Soldier on 75% Simic Hydra Tribal

1 month ago

30 Dec 2019 Updates:

Incubation Druid > Prime Speaker Zegana : Reduce our top end of the mana curve for early ramp; our deck has now more ways to add counters on our creatures making the druid tap for 3 man is sweet

Ring of Kalonia > Spike Weaver : provides additional +1/+1 counters on our creature and trample to our beater

Veil of Summer > AEtherspouts : card draw, protect our self, makes our spells uncounterable for a turn and our creatures from black or blue spells/ability. For an uncommon; no wonder this was banned in 3 formats.