Raffine-sicle

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Lab Man/Thoracle Midrange WUB (Esper)

UpperDeckerTaco

Land (28)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1x Emergence Zone
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Otawara, Soaring City
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Scrubland
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Tundra
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of Champions
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath

Artifact (14)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Currency Converter
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mox Amber
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x The One Ring
• 1x Wishclaw Talisman

Creature (27)

• 1x Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
• 1x Archfiend of Ifnir
• 1x Containment Construct
• 1x Dauthi Voidwalker
• 1x Drana and Linvala
• 1x Drannith Magistrate
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Heliod, Sun-Crowned
• 1x Hopeful Initiate
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
• 1x Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff
• 1x Lurrus of the Dream-Den
• 1x Mausoleum Wanderer
• 1x Opposition Agent
• 1x Orcish Bowmasters
• 1x Ranger-Captain of Eos
• 1x Serra Ascendant
• 1x Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 1x Skrelv, Defector Mite
• 1x Spellskite
• 1x Talion, the Kindly Lord
• 1x Thassa's Oracle
• 1x Tymna the Weaver
• 1x Walking Ballista

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Doomsday
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Windfall

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Teferi's Ageless Insight

Commander (1)

Instant (21)

• 1x An Offer You Can't Refuse
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Deadly Rollick
• 1x Delay
• 1x Demonic Consultation
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Force of Negation
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Silence
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Tainted Pact
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

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Wanted to test out a different Esper build in cEDH. I know Tivit is generally the favorite for Esper, with Malcolm/Tymna right behind it, but I wanted something with a little bit of "PIZZAZZ". I chose to use Raffine, Scheming Seer.

I am still in testing phase and I have tried out a slightly different build utilizing Hoarding Broodlord combo, turning Spellseeker into a 1 card wincon where Spellseeker would tutor Ephemerate to blink itself, and then tutor out Entomb and then tutor Reanimate on the Rebound cast of Ephemerate on my upkeep, which then sets up reanimating Broodlord to get Saw in Half which you use to 'destroy' Broodlord to get 2 copies, tutoring Sacrifice and Peer into the Abyss, using Sacrifice to get 8 black mana from one of your Broodlord tokens to then cast PITA. The main issue, it is very telegraphed and with the printing of Orcish Bowmasters, this means that in response to our PITA, someone can 'flash' in Bowmasters and we literally just die, while giving them like a 40/40 creature to kill the table with. And also, the cards needed to make this work, do not work very well with the rest of our gameplan. We don't want to Ephemerate our creatures because we don't have a lot of 'enters the battlefield' triggers and we don't want to remove the counters on a Raffine (or other creature) because then that reduces the 'clock' on our opponents' life totals. So this interaction was cut for more versatile cards.

I am running the typical Thassa's Oracle + Demonic Consultation/Tainted Pact combo as a wincon, but also, I found that the deck needed another something to win off of. So we added Laboratory Maniac as a 'second' Oracle. Another potential wincon is the Walking Ballista+Heliod, Sun-Crowned combo, due to the fact that Ballista works really well with Raffine and the lifegain from Heliod isn't 'nothing' and can aid in ensuring we don't die to our own The One Ring and it makes Serra Ascendant better.

Specific Card Choices:

Talion, the Kindly Lord = Testing this card out, due to the fact that literally everyone is saying that it draws an absurd amount of cards if you set it on the number "2".

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse = I wanted a way to stay in the game late against other midrange decks that also can draw a lot of cards. This essentially is a 'stax' piece, but also a 'clock' in its own right. This with Windfall in the late game can just end games. This with Bowmasters and Windfall more than likely will close out the game in the late game. This card seems bad against turbo decks, but good in midrange fights. But, luckily, with Raffine's ability to just loot away the bad cards in our hand in exchange for potentially better cards at the right moment, I don't mind slotting this in as a flex spot.

Teferi's Ageless Insight = With Raffine's ability, it is not card advantage. It is simply card selection. So in order to maintain a stacked hand, landing this with 3 creatures on board (one of them being Raffine), allows us to keep our hand filled and still able to apply pressure on our opponents. Not to mention, this works extremely well with The One Ring.

Lurrus of the Dream-Den or Reanimate = Why run these cards when they are a 'non-bo' with Grafdigger's Cage? Well, because they are powerful. And I am willing to trade off and accept the fact that sometimes these cards will do nothing if Cage is out, which is also why Raffine's connive ability makes these cards 'not so dead' in our hand when we can use them as discard fodder, depending on how the game is shaping up.

Archfiend of Ifnir = Probably the best board wipe in this deck that constantly keep the table clear if not answered. It stays in the deck for that simple fact that it can literally shut down every creature strategy in the format just by playing creatures and attacking with them along with Raffine.

Skrelv, Defector Mite = Why not just play Mother of Runes? Because this deck is running Mox Amber AND Mox Opal, and Skrelv allows these two artifacts to turn on more frequently and easily.

Currency Converter and Containment Construct = More cheap mana value ways to maximize the fact that Looting is NOT card advantage.

Take a look at the deck, if you have any suggestions and/or questions, hit me up!

Everyday I'm shufflin'!

Date added	3 years
Last updated	6 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 0 Mythic Rares 65 - 0 Rares 13 - 0 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.88
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Companion Zone, Human 1/1 W, Orc Army, Rogue 2/2 B, Treasure