京 An illusion? What are you hiding? (cEDH-$T4KS) 京

Commander / EDH Bird Bracket 5 Competitive Group Slug GWU (Bant) Hatebears Primer Stax Tap/Untap Toolbox Wizards

Kiyomei

Creature (37)

• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Archon of Emeria
• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Aven Interrupter
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Captain Sisay
• 1x Circle of Dreams Druid
• 1x Collector Ouphe
• 1x Delighted Halfling
• 1x Drannith MagistrateGC
• 1x Edric, Spymaster of Trest
• 1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Emiel the Blessed
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Ethersworn Canonist
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Glowrider
• 1x Grand Arbiter Augustin IVGC
• 1x Hokori, Dust Drinker
• 1x Kataki, War's Wage
• 1x Kinnan, Bonder ProdigyGC
• 1x Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
• 1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Noble Hierarch
• 1x Pollywog Prodigy
• 1x Quirion Ranger
• 1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 1x Toski, Bearer of Secrets
• 1x Vryn Wingmare
• 1x Yasharn, Implacable Earth
• 1x Yisan, the Wanderer Bard

Land (30)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1x Bountiful Promenade
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Brushland
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forest
• 1x Gaea's CradleGC
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Horizon Canopy
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Rejuvenating Springs
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Tarnished Citadel
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Tundra
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Waterlogged Grove
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Yavimaya Coast
• 1x Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Instant (8)

• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Crop RotationGC
• 1x Cyclonic RiftGC
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Enlightened TutorGC
• 1x Fierce GuardianshipGC
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Worldly TutorGC

Commander (1)

Artifact (11)

• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Chrome MoxGC
• 1x Mox DiamondGC
• 1x Null Rod
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sphere of Resistance
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x The One RingGC
• 1x Thorn of Amethyst
• 1x Trinisphere
• 1x Winter Orb

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Deafening Silence
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Rest in Peace
• 1x Rhystic StudyGC
• 1x Root Maze
• 1x Stony Silence
• 1x Utopia Sprawl
• 1x Wild Growth

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Neoform

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**An illusion? What are you hiding? tEDH/cEDH Derevi**

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(PRIMER : Scroll down for: The full description on how to play tEDH Derevi-Stax.)

{G} {W} {U}

{G} {W} {U}

{G} {W} {U}

(Also feel free to join the Discord for all your needs, questions and decklists !!! = = https://discord.com/invite/FfsFgCa In the "CardGames" section! )

{T} Short Intro on the History and future of this Deck {T} Show

Kiyomei currently the top tEDH/cEDH Derevi list thanks to your support and love for the Bird Wizard! don't forget to upvote if you liked the deck/primer!!! Thank You<3

When she was first released it was sculpted by a lot of the "1v1 Derevi" decks on mtgtop8. Back when she was not banned yet we were already trying to abuse her abilities, but here is where we try and perfect her for tEDH / cEDH!!! Big shoutout to the people that were working on the deck at the same time as I did and inspired each other Glix , NarejED and let us not forget the cute wizard ball version later on of LabManiac_cobblepott xD !!!

This is a tournament-level (tEDH) Stax deck. It is designed to "win" in high-pressure environments by withstanding incoming disruption, suppressing opponents, and using efficient and powerful Tools to lock out any strategy or combos and all that while aiming for a cookie cutter design with no redundancies + least amount of dead cards in the deck! BIS.

This deck is therefor built around a thight network of synergies; The Stax Cards have interchangeable pieces, and the cards that support them can be used in different meta as general utility cards or flex slots with a large amount of options out there for you to adjust to any Meta. Because the number of redundant cards is minimized, the deck's resilience is increased, and the odds of drawing dead cards are decreased or at least minimized.

As for the basics fundamentals of Stax: is knowing when and how to Stax, all that while dealing with turns ahead of you. In a sense, this is countermagic ahead of time but does not have any resemblance to the way you would play out control.

(click on the Tap Symbols to expand further and go deeper into detail with my take on tEDH Derevi Stax...)

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"Meta" " cEDH / tEDH" Stax Commander

I have Been trying to fine-tune the deck since 2013 - end of 2014 with data taken from MTGOTOP8 back when she was not banned yet in 1v1, all other Stax lists are just essentially adaptations of decks found on there and improved upon over time except for the wizard-ball or blink versions and any other non-Stax versions as these came to being long long after... ("The Four Thousand Dollar Solution" ($T4KS) Big thanks To vintage and modern Stax decks for loads of inspiration!)

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京 Kiyomei 京 :

Alters and art are on here if interested! "kiyomei.tumblr.com".

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The in-depth Derevi/Stax Primer...

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{T} Tori u~izādo (bird Wizard) (reasoning/playstyle/triggered/strategy)

**Reasoning/playstyle**

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General: Derevi, Empyrial Tactician

The Bird wizard that can singlehandedly close out games by disenfranchising players leaving them deprived of power or influence over the state of the game and unable to play anything in some cases!... This deck is for people who don't like other to have any fun and sowly rot the tables brains like an Affliction Warlock or giving everyone severe ARS.

cEDH / tEDH decks have varying degrees of reliance on their commander. Derevi is key towards this deck for a variety of different reasons but it doesn't hamstring the gameplan as much if she gets removed here and there... This is because of her ability to be cheated in to play without caring for commander tax... She excels at breaking Negative symmetrical effects and turn them into asymmetrical effects for our opponents, She is also very good at breaking any toolbox cards or gaining/denying recourses while having the ability to enter without being countered 99.9% of the time...

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Her strengths :{G}{W}{U} This mana cost makes her cheap enough to be reliably cast, and operate as an efficient early game general in play (Removing her "most of the time" doesn't affect us at all). At the same time, it enables access to bant. This is critical because of the tools it enables us to make use of. First and foremost, and also very important for this deck is that it opens up the largest (tied with Jund) pool of one mana accelerants. Not only do you get the normal mana elves, but you also get Hierarch and Pilgrim. Having access to this large a pool of one mana creature accelerants is very important to everything that this deck wants to do, but the most obvious being that these enable a pretty reliable turn two Derevi, meaning that constructing strategic elements around her being on the field is sensible and reliable enough to break free from most of the symmetrical lines of play this deck proposes...

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**Triggered**

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Triggered

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Her triggers can be used to tap down any opponent's resources or untap your own. Because they are each independent, this allows you to also tap and untap the same permanent multiple times, and stack them... For instance, you can "untap and tap" a Gaea's CradleGC and use Yisan, the Wanderer Bard as many times as you can afford to because of the independent triggers that go on the stack which you can choose to respond to while carefully deciding how or what you would want from Yisan for example (Yisan guide further down)! with enough creatures on the field, the cradle can generate an absurd amount of explosiveness or you can use Captain Sisay multiple times to find correct answers to what is coming. These are merely just a few examples. Proper stacking of each independent trigger can be critical, so Derevi is not an easy commander to use, but she is very rewarding of skill in this regard. The ability to foresee other's gameplans and disrupt them is crucial!

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**The command zone ability/preserving**

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icing on the cake

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"{1}{G}{W}{U} : Put Derevi onto the battlefield from the command zone.": With a card already so powerful, this ability is just icing on the cake. Unlike other decks reliant on their commander, killing Derevi a few times doesn't push her into being prohibitively costly from penalties. Derevi always costs {1}{G}{W}{U} at worst!!! And when you use this ability, she gains essentially both flash and is unhindered by counterspells unless there are things like Stifle... This allows her to play around a ton of stuff and gives her some of the most Strong enters of any Legendary creature in the game... Keep in mind as well that the cost increase of Generals is tagged to how many times they are cast, so if you have that extra mana, using her ability preserves her one-time {G}{W}{U} for later use, despite you getting her into play.

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power and toughness "{2} / {3}": Probably the most negligible aspect, but she's got a decent body on her as well, and she isn't killed by Elesh Norn and such, making her ever so slightly tougher to deal with. A nice finishing touch to an already amazing card.

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**strategy**

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strategy

So let's see what can be done with her. Knowing that her tap ability has the power of turning other creatures into pseudo-Icy Manipulator, and the classic interaction with those is keeping a player locked under Winter Orb. Three icy-manipulators = three players locked down, and you don't even have to pay mana each to do it, all you have to do is connect with /any/ player. And let us not forget that Bant enables access to both Rising Waters and Hokori, Dust Drinker, giving us all of the Winter Orb effects in the game currently.

Derevi poses a few interesting challenges regarding this playstyle. She wants access to a lot of creatures to maximize her second ability, but stax historically tends to use few if any creatures or struggles against it to get full value out of a game... Therefor we abuse A full compliment of all usable mana dorks giving us access to more mana and explosiveness to break parity with these kind of effects, while also providing stax effects on a stick that can lock people down.

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This deck has a lot of interactions and rewards skilled plays that think at least 2-3 turns ahead of time. Mistakes tend to compound, and the deck is not very forgiving of error and miss use of stacking triggers or correct use of a toolbox card, as anything will and can be exploited. Exposing yourself to being focused heavily. The play error is not always obvious. The reason for this is that while the deck can take complete control of the game early on, because of this you quickly will have the table forced to go after you, and once your board is removed it can be difficult to recover as your opponents will have amassed spells in their hand that you had been prohibiting them from casting while yours tends to have been expended. That being said, under-extending is dangerous, and you should not play 'conservatively' to try and avoid these kinds of things, rather you should focus on plays ahead of time such that you are not exposed to them in the first place. Games are quite unique and diverse with this deck, and while your general strategy of locking the board down is consistent, exactly how to go about this rarely is.

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{T} MULLIGAN!!!

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London Mulligan: This is very solid for this commander as it will allow you to sculpt your hand and more reliably cast Derevi on turn 2 and set up engines or interact with the board due to a good selection of similar utility, ramp and interaction/Stax.

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"Mulligan. Like any good commander deck, the strategy starts well before the first spell resolves. The deck lost a lot of its pre-game setting up when Partial Paris was removed but now regained it with The new 'London Mulligan' ruling, this will always remains a critical step towards the success of this deck. A good hand optimally has the mana to cast Derevi on turn 2, a lock piece, and a way of setting up an engine or draw into more cards" (these can typically be interchanged by a tutor depending on what you are missing)...

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**The opener:**

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The opener

This deck is very opening hand dependent, as this will define how you proceed. Some openers will just win you the game. Outside of that, however, the principal goal is to identify what decks your opponents are on, which may or may not be obvious from their generals...

Probably the most quintessential opening line of play is a turn 1 land into a dork, turn two land: casting a turn 2 Derevi, untapping something (and perhaps cast more stuff), turn three winter orb/sphere, win. These kinds of hands are commonly the most likely to successfully win you the game, particularly if that turn two play is a sphere effect. In general, having a turn two sphere effect is the safest way to put yourself in a position to win the game. Winter Orb doesn't really become 'live' until turn (two) - three, although landing one as soon as possible is critical, as it sets the stage for victory. However, this deck has diverse elements. The most important principle is that you need to invalidate as many cards as possible as quickly as possible. You need to foresee how the elements you control interact to cause the most disruption on your opponents. Minimize risk of exposure first and foremost, ensure inevitability secondarily.

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The strategy of the opener:

The deck has a low amount of lands on purpose, it's ideal to minimize the amount of 'dead' draw, and this deck rarely needs more than two or three lands for the entire game. This is why there are so few, but the side effect is that you cannot effecivly rely on drawing lands. Disruption needs to start at the latest by turn two/three, or you are heavily exposing yourself. The deck works on a very tight curve and with very efficient creatures, but this makes the late-game comparably poor to most decks if it does not establish an early game suppression or explosive start... Although it can still disrupt some combos late game, However, if you have no way to protect for example a rule of law effect with Sphere and orb effects people will tend to end step remove it and get around your hate in the late game if you didn't establish a good board state...

You want to use all of your mana every turn, you want to be thinking at least two turns ahead at all times, and you want to be thinking in the mindset not of 'how do I win', but rather 'how could my opponents win from this position'. The last point is the most critical. Derevi isn't really trying to win the game, it is looking to /not lose/. This is a very critical difference. The longer that you do not lose, the more inevitability you gain, as almost everything you do advances a state that approaches a hard lock. That is the next principle, soft locks are temporary and critical to surviving the early turns against combo and midrange decks, but they are a band-aid. You are trying to advance the board state to one of a hard lock. Rarely, you will have the opportunity to just win, usually on the back off an Elesh Norn or an especially explosive start. However, these are few and unlikely, and almost never necessary. Rather, your end game is one of a hard lock victory. Once opponents can literally do nothing about the board state, your dorks and bird wizard will eventually finish the job. first You hinder your opponents resulting on them grasping onto their last resources, and then you need to stop them from doing anything at all.

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"Key "Combos" or synergy of a hard lock victory":

(most of these synergies require you to just swing at one person who doesn't have any way to block one or more of your evasive(flying) threats (very common in cEDH) and tap down their lands under all the Stax!

• Trinisphere + Winter Orb ... (+ Beaters)

• Sphere of Resistance + Winter Orb ... (+ any other sphere effects) and ways to tap down lands with Derevi and some dorks/beaters for example.

• Copperhorn Scout + Stasis ... or Sakashima and double Derevi triggers.

• Quirion Ranger + Stasis ... any forest will do here + a creature that will tap for {U}. (Tropical island or breeding pool also works)

• Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite + Living Plane ...

• Linvala, Keeper of Silence + Living Plane ...

• Cyclonic Rift + Shaman of Forgotten Ways ... With an end step overload and enough power and mana on board, it's an instakill... (No longer in the deck atm)

• Forsaken City + Stasis ... pay the upkeep cost by leaving one card in hand every turn.

Then proceed to smack down opponents with your beaters, flyers and etc :'( (ADNAUS players first!!!)

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Special Note:

It is of extreme importance as a Stax (Not only Derevi) player to be versatile and look into every single cEDH/tEDH deck, and gather as much information about game-winning combo's in the format from multiple sources and angles, how a combo turn looks or plays out for your opponents is crucial knowledge. The deck can be easily optimized to deal with all sorts of meta but requires a deep understanding of the opposing commander and strategies used overall to have a chance at stopping them.

Examples:

Graveyard combo Meta:

You can choose to side in more Grave-Hate than you usually do... (And there is plenty of it around and almost printed in every set with the best one being RIP by far)...

Creature combo Meta:

Depending on the kind you can look to add more ETB-Hate (Kiki, for example, doesn't work under Hushwing Gryff ). If they rely on activated abilities of creatures you could look for things like Linvala, Keeper of Silence...

Hermit-druid/breakfast-hulk, for example, looks to do many things in one turn and wants to do this very fast which our sphere effects already have a large impact on but might not be enough... This is where Rule of law effects work wonders and grave hate as well. If you manage to chain these correctly you will effectively stall and be able to stop the game for them. You need to always be very aware that these decks can combo with very low amounts of mana and can propose a win under a winter orb for example, so it is key to focus tapping down their recourses before any other shenanigans and explosiveness you initially would want to go for if they don't align with more stopping power...

This is also greatly affected by the rotation of play and specific turn order you are in as going last with Derevi puts you in a bad spot to stop turn 2 or 3 wins and requires the use of Stax far earlier than possible at times... Going last is generally the worst spot to be in with any deck (RNG 1/4)!

Artifact combo Meta:

Pretty self-explanatory... Kataki, War's Wage, Stony Silence and Null Rod shuts most of these decks off as does any other artifact/enchantment hate you can run...

CEDH Derevi:

Because we can consistently deal with all other CEDH decks if played correctly by adapting to them it puts us in a good spot... If you look closely at the top decks they are either a collection of storm variants, Graveyard all in combo's (mostly creature based) and Artifact combo which requires minimal research to disrupt but deems very effective when you have the correct shutdown cards available !!

Other People's Stax mostly help us more than they are aware of... I never really consider another Stax player at the table a threat and use them to generate hate pieces that make my life easier and deal with them last as they essentially might be stopping someone else as well and could lose you the game if they are removed...

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{T} Definition of a Hard Lock (Enter the Event Horizon)

**Hard Lock turned on:**

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Hardly ever turned on :'(

What defines a hard lock is a position where no possible card interactions in the game can escape to your board state... This is like placing them in a black hole and nothing they try and do reaches us because we try and break the symmetry in the Stax that we provide and make it asymmetric and advantageous for us trough efficient mana accelerants and playing not necessarily conservative but playing around it and pushing us further away from the a slowed down game state... so in essence their clocks run slower in this deeper "gravitational" well as we try and put them closer to it... To do this, you need two main things. One is a principle board state or engine that prevents opponents from gaining any ground. The typical one in this deck is Winter Orb and Derevi. Next, you need at least two tax effects to prevent them from casting anything even if it costs 1 or 0 mana. These can typically be interchanged and built upon with cards like Tangle Wire and Root Maze for a temporary 'band-aid-like' fix.

Hard locks include board positions that have cards like this combined with each other: Stasis , Birds of Paradise , Quirion Ranger , Derevi, Empyrial Tactician , Root Maze , Trinisphere , Winter Orb , Llanowar Elves , Avacyn's Pilgrim , Sphere of Resistance , Thalia, Guardian of Thraben Tropical Island; etc. They are an interaction of different kinds of suppressive soft lock cards that combine to create an inescapable position. The number of these is very large in this deck, and rarely will they be the same but the idea is to create some sort of way to break parity from these symmetrical 'neggative' effects.

This deck is not very easy to play, and play error can and will be expounded upon to critical effect by clever opponents, so understanding the deck deeply is necessary to have success with it consistently.

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specific Card information / Card Breakdown

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{T} Lavinia & Vannifar! (specific Card information)

Lavinia, Azorius Renegade ;

(Tutorable by Sissay / and 2 verse counters on Yisan and she's out!) +++

Lavinia purely punishes your opponents for cheating things in play with ritual effects or {0} costs like most of the Artifact ramp out there for example Mana Crypt, Mox DiamondGC or Chrome MoxGC, while also hitting a lot of spells that have an alternate casting cost like Gitaxian Probe or Force of WillGC and many more...

Storm decks tend to draw into a lot of cards and then play their {0} cost artifacts to net positive mana again and this just outright counters that. While also providing Derevi with a body and being asymmetrical... Although this card only delays certain storm decks until they make the land drop they need but this gives us a lot of time! (Nobody is going to Orcish Lumberjack their forests in Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder or sac lands for mana with Squandered Resources xD). Doomsday becomes less interesting as well with Gush and Lion's Eye DiamondGC! The casting of cards under Isochron Scepter become countered as well!

Lavinia is a solid addition to this decks strategy in the current CEDH meta!!!

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Prime Speaker Vannifar

Regarding Vannifar, This basically is Birthing Pod on a stick but with no {T} cost (+ one mana more expensive due to the {GP} )... Being a creature does indeed make it far easier for us to tutor...

the sole difference is birthing pod is live the turn it hits so technically it provides more tempo + value as you can instantly ("at sorcery speed") pod Derevi into Hokori for example without giving your opponents a turn to think as it telegraphs what you are going to do very bluntly! Yet having two cards that do kinda the same thing isn't all too bad either because it creates consistency like fauna shaman and survival of the fittest do at times!

she can easily fit in as a flex slot for you if you want to give her a home in Derevi!

( Also has a nice 2/4 body compared to most creatures and isn't killed by Elesh or bolt!)

{T} Captain Sassy, the tapping slave for Derevi (specific Card information)

**Sisay**

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Captain Sisay has to be included without saying. She can find so many other legendary creatures here, most of which will be continually relevant throughout a game. She can also find legendary lands, artifacts or enchantments which makes her a crucial part that results in tutorable hatebears...

All this while you have the ability to do this multiple times over the course of a turn!

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{T} tap into: Show

targets for Sisay for example:

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• Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

• Thalia, Heretic Cathar

• Grand Arbiter Augustin IVGC

• Edric, Spymaster of Trest

• Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

• Gaddock Teeg

• Hokori, Dust Drinker

• Jin-Gitaxias, Core AugurGC

• Kataki, War's Wage

• Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker

• Selvala, Explorer Returned

• Yisan, the Wanderer Bard

• Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx,

• Gaea's CradleGC

• Linvala, Keeper of Silence

• Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist

• ETC... any legendary you side in or are confident about using in certain meta can be tutored here making her ever so versatile...

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The power and range of her targets are truly amazing. Sissay is a viable commander card itself but it's now part of the 99 as she is far stronger in Derevi than on her own.

{T} To Yisan or not to Yisan... (specific Card information)

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Only if you are Yisan enough:

Yisan, the Wanderer Bard ; a card so versatile and so packed with answers that it is feared as a commander on its own... his ability to cheat in numerous mana dorks into hatebears is absolutely ridiculous, and in no time with enough verses; Storm out the big threats ... As talked about before yisan can be activated multiple times in a turn with our untap triggers to feed Derevi and her army ... But as every game has its different board state it might not always be clear what to get as the common {1},{2}and {3} tutors ; one could look to grab the likes of{1}; Quirion Ranger into , {2}Bloom Tender and a {3}Shaman of Forgotten Ways to spew out more mana than anyone else whilst under an orb or sphere effect and with a great board state ; wipe a table with the shaman for example but the typical line you are looking for is a chain of hate to prevent you from losing to someone else...

Yisan double up...

There are also tricks you can use to double or triple up on creatures with the same CMC... When you use Yisan and hold priority before letting him tutor then proceed to activate his ability again throughout some untaps from Derevi, Quirion Ranger or other sources you will get another verse counter on Yisan which will then resolve both activations and both activations will check the current amount of verse counters on Yisan and not what he was on before... getting you two CMC{2} creatures if he was on 0... This will allow you to go from 2 to 4 and grabbing you Grand Arbiter Augustin IVGC and Sakashima the Impostor copying arbiter for example or Hokori, Dust Drinker and Grand Arbiter Augustin IVGC... The possibilities are endless but the verse counters tend to be expended at 5 and have the last use at 7 for some (which can be different for you meaning you can make meta calls and chain up until Elesh or Jin) unless you have a way to reset his verse counters.

Curve/Verse-Counters...

so I'll list the curve for Yisan to tighten your play and explore all the options... but the answer is simple; lock down your opponents and get them closer and closer to a hard lock, invalidating all cards and all plays they could use or make to get out of Azkaban... I mean depression ... you get the point they'll hate your deck from the very start till the end!!!

• Personalize your chain and memorize it !!!!!!!

{1} The first verse of greed. our quest to more mana...

A great First verse will always be Quirion Ranger because this cutie pie can untap our Bloom tender or Yisan and with a Derevi in play that's a large amount of mana if you want to shamone (Shaman of Forgotten Ways-Kill-Plan-C) someone fast or drop Elesh on the table way to soon... You can try activating it in combat with an untap trigger, for example, to create massive amounts of mana of Bloom Tender for yisan or FLASHY-plays... Yisan also has recursion in this deck at the third verse with Loyal Retainers being able to target a lot...

Jin-retainer combo and Brago...

Jin-retainer combo (Currently out due to redundancy... drawing into him wasn't all too well most of the time and Retainers were often used to bring back Stax pieces they got rid of = losing).

There is also a cute interaction with Brago if you run him ... he can reset his verses if really needed...

Verse Table...

Anyhow here is the verse table; This may vary from your chain as you can pick Meta slots and is ever changing with new releases but I will only list my Favorite go-to creatures...

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+1 : {2}{G} , {T} Show

{1} : The First Verse of Greed.

Dorks : Birds of Paradise , Copperhorn Scout , Noble Hierarch , Quirion Ranger , Weathered Wayfarer...

HateBears: Judge's Familiar ,Cursecatcher (They end up being used either to connect to someone because the familiar has flying or sacrificing them under an orb effect when they do get a spell out and you know they can't afford to pay 1 more for their deluge ;) )..

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+2 : {2}{G} , {T} Show

{2} : The Second Verse of Indifference

Dorks : Bloom Tender , Scryb Ranger...

HateBears: Gaddock Teeg , Containment Priest , Ethersworn Canonist , Kataki, War's Wage , Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Spirit of the Labyrinth...

Tutor: Fauna Shaman ... (see verse 3 graveborn combo)

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+3 : {2}{G} , {T} Show

{3} : The Third Verse of Revulsion

Dorks : Shaman of Forgotten Ways...

HateBears: Trygon Predator , Aven Mindcensor , Eidolon of Rhetoric , Glowrider , Hushwing Gryff , Thalia, Heretic Cathar , Vryn Wingmare , Sanctum Prelate, Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist ...

Carddraw : Edric, Spymaster of Trest , Jace's Archivist , Selvala, Explorer Returned selvala can also be used under orb effects for extra mana... Our jace though is used to try and solve the new mulligan rules where we can't partial and craft the perfect hand anymore, he does his job for now...

Graveborn into a massive hatebear: Loyal Retainers ... you could get a fauna shaman on the second verse, and combo into a jin or elesh after with this one although it is deemed greedy, but it can make an opponent's life miserable depending on his/her board state and commander...

Tutor : Recruiter of the Guard

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+4 : {2}{G} , {T} Show

{4} : The Fourth Verse of Corruption

Dorks : 0

HateBears: Lodestone Golem , Grand Arbiter Augustin IVGC , Hokori, Dust Drinker , Llawan, Cephalid Empress , Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker , Linvala, Keeper of Silence...

Legendary tutor : Captain Sisay...

Blink : Brago, King Eternal... and restart!

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+5 : {2}{G} , {T} Show

{5} : The Fifth Verse of Containment

Dorks : 0

HateBears: Willbreaker can take over a lost game by simply connecting to someone and taking other people's stuff that otherwise could not be disposed of in other ways...

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+6 : {2}{G} , {T} Show

{6} : The Sixth Verse of consecration

Dorks : 0

HateBears: Archon of Valor's Reach

Carddraw : Consecrated SphinxGC

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+7 : {2}{G} , {T} Show

{7} : The Seventh Verse of annihilation

Dorks : 0

HateBears: Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

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+8 : {2}{G} , {T} Show

{8} : The Eight Verse of Oblivion IIX

Dorks : 0

HateBears: 0

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+9 : {2}{G} , {T} Show

{9} : The Ninth Verse of Oblivion IX

Dorks : 0

HateBears: 0

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+10 : {2}{G} , {T} Show

{10} : The Tenth Verse of Gluttony

Dorks : 0

HateBears: Jin-Gitaxias, Core AugurGC if you get this far /golfclap !!!

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{T} Sakashima the Impostor (specific Card information)

+++ double triggers ... are you an imposter?

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Sakashima the Impostor, Serves some specific roles in this deck.

• The first thing that would come to mind is having a second Derevi on the field which can fuel a stasis lock indefinitely and can net you some insane and explosive turns... so even if you don't have a target when you draw this it always synergizes with our commander.

• Doubling one of your Stax pieces is never wrong especially as she can target the legendary ones becoming extremely versatile.

• Certain Yisan lines can storm her out and have it enter as a copy of a doubled up 4 drop or even Yisan himself and start over. (How to get two creatures with the same CMC of Yisan is explained in his section above)

• And because she can return herself to your hand she can be pretty hard to interact with!

• Sakashima is very versatile :

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She can generate you even more card draw trough edric...

Kill creatures even harder with a second Elesh...

Become a second Arbiter cheapening your stuff while taxing others twice...

Act as a Backup Hokori... (Careful here as they are able to untap 2 lands during their upkeep of stacking hokori triggers)

Break artifact decks trying to hold on with double Kataki...

A second tutor of Recruiter of the Gaurd...

Sanctum prelate copy to stop others from 0-3 having two options...

More will breaking or two choices on archon!

The options are endless and not limited to only your board as you can copy opponents creatures...

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{T} Sanctum's numbers ??? (specific Card information + Strategy)

Using Sanctum Prelate correctly always depends on what kind of commander your opponents are using, what their playstyle is and what stage you're at in the game.

Most likely it's 1, 2 or 3 because of the amount of cards cEDH/tEDH decks play below 4CMC to keep their Average CMC as low as possible!

• 1 and 2 hits most cantrips/tutors and also most played counterspells.
• 2 and 3 stops removal / Deluge and some janky 3 mana counterspells... if you're against black, red or white I'd suggest 3. Most value cards are at 3 as well as yawgmoths will and doomsday for example if you are unsure what they play or don't know yet...

If your meta is leaning towards a late game, 3 would be better, But when you're against storm for example 0 or 1 would be a better choice. Just check the commander the colors and the player you are up against and choose wisely.

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Been taking notes of most commander players in our store and on tournaments and other sites or sources..., soon I will add a list of what would shut them down most! Sanctum's numbers and also what you should pair it with to stop them;

** "Tempest Keep was merely a setback." **

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Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder storm:

Yidris Storm/Doomsday 2.0 + Melt Banana or Any other variant wants to play as many spells in one turn and finish you off with either Aetherflux Reservoir or Doomsday and generate high storm counts trough cantrips, rituals , tutors, timetwister effects and Paradox Engine for example. This deck is stopped with a simple rule of law effect in play and paired with the normal sphere effects it can't recover... stopping them from tutoring or drawing more than one card a turn also cripples them a lot.

---- Conclusion ----

{1} or {0} because it stops them storming out a shit ton! {1} is the safest pick still. as it is the most used CMC in the deck.

(Paired with Rule of law effects and Sphere effects...)

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Oona, Queen of the Fae Storm/Doomsday: Same applies to Oona for the storm part compared to yidris... Although this deck has the ability to present another win con fairly easily by generating absurd amounts of mana and exiling your deck with a simple artifact/enchantment combo (Grim Monolith + Power artifact, Basalt M + Rings or dramatic scepter). It tries to tutor very often and sphere effects may not always stop it with its high tide and infinite mana package. Tutor denial and rule of law effects combined with some artifact hate works wonders here...

---- Conclusion ----

{2} or {1}. 2 hits most cards this deck normally runs, but under a soft lock 1 is a better choice.

(Paired with Tutor Denial, Rule of law effects, Artifact hate...)

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Queen Marchesa A Stax or heavy Removal variant: is very hard to deal with as derevi because this does very well against creature based decks but it has no "real" wincon so basically they either focus you or help you establish stax.

---- Conclusion ----

{3} or {2}, preferably 3 due to the amount of removal on 3...

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General Tazri : Food Chain : This deck is also stopped by rule of law effects but paired with enchantment removal this deck has a very hard time to recover.

---- Conclusion ----

{1} or {2}... 1 Hits most of his tutors, While two is his control {3} is chosen if you have no way of dealing with food chain itself...

(Paired with rule of law effects, Enchantment removal or insert extract -> food chain and ROFL)

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Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge Storm: Yes more Rule of law effects, please!!! Artifact hate also does wonders here...

---- Conclusion ----

{1} or {2}, 1 Stops the storm here, where 2 stops the ramp/control mostly, I'd go 1 if you have artifact hate here...

(Paired with rule of law effects and sphere effects + Artifact hate)

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Prossh, Skyraider of Kher *f-etch* Food Chain: This deck is also stopped by rule of law effects but paired with enchantment removal this deck has a very hard time to recover.

---- Conclusion ----

{3} or {1} 3 stopping food chain. 1 stopping most of the tutors/cantrips it plays.

(Paired with rule of law effects, Enchantment removal )

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Teferi, Temporal Archmage Chain Veil: This deck can win trough Stax fairly fast but is very weak against sphere effects and artifact hate.

---- Conclusion ----

{2} or {3} these two stop most infinite mana combo's, as well as counters... + some artifact hate cockblocks this deck really hard...

(Paired with Sphere effects and artifact hate)

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Thrasios, Triton Hero & Tymna the Weaver *f-etch* .... This deck is special and different from the others as it will likely try to present a turn 2 or 3 win and do it faster and easier than all the others... this will require you to toss out hate turn 2 instead of Derevi most of the time or open yourself to a loss. Rule of law effects stops part of the combo turn but isn't enough most of the time as they can shortcut their win. Making grave hate it's worst enemy which makes it very hard to recover from for them.

---- Conclusion ----

{1} or {0} if they upgraded to Muldruid!!! ( {4} Stops dread return if you can't get grave hate or sphere effects live)

(Paired with grave hate and sphere effects or rule of law effects depending on the version or insert extract -> Lab Man and ROFL unless they walking ball :'( )

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Zur the Enchanter *f-etch* AD Naus, Doomsday, Control Zur, Shimmer Zur: Rule of Law effects, Sphere effects and enchantment removal will stop this deck and eventually use more sphere effects to remove them from the game...

---- Conclusion ----

{1} or {2} unless you can't deal with Doomsday you put it on {3}...

(Paired with rule of law effects, Enchantment removal or insert extract -> Lab Man and ROFL)

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Kess, Dissident Mage Grixis Twin, High Tide, Grixis Flux, Tainted Twin, Turns: So this deck is mostly very graveyard heavy and grave hate breaks most of its strategy although it can still burst out wins other ways as there are many variants of the deck. So I went in a little more in detail how these decks are packed with different CMC costs... sadly this commander doesn't show its strategy of the bat and can play the waiting game before you could guess the right Stax... You should try and get grave hate out first as it is the most common way to play her and after that try and deal with kiki/twin combos with ETB-stopping effects/activated abilities of creatures hate or Sphere effects in general.

---- Conclusion ----

• grixis twin : cmc {1}

• Hight tide cmc {1}

• grixis flux cmc {1}

• Tainted twin cmc {1}

• Turns kess cmcm {2}

(Paired with grave hate first and after that, it depends on your ability to use know information on what these decks can do)

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Inalla, Archmage Ritualist Reanimator: The title of this deck kindly shows us how to stop it, It is very straightforward what hate to go for... Grave Hate...

---- Conclusion ----

{1} Hits most of this decks tutors/cantrips/rituals/etc...

(Paired with grave hate and also loads of creature we run they can never really do combat damage to us with Wanderwine Prophets)

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MORE COMMING SOOOOOOOON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Up next for research and review : (You can do this as well by going to Many versions of these decks and checking the average mana and spells they play at 1, 2 or 3 cmc)

• Control Baral

• High Tide Jace

• Ad Nauseam Sidisi

• Buried Alive Razaketh

• Brostorm Selvala

• Midrange Yisan

• Control Grand Arbiter

• Control Taigam

• Stax Brago

• Doomtide Dralnu

• Scepter Nin

• Storm Mizzix

• Doomsday Grenzo

• Gitrog Dredge

• Nath Stax

• Varolz Hulk

• Edric Tempo

• Hackball Momir

• Rashmi Control

• Marath Kiki Pod

• Combo Bruse/Tymna

• Razaketh Markov

• Doomsday Leovold (Just in case)

• Brood Tyrant Combo

• Control Tasigur

• Mimeoplasm Hulk

• Ghave Combo

• Control Breya / Doomsday Breya

• Control Kraum

• Blood Pod Tana/Tymna

• Paradox Ascendancy

• Boonweaver Combo/Control

• ... More might be added here but you get the gist (under eternal construction)

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{T} Unicorns don't Blink. (specific Card information + Strategy)

• "Emiel, The blessed":

A rather simple way to perform soft lock is to Have Emiel the Blessed + Gaea's CradleGC or Circle of Dreams Druid and A Castable Derevi or one in play.

The Cradle effects with 4 or more Creatures will net you more mana in this case.

With this you present a Loop:

• where you can create Infinite green. (Can be filtered into other colors)
• Then Infinite Blinks on Derevi or any other creature you have in play.
• Infinite taps and untaps on any target resulting in either a tap down of all your opponents permanents at all times, Or for search engines like Sissay, etc...
• Yes you can kill people that have lands that tap and deal damage to their owner.

Why is this a soft lock? They might still have that one instant spells to interact with. but you can tap them down in every step and turn with this Unicorn so there is a good chance you take over from this point...

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Extra Information

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{T} Anomalies (Findings/Notes/Interactions/Specials/Etc) ?

A place for cute interactions, notes, findings and so much more to be aware of as a Stax player! this will be expanded on with further info/tips as I play more and more games against all sorts of commanders...

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• "Other people playing Stax" : ,

(Depending on the nature of them) most likely helps us far more than any other Stax decks except for Tana and Tymna blood pod... Most of the time you are unhindered by someone else's orb/sphere/or hate effect as we are far more able to work under this kind of pressure!!!

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• "Mono-red / Mono-blue decks" :

The key thing to note here is to spend your first fetches on a basic even though it might go against your entire hand or thought process! (particulary in this order: first {G} then {U} then {W}...) Why you should do this is to counter any Early Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon or Back to Basics... as these are the only three Stax pieces that really affect us hard... Having these basics out will allow you to ramp and Stax regardless of these effects due to mana dork... Anything that can provide more colors under these effects that isn't a land is a good keep...yet you should still stay aware of cheap removal.

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• "Politics" :

As a well experienced Stax player "Politics" is a weird beast to tackle... sometimes people make illogical decisions for x reason (Example; someone got but hurt over your last win and will break proper threat assessment and go out of their way to stop just you regardless of them losing afterward... or the like that want to try and build jank decks just to counter yours...) Also, absolute honesty isn't always the most diplomatic nor the safest form of communication with emotional beings. Personally, I tend to remain quiet and focus more on every little detail to tighten my plays and communicate everyone's triggers/etc to cause a shit in awareness elsehwere... (Or remain Overconfident/arrogant/cocky to scare people into doing irrational and illogical things to others xD )... (This sometimes becomes a joke though and people will try it by telling others they are way ahead and we should focus them... while they are obviously going for a win or some cheeky play themselves, so just point it out calmly to the rest and sit back/relax and watch entropy unfold itself...)

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• "Focused" :

As a Stax player, you get focused only if you play Stax wrong and poorly... You are not here to win with Stax as that is not the main goal and if you play around this thought process you can set yourself up to not lose... the longer a Stax deck does not lose it's constant (not always Instantly noticeable) pressure the more inevitability for a lock to occur...

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• "Sanctum prelate extra" :

Sanctum Prelate: Under certain Stax conditions chosing the number 1 is super safe for example if everyone is tapped out and you have an orb effect out! Note be very aware that Sanctum can easily steal games with a good call! if there is a sphere effect in the previously mentioned condition it can be put on 0 as well yes but no game-changing cards are ever on 0 so Personally, I keep it to 1,2 or 3 depending on the situation and commanders!

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• "Lavinia, Azorius Renegade Glitches" :

**After a solid amount of testing Lavinia, Azorius Renegadethis is what I found, **

She Shines in Stormy meta where a lot of rituals and extreme artifact ramp is used as they won't be able to cast what they want as early as they would have wanted... Her first Ability really slows down some of the Faster decks that cheat things in play from anywhere be it A High CMC Card that wants to go through with Artifact ramp or early Mana-dorks trying to get ahead...

She also stops certain Flashback cards with alternate costs (Like Dread Return before the 4th land drop) or even Counterspells, draw spells or any other Non-Creature spells with alternate costs Like Force of WillGC, Pact of Negation and Gush... (Decks like Yuriko for example do not like this).

To be blunt This Ability is at best a Soft-lock with a ticking time bomb unless they don't make their land drops and they get stuck... Her second ability is still impactful enough to consider her a threatening Stax piece solely because both of her abilities are an asymmetrical advantage...

Countering Spells that your opponents cast and didn't pay mana for is an obvious Stax must have but also Stopping scepter combo's and infinite Non-Creature outlet spells because they just can't cast them that way is very interesting!

All that while only costing you {W}{U}...

Rulings for Lavinia

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25-1-2019 - Players may cast spells that they know Lavinia will counter. Any abilities that trigger when spells are cast will trigger and resolve if appropriate, and any effects that count spells cast will count those spells if appropriate.

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25-1-2019 - Effects that modify or replace the cost to cast a spell (such as spectacle) don’t affect the spell’s converted mana cost, so they won’t change whether Lavinia’s first ability restricts that spell from being cast.

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25-1-2019 - For spells with Variable Colorless in their mana costs, use the value chosen for X to determine the spell’s converted mana cost.

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25-1-2019 - If an effect allows a player to cast a spell without paying its mana cost, that player can’t choose to cast it and pay its mana cost unless another rule or effect allows that player to cast it that way.

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(Also on a minor note: card effects that state "You Can't" always beat effects that say "you can")

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**Some minor Glitches I found: **

When I Started to test her as a commander for a short while she usually slowed down a lot of the "Fast-Cedh" decks and stopped most of the "cheat in-game" ones... I can certainly say she is better as 1 in the 99 than using her at the helm of any deck as her win conditions are really slow and bad while being a great Stax Piece in the 99.

• Helm of Awakening For example makes a Sol Ring, Mana VaultGC and any spell that would have costed {1} cost {0} instead and countering those cards if cast under Lavinia...

• yet we run a lot of Sphere Effects (+{1}) contradicting her second ability and allowing your opponents to yet again cast their moxes and crypts... Although it is just a minor setback to what the card can do as it still has its powerful Soft-Lock interactions...

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(Remember kids always hit Ad Naus Players first!!!)

• More coming soon... :

Be Water My Friend... Show

"Empty your mind,

be formless,

Shapeless,

Like water...

Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup.

you put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle...

You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot...

Now water can flow.

or it can crash...

Be water, my friend... "

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{T} Wondering What would stop certain CEDH decks or strategies? (Let us find out by asking them!!!)

So I have been going around asking most if not all of the CEDH decks this Question for you guys to better understand what I already know and share some of their answers! Do note none of these players are Stax pro's or test vs Stax frequently either so they might be very biased as well ;) ;

(If you have any suggestions to add upon the question or want to know more let me know!)

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The Question! Show

"Hey there, I am doing a bit of research on The more competitive decks out there for my Stax deck.

• So the first question is: what kind of "Stax" or "Hate cards" would shut this deck down or make it impossible for you to win under certain singular or combined Effects?

• And the second question is about Sanctum Prelate as I am trying to gather as much information about the stopping power of calling specific CMC with this card vs certain strategies, Would you consider CMC{0}, {1}, {2} or CMC {3} to be more effective here to disrupt your gameplan?"

With this in Mind this is what i've got so far:

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The Mimeoplasm [cEDH] by -------- monkeryz

monkeryz says... #14

Kiyomei Well a lot of the classic all in grave hate cards such as Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void , Along with cards that can exile the yard at instant speed such as Tormod's Crypt . As for Stax effects that less directly affect our graveyard nothing REALLY gets us. I wouldn't say our game plan is exactly good vs Stax it's affected mostly the same as any other deck with how it's slowed and affected. Something of note though is that while Grafdigger's Cage is still extremely good vs us we can still work around it by using Mimeo to assemble our Nooze combo. However, it's still really good vs us.

As for Sanctum Prelate the deck itself has a distribution of 6 {0}, 28 {1}, 16 {2}, and 9 {3}. The most impactful thing to name for hindering our progression would most likely be One just due to the sheer density of dorks and most of our cantrips. However, if you want to directly hinder our game plan the best name would probably be Two? This will stop things like Survival of the FittestGC and Flash along with a fair bit of interaction.

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The Mimeoplasm [cEDH]

Commander / EDH* monkeryz

SCORE: 35 | 17 COMMENTS | 29660 VIEWS | IN 26 FOLDERS

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Bureaucratizing Paradoxical Engines - GAAIV by -------- kiebitzen

kiebitzen says... #11

Kiyomei Thanks for the questions, I'll try my best to answer them.

This deck's main wincon is infinite mana via Dramatic-Scepter or Paradox Engine converted into infinite draw via one of several outlets. The main Stax that stops this plan is Null Rod or Stony Silence, as well as Spirit of the Labyrinth. We are also slowed down quite a bit by effects like Rule of Law (though we can sneak through Ethersworn Canonist) and Root Maze.

I think {2} is the most effective number to name against this deck. For one, cmc {2} has the highest density of cards in the deck. But also, many of our wincon pieces, counterspells, and Stax of our own is at 2cmc. Unfortunately, it does only stop one of our handful of removal pieces for Prelate.

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Bureaucratizing Paradoxical Engines - GAAIV

Commander / EDH kiebitzen

SCORE: 21 | 23 COMMENTS | 22293 VIEWS | IN 20 FOLDERS

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Yeva Draw-Grow Combo by -------- user:Inkmoth_

user:Inkmoth_ says... #37

Kiyomei: Yeah Soren841 will almost always point you in the right direction, so I would take his advice. As for Prelate in the context of my deck, if it hit creatures I would say it's pretty terrifying, luckily it doesn't and against this deck, in particular, it's nothing but a minor nuisance that I would rather keep on the field as it would hurt others more than me per se. ( Kiyomei: This is exactly what Soren said as well as it is a bit slow so we will Iterate on it further and perhaps find a card that does better overall!)

Torpor Orb is pretty annoying, so Hushwing Gryff is pretty great since you can just time it against an important Regal Force, or Great Oak Guardian. Linvala, Keeper of Silence is a house against my deck, so both her and Cursed Totem are pretty great, the latter being the weaker/easier to deal with. Aven Mindcensor hurts the toolbox aspects of the deck a lot, so that's another really good one. Rule of Lawforms like a gate when it comes to my deck, I have to deal with it before I pop off, which is not much of an issue, but the mere fact that I have to deal with it is always a good thing. Winter Orb doesn't hurt me in the slightest thanks to multiple sources of mana. Grand Abolisher locks me out of your turn hard, so it's perfect to combo off unopposed.

deck-large:yeva-draw-grow-combo

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Paradox Scepter Thrasios by -------- AlwaysSleepy

AlwaysSleepy says... #51

Kiyomei,

Combined Cursed Totem + Stony Silence / Null Rod would be pretty tough. Depending on the build it'll be your call to see which is most effective based on the build. PST was made to go in and out of losing to one or the other (or both). Tax pieces can also be pretty annoying, but doable. No Stax piece would be the perfect one, but I listed what I think are the strongest ones. Trinisphere is also fairly good, but the deck can still go off through it if the Scepter makes 6+ mana with untaps. It's not played much, but Damping Sphere does completely halt the infinite mana combos with Isochron Scepter. But not Grim MonolithGC/Power Artifact if they are available. Laboratory Maniac + Demonic Consultation combos are tough to stop Stax wise since they are made to play through those effects. Creature removal and counterspells are best here.

With regards to Prelate, both are fine. 2 is more immediate of a stopgap, but then the deck has 1 CMC things to remove it. Vice versa. Take your pick based on the pod at large, since both are fairly effective - PST has a low curve.

deck-large:paradox-scepter-thrasios-1

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Shimmer Zur Storm by -------- Suasion

Suasion says... #69 Hey!

Stax that stop this deck the hardest are the '1 spell a turn' cards such as Rule of Law, Arcane Laboratory, Eidolon of Rhetoric. Taxing effects like Trinisphere hurt, and so do effects that turn off artifacts like Null Rod, and Stony Silence. You typically want more than 1, and to stop Zur from attacking. Otherwise, Zur fetches Grasp of Fate to remove them.

Non artifact stax is best, since Hurkyl's serves the dual purpose of upping storm count, and bouncing a stax player's artifact stax.

Aven Mindcensor is good against a lot of decks, as well.

I don't think prelate is a great stax piece, but if you're going to use it, 1 is usually the best number to name. Not just against this deck, but most competitive decks tend to run the most 1 drops. The common removal for prelate other than deluge is also 1cmc.

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Shimmer Zur Storm

Commander / EDH* Suasion

SCORE: 201 | 220 COMMENTS | 104543 VIEWS | IN 114 FOLDERS

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Jhoira Stax Combo by -------- Suasion

Suasion says... #35

This deck is best stopped by rule of law effects: Rule of Law, AArcane Laboratory, Eidolon of Rhetoric. QUite a bit of tempo is removed with Stony Silence/Null Rod, and tax effects are only an inconvenience.

It's made to play through a decent amount of stax, and also runs a lot of bounce effects. The real best way to stop it would to to keep Jhoira off the table, keep artifact mana in check, or win before it does.

There's bounce for prelate at both 1 and 2, but in this deck 2 would stop more anti-stax spells.

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Jhoira Stax Combo

Commander / EDH* Suasion

SCORE: 42 | 63 COMMENTS | 23699 VIEWS | IN 13 FOLDERS

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Kraum's MANly Combo by -------- Lilbrudder

Lilbrudder says... #15

Null Rod + Back to Basics is pretty brutal against this deck. There isn't a card that makes it impossible for us to win (outside of janky stuff like Stasis locks). We are weak to Stax like Trinisphere and Notion ThiefGC / Chains of Mephistopheles.

CMC 1-2 would be most damaging. I cannot imagine wanting to do any other number in a cEDH environment unless everyone's wincon happens to be at 3.

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Kraum's MANly Combo

Commander / EDH* Lilbrudder

SCORE: 40 | 71 COMMENTS | 23188 VIEWS | IN 13 FOLDERS

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Melt Banana by -------- JimWolfie

JimWolfie says... #18

so like one hate piece isn't sufficient to lock melt out, 99% of the time it's a combination that really does work. If you see Tymna & Tanna or some other known Stax deck you start looking for hands that have either a super quick kill or a hand that has good fixing under hate. Ideally, you'd have a chance to adjust your anti-hate a bit and better cover the interaction against you. the window you're looking for is between other players who are just hindered enough by Stax so that they can't mess with you while you're going off. cards that have been in the list previously but currently aren't because the meta doesn't really reward them probably go back in, like more dorks, mass hysteria and bloom tender, and even sylvan library.

tbh I'm not sure what you'd call on prelate, but whatever you do probably should take into consideration the table as a whole instead of melt specifically.

(Did a bit of research as well: {1} Stops all their cantrips and tutors and most cards in a storm deck, generally Putting it on {1} is safest... For {2} CMC, It hits most of the interaction the deck has and a fair bit of tutors too and its majority of Artifact Ramp while {3} Hits Wheels and Yawgmoths will... Since the answer was a bit vague although I understand you should never look at a Single Commander For Prelate... But if 2/3 opponents are on storm this general rule of thinking will save your games regardless of claiming it is focused towards 1 player)

The thing to keep in Mind with storm decks as well as he mentioned is to have layers of Stax effects since they can slip under hate a tad easier than others do... For example, Rule of law effects + Sphere Effects + etc will slow them insanely hard to a point you can start messing with their mana and tapping it with Derevi triggers under Orb effects. While this may all seem very specific the deck is packed with Consistency to pull this off fairly fast.

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Melt Banana

Commander / EDH JimWolfie

SCORE: 107 | 87 COMMENTS | 68293 VIEWS | IN 70 FOLDERS

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A Song of Turns and Dongers (cEDH) by -------- Allergymedsandcats

Allergymedsandcats says... #25

Kiyomei Hey there! So we go into more detail in our primer, but I think the cards that give us the most trouble are The Tabernacle at Pendrell ValeGC, Stranglehold, Trinisphere and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. I may be forgetting a few but these are very notable.

As for your second question. {1} CMC would probably be the most effective against us.

If you're doing research, I would definitely recommend checking out this resource and reading as many primers as you can. This will probably end up being your holy grail of CEDH resources.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iAcKkzvW55kbRPzAo-AK1Bs43n5S1jk2RaTYBOoF124/edit#gid=0

Hope this helps(tbh its probably the biggest help you'll get lol.)

-Allergy

My Thoughts + actual working link :). Show

(The link to the Spreadsheet is easier to access through this (AT the bottom) as I already had it saved but definitely not the only Source for CEDH decks out there! I've read and seen almost All of the CEDH decks in action but In this Adaptive Format that will break cards on every release of something broken we need to keep ourselves up to date with was is more popular and abuse cookie cutter stuff! Just going around for some personal Replies as almost everyone can conclude that a Rule of Law effect is a pain for a storm deck that wants to play many spells a turn, or that Choke is a really annoying card for Blue heavy pods... Personally, My primer Values the honest responses of players more and makes it more accessible to understand or relate to :). Of course, I could say "Factor-X is played approx 70% of the time thus one should run Factor-Y to try and hinder a certain strategy" But eh I'd rather have it like this sometimes when The edge of what one would call Maximum Power and High power CEDH decks closes in at a 1% difference and where does one draw a Non-Biased Line.)

(https://www.reddit.com/r/LabManiacs/comments/5si9gw/competitive_edh_decklist_conglomerate/)

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A Song of Turns and Dongers (cEDH)

Commander / EDH* Allergymedsandcats

SCORE: 153 | 162 COMMENTS | 57694 VIEWS | IN 62 FOLDERS

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Lucksack 'kats (Razaketh) by -------- AstralCodex

AstralCodex says... #2

Cursed Totem is the best bet, closely followed by Rest in Peace and Grafdigger's Cage.

Probably 1-2 cmc, but it isn't particularly effective.

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Lucksack 'kats

Commander / EDH* AstralCodex

SCORE: 7 | 4 COMMENTS | 4711 VIEWS | IN 3 FOLDERS

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Grenzo ft. DJ Doomsday | Competitive Primer by -------- Clay_Puppington

Roally says... #73 (Plays the deck a fair bit himself and seems to have proper knowledge about its strategy since the creator has gone missing.)

The two most effective ways to shut down this deck is by preventing us from tutoring or prevent us from using Grenzo. To stop us from tutoring, the universal best answer is Aven Mindcensor . I have lost several games because I cast Doomsday and someone else responded by flashing in Mindcensor, neutering my deck. Even playing Mindcensor preemptively can work well, but know that we run ~7 cards that can kill it before we try to combo. The better option is to prevent us from using Grenzo's ability. The two most effective options here are Cursed Totem and Linvala, Keeper of Silence . Not only to those two prevent us from comboing with Grenzo, they also stop us from manually comboing since all our combos require activated abilities of creatures. Another approach to stopping Grenzo is to just never let him resolve long enough to activate his ability. Countering him, killing him upon resolution, or naming him with Meddling Mage all work. Gravehate can also stop Grenzo, but you have to be careful. Rest in Peace / Leyline of the Void DON'T stop Grenzo. His ability doesn't care what zone the card is in, it just puts it into play if it is a creature with power less than Grenzo's. Grafdigger's Cage will work, since it forces creatures entering the battlefield to check where they come from. As a neat side note, Rest in Peace allows Grenzo to bypass Grafdigger's Cage, since the creature's are entering from exile, not the graveyard. TL;DR Run Aven Mindcensor and Cursed Totem / Linvala, Keeper of Silence

Sanctum Prelate actually doesn't do much against the combos in this deck since they are all creature-based. If you can cast Prelate by turn 1-2, it'd be best to choose {1} since 1/4th of our deck is 1 CMC and not casting those spells will slow us down significantly. If you can't get it down early and we are able to tutor/setup a bit, you're best option is to choose {3}. The main benefit to choosing 3 is that it prevents us from casting Doomsday, but it'll turn off 4 of our removal pieces that get rid of Prelate ( Toxic Deluge, Fire Covenant, Dismember, and Chaos Warp). Additionally, it prevents us from casting other powerful spells like NecropotenceGC, Wheel of Fortune, and Yawgmoth's Will, further keeping us locked down.

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Grenzo ft. DJ Doomsday | Competitive Primer

Commander / EDH Clay_Puppington

SCORE: 199 | 141 COMMENTS | 100794 VIEWS | IN 110 FOLDERS

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Ghave EDH - Ad Naus Earthcraft by -------- Lerker

Lerker Says...

Ghave mostly hates Rest in Peace effects and things like Linvala, Keeper of Silence and Suppression Field; and of course Rule of Law effects. The nice thing is we don't care too much about other things. Sanctum Prelate is probably most annoying on 2, but we can get around it fairly easily and it overall hasn't performed as well as I would have liked in my testing.

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Ghave EDH - Ad Naus Earthcraft

Commander / EDH Lerker

SCORE: 47 | 19 COMMENTS | 26498 VIEWS | IN 25 FOLDERS

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Xantcha Combo-Control by -------- mmcgeach

mmcgeach says... #16

@Kiyomei, Thanks for your interest in this Top Tier Deck(tm). :) Yeah, well, if you read the deck description, there's basically two (three?) winning lines, one (two?) is a GY combo and one is paradox engine storm. So.... in the first case, anti-GY stuff is really good. In the second, anti-artifact stuff (or rule of law effects).

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Xantcha Combo-Control

Commander / EDH mmcgeach

SCORE: 132 | 66 COMMENTS | 65129 VIEWS | IN 83 FOLDERS

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Tasigur Seasons Past / Season Pastigur by -------- LabManiac_Cameron

LabManiac_Cameron says... #69

Kiyomei - The big things to look at for stax would be preventing infinite mana, and restricting loops. This deck has infinite mana through artifacts and creatures, loops through creatures and spells, and an alternative out through Aetherflux Reservoir. So, Stony Silence / Null Rod + Cursed Totem will shut out this deck fairly heavily. This would require manual beats as the win con or Ad NauseamGC to draw answers for the hate. A Complete lock is possible, but is not normally expected in a cEDH game. For Sanctum Prelate, 2 would hit most combo pieces and removal.

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Tasigur Seasons Past / Season Pastigur

Commander / EDH LabManiac_Cameron

SCORE: 370 | 389 COMMENTS | 252885 VIEWS | IN 273 FOLDERS

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More coming Soon!!!!

(We will use this information to decide the most common Stax pieces to prevent and invalidate as many strategies as possible and are really grateful for the In-Depth responses from all the users that have answered us so far!!! This by no means makes this deck a perfect counter towards their decks but it gives us the opportunity to pack more hate and Stax pieces that actually have an effect on the CEDH meta overall!)

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**more coming soon (under continuous construction and adaptive...)**

Thank you for reading, if you have any suggestions I'd love to discuss them and don't forget to upvote, thank you <3

(Also feel free to join the DEREVI Discord for all your needs, questions and decklists !!! = https://discord.gg/zf36QB8 )

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Top Ranked	Achieved #2 position overall 7 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Competitive 6 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Group Slug 6 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH GWU (Bant) 6 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	1 week
Exclude colors	BR
Splash colors	WUG
Key combos	Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite + Living Plane Linvala, Keeper of Silence + Living Plane Quirion Ranger + Stasis Copperhorn Scout + Stasis Trinisphere + Winter Orb Forsaken City + Stasis Cyclonic Rift + Shaman of Forgotten Ways Sphere of Resistance + Winter Orb
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 0 Mythic Rares 70 - 0 Rares 8 - 0 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.19
Tokens	Plot
Folders	1 : My Competitive EDH Collection (multiplayer + 2HeadedGiant) -------, Nette Ideen, Derevi stax, Interesante EDH decks, The Evil Deckthief Strikes Again, Interesting Commander Decks, Commander, want!, EDH, Commander Decks (Unlikely to make)