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CompetitiveCasual Imoti, Celebrant of BountyPRIMER

Commander / EDH Cascade Creature Cheat GU (Simic) Turns

TheWanderinGPlaneswalker

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Big spells (26)

Good cards (3)

Anti-Removal (2)

Strict Card Draw (1)

Lands (39)

Ramp (9)

Commander (1)

Commander: Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty

Mana rock (13)

Extra turn spells (6)

**NOTE: ADVENTURE cards and SPLIT cards do not work as I initially thought rules-wise. Therefore, I would not advise playing them, or if you do, know that the half of the spell you cast is the cards cmc when considering cascade.

Ex: Beanstalk giant / fertile footsteps is a 7cmc card anywhere outside of being cast. If I cast the fertile footsteps half then on the stack it counts as 3 cmc. Spring / mind is a 9 cmc card anywhere non on the stack. So when I'm cascading, I can only cast spring / mind if I was looking for a cascade of 9 or less. Then, when I cast it, I half to pick a half that I can cast, so that would be spring. Spring has a cmc of 3 on the stack so I would not get another cascade trigger. **

When I looked up this cool commander called imoti, I could only find a limited selection of videos on it. Some of these videos featured keruga, which is a very cool idea for a companion and this commander can work with that for sure especially in a casual relaxed table, however the "competitive" versions seldom made sense. I've found most people seem to dismiss imoti as a legit powerhouse because of two reasons: 1. it's an uncommon. People seem to only see this as a bad commander that just wouldn't make sense is it being uncommon is proof of that. Logically this is unfounded and just nonsensical. Consider the seemingly awesome commander precons. No one says "oh that commander is from a precon, your deck must be pretty bad then." No. Precon commanders are known to be powerhouses as they are especially good at cascual/casualcompetitive tables, AND they even see convincing competitive play like Obuun, Mul Daya Ancestor. 2. People who have judged imoti as a commander that cannot be competitive have no idea how to build her. Let's take the commonly played cedh cards like Mana Drain, and Fierce Guardianship. Both of these are easy include staples in a lot of cedh blue decks. So, people see that half of imoti's colors are blue, and they decide to try and build her for cedh. In doing so they jam in a bunch of instant counterspells and other typical cedh cards. This is just a terrible idea. It doesn't work is why. I'll explain this further below.
I think this deck IS definitely competitive. However, could it survive a full cedh table? I have no idea. This is definitely not build to be a combo deck assembled through the cascade triggers. I'm sure it could be like that, but I'd rather play a long game and in this instance with powerful decks rather than combo kill early on as is common in Cedh. That is why I consider this CedhCasual as it is definitely at the top levels of the CompetitiveCasual charts yet this build without combos is highly likely to be at the CedhCasual levels and below the common Cedh tables. I hope that better explains the degree of the decks power, however I do think it is extremely powerful just not built like the cedh combo kill on turn 4 power level. This deck aims to win turn 6-8 for sure, but it is darn powerful doing it.

You'll see later that I mention I built this deck based off of a decklist I found that ran around 3 mana cultivate spells. That deck also included extra turns and big powerful creatures with cool tutors. When I playtested that deck it all came together and molded so well that that was where I began my start of building my own imoti decks that woulda actually work. The original version of where this all started is found here by Feebs24: deck:https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/the-spells-dont-ever-stop-imoti-primer/ . I then took that deck and sought to add my own touches by what I found to be inconsistent for myself. Particularly cards like eye of ugin seemed to mess me up and I wanted to build a more consistent version of the deck so I redid the lands to make the most sense to me as well as cut 3 cards that just didn't work for me. I'm not trying to discredit the deck, it worked phenomenally well together such that it got me really excited and was really quite great. However I wanted to make it even better which then lead to my redoing the mana base to make the most sense to me (although it can still be better just like the deck you've come to see today can be and can be changed for various playstyles). My version of the deck that cut 3 cards that did not do a lot for me and also made the mana base more to my liking can be found here: deck:https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/the-spells-dont-ever-stop-imoti-primer-copy/?cb=1614740567 . This version is based off of those 2 decks except built and tested to be the fastest and most competitive version I can build, although I am excluding infinite combos because that's just not how I want to be playing every game, where when I go off I automatically win. I'd rather go off and get crazy value and crazy turns but still have the chance to get destroyed by an even better response and I think that would be more fun for the table as well. However, this deck can effectively combo win by hitting multiple extra turn spells and just keep up the value such that you're not going to lose at the end of all of your turns and huge cascades.

Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty has two abiltiies. The first is a cascade trigger that can hit spells 4 cmc and lower on casting imoti. The second is an ability (that may be static I am not sure) that tags itself onto each spell you cast that is 6 cmc or greater. This of course is where the love for imoti comes from as if you cast an 8cmc spell you can then hit a 6 cmc spell that will also have cascade because you cast it and then you'll hit another spell. It's technically possible to play a 12cmc Ghalta, Primal Hunger that hits an 11 cmc Temporal Tresspas that hits a 10 cmc Ulamg, The Ceaseless Hunger that hits a 9 cmc Expropriate etc..

When the cedh players go to build the deck they include all of the cedh counterspells. Now this is simply a mistake. Fortunately, whenever you cascade you MAY cast the spell, but you don't have to. This is something I use to miss about the card, so the reasoning to include counterspells is slightly better as you do not technically have to counter your own spells as cascade triggers resolve before the spell that bares the cascade does. However, if the goal of imoti is to cast crazy amounts of spells then this will not do. The "correct" way I have found to craft an imoti deck is disregard counterspells. Yes, disregard them. In cedh, they may be absolutely necessary, so play them if you must. However, I do not think that is the correct way to go with this deck because everytime you cast imoti or a big spell you will often just be waisting your free and valuable cascade triggers on counter spells that can't do anything if you're playing powerful sorcery speed threats like I am.

I suppose in peoples' minds the first and second abilities of imoti don't work together, so that may be another reason why they do not see that imoti works as a competitive commander. They are seen as separate entities but they are in fact one. I believe the correct way to build imoti is to first focus on ramp imoti can hit off of its cast trigger and that can be played early on, and to avoid the instant speed interaction, at least most of it. Ramp The deck is playing a lot of big spells, and in order to have the most powerful imoti deck I believe that is critical. The more powerhouse, game-ending spells you play on each 6 and above cmc, then the more value you can gain and the bigger payoff your deck will have. In a deck playing a bunch of big game-ending then ramp will be very important. One of the pitfalls of big spell decks is not being able to happily and easily hardcast those big spells when you draw them. I also think that land ramp cards are more important than only playing hyper fast artifact ramp. Artifacts can be mass destroyed without much effort. So if you are entirely dependent on artifact ramp then you'll be unable to cast big spells later. The Ramp Curve Theory of The Deck When I was researching builds I found one that I believed was based off of 3 mana ramp spells, namely the typical cultivate spells. What I liked about this approach was that casting a single cultivate on turn 3 would mean a turn 4 imoti. This isn't bad. But what it also meant was that after casting imoti and hitting one of these cultivate spells you would ramp on eland into play while also adding a 2nd to your hand. This means if one of your opponents Lightning Bolts imoti or kills it in some other way then you will have the land in hand to play next turn and recast imoti paying for the commander tax (because if imoti stays and is underestimated you can get 10+ free mana of spells and psuedo card draw from the cascade.)
One of the pitfalls for this deck is playing the 2 mana signets and other mana rocks that cost 2 mana and generate a single mana. The curve goes like this: turn 1 play land pass. Turn 2 play land play signet pass. Turn 3 play land I have 4 mana, so I'll play a 3 mana cultivate and pass. Turn 4 with or without that cultivate I already had the 5 mana for imoti. So in THIS deck that strategy does not work. However, I am thinking about rebuilding a more entirely midgame deck that focuses on those turn 2 mana rocks and then turn 3 4 mana ramp spells/artifacts that either produce 2 mana like Sisay's Ring or Skyshroud Claim type cards. The version with the 4 mana and 2 mana focus may be like a more powerful tank but this version would be a faster hornet with tank missiles. Part of the reason fo this alternate version being powerful would be because imoti would be more likely to hit 4 mana ramp spells which would catapult to the big mana spells faster. BUT, in this alternate version I do not think it would be the most competitive version because missing any 2 mana rock would mean you would start the game turn 4 which would NOT be very good and may even be very bad in casual. However, with my version of imoti, the game plan kicks in at turn 3 for a turn 4 imoti either way. And with any Llanowar Elves it's a turn 3 imoti with a turn 2 Cultivate.
So for casual imoti decks this cultivate plan is an excellent idea as it starts on turn 3 because a turn 4 imoti is equally good in a casual game. Also you can reduce the power level of the cards you'll cascade into to build an absolutely fantastic casual deck. I've recently done that and the budget version can be found here: "https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/imoti-celebrant-of-budget-100/?cb=1616433645" which would be the version I would recommend building if you were going to play in person due to the budget, power, and enjoyment of having insane turns without cards like Mana Vault. And although it is budget it still needs to be respected as it is a powerful powerful cannon that can outvalue fairer decks very easily. However, if you had the other expensive staple cards and were playing at a higher power level then the non budget deck can definitely pop-off faster and accelerate into 10 mana turn 3-4 pretty regularly, while also regularly turn 2 or 3ing imoti with cards like Mana Vault and Jeweled Lotus.
Both Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots are excellent because they can be equipped to imoti cheaply and allow her to stick on the battlefield without being killed. This way we can start casting power spells the next turn. This also incentivizes us to be playing powerful creatures that benefit from haste like the eldrazi. It should be noted though that it is not the worst to have to recast our commander as we should get ramp each time, but you also want to have control over the situation as well. Extra turn spells These cards are great in this deck. Having imoti on the field and casting a Nexus of Fate is still quite good as you get a cascade trigger that could hit one of the many 6 cmc spells and then cascade again, or just hitting a ramp card is quite good. That means starting the next turn with 9 mana easily or otherwise dropping a land to get to that 9th mana, which then unlocks some of the most powerful spells and gets much closer to unlocking all of them.
Ghalta, Primal Hunger, Summoning Trap, Avatar of Growth, Beanstalk Giant, Spring / Mind, The Great Henge. Ghalta can be cast for as little as 2 mana but even still will cascade as a 12 drop. Summoning Trap can be cast for 0 if someone counters one of your big spells and it will still cascade as a 6 cmc. However, even if someone counters a spell with cascade the cascade trigger goes on the stack after the casting of the spell so that the cascade trigger will resolve anyway. However, I have whiffed a decent bit, but it should be hitting a creature 1.52 times I think based on creatures in the deck and the 7 cards it can choose from. Also, I'm playing so many big haymakers that it seems like a good choice especially at higher power level tables.

Avatar of Growth can be cast as a 3 drop but can cascade for 6 of course. But importantly it's another 3 mana spell that ramps us considerably. I do recognize that it helps the opponents too, but our deck should be packed with more powerful spells, however a goodstuff deck could play more powerful things, so either way with imoti on the field our deck should be able to spew out pure power and 17+ mana of free spells that can give extra turns and do devastating damage.

IMPORTANT INTERACTION Beanstalk Giant and Spring / Mind Both can be cast for 3. However, Beanstalk cascades for 10 and spring / mind cascades for 9. But, say you cast imoti and imoti's trigger cascades and one of the cards you're flipping through is beanstalk or spring / mind, both of these spells are 10 cmc and 9 cmc respectively, so anything less or equal to 10 cmc or 9 cmc cannot play these spells off of cascade respectively. However they can be cast from hand for the 3 mana and both will ramp you which is phenomenal as that's great early game. Also, beanstalk can be cast for 7 mana if you've used the ramp part already and this 2nd half of the adventure side will be like a free card, which will cascade for 10. Same with spring / mind. If you cast spring earlier to help speed out imoti, then you can cast the mind part from your graveyard as a free 2nd card for 6 mana that will cascade for 9, and then also draw you 2 more free cards. These are PHENOMINAL in this deck, absolutely stellar.

Imagine this: I have imoti on the field, I cast one of those two spells for 3 mana get a 9-10 mana cascade. The first cascade hits Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, this gets a cascade and then hits a Nexus of Fate, then that hits a Selvala's Stampede, who then hits a Worn Powerstone. All from casting a 3 mana ramp spell or just casting the 6 mana draw 2 that was free or the 7 mana big creature that was also free. That's why these spells are crazy. They easily hit an extra turn spell plus some extra free value/ramp, which then starts your next turn with even more mana and the ability to cast the other half for even more big cascades.

Thanks for checking out my deck and reading whatever parts of the primer interest you. I do have to note that I have seen that those on reddit who have played with imoti do fully understand the sheer power of it. And part of that is why it's crazy to discount it. It's in the simic colors which are arguably easily one of the best color combinations, and it's a darn good effect when built well, and there are many ways to build it right although I do think the way I have built this deck is one of the best ways to build an imoti deck as both the upper cascades and lower cascades are balanced against each other seemingly well in my playtesting.

Please consider upvoting this or leaving a comment if you find value from this deck and feel free to use it for yourself. I've spent probably 24hrs in total researching, theorycrafting, building, optimizing, and playtesting Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty. I've also spent 3hrs probably just writing this primer and figuring out the panel end panel thing to make the huge amounts of text much more organized. If you add in combos and tutors you could probably make this real cedh combo kill turn 4/5 level by using the cascade to "search" for your various combos. However, my goal was to build a competitive imoti deck and build it as competitive and powerful as it can be (although I wasn't interested in instant combo wins as I wanted to rather take a huge overwhelming value and huge value approach instead). My reason for this is that this commander seems to be underrepresented and viewed as a strictly casual commander when in reality this commander is much more than that in my view, and again those who have played it also have witnessed the extreme power it can harness. Anyways, enjoy the deck! Take it for test spins on the playtest feature and enjoy! (To cascade on tapped out I just drag the top card of the deck to the field in a pile until I find something with cascade. Then I move the mouse over the stack of cascade cards and hold down "y" to mass put them to the buttom of the deck.)

Removed Rashmi, Eternities Crafter and added Urban Evolution. Urban evolution will be under 6 cmc card draw whereas rashmi was not good card draw and seemed highly inconsistent in testing. Effectively like playing a stone brick in this deck.

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94% Casual

Competitive