Comprehensive Henzie "Boss Rush" Hijinx

Commander / EDH BRG (Jund) Haste Sacrifice

Zemgad

Creature (40)

• 1x Archon of Cruelty
• 1x Archpriest of Shadows
• 1x Avatar of Growth
• 1x Ayara, Widow of the Realm  ^Flip
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Cityscape Leveler
• 1x Daemogoth Woe-Eater
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Disciple of Freyalise  ^Flip
• 1x Doomskar Warrior
• 1x Druid of Purification
• 1x Druid of the Emerald Grove
• 1x Etali, Primal Storm
• 1x Giant Adephage
• 1x Goldvein Hydra
• 1x Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
• 1x Gorex, the Tombshell
• 1x Greenwarden of Murasa
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea
• 1x Ignoble Hierarch
• 1x Ilharg, the Raze-Boar
• 1x Kethek, Crucible Goliath
• 1x Kogla, the Titan Ape
• 1x Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth  ^Flip
• 1x Old Gnawbone
• 1x Primaris Eliminator
• 1x Primeval Herald
• 1x Protean Hulk
• 1x Rampant Rejuvenator
• 1x Roxanne, Starfall Savant
• 1x Samut, Vizier of Naktamun
• 1x Seedguide Ash
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x The Master, Multiplied
• 1x Timeless Witness
• 1x Treeshaker Chimera
• 1x Vaultborn Tyrant
• 1x Woodfall Primus

Land (33)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cinder Glade
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Commercial District
• 4x Forest
• 1x Karplusan Forest
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 3x Mountain
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Rockfall Vale
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Spire Garden
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Underground Mortuary
• 1x Undergrowth Stadium
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Ziatora's Proving Ground

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Evolutionary Leap
• 1x Garruk's Uprising
• 1x Greater Good
• 1x Industrial Advancement
• 1x Myth Unbound
• 1x Shadow in the Warp

Commander (1)

Instant (9)

• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Bedevil
• 1x Kazuul's Fury  ^Flip
• 1x Khalni Ambush  ^Flip
• 1x Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip
• 1x Nasty End
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Riveteers Charm
• 1x Rushed Rebirth

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Corpse Explosion
• 1x Culling Ritual
• 1x Flare of Cultivation
• 1x Gaze of Granite
• 1x Last March of the Ents
• 1x Rise of the Dark Realms
• 1x Rise of the Witch-king
• 1x Victimize

Artifact (2)

• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Sundial of the Infinite

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Maybeboard

Creature (30)

• 1x Balor
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Body Launderer
• 1x Chainer, Nightmare Adept
• 1x Champion of Rhonas
• 1x Chaos Defiler
• 1x Deathbringer Regent
• 1x Durnan of the Yawning Portal
• 1x Elder Brain
• 1x Enduring Courage
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Gamekeeper
• 1x Genesis
• 1x Gruff Triplets
• 1x Hoarding Dragon
• 1x Inferno Titan
• 1x Kardur, Doomscourge
• 1x Kessig Cagebreakers
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Life of the Party
• 1x Massacre Wurm
• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Noxious Gearhulk
• 1x Ognis, the Dragon's Lash
• 1x Old One Eye
• 1x Overlord of the Hauntwoods
• 1x Prowling Geistcatcher
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Terastodon
• 1x Ziatora's Envoy

Land (11)

• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Geothermal Bog
• 1x Haunted Mire
• 1x Highland Forest
• 1x Jund Panorama
• 1x Kessig Wolf Run
• 1x Riveteers Overlook
• 1x Temple of Malady
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Thriving Moor

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Birthing Ritual
• 1x Flameshadow Conjuring
• 1x Heartless Summoning
• 1x Riveteers Ascendancy

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Vivien on the Hunt

Artifact (8)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Brass's Tunnel-Grinder  ^Flip
• 1x Doors of Durin
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sword of Hearth and Home
• 1x Talisman of Impulse
• 1x Talisman of Resilience
• 1x The Great Henge

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Rampant Growth

Instant (2)

• 1x Putrefy
• 1x Undying Malice

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This deck is filled with creatures that make your opponents go "oh god I can't let that attack", "omg I can't let that hit me" and/or "that dies trigger is terrifying" and then blitzes them so they can attack, hit someone and then die all in the same turn. This deck can put multiple Boss-level threats onto the board a turn, so I have affectionately been referring to it as the boss rush deck, much to the dismay of the rest of my pod.

I wrote this at 5am so please excuse any typos or weird grammar

This deck excels in a high power casual environment since it is conducive to decks of this nature, aka midrange decks that try to generate a lot of value. this deck is especially good at this style of strategy as it is versatile and resilient but also naturally applies a lot of pressure. Be prepared to become the target at the table. The only way to seriously hinder the deck is to remove all of its value pieces and keep henzie off the board for long enough to kill us, and that takes A LOT of removal most of the time. opponents having a source of repeatable edict effects is basically the only way i have been shut down. The best part is if that fails henzie gets us a growing discount on blitzed creatures for every time he's cast from the command zone, so making a comeback gets much easier if we manage to stick him on the field.

I put heavy focus into tuning the manabase so that casting Henzie on turn 3 is doable >95% of games, and I included many blitzable creatures that ramp to try and ensure getting to 7-8+ mana without too much issue most games.

Seeing these mana generating creatures in your opening hand is usually a boon, even in duplicates since being able to double or triple spell on turns 6-7+ is a huge help to the deck. After all, we are basically playing fair magic to end the game (discounting value generated from tax-fraud, more on this later) Land count may look low, but I am running 4 MDFCs and have 15+ sources of non-land mana spread throughout the curve. **NOTE there are 2 surveil lands in the deck, use them to your advantage! (or selection, if you prefer)

Another area of focus is density of value outlets and recursion (also known as tax fraud) to make sure that our creatures leaving the field is actually to our advantage either through direct value or being able to get them back later. Seeing one of these in the first 10 cards or so is crucial to the success of the deck, so there's enough in the deck to almost be excessive (split between 10 repeatable and 9 one time use at time of writing). seeing these in multiples early can be a hinderance but having some in reserve in case of interaction and/or having multiple on the field once you're also blitzing multiple creatures a turn often wins the game since you're generating so much value.

I'm strongly considering putting {eldritch evolution} in the deck due to a slight {birthing pod} subtheme. if you have pod on the field, there are multiple lines after blitzing something with 4 or 5 MV to work towards {Protean Hulk} to generate insane value such as: [sac 4+MV blitzed creature to pod, get {seedguide ash}. next turn blitz something from hand, attack, then 2nd main sac Ash to pod, get {disciple of freyalise} to sac the blitzed creature, then next turn sac disciple to pod and get hulk. if you're ever unsure what to grab from Hulk's death trigger Gwenna and Ayara are great picks in most cases].

Last main area of focus is trying to put as much of the deck's interaction into creatures as possible while still having instant speed options. yes, sorc speed can be a drawback but I have found that I usually find what I need in order to stuff someone running me over or stop people going for the win themselves. Having interaction on a body that replaces itself by drawing after it dies really helps the deck be consistent.

I have also compiled an extensive maybeboard with a variety of cool options to try out, but swaps should not change the ratios of card types (interaction, recursion, draw, ramp, tax fraud, creature count) in a significant fashion otherwise the deck may not function as smoothly. Otherwise, any of the cards in the maybeboard should work out fairly well if swapped in (they are mostly explored territory).

For mulligans:

The dream hand is 3 lands, a 1MV dork to cast henzie on 2, and then spending the next 2-3 turns enabling tax fraud and/developing mana to set up a bomb or multi spell follow up afterwards. {Avatar of Growth, Flare of Cultivation, Bloom Tender, Gwenna eyes of Gaea} are great cards for explosive starts, especially paired with a blitzable ramp creature. I won't get into sequencing too deeply since the deck is quite flexible but the decision between playing henzie and developing mana ASAP or delaying by a turn to play a value piece early to have greater impact for when you do put that creature out is context dependent, I have had success both ways. Use your judgement based on your resources and what gameplan your opponents are playing.

any 3-5 land hand that can play henzie on turn 2 or 3 that has a blitzable ramp creature and a reasonably good way(s) to spend that mana is basically a snap keep. bonus points if you have access to tax fraud and/or recursion. this might seem weak but we get redraws off of those blitz creatures dying, so it's highly likely to have a playable follow up from a hand like this.

any hand that can play henzie on turn 3 but doesn't really have anything else going on is hard to consider keeping unless you're expecting a slow game where you can afford to draw something to blitz off the top later. I have kept hands that have done good work where i sac henzie on turn 4 to a draw outlet {Nasty End, Greater Good, Disciple of Bolas, Flare of Cultivation} to hit land drops and dig a little deeper. these slower hands are risky but potentially keepable.

any hand that cannot cast henzie or has less than 3 lands is basically an instant mulligan. exceptions may occur (surveil lands either raw or off of fetches to help find lands, dork + flare of cultivation)

That's it! Having read this you are well on your way to beating your pod in the face with the power of Boss Rush! Would love to see some feedback and/or questions in the comments :)

Date added	1 year
Last updated	2 weeks
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 0 Mythic Rares 57 - 0 Rares 13 - 0 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.30
Tokens	Copy Clone, Meteorite Token, Morph 2/2 C, Powerstone, Timeless Witness 4/4 B, Treasure