Count with Chisei

Commander / EDH Casual Counters Mono-Blue Theme/Gimmick

travelingpseudonym

Artifact (20)

• 1x Astral Cornucopia
• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Cauldron of Souls
• 1x Contagion Clasp
• 1x Energy Chamber
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Lithoform Engine
• 1x Lux Cannon
• 1x Magistrate's Scepter
• 1x Mazemind Tome
• 1x Midnight Clock
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Power Conduit
• 1x Ratchet Bomb
• 1x Replicating Ring
• 1x Ring of Evos Isle
• 1x Sky Diamond
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Transmogrifying Wand

Land (35)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 28x Island
• 1x Karn's Bastion
• 1x Mirrodin's Core
• 1x Mystic Sanctuary
• 1x Nesting Grounds
• 1x Tolaria West
• 1x Vivid Creek

Creature (17)

• 1x Benthic Biomancer
• 1x Chasm Skulker
• 1x Chronozoa
• 1x Ferropede
• 1x Flux Channeler
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Musician
• 1x River Kelpie
• 1x Scourge of Fleets
• 1x Serrated Biskelion
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Spark Double
• 1x Survivor of the Unseen
• 1x Thrummingbird
• 1x Tribute Mage
• 1x Trophy Mage
• 1x Viral Drake

Enchantment (11)

• 1x As Foretold
• 1x Biting Tether
• 1x Inexorable Tide
• 1x Kiora Bests the Sea God
• 1x Medomai's Prophecy
• 1x Ominous Seas
• 1x Reality Acid
• 1x The Antiquities War
• 1x The Mirari Conjecture
• 1x Time of Ice
• 1x Unstable Mutation

Commander (1)

Instant (12)

• 1x AEtherize
• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Clockspinning
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Engulf the Shore
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Fuel for the Cause
• 1x Negate
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Steady Progress
• 1x Suspend

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Contentious Plan
• 1x Inspiring Refrain
• 1x Ravenform
• 1x Tezzeret's Gambit

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Maybeboard

Instant (5)

• 1x Disruption Protocol
• 1x Essence Capture
• 1x Keep Watch
• 1x Planar Incision
• 1x Reality Heist

Creature (3)

• 1x Katsumasa, the Animator
• 1x Sphinx of the Second Sun
• 1x Thing in the Ice  ^Flip

Artifact (4)

• 1x Helm of the Host
• 1x Mirror Box
• 1x Strata Scythe
• 1x Sun Droplet

Land (1)

• 1x Glacial Chasm

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Inventive Iteration  ^Flip
• 1x Paradox Haze
• 1x Verity Circle

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What is this commander?!

Chisei is a flying puddle ghost with a quirky upkeep cost, and we're making a deck around that upkeep cost. The deck aims to move some counters around your side of the board, and occasionally smack people with your soggy commander.

...Why did you build this?

I wanted a deck way outside my comfort zone, and wanted to make sure I built something that wouldn't end up too overtuned for local, lower-powered tables. Now I have a weird puddle commander that lets me play mancala on top of my Magic cards.

That being said: there's probably a good reason only 130 people or so (as of this writing) are running Chisei as a commander. If you're looking for a high powered, fringe cEDH deck, you're going to be disappointed. But if you're looking to do something different with your deck using a commander most people haven't bothered to play (and you're fine hanging around battlecruiser decks & precons), you've come to the right place.

What does the deck do?

The goal of the deck is to use Chisei's upkeep (as well as a few other things in the deck) to add and remove counters to different permanents, usually on your side of the table. By being able to manipulate counters like this, we get some extra value out of the permanents we have. Also, you get the chance to show off whatever dice/counters/whatever you brought with you.

How does it win?

The deck is mostly combat-based. We have a few options

• Commander Damage: Chisei has flying, and we have a few ways to tap or bounce potential blockers. Adding Unstable Mutation to Chisei puts our opponents on a three turn clock, and +1/+1 counters help us as well.
• Attacking with lots of stuff: Kiora Bests the Sea God can spit out at least one kraken per turn, and cards like Chasm Skulker can also become a problem quickly. Heck, Chronozoa can become a problem if people leave you alone for too long. If you need to swing big in one turn, just remember that wipes like Engulf the Shore and Scourge of Fleets can be used offensively too.
• Infect: If you can hit someone once with Viral Drake, in theory you can proliferate and/or smack them repeatedly until they get to ten poison counters. Poison counters tend to paint a target on you, so I usually don't go this route unless I absolutely have to.

Counters to add and remove

To start off, here are the types of counters we want to remove:

• Cumulative Upkeep: Because of how cumulative upkeep works, we can remove the upkeep counter and keep the cost on cards like Musician & Survivor of the Unseen low, so they stick around longer and we get to use them a lot more.
• Sagas: Repeating a step on a Saga is a great way to really get all the value out of it. You can use Time of Ice to lock down your opponents' creatures indefinitely, get multiple krakens out of Kiora Bests the Sea God, or just keep digging through your library for artifacts each turn with The Antiquities War. Just keep in mind that counters are added on Sagas at the beginning of the first main phase, and NOT during your upkeep.
• -1/-1 counters: Persist is even more annoying when you have a way to remove counters. Plus, cards like Unstable Mutation and Biting Tether become a lot more useful when you can remove the -1/-1 counters every turn.
• Vanishing counters: Chronozoa can become a problem really quickly for other players if you have ways to remove counters. Plus, you speed up the clock on Reality Acid

On the other side of things, there are a whole lot of counters that are good, and we want more of. Proliferate and Energy Chamber are great tools to keep Chisei alive, but there are a ton of counters we can add to things as well.

• Charge counters: We can abbreviate this section by saying that most of the artifacts are good to add charge counters too. Ramp harder with Astral Cornucopia, Everflowing Chalice, and Replicating Ring. Take extra turns (eventually) with Magistrate's Scepter. Remove stuff with Lux Cannon or Transmogrifying Wand.
• As Foretold: It's weird that this gets its own line, but this card helps you ramp a ton. Plus, it's one free spell during every turn (not just during your turn), which means you can easily cast counterspells for free.

There's a third category here, which is basically counters that are more situational. Midnight Clock may be something you want to keep around or tick up quickly, depending on what your library looks like. And Ratchet Bomb is in there to deal with token decks, but can be pumped up more to handle larger threats.

And then there are Vivid Creek and Mirrodin's Core, which are just food for Chisei).

Quick disclaimer: This may be obvious to some, but it should be said: Chisei can't touch suspend counters. Proliferate doesn't touch suspend counters either. In fact, the only card in the deck right now that can manipulate suspend counters is Clockspinning.

Cards for manipulating counters

Chisei is great, but it's not the only tool in your toolbox. Here's a short list of ways to remove counters:

• Power Conduit - It's worth mentioning that adding a +1/+1 counter onto a creature with a -1/-1 counter will remove both counters, so this can sometimes help two permanents at once.
• Ferropede
• Clockspinning
• Lithoform Engine - Use it to copy any of these other options

Cards Under Consideration

I'm open to suggestions and feedback on the deck. Here's a list of what I'm already considering:

Creatures

• Sphinx of the Second Sun: I'm a bit torn on whether it's worth the card slot. It seems like another flavor of Paradox Haze. A second untap, upkeep, and draw phase seems like a good upside, and it really lets us cast more or lean into countermagic. However, we do risk rewinding our Sagas too quickly (Sagas will still only trigger once per turn). It's also a pretty high CMC. I'm not sure how helpful it will be when we're behind. I'll have to test it to find out more.
• Thing in the Ice  : This is another fun creature to take counters off of, and we get to cast it early, which is great. But we don't have any other horrors in the deck, so I'm not sure whether this type if boardwipe is going to help us or just set us back with our opponents.

Spells

• Glacial Chasm: While this is technically a land, we're going to throw this in a spell slot since it doesn't give us any mana. It's definitely useful protection, but I'm not sure what to swap out for this.
• Inventive Iteration  : With Kamigawa coming out, we got a new Saga. This seems like an auto-include, since we get so much value out of Sagas (specifically, we're just looking at chapter 1 & 2).
• Paradox Haze: I go back and forth on this one. It seems good with Chisei, but it's also a nonbo with any cumulative upkeep stuff. Plus, you're removing counters from Sagas faster than you can add them; you'll want a more developed boardstate to keep it around.
• Helm of the Host: If we really want to lean in, adding more Chiseis every turn will turn your side of the table into a mancala board. I've been pretty hesitant to lean into this too much, because we need enough counters to feed the Chiseis. It's definitely worth exploring though, and can get out of hand really quickly.
• Quicksilver Fountain: While this seems like a perfectly viable strategy at some tables (you could even lean in with more cards like Illusionary Terrain), I'm not sure if I'm comfortable including stax cards like this at lower power levels. That being said, it does synergize really well with Strata Scythe.
• Strata Scythe: Seems like a decent win condition with Chisei or one of our other flyers. Just imprint an island and swing.
• Sun Droplet: This is a cheap artifact that can help us regain life, or at least be more counters to play with. Not sure if it's worth the card slot in the long run though.

Notable Exclusions

These are cards that seem like they'd be a good fit, but I'm passing on for one reason or another.

• Dark Depths: I know it seems like an obvious choice, but the card seems like it's going to be a dud 90% of the time. The payoff seems ok, but it's going to take a few turns (or decent resources) for that to happen. Until then, it's just a permanent you take counters off of. Most other cards in the deck with counters offer more immediate value, so I'm hesitant to swap out a spell slot for something that doesn't do anything for a few turns.
• Darksteel Reactor: It's a decent win condition that combos with proliferate and some of the counter manipulation. Still, you usually get a target painted on you with these type of shenanigans, and we don't have a great way to make this go off quickly.
• Decree of Silence: This is another card that seems to synergize with our main gimmick. Unfortunately, its high CMC means it's usually not coming out soon enough to help us unless we start running stax.
• Urza's Saga: Being able to keep this around for a few turns while we use the second ability a few times is useful, but we don't get much out of the tutor ability -- the tutor is pretty literal on costs, so we'll only be able to fetch a Sol Ring with it currently (it doesn't fetch {X} or {U}). This card doesn't exactly come cheap, so I'm not sure it's worth its hefty price tag to put it in the deck.

Date added	2 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 30 - 0 Rares 24 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.06
Tokens	Bird 1/1 U, Copy Clone, Kraken 8/8 U, Kraken 8/8 U w/ Hexproof, Manifest 2/2 C, Ox 2/4 W, Replicated Ring, Squid 1/1 U