Commander (1)
Taking Layered Combo to the Next Level of Degeneracy
With Razaketh, the Foulblooded BUG(x) layered combo decks have the potential to take another step in power level. Today, I want to discuss two layered combo builds that will hopefully demonstrate what Raz offers a deck that is willing to build around him.
I also will briefly outline an exciting new Razaketh brew that has considerable potential (even if it isn't layered combo).
The idea is fairly simple. Play multiple combos that share cards so you maximize one's possible paths to victory. If done correctly, you will have a deck that can seamlessly pivot from one win condition to the next because all your enablers work well for each combo. The strength of this strategy is that it can exponentially increase the possible card combinations that will result in victory. The ideal (that is never fully achieved) is to have a deck where each combo piece has multiple uses so you have in effect no "dead cards." If done well, even powerful enablers will be more powerful (more possible uses) than they are in other decks. The BUG color scheme does this strategy best because it has a wide selection of objectively powerful cards that check multiple boxes.
The downside of layered combo is that unlike a focused combo deck, we often have less card slots for interaction. Also, if done poorly, this style of deck will be inconsistent and feel disjointed. Layered combo requires extensive knowledge of the various possible lines to victory within your deck. There are many hands capable of a turn 2-3 win that may look like a bad hand to someone not familiar with the deck.
While this may sound counterintuitive, layered combo builds tend to be more consistent in getting to a win condition (especially in less than ideal circumstances) than a focused combo build since there are so many different card combination that can result in victory.
For example, if you have an opener that includes Fauna Shaman, and something like Vampiric Tutor, you will be able to assemble (depending on the list) Flash hulk, Food chain combo, Reanimated Razaketh, Bomberman, Notion thief+Wheel, or Labman+Pact within the first 3-5 turns. This provides us with tremendous flexibility in how we approach the table, whereas a focused combo build can be severely hampered by a single stax piece that disrupts their primary path to victory (i.e. Phyrexian Revoker naming Food Chain/Razaketh, the Foulblooded or blanket hoser cards like Rest in Peace/Suppression Field/Null Rod/Linvala, Keeper of Silence)
At the same time layered combo builds are less consistent (at times) because there are more bad possible bad opening hands. For instance an opener with Eternal Scourge Buried Alive and Protean Hulk is significantly worse than any one of those combo pieces and interaction/advantage/tutors. While there are more potential bad openers in layered combo, our topdecks are better (on average) as there are more cards we can draw into that will get us there.
One of the biggest advantages of layered combo over a focused combo is resiliency. Cards like Praetor's Grasp and Extract do next to nothing against us. We can Buried Alive without fearing an untimely exile will break our deck as we will still have half our lines intact. We also don't have to play jank cards like Pull from Eternity or Riftsweeper to get our win condition back if things go poorly. In short, there is no single hate piece that can stop a layered combo build and decks cannot key in on a single strategy to slow us down as each game plays out differently.
Now that we have covered the pitfalls and potential of the strategy, I want to demonstrate the power of Razaketh, who is the latest in a long line of build around me cards. Raz offers something uniquely powerful to the current cEDH meta. Namely, he turns creatures into combo pieces, thereby making dorks and hate bears even more powerful than they already are. He also does a fantastic job of protecting himself and keeping other decks in check once he is on the battlefield.
1) A high creature count. Particularly if the majority of these creatures are 1-2 cc. This is the primary reason why green is ideal (One drop mana dorks).
2) Many ways to cheat Razaketh into play. This is why BUG is ideal since all three colors offer efficient enablers to reanimate Razaketh.
3) Efficient combos: With enough creatures in play Razaketh can assemble a combo from scratch (aka with an empty hand). To maximize his facilitating powers we want to do this with the least amount creatures needed. Of the two card combos available to us the most efficient include:
Flash+Protean Hulk=Mana Crypt/Elvish Spirit Guide or LED+Flash+Hulk. This is the most efficient two card combo in cEDH and only requires between 3-4 creatures in play to assemble flash hulk. Hulk can also be put into play with LED+Hulk+any reanimation spell.
Food Chain+Eternal Scourge=ESG+crypt or LED+Scourge+FC. This is slightly less efficient and to make it from scratch 3-4 creatures are needed in addition to exiling Raz to food chain (if no other creatures are available).
Auriok Salvagers +Lion's Eye Diamond= For this to work we need LED+Crypt+Sol ring+Salvagers. This one requires 4 creatures and/or Shaper's Ewitness line.
While not part of either deck, HD combo can be assembled with LED+HD+Concordant Crossroads+Elvish Spirit Guide for 4 creatures.
Therefore, an ideal general will be capable of using at least two combos to maximize the ability of the deck to "go off" without issue in a variety of board states and opening hands.
The two generals I have chosen for today's examples are Sidisi Brood Tyrant and Thrasios & Tymna.
Demon Tyrant
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 23 | 31 COMMENTS | 3704 VIEWS | IN 10 FOLDERS
Demon Tyrant is a vesatile and interactive fast combo deck that is designed to maximize the utility of Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. This deck was constructed by Lime Blue, myself, and the SBT Discord. In Demon Tyrant SBT is more than food chain outlet. Her self mill can produce bodies and dump Raz/Hulk/Jin into the yard with topdeck tutors. In slower games of attrition, SBT is a powerhouse.
Demon Tyrant has two primary win conditions:
1) Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Walking Ballista, and Viscera Seer loop assembled off of Flash+Protean Hulk
2) Food Chain+Eternal Scourge, allows us to repeatedly cast SBT to mill our library, where we can then flashback Dread Return to reanimate Eternal Witness, which returns Walking Ballista to hand, where it can be cast for infinite to kill the table.
Razaketh can assemble both combos for "free" with Buried Alive+Reanimate or with Entomb+Reanimate if we have 2 creatures in play (The specific sequence is described on the Demon Tyrant List).
We also utilize Laboratory Maniac, which can take the place of walking ballista as our "free finisher" for Food Chain combo (with the help of Razaketh). Labman can also get around graveyard hate and other hoser cards (i.e Suppression Field to end the game with Tainted Pact.
Being a layered combo deck, our outputs are greater than the sum of our parts. Our combo package results in the following lines:
Flash + Protean Hulk = 2 mana
Food Chain + Eternal Scourge = 3mana
Entomb + Necromancy = 4 mana (over 2 turns)
Buried Alive + Reanimate= 4 mana
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant attack trigger+topdeck tutor+Reanimate = 2 mana
Midgame Raz Entomb + Reanimate=2 mana
Laboratory Maniac + Tainted Pact + Draw spell or trigger = 5-6 mana that can be spread over two turns.
These are the most efficient lines, but there are at least 50 other different card combinations/ sequences that can end the game and/or put us so far ahead we have all but won (ex. Notion Thief + Windfall.
Having this many mana efficient combos gives us the ability to win with almost no resources at any point in the game. I have won more than one game where things went horribly wrong early and I just sat around for a bit doing nothing. The cause is usually poor play on my part (Ex. grabbing the wrong land off a fetchland) combined with "bad luck" (greedy mulligans). I have been stuck on one land for 6 turns with this deck and still managed to win through disruption (Swan Song) and multiple stax pieces (Null Rod/Suppression Field/Grafdigger's Cage) in play. This deck is most dangerous when the game is going poorly and people assume we are dead. These efficient lines also allow us to frequently play the role of archenemy, even against top tier decks. There are few things more satisfying than making breakfast hulk or mono black sidisi play defensively and scramble for answers. This deck can consistently threaten a turn 2-4 win and often follow that up with a second attempt the next turn.
Let us look more closely at the combo pieces.
Flash can be used to "discard" Raz or Jin if we have reanimation spell in hand, or convert an ETB creature such as Phyrexian Delver or Eternal Witness into an instant. It also can instant speed steal creatures to disrupt combos with Gilded Drake if we pay .
Protean Hulk: Hulk fuels Raz, helps assemble Food Chain combo with cards like Eternal Witness and Eternal Scourge, and serves as a wonderful decoy in our intuition piles.
Viscera Seer can be sacrificed for value and can kill Hulk. Its scry ability also comes in handy in a pinch.
Phyrexian Delver is a key part of Buried Alive pile and can win the game off Survival of the Fittest/Fauna Shaman activations. With a single creature in play and Entomb, Delver can win the game for 6 total mana. Delver also provides redundancy to Dread Return for Food Chain combo.
Phantasmal Image often copies a dork, bob, or ewit which is passable on its own. However, it can occasionally copy powerful creatures on the cheap and helps our Buried Alive pile be mana efficient.
Food Chain can help us ritual into Raz or Hulk or dig by exiling and recasting SBT for her mill trigger, but most of the time, this is just a combo piece
Eternal Scourge can be discarded to Survival of the Fittest, but is otherwise pure combo piece.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed...Ditto
Laboratory Maniac can win with Tainted Pact giving us a gravefree victory that gets around hoser cards like Supression Field. Can also serve as a free backup win off Food Chain combo with Raz's help.
Tainted Pact can dig deep for cards we need to win. Since we have multiple win conditions, we almost always get a card we need without screwing ourselves and being instant and 2 mana, makes this card a very efficient enabler. If you got big balls you can even sometimes assemble both halves of food chain combo with this card (I do not suggest this).
Walking Ballista can be used to ping problematic creatures (i.e Hermit Druid) and is the primary win condition to both FC and Flash Hulk.
Lion's Eye Diamond has proven to be too powerful to pass up despite the fact it has less utility than Lotus Petal in non Razaketh situations (the card it replaced). LED lets us win off 3 creatures with Raz instead of 4, which matters a great deal when fighting through heavy disruption. For the budget conscious Tyrant, Lotus Petal is a fine alternative that is usually powerful enough to get us there.
While this deck has a number of combo peices, most have multiple functions, which reduces the negative impact they have on the deck.
Our combo package is much more compact than past SBT lists, which allows us to have enough interaction overcome tough matchups.
For example, in the second game I ever played with Demon Tyrant I was up against Blood Pod, Gitrog Monster, and FC Prossh. I had a great opener that consisted of Mana Crypt, Command Tower, Chrome Mox, Windfall, Survival of the Fittest, Brainstorm, and Necromancy. My first draw was a Demonic Tutor which was even better. However, blood pod dropped a turn 0 Leyline of the Void. I played Mana Crypt, Command Tower, and Chrome Mox with Brainstorm imprinted on it. I tutored for Chain of Vapor and on my opponents endstep I bounced Leyline. Turn 2, I cast Windfall which ruined Prossh's gameplan forcing him to exchange his great hand for a bad one. More importantly we got rid of leyline. I didn't get any enablers except Reanimate and Eternal Scourge with my 6 cards, but I did get interaction and a land. Blood pod played Magus of the Moon on turn 2 and I sacraficed my next turn to counter it with Pact of Negation. In that time, Gitrog came out with "Magus of the Crucible" and started to blow up everyones lands each turn with Strip Mine and blood pod dropped Trinisphere. My next turn that I could play anything I played SBT and got a zombie. The next turn I drew Wordly Tutor , which normally would be gg but Trinisphere was in play and gitrog had blown up my Command Tower. At my opponents end step I blew up Trinisphere with Abrupt Decay and on my turn I Wordly Tutor ed for Razaketh milled him into the yard with SBT's attack trigger reanimated Raz who easily assembled Food Chain combo and ended the game.
Thrasios Hulkweaver
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 12 | 21 COMMENTS | 5350 VIEWS | IN 15 FOLDERS
Demon Make Hulk Go Boom!
Commander / EDH*
270 VIEWS
The next deck I want to discuss is an extention of the first, which was modified to fit within LabManiac_Dan's Hulkweaver deck. For this deck we have two examples to help illustrate flex slots. Dan's list is tuned to his meta (which contains hermits breakfast) whereas mine (as per usual) is built to compete against a wider range of decks.
Hulkweaver is another ideal shell for Razaketh centric combos. White gives access to hatebears, which allows us to run more high quality creatures than any other deck to fuel Raz. Another advantage is that Survival of the Fittest and Fauna Shaman are significantly improved with Loyal Retainers providing an efficient outlet to reanimate Raz. Hulk gets a slightly better pile and Buried Alive/Protean Hulk lines are far less painful with Karmic Guide replacing delver. LED gets a big boost with the addition of Auriok Salvagers . Adding white also gives us more t1 dorks, interaction slots, and efficient enablers. Tymna the Weaver gives this deck remarkable consistency due to her passive card advantage and Thrasios serves as a cheap mana sink, attacker, and sac fodder.
This deck is not a strict upgrade by any means. It has a different focus and plays much different than Demon Hulk. It is also weaker in some ways. Since most of hulkweaver's interaction is in the form of stax pieces, it lacks the ability to easily protect its own combos, making it less likely to be able to force Hulk or Raz through heavy disruption. Bomberman is also a downgrade from FC combo as it is often less mana efficient and forces you to discard your hand. Raz also loses his ability to protect himself as well (No Force of Will or Pact of Negation) and we also can't drop Jin on the table and say no to our opponents attempts to remove him, which is a fantastic way to soften up a tables defenses. We also lose SBT's topdeck tutor synergy. In short, SBT is a more pure reanimator list, with a traditional control package and is better at winning early. Thras and Tymna are better at taking the game longer by staxing the table and value grinding to victory.
This list utilizes Flash+Protean Hulk to form an infinite Karmic Guide+Saffi Eriksdotter loop with Viscera Seer as the sac outlet and Zulaport Cutthroat as the finisher.
We can also produce infinite mana with Auriok Salvagers + Lion's Eye Diamond to draw our deck with Thrasios, Triton Hero and assemble the hulk loop manually and/or kill the table with Blind Obedience.
We can also can infinitely kill and reanimate Leonin Relic-Warder with any of our reanimation enchantments which will kill the table with cutthroat (Thanks to the Genius of ShaperSavant). Survival of the Fittest and Fauna Shaman are particularly adept at assembling this combo by discarding relic warder into cutthroat casting cutthroat and reanimating relic warder ftw.
This results in a different, but equally efficient set of lines as Demon Tyrant. These include:
Flash+Protean Hulk=2 mana
Entomb+Necromancy = 4 mana (over 2 turns)
Buried Alive + Reanimate= 4 mana
Midgame Raz Entomb+Reanimate=2 mana
Survival of the Fittest/Fauna Shaman discard+Loyal Retainers = 4 mana
Lion's Eye Diamond+ Auriok Salvagers = 4 Mana
Entomb+Animate Dead(leonin)+Zulaport Cutthroat = 5 mana over 2 turns
Vampiric Tutor/Imperial Seal/Enlightened Tutor+Protean Hulk/Razaketh, the Foulblooded in hand+Lion's Eye Diamond in play+Tymna draw trigger= 1 mana
While not something we can commonly abuse the last line is the the most mana efficient combo in cEDH!
Hulkweaver 2.0 is unlike any midrange stax deck that has ever existed. It can stop other decks in their tracks with early stax peices. It can also grind out long game victories quite effectively. Thirdly, this deck can also easily place game winning combos on the stack by turn 2-3 and continue to threaten victory every 1-2 turns afterwards. The ability to threaten victory at any point in the game OR lock down the game turn 1-2 OR value grind by turning sideways with Tymna and friends makes it very difficult to play against.
The collective concentration of early win conditions, turn 1 ramp sources, and hate pieces allows the deck to consistently come out of the gates swinging. This can force opponents to abandon their plan A and scramble for answers while we continue to apply pressure until the table breaks.
Since there is considerable overlap between Demon Hulk and Hulkweaver 2.0 I am not going to discuss all the nuances of hulkweaver. Rather, I will focus on a few cards and interactions that set this deck apart.
Hermit druid without all the garbage?
HD decks are well known to be extremely fast and consistent. However, the strategy is also fragile with the combo requiring a number of bad cards to function properly. However, what if you could have all the consistency and relative speed of HD without any dead cards, no need to play 0% basics, or put your entire library in the graveyard, would you play the combo? Well in this deck you can do just that with Fauna Shaman...
Now you may be thinking, "WTF Brudder! I trusted you...and you give me Fauna Freakin Shaman?!?!? She is SLOOOW!"
Look man...I hear you. While what you say is normally true. Raz is the dark lord. His will simply shall be. With his Loyal Retainers, our bounty of creature tutors, and our high concentration of creatures we can frequently win the game the turn we untap withFauna Shaman (just like HD). Worst case scenario we play FS turn 2 and reanimate Raz turn 4, which is still a reasonable clock. We can also simply assemble hulk to hand for flash or salvagers for LED on turn 3 using FS so we got options beyond our primary line.
Also please also note I said "RELATIVE." This distinction is important because many games the rest of the table will be going MUCH slower whereas Fauna Shaman will be functioning at full speed with Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Eidolon of Rhetoric, and Ethersworn Canonist and our other stax pieces in play. In that light, its safe to sayFauna Shaman is blazing fast. In truth, the whole deck is designed to break parity on Rule of Law effects (in creature form) and Raz can conveniently remove our bears when we are ready to win the game. Fauna Shaman simply benefits most from this and then dutifully serves as free as sac fodder for Raz to win the game the turn he returns from the grave.
Just think on this for a minute. Razaketh turns a fringe playable card into a one "one card win condition that gets around our own hate. Oh and Survival of the Fittest is often even better...
Zur the Enchanter in the 99?
In the time before Thrasios took his crown, Zur was often viewed as the gold standard for cEDH. Therefore, it should not be a big suprise to anyone that he does ridiculous work within a deck that aims to slow down the table. He literally does everything we need and excels at breaking through stax locks with his tutoring ability. With the exception of Shimmer Myr Zur, we abuse this card as good as anyone.
The Perfect Intuition Pile
Intuition is one of those frustrating cards that is incredibly powerful but very difficult to utilize efficiently. It is one of the most situational cards in cEDH and often requires considerable skill and build around to use effectively. In this deck, we can form a perfect reanimation pile that will end the game for us no matter what we are given. The pile consists of Auriok Salvagers , Razaketh, the Foulblooded, and Lion's Eye Diamond. You're welcome...
The question has been asked by a few notable deckbuilders whether or not Hulk is even required for sans red midrange Razaketh builds. Cutting the hulk package frees up about 5-7 slots and still leaves Razaketh with ShaperSavant's Leonin Relic-Warder loops and Eternal Witness line leading into bomberman combo. While the deck loses some explosiveness and many efficient lines, it frees the deck to run a higher concentration of hate peices, have fewer dead cards overall in the 98, and be able to play a more devoted midrange stax strategy (akin to blood pod). I must admit, while not really layered combo, the deck has considerable potential for greatness.
Dan and Wedge have been working on this particular archetype, which is still being tested. Their lists can be found below
Thrasios Demonweaver
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 2 | 330 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS
Razabears
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 2 | 264 VIEWS
Today we discussed two layered combo decks (and one stremlined combo deck) built around Razaketh, the Foulblooded. Each deck attacks the meta in somewhat different ways. Demon Hulk by Lilbrudder & Lime Blue is an interactive fast combo deck built around Sidisi, Brood Tyrant which can race the fastest decks in the format while also playing a solid reactive gameplan. Hulkweaver 2.0 is a Thrasios and Tymna stax combo deck created by Dan & Lilbrudder, which uses resource denial and an explosive combo package to play slow or fast with equal proficiency. Lastly, and least explored at the moment, is Demonweaver, which dumps the hulk package for a more devoted stax gameplan, with a set of compact but powerful combos to close out the game.
After testing various Razaketh builds extensively and personally playing Demon Tyrant in competitive pods, I am convinced Razaketh is one of the most powerful cards in the format and decks that buid around him can compete with anyone.
Alright folks. I hope you enjoyed this installment of Brudder's Brews (felt right)...until next time
Cheers,
Lilbrudder
With special guests/contributers: Lime Blue, Dan, and Wedge
PS. I would like to also like thank Sigi, Shapersavant, and Soos for their kind words, support, and various insights regarding Razaketh. It truly takes a community and I feel blessed to know all of you.
Suggestions
Updates Add
If the described builds are not your cup of tea, but you still wish to serve the dark lord, I highly reccommend ShaperSavant's Razakats and marsthesoos' Buried Alive Sidisi. Both primers can be found below:
Razakats
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 240 | 42 COMMENTS | 79565 VIEWS | IN 94 FOLDERS
Buried Alive Sidisi
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 58 | 22 COMMENTS | 33561 VIEWS | IN 31 FOLDERS
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Revision 1 See all
(6 years ago)
| -1 | Abrupt Decay | main |
| -1 | Animate Dead | main |
| -1 | Arbor Elf | main |
| -1 | Arid Mesa | main |
| -1 | Aura of Silence | main |
| -1 | Auriok Salvagers | main |
| -1 | Avacyn's Pilgrim | main |
| -1 | Aven Mindcensor | main |
| -1 | Bayou | main |
| -1 | Birds of Paradise | main |
| -1 | Blind Obedience | main |
| -1 | Bloodstained Mire | main |
| -1 | Brainstorm | main |
| -1 | Brushland | main |
| -1 | Buried Alive | main |
| -1 | Carpet of Flowers | main |
| -1 | Chrome Mox | main |
| -1 | City of Brass | main |
| -1 | Command Tower | main |
| -1 | Deathrite Shaman | main |
| Top Ranked |
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| Date added | 6 years |
| Last updated | 6 years |
| Legality | This deck is not Commander / EDH legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 1 - 0 Mythic Rares |
| Cards | 1 |
| Avg. CMC | 8.00 |
| Folders | Competitive EDH, Guides and Primers, Primer, Utilities, Ideas, Info |
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