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Gavi Astral Driftin'

Commander / EDH* Battlecruiser Casual Primer RUW (Jeskai, America) Tokens

18ths

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Creature (28)

Sorcery (7)

Land (36)

Artifact (8)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Gavi, Nest Warden

Enchantment (13)

Instant (7)

Maybeboard

Creature (10)

Instant (10)

Enchantment (4)

Artifact (3)

Sorcery (1)

At first sight, Gavi seems pretty straightforward, just slap any cards with cycling in a deck. Her first cycle is free and free stuff always work, right? Usually, yes. Not this time though. Unfortunately most of cycling cards in her color don't have much impact in 4 player match. Some time ago, that would be true for one card. Since 2019 - two cards. And since Gavi and IKO was spoiled - actually three cards being very similar and using cycling cards as an ammo, now viable also in EDH! Gals and guys, I'll present you how Astral Drift and its two siblings Astral Slide, Escape Protocol will wreck our enemies.

First of all, do not underestimate new kid in the block Escape Protocol. Astral guys give you free value, why would I use this instead of another enchantment tutor? Note that this effect is a flicker, not a blink. Yes, you have to pay 1, but you can use your etb as an instant. Flickering Zealous Conscripts three times before attacking? Infinite mana with Peregrine Drake usable in main step? Exiling pesky graveyard in response to reanimation spell with Angel of Finality? Astral enchantments cannot do this.

So, our general gameplan will be - get one of the three enchanments and Gavi on the board (or Fluctuator, or New Perspectives while holding a full hand [which shouldnt be very hard]) plus some creatures with good ETB ability, like Agent of Treachery Abuse that ETBs as much as you can, while a quarter of your cards are now a free cantripping flicker spell. Gain some incidential value with cards like Drake Haven, Gavi's second ability, Irencrag Pyromancer, Valiant Rescuer. Produce shitload of tokens using The Locust God, Nadir Kraken or Chasm Skulker and surprise them with each of them gaining wings with Aven Wind Guide or simply use Impact Tremors before making them.

There is just one problem - you need a steady flow of cards. Fortunately Ephara, God of the Polis is absolutely broken with Gavi. She can pretty reliably draw a card every single upkeep. All you need to do is to cycle one card for free, so Gavi will make a token, which will trigger Ephara on the next upkeep, which will draw you a card and then you need cycle one card for free, so Gavi will make a token... and so on. You get the idea. If you dont' have her, besides enormous cycling package, you have some other draw engines - Mulldrifter and Cloudblazer with abusable ETB, Bident of Thassa, Arcanis the Omnipotent and a few more.

Please note that this deck is just a draft. For obvious reasons I didnt have time to test it. Probably some cycling cards are not worth it. Maybe its too much of them, maybe too few. The deck looks powerful albeit a bit too slow. Maybe we should invest in better ramp? Is there enough interaction? And finally, are we able to find one of our three enchantments in time? Stay tuned, I will certainly update this deck as I test it.

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94% Casual

Competitive