In Search of Lamplight Crab

Commander / EDH Blink Casual Creature Cheat GU (Simic) Investigate Tokens Tokens

Primrose

Creature (25)

• 1x Adrix and Nev, Twincasters
• 1x Beast Whisperer
• 1x Briarbridge Patrol
• 1x Coiling Oracle
• 1x Daring Sleuth  ^Flip
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Erdwal Illuminator
• 1x Esix, Fractal Bloom
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Floodhound
• 1x Frilled Mystic
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Glimmer Bairn
• 1x Icefeather Aven
• 1x Junk Winder
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Sailor of Means
• 1x Shimmer Dragon
• 1x Temur Sabertooth
• 1x Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
• 1x Thought Monitor
• 1x Tireless Tracker
• 1x Wavesifter
• 1x Wood Elves
• 1x Workshop Elders

Land (30)

• 1x Alchemist's Refuge
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 11x Forest
• 10x Island
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Simic Growth Chamber
• 1x Spire of Industry
• 1x Yavimaya Coast
• 1x Zoetic Cavern

Artifact (15)

• 1x Cloudstone Curio
• 1x Crystal Shard
• 1x Illusionist's Bracers
• 1x Inspiring Statuary
• 1x Krark-Clan Ironworks
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Magnifying Glass
• 1x Portal of Sanctuary
• 1x Simic Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Strionic Resonator
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Talisman of Curiosity
• 1x Tamiyo's Journal
• 1x Thought Vessel

Enchantment (11)

• 1x Doubling Season
• 1x Freed from the Real
• 1x Mechanized Production
• 1x On the Trail
• 1x Ongoing Investigation
• 1x Primordial Mist
• 1x Simic Ascendancy
• 1x Trail of Evidence
• 1x Ulvenwald Mysteries
• 1x Virtue of Knowledge
• 1x Weirding Wood

Commander (1)

Instant (13)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Confirm Suspicions
• 1x Confront the Unknown
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Displace
• 1x Dream Fracture
• 1x Evacuation
• 1x Ghostly Flicker
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Illusionist's Stratagem
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Second Harvest
• 1x Simic Charm

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Hard Evidence
• 1x Ravenform
• 1x Reverse Engineer
• 1x Rise and Shine
• 1x Root Out

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Maybeboard

Creature (11)

• 1x Citanul Stalwart
• 1x Farhaven Elf
• 1x Foundation Breaker
• 1x Genesis
• 1x Jeskai Infiltrator
• 1x Prosperous Innkeeper
• 1x Sylvok Replica
• 1x Tenacious Tomeseeker
• 1x Tidespout Tyrant
• 1x Timeless Witness
• 1x Triskaidekaphile

Instant (4)

• 1x Ensnare
• 1x Ice Out
• 1x Rampage of the Clans
• 1x Season of Renewal

Artifact (4)

• 1x Grinding Station
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Patriar's Seal
• 1x Trading Post

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Estrid's Invocation
• 1x Fleeting Memories
• 1x Parallel Lives
• 1x Primal Vigor

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From a young age, Lonis always believed that strange, mysterious creatures dwelled in Ravnica, out of sight of everyday life: the noxbur shroom, the owlipedosaur, the lamplight crab. Years of research and exploration have yielded nothing, but Lonis remains undaunted. Others might mock him and consider his research a joke, but Lonis knows that Ravnica still holds mysteries that have yet to be discovered. Lonis believes that as long as he has patience and persists, one day he'll uncover the truth. - Emily Teng "The New Legends of Modern Horizons 2"

What could be better that searching for cryptids in a fantasy world? Probably finding those creatures in your opponent's library. Join Lonis in his investigation, finding way too many clues and discovering creatures Ravnica could only dream of! While this deck as a whole isn't necessarily powerful, our main goal here is going to be denying our opponents their best pieces by making them our own. We'll be getting there using a mix of flickers and bounces to abuse ETBs and rack up clues, then using Lonis to sac those clues to dig through libraries.

Investigations!

Clues being our main feature and all, I'll highlight the main ways to collect them here:

• Lonis, Cryptozoologist and his "partner in crime" Tireless Tracker, providing clues on creature and land ETB

• Briarbridge Patrol and Ongoing Investigation, find us clues when the investigation becomes an interrogation.

• Tamiyo's Journal is a slow drip of clues we can also use to track down more leads.

• Trail of Evidence adding a clue as a bonus for our flickers and such.

In addition to the main gang we have the workhorses of the deck:

• Adrix and Nev, Twincasters, Doubling Season, and Second Harvest bump up our clue counts significantly.

• Erdwal Illuminator doubles up on your first investigation.

• Virtue of Knowledge, Illusionist's Bracers, and Strionic Resonator doubles certain abilities.

Recurring Resources

There's a whole host of ways (about 10 by my count) to flicker/bounce our creatures to ramp, protect our board, and fuel this burgeoning clue factory. I won't list them but it's important to mention they're key to this deck, get them in hand or on board sooner rather than later.

Not including our typical mana rocks we have Sailor of Means, Coiling Oracle, and Wood Elves as prime flicker targets to ramp; we can also dump any spare clues we have into Krark-Clan Ironworks for extra mana. Speaking of spare clues, normally they would be more than enough for card draw but we want to save a few of them for Lonis; Beast Whisperer, Thought Monitor, Reverse Engineer, and Shimmer Dragon will be making up the bulk of card draw in the deck.

Dream Fracture, Confirm Suspicions, Frilled Mystic, and Glen Elendra Archmage make up our counters, the latter two being reusable while also bringing a clue with them. Unfortunately our only board wipe is Cyclonic Rift, but Pongify, Beast Within, Root Out, Ravenform, and Reclamation Sage should cover the rest of our removal bases.

Solving the Case.

If things go more or less to plan, there are a few ways we can finish this:

• Take advantage of having/sacrificing clues to overwhelm the board while using our opponent's best cards to bolster a finishing swing.

• Use Alchemist's Refuge to flash in Mechanized Production onto a clue just before our turn starts.

• Animate our artifacts with Rise and Shine for an instant army and the threat of Simic Ascendancy.

• If you want to add it in, mill players out with Fleeting Memories.

Now for a little math. With just the token doublers out you get 4 clues per trigger, 8 with Virtue of Knowledge, 12 with Strionic Resonator, then 4 more for Erdwal Illuminator for a total of 16 clues the first time we trigger Lonis' ability. The total would be up to 128 if you can slot in Parallel Lives, Primal Vigor, and Estrid's Invocation (32+32+32+32, I think...right?). It's a wonder how the Lamplight Crab is so elusive with that level of dedication.

If you have any suggestions then please feel free to mention them! (I'm maybe looking for something to replace Momir Vig)

Date added	2 years
Last updated	5 days
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 28 - 0 Rares 29 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.24
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Beast 3/3 G, Bird 1/1 U, Clue, Copy Clone, Crab, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Manifest 2/2 C, Morph 2/2 C, Treasure
Folders	Built