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Just Another Winota budget cEDH deck *Primer*

Commander / EDH Aggro Budget Competitive Creature Cheat Humans Primer RW (Boros) Soldiers Stax Tokens

artcwolf22

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Humans (25) (24)

Goodstuff (noncreature interaction/stax) (8)

LANDS (31 w 5 MODALS) (32)

Ramp (6)

Ramp that's nice but expensive i don't have them, basic lands work (6)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Winota, Joiner of Forces

Non-Human Creatures (26) (23)

Sideboard

Humans that remove for specific decks (5)

Alt commanders / protection (4)

Maybeboard

Budget options I owned at some point (7)

Create x / more tokens (not that the deck needs them) (4)

Amazing but require different bases (6)

Proxied good (3)

Should be in deck but pricy (5)

Stax more (1)

Underwhelming (1)

Hello, this is my Winota decklist, which has been adjusted since 2023-2 and foiled out! The deck relies on Winota to cheat out a bunch of humans from non-humans and, should they survive, repeat.

Winota is a powerful commander that can be cheap to build, but I think she sees the limits in cEDH by being less combo reliant. No improvements can change how Winota is too RNG reliant, too reliant in Winota, and too reliant on the right stax pieces hitting to have an impact.

I’ve Simplified This Deck into 4 Parts: Lands, Goodstuff/interaction, Nonhuman Creatures, and Humans. That’s basically all Winota is. Stick w/ Similar Ratios. I've also been told I run more interaction than most people, so feel free to adjust.

If you like Winota and want to build her, build her based on your power level or meta. (see build section for details) My version is cEDH heavy stax with minimal searching, Running ~ 5 low impact stax pieces, 11 high impact stax pieces, and 7 removal pieces. Winota's strength is cheating out high impact humans, but it's your choice of what those humans are.

Intro: Winota is another busted Legendary Creature from the Ikoria set at the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic, so powerful that she got banned in pioneer.

  • in pioneer, Winota banned due to is too overwhelming in Pioneer due to the slower speed of the format, the low 20 life total, and statistics from duplicity (you use Winota to cheat out another Winota, but it's indestructible!). In the commander format beginning with 40 life, she’s busted, but tolerable. As with most Winota decks, your goal is to begin with a few nonhuman creatures, cast Winota, then deck into humans and consequently more creatures until you get an infinite combo or attack for game. Ratio of humans to nonhumans is usually 50-50 to 60-40, depending largely on token spam.

  • Casual Winota however, is very possible in lower power pods, which is why this deck became one of my most frequent decks. There is a version of Winota that is legal in Arena/MTGOnline, where Winota triggers once per combat. This version is very weak and no matter how much you max out Winota, it plays the same.

  • Winota sits in a weird tier above casual and below t1 cEDH. In one regard, she's great against players who don't run stax or removal. In another regard, the RNG schematic of the deck can result in slower or unsubstantial games. In yet another regard, Winota's ability to leverage stax is effective in stopping some opponents but only slowing down other. It's between a rock and a hard place.

  • the 9/24 banlist hit this deck hard. I usually have to mulligan with this deck. However, any hand with Mana Crypt or Jeweled Lotus was almost always worth keeping. And in many pods, Dockside Extortionist was also worth keeping in my opening hand. Now, the deck exclusively needs a good stax piece in opening hand. It's tough.

Winota has many weaknesses, many inherent to herself and the deck. This decks is heavily reliant on stax to catch up to the game and doesn’t do anything until Winota hits the field. In certain matchups, Winota is also the lightning rod for players to target and remove.

  • Boardwipes and stock removal hinder the deck a lot.

  • Containment Priest defangs the entire deck.

  • Permanently removing Winota also stops the deck. Steal Winota, Oko, enchant with an aura like Darksteel Mutation , etc.

  • Just go faster than Winota. This is how my cEDH version usually loses.

  • Be unlucky. She is understandably RNG in commander unlike in 60 card formats.

These are problems that Winota has that must be reckoned with rather than prepared for, especially in White/Red.

As I mentioned in the intro, build Winota based on your power level or meta rather than stick a decklist. For better or for worse, a lot of Winota decks use a very similiar pool of cards. On 2023's EDHrec, probably 2/3 of the nonland cards are the same. But it still one of the cheaper cEDH commanders available and one of few very good R/W Boros commanders.

There's basically four ways to build a Winota deck. Focus on two (this deck is stax and combo):

  1. stax (creatures that hinder opponents and get value from winota from attacking)

  2. token generation (to trigger Winota)

  3. life drain stampede: overwhelm with power (big humans or humans that give boosts)

  4. Infinite Combo: Limit searching so every trigger is 6 less cards to go through to Win with an infinite combo.

The best case scenario focuses on overwhelming the board with Winota's triggered ability. If turns are tight, the deck wants to get stax creatures (or hatebears with magic lingo) to trigger winota. Otherwise, devoting time to get tokens for a solid Winota turn like 60 card decks will seal the job in a few combats. Ideally, you will overwhelm opponents with so many resources and threats that spot removal is inconsequential.

stax

The cEDH version is stax based because decks are just so much faster than Winota. In a format where Decks can gun for a win by turn 5, having to get lucky off Winota cheats is not optimal. As such, decks really have to open with a good stax piece to slow faster decks. The 9/24 banning of fast mana hit this particularly hard. Winota is strong, has great recovery, but is by principle an RNG based deck in commander.

Some cEDH decks even avoid almost all token generators and hope that a few stax or hatebears will do the job, which works well in a less creature-oriented or boardwipe light format like cEDH.

token generation

The low hanging fruit of Winota is to have lots of tokes or humans that cheat out tokens to get more and more triggers. This is fine in a casual or higher build. However this should not be the focus in cEDH wher games are over faster.

Creature token spam is good and budget decks often use creature token spam, using draft chaff to cheat out bulk rare humans that have a high cmc and have high payoff or the ability to generate more tokens so Winota can trigger even more times.

stampede

You can cheat out a suprising number of big humans that can also get a buff. I have also seen some decks run goad like cards like Slicer and Alexios come in play. On the converse, these are dead cards if you draw them, so make these cards count.

I avoid this because I do not think they are powerful or fast enough by themselves. If you do this, prepare to attack only certain opponents. Use this only against a meta where life is a resource (Necropotence, kr'iik decks, etc.)

Sample Humans: - Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer - Paragon of X cycle - Angrath's Marauders - Blade Historian - Serra Ascendant

infinite combo

See the infinite combo section for details to.

Searching is kept to a minimum in this deck. This means less fetchlands. The rationale is that for each Winota trigger, that's 6 less cards to go through your deck for infinite combo cards that can win the game. The deck is consistent enough that you don't need to search over and over like many other decks. The only searchers are the ones that matter, such as Godo finding Helm of the Host and all the stuff that finds Kiki-Jiki for the infinite combo. E.g. kiki jiki startes like the recruiters.

Imperial Recruiter was removed eventually as it only searched for Kiki-Jiki and lacked consistency of stuff like Godo.

Infinite Combos: (choose 1-2)

  • WEREWOLVES: There's a pioneer werewolf deck that synergizes with Rule of Law cards: Cast no spells on your turn to make it night to turn the humans side into WEREWOLVES permanently. Sadly, there's only a small cache of great cards like Instigator Gang  , Brutal Cathar  , Afflicted Deserter  , Volatile Arsonist   etc.

  • HUSHBRINGER COMBO: Stopping ETB effects notably the infamous Thassa's Oracle is valid. Jam in Tocatl Honor Guard or Hushbringer or Doorkeeper Thrull depending on your meta. Nonbo with so many token spam and Godo here. Remove this when Thassa's Oracle or its enablers get banned.... someday....

Phyrexian censor (mom:131) f This is the one that will change when the time comes. The second ability hurts you more than your opponents with kiki and rionya combos. However, the first ability of one spell per turn slows or stops so many cedh decks it's worth running.

Goblin Assault: Most players use Goblin Rabblemaster or another token generator in its place. However Goblin Assault survives boardwipes, which cannot be said for the other pieces of Winota.

Spawning Breathe: I’m very surprised how applicable the card is: killing mana dorks, bowmasters, Magda, tons of token monsters, etc.

Sanctum Prelate: Usually use 1 or 2. 3 stops a host of cards, including Kinnan infinites, Doomsday, Stock removal

Silence/ Flamescroll Celebrant/ Revel in Silence Some decks Run Silence, this uses Flamescroll to be better in a pinch as the front side is a human. Silence is only used for the Winota turn or reactive decks to silence opponents, which this Winota build is not.

Tibalt’s Trickery. A funky red counterspell. There are many times when a counterspell is the only thing that stops a lot of combo heavy decks. This actually synergizes very well given the high amount of cards that limit players to one spell per turn or counter if no mana was used to cast it.

Out - Spirit of the Labyrinth: Not bad, just never lives long enough (only has 1 toughness) but most importantly there are better stax pieces. If it had the bowmaster or notion thief clause of drawstep, absolutely include. But right now it doesn't stop rhystic study and only stops stuff like brainstorm and wheels.

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92% Casual

Competitive

Revision 7 See all

(3 months ago)

-1 Moggcatcher maybe