Keepup

Commander / EDH Casual Combo Creatureless Cumulative upkeep Group Slug Jank Voltron

discipleofgary73

Land (36)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cascading Cataracts
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darkmoss Bridge
• 1x Darksteel Citadel
• 1x Drossforge Bridge
• 2x Forest
• 1x Glimmervoid
• 1x Goldmire Bridge
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 5x Island
• 1x Mistvault Bridge
• 1x Mountain
• 4x Plains
• 1x Razortide Bridge
• 1x Rustvale Bridge
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 1x Silverbluff Bridge
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Tanglepool Bridge
• 1x Thornglint Bridge
• 1x Tree of Tales
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of Whispers

Instant (6)

• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Heaven's Gate
• 1x Reap
• 1x Spectral Shift
• 1x Sway of Illusion
• 1x Whir of Invention

Artifact (23)

• 1x Akroma's Memorial
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Blackblade Reforged
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Chromatic Orrery
• 1x Darksteel Forge
• 1x Darksteel Plate
• 1x Eldrazi Monument
• 1x Elsewhere Flask
• 1x Eon Hub
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Hammer of Nazahn
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Helm of the Host
• 1x Kormus Bell
• 1x Lashwrithe
• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sword of Hours
• 1x Sword of Kaldra
• 1x Sword of Sinew and Steel
• 1x Trailblazer's Boots
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Enchantment (15)

• 1x Blanket of Night
• 1x Compost
• 1x Elephant Grass
• 1x Inner Sanctum
• 1x Mesmeric Trance
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Out of Time
• 1x Rite of the Raging Storm
• 1x Ritual of Subdual
• 1x Royal Decree
• 1x Shifting Sky
• 1x Shimmer
• 1x Shiny Impetus
• 1x Spreading Plague
• 1x Vow of Torment

Commander (1)

Sorcery (15)

• 1x Brainspoil
• 1x Cataclysm
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Divine Reckoning
• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Mass Calcify
• 1x Mutilate
• 1x Open the Vaults
• 1x Reshape
• 1x Single Combat
• 1x Tragic Arrogance
• 1x Wash Out

Planeswalker (4)

• 1x Daretti, Scrap Savant
• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms
• 1x Saheeli Rai
• 1x Tezzeret, Artifice Master

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Maybeboard

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Grow from the Ashes
• 1x Mystic Speculation

Artifact (2)

• 1x Door to Nothingness
• 1x Mind's Eye

Creature (1)

• 1x Arcum Dagsson

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There have been two, shall we say, out-there commander decks I have always wanted to build: 1) a color hate deck with ample hack cards to make it work and 2) a cumulative upkeep deck that leverages the weird things one can get away with if upkeeps are skipped. In designing, I found that neither idea had enough power to make it win solo, though both had a lot of funny, hateful things going for it.

I started this deck with the intention of combining the two ideas and found that balancing each focus while making a deck that could at least do something interesting before turn 10 was difficult, to say the least. But, I persevered and arrived here. Try to Keepup!

Commander

We're going with Karona, Flase God as our commander because A) access to five-colors is appealing for color-matters cards (though we'll end up making everything black anyways) and B) Hahahaha you though you we're going to control Karona? Take over at upkeep like grubby criminal???? Eon hub! Eon hub for a thousand years!!!!! But seriously, eliminating upkeeps makes Karona far more effective as a commander since the deck can go without a lot of pillow-forting to avoid racking up commander damage against yourself.

Build considerations

Now, at the beginning, I had built this deck with creatures and much more color-hate. But I found these detracted from overall effectiveness, so I decided to cut nearly all of it to streamline. See below in Alternatives for some of the best color-hate that got cut, if you want to add in more! The main reason keeping in fantastically evil cards like Boil did not work out was the necessary concomitant increase in color-hacking cards, such as Glamerdye. In the end, making all the hate cards function effectively required comboing abilities that outpaced the tutor capacity of the deck. So, I focused down to just one color for hating on, thus the need for more color-hacking was minimal.

Cutting creatures also provided a nice opportunity to focus on Voltron-ing Karona while also opening up space for great board control cards like Single Combat and Divine Reckoning. However, there are some AMAZING creatures that got cut, both with respect to color-hate and how overpowered they are when upkeeps are not occurring. Check them out in the alternatives!

Playstyle/Key combos

You must get Eon Hub out. To do so, there is a number of artifact and other tutors in the deck to grab it, including Brainspoil, whose main value is in Transmute, which can fetch Fabricate or a number of other high-value 3-drops, like Chromatic Lantern. Speaking of which, mana fixing has to be a main strategy to ensure casting Karona is easy when the time comes. There are a number of good artifact dual lands, which pair perfectly with Glimmervoid. Once Eon Hub is out, Karona is the next cast. By this time, there should be some pro and other equipment out and ready to use to start walloping on your opponents. With control cards like Cataclysm and Tragic Arrogance, your opponents should be low on defense and primed for a beating. The best equipment includes the Hammer of Nazahn and Blackblade Reforged. Honorable mention goes to Trailblazer's Boots and Shadowspear. With those out, racking up enough commander damage to win should be straightforward. If Eon Hub gets destroyed, there are ways back like Daretti, Scrap Savant, Reap, and Open the Vaults. Vow of Torment and Shiny Impetus are also in so if you lose Karona without the hub out, you won't suffer.

Other fun combos include:

Blanket of Night + Kormus Bell , esp on your indestructible artifact lands. But also allows a dodgeable Armageddon with

Heaven's Gate + Mass Calcify , (can also use Sway of Illusion).

Chromatic Orrery + Ritual of Subdual - the best combo in the deck, probably. Also why Mycosynth Lattice is not a good fit, because you don't want your opponent(s) functioning under the ritual.

Color Hate

Cards like Shifting Sky and Blanket of Night allow the deck to focus on hating on a single color. We have in Elephant Grass, Royal Decree, and Mass Calcify to take advantage of everything being black. Akroma's Memorial (which honestly has to be in for deck flavor alone, though we have no Phage in), also now works better, as Karona, and some other fun creatures we might make, will have pro. There is also the wonderful Compost and Reap and other cards that get a massive boost in value when everything is the same color, like Wash Out and Spreading Plague. Now, the deck can be a bit group-slug with some of these, but with making Karona indestructible, most of the nastiest effects can be avoided.

On top of color, the deck works to make every land a swamp in addition to its other types. Doing so increases the power of cards like Mutilate (RIP) and Lashwrithe. There is also the added bonus of using Cabal Coffers and, if you're lucky, getting an ultimate off Liliana of the Dark Realms.

Upkeep

Now, onto my favorite part, and really a joy of the deck, skipping upkeeps. The most obvious advantage is leveraging stupidly powerful cards like Ritual of Subdual and Mystic Remora without having to pay and arm, and then an arm and a leg, and then an arm and a leg and another arm, and so on. You'll also ruin anything with suspend, which is a nice bonus. But no upkeep has some even funnier interactions that aren't very obvious on first glance. The best in the deck is probably Out of Time. Without an upkeep, it will stay on the board until directly removed. The greatest part, with phasing, there is no opportunity to return commanders to the command zone, which will break most opposition.

Alternatives

There really are some great cards out there. Adding creatures back in gives fantastic options like:

Phyrexian Soulgorger, Balduvian Shaman, Gaea's Liege, Major Teroh, Pygmy Kavu, Sheltering Ancient, Spellbane Centaur, Stern Judge, Survivor of the Unseen, Sustaining Spirit, Painter's Servant, and Wild Mongrel.

More color-hate cards include:

Anarchy, Dystopia, Martyr's Cry, Havoc, Chaotic Backlash, Boil, Choke, Drought, Gloom, Flashfires, Flash of Defiance, Inundate, Chill, Typhoon, Nature's Wrath, Omen of Fire, Flooded Woodlands, Hibernation, Searing Rays, Thelon's Chant, Justice, Wrath of Marit Lage, and Yawgmoth's Edict.

Other good color/lands-matter cards are:

Koth of the Hammer, Dream Halls, Snake Pit, Thoughtleech, Lifeblood, Infernal Darkness, Insight, Roots of Life, and Light of Day.

Some other great upkeep-matters cards can be:

Suspend, anything with delay/echo/vanish, Halls of Mist, Energy Storm, Glacial Chasm, Ancestral Knowledge, Illusionary Wall, Survivor of the Unseen, and Prismatic Circle.

If you find yourself in a pickle, Claws of Gix can be a good way to undo a part of a combo that's ruining other plans.

Be wary of great cards like Mycosynth Lattice, Psychic Allergy, and Karma, because they won't work out too well with some other stuff going on in the deck. Also, you could find that something like Thran Lens can ruin many a good time to be had, so have in mind some removal, Like the Sword of Sinew and Steel.

Thank you for stopping by and taking a look at this improbable, janky, control deck! I hope you enjoyed looking it over and please, if you having any comments/suggestions/accusations/heresies, please share!

Date added	2 years
Last updated	2 years
Key combos	Blanket of Night + Kormus Bell Heaven's Gate + Mass Calcify Chromatic Orrery + Ritual of Subdual
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 35 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 20 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.47
Tokens	Copy Clone, Emblem Daretti, Scrap Savant, Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms, Emblem Tezzeret, Artifice Master, Elemental 5/1 R, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B, Thopter 1/1 C, Treasure