cEDH Magda is one of the fastest decks I own.
You go for the magda + artifact dwarf + clock of omens combo and get there in different ways. This wins t3-4 a fair amount of times if left uninterrupted.
I fell in love with Magda after realizing she's a budget deck that can kind of sit around doing nothing and win. I've been in games where I can't spells in a Drannith Magistrate/ Lavinia + Knowledge Pool lock and still won.
Perfect for those rule of law metas. Plus her og art has a nice figure and her alt has a sexy dragon!
However, I hated her for a while after seeing so many bad decks. They were often too fragile, tried cheating cards like portal to phyrexia but couldn't actually win, or just run too few lands. Many of my pods also had enough stuff to block the dwarves or kill Magda like bowmasters, so I lost. I also know a sizable deck lists also run this bizarre 8 card 20 step combo or run dwarf tribal and I think that's not the optimal way to build the deck. So I built my own variant.
Philosophically, I built this like a Najeela deck: a fast aggressive tempo deck using the commander as one of the only dwarves the decks needs. ~23 cards are devoted to interacting with opponents with ~17 for interacting directly. This particular build has a few more pet cards than the one I own in my real life to toy with but has just enough forward momentum. It's a fine line the deck is on.
playing the deck / combo
The deck usually just sits around, interacts with opponents or play stax, and tries to accrue treasures by tapping dwarves. Usually this is magda, but you'll often bluff with other dwarves, crew, or just make treasures.
Best games start with fast treasure generation or stax.
I've included many cards that can get magda out by t1 and as much protection as feasible. After 3 months with the deck, I've found t1 ramp the most optimal.
However, in playing her, she is mildly a draw the out commander. Thus, it's important to run as much protection. I've even included Defense Grid to be safe. But having magda and the dwarves is the expectation and nothing can be done to really curb that.
The Magda combo only needs a Clock of Omens and a tapable artifact dwarf. The great thing about Magda is that this can be accomplished with only Magda and 5-10 treasurers. By September 2024, I run all artifact changelings for good measure except wandering throne as it's CMC is too high.
You can absolutely build a cheap version of this deck, with the only cards needed are the finishers.
winning the game
The Main and only combo is to use Magda, Brazen Outlaw with Clock of Omens and an artifact dwarf.
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activate clock of omens by tapping the artifact dwarf (liquimetal torque or Universal Automaton or Metallic Mimic etc)
and an artifact like clock of omens to create a treasure with magda: untap artifact dwarf
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use clock of omens to tap the treasure and untapped artfact dwarf to... create another treasure and untap the artifact dwarf
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repeat the above step to get infinite tapped treasurers
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sink treasurers into Magda. Win on spot by milling everyone out with Grinding Station or Altar of the Brood. No clue why lots of decks don't include these or include way more convuluted versions.
Clock of Omens and Magda by extension is necessary for the entire deck to win. If you lose the Clock, the whole deck folds.
Fear Praetor's Grasp or Opposition Agent.
Fold to Blind Obedience as red does not have much enchantment removal.
If Opponent(s) cannot be milled out, try this:
I've played against a few weird decks and tryhard players that can survive being milled, so I have this subsection.
Certain decks do rely on a couple cards that say If/When "this card" would be put into a graveyard, shuffle it into its owner's graveyard instead.
These include Creature Cheat/Polymorph decks, decks with Eldrazi titans like Eldrazi decks and Gitrog Monster which runs 2 cards that shuffle graveyard, and Nexus of Fate decks like Kalamax. To beat them:
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Mill everyone out and hold priority. Find Unlicensed Hearse.
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For "When this card would be put into gy", on the when trigger, exile the card(s). Use clock of omens to untap unlicensed hearse.
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For "If this card would be put into gy" you do not get priority and need to find other ways. Get Uba Mask and Soulless Jailer to lock them out for a turn after which you can win. Or just use Memory Jar once their deck is down to 6 cards or less.
These are limited to Blightsteel Colossus and Nexus of Fate *list* which are 10 cmc and 7 cmc respectively, so calculate mana effectively.
There's also Wheel of Sun and Moon in almost no decks.
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If that still doesn't work or you've lost some pieces, survive an extra turn.
Attack with a giant Unlicensed Hearse.
On your turn after you combo off, you will have infinite treasurers.
Use Unlicensed Hearse to Exile as many cards as possible.
Use Clock of Omens to tap the treasurers to untap Unlicensed Hearse.
Then, Equip Swiftfoot Boots and Gilded Pinion and try to attack for game.
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Sink Infinite Mana into an artifact or dragon is another strategy.
Most of these still require an addition turn cycle though.
Realm-Scorcher Hellkite or Cogwork Assembler work as of July 2024 Bloomburrow.
Realm-Scorcher Hellkite made the final cut despite its high cost as many times there is a Stax/tax piece worth trying to kill, like Orcish Bowmasters or Opposition Agent. Sometimes you just need to burn blockers too.
- if Clock of Omens or a combo piece ends up in gy,
Barkform Harvester and Goblin Engineer retrieves lost pieces. If you go infinite, 1x Gilded Pinions
1x Key to the City
1x Prized Statue get treasures to get two mana to put the pieces back in deck.
notes and findings from games
Magda's inherent issue is being somewhat fragile and necessary for the deck to function. Chaos Warp and Wild Magic Surge exist almost exclusively as red enchantment removal for stax and permanent commander removal like Darksteel Mutation.
She's needed for the deck, and She and most of her dwarves only have 1 toughness. However, Magda's low cost mitigates commander tax and removal, and after some games.
Every treasure you get should be used to sink into Magda or to accrue more treasurers on tempo. Because you're often gunning for the clock combo, treasure should sink right into that combo or pieces that don't slow you down like a few pieces of interaction against opponents. For a while, I had considered God-Pharaoh's Statue and Portal to Phyrexia in the deck but the deck is so fast cheating those out seems pointless.
Treasure removal is the deck's worst enemy. Formerly, A tactical dockside can force you to sacrifice your treasurers, and a stifle is difficult to recover from but it's now banned as of 9/23/24. If your opponents are mono green and cheeky, Titania's Song also stops this deck. For that reason I thinned the dwarves for more ways to tap dwarves. I also found people focus on dwarves understandably more than magda less as the game goes longer.
meta calls
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Damping Sphere and Grafdigger's Cage have been underwhelming as hurts you just as much. It's used exclusively against underworld breech combo and maybe the Thassa's oracle counterspell war which is just less prominent than a lot of other wincons. Use it if everyone's a cEDH simp and pining for Underworld Breech storm combo.
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Boardwipes: Choose one or both. add that broken delayed fireball blast if needed Blasphemous Act is great in casual, Anger of the Gods in cEDH where a more stuff is 3 and exiling is pertinent.
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Only one Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast, not both. Not every deck is blue, and you can tank counterspells/removal. personal preference more or less.
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Ratchet Bomb hurts you as much as your opponents. Too Questionable. Only Dargo would run it and I haven't needed to use this. Maybe kill the rule of law or Lightpaws Auras?
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Vandalblast hinders casual more than competitive. I've found that curves are understandably higher in casual so vandalblast does more.
It's both not fast enough in cEDH and only leaves a huge impact in niche high power.
