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Magda, the Gold Digger

Commander / EDH* Dragons Dwarf Mono-Red Tap/Untap

stormcloud23

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Dwarves (18)

Land (36)

Artifact Manipulation (6)

Misc (5)

Wincon (3)

Magda Target (12)

Card Advantage (10)

Tap Source (10)

Removal (5)

Commander (1)

Commander: Magda, Brazen Outlaw

Mana Acceleration (12)

Treasure Generation (9)

Land Hate (3)

Maybeboard

Other (8)

Meet Your Fearless Leader

Our commander is Magda, Brazen Outlaw, and she's a rather impressive dwarf. First off, she'll give any other dwarves you bring to the table +1/+0. Good, but not great. Where she really shines is her next two abilities. Her second creates a treasure token whenever you tap a dwarf, and her last lets you sacrifice five treasures to put an artifact or dragon from your library onto the battlefield. You should probably be able to guess where this is going...

Dwarves are a rather old tribe, and most of the ones that exist aren't all that great compared to other, newer creatures. But Magda's effects make them much more impressive. Think of your dwarves as the engine that keeps this deck running. They won't win the game for you, but they're the ones that will help you set things up for a big, flashy play.

Dwarven Bloodboiler is Magda's majordomo, and the primary target for Imperial Recruiter and Dwarven Recruiter. His ability lets you tap as many dwarves as you can bring out onto the field without sending them into enemy blockers that will kill them. Seven Dwarves can get out of control pretty quickly, and I have a softspot for cards that let me break the singleton rule. There's also a small but fairly potent targeted land destruction package in Dwarven Miner, Dwarven Blastminer, and Mine Layer. These are fairly mean cards, but the ability to tap themselves is too good to pass up. Just be careful not to draw too much hate with them.

Magda and her kin aren't our only source of treasure. Dwarves and Goblins may be mortal enemies, but war makes strange bedfellows. Dockside Extortionist and Impulsive Pilferer are extraordinary sources of treasure, and if a certain card we'll talk about later is out, they can generate even more than you'd expect. Treasure Map  , Pirate's Pillage and Seize the Spoils let us filter through our cards while making treasure tokens, and Brass's Bounty is a great late game play for a free dragon or two.

Besides Dwarven Bloodboiler, we have a couple of other ways to tap our creatures on-demand.Cryptic Gateway taps two with each activation, and has the added benefit of letting us drop a dwarf from our hand for free. Kyren Negotiations lets us tap to deal 1 damage to a player, and Paradise Mantle & Springleaf Drum lets us turn anybody into Birds of Paradise, except with twice mana generation capacity.

We've also got a couple vehicles which give us another way to tap our dwarves and provide a couple of other beneficial effects. Raiders' Karve and Cultivator's Caravan boost our mana generation, and Mobile Garrison lets us double tap. Smuggler's Copter is probably the stand-out though, letting us loot when we attack or block.

Where there is treasure, there are always dragons, and we have one for every occasion. Your most traditionally powerful choice is probably Balefire Dragon, which will likely wipe out someone's board, as long as they don't have anything to block flying. Hellkite Charger gives us an extra combat if you've already got a decent board state, and Goldspan Dragon can make more treasure for us, as well as doubling the mana we get if we decide to use the treasures to cast spells rather than saccing them to Magda. Knollspine Dragon can refill our hand if we're running out of gas, and Drakuseth, Maw of Flames can take out a couple of smaller targets with each attack, without even worrying about having to get through. Lathliss, Dragon Queen and Utvara Hellkite can make more dragons when another dragon attacks or enters the battlefield, and if Maskwood Nexus is out, our dwarves will do the same. Hellkite Tyrant + Mycosynth Lattice is a solid alternative wincon if you get them both out.

Magda can also cheat out artifacts, so we've got some of those in here as well. Maskwood Nexus is the key to this deck, and provided you don't need a specific answer, will probably be the first thing you have Magda grab. This essentially turns all your creatures, in every zone, into shapeshifters. This lets Magda grab dwarves, and dragons generate treasures. As previously mentioned, it interacts with Lathliss, Dragon Queen and Utvara Hellkite, and also lets you spend surplus mana to make more dragon dwarves. Also, it lets your vehicles generate treasure as well as the creatures you use to crew them.

Darksteel Colossus is an obvious target to pull out with Magda, and can do some serious damage. (If you feel like spending the extra money, Blightsteel Colossus is this guy's bigger, scarier brother, but I don't really want to run him because he's just too obvious a pick) If you're desperate to get rid of something, Meteor Golem can do the job, and The Immortal Sun has a couple of powerful passive effects that are great value. Mycosynth Lattice provides a wincon with Hellkite Tyrant, and makes your whole board indestructible with Darksteel Forge on the field.

We have a few cards which don't quite fit in the previous categories. Jeska's Will seems more at home in a storm deck, but since this is EDH, odds are good someone at your table is gonna have Reliquary Tower out, and a hand full of goodness. With cards like our dragons or high end artifacts in our deck, Jeska's Will is simply too much value to pass up. Blood Moon, likewise, is simply a monored staple, and does a great job of slowing down multicolored decks. Birgi, God of Storytelling   provides some extra mana when we cast, and since this deck has a relatively low average CMC (even with all the dragons), should give us a decent return on investment. And Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded not only gives our board haste, it lets us deal quick damage with any dragons who might have made it into our hand before we have the mana base to cast them reliably.

There are a few cards which will probably find their way into this deck before too long. Battlemage's Bracers and Illusionist's Bracers double the triggers from Magda's ability, letting us grab two dragons for the price of one. Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots will allow us to better protect Magda, as she's likely to be a pretty big target for other player's targeted removal. As previously mentioned, if I ever feel like getting particularly sweaty, Blightsteel Colossus is an obvious upgrade to Darksteel Colossus. And lastly, Worldgorger Dragon provides us with another large body, but its primary purpose is board wipe protection. Provided you have 5 treasure tokens available, if someone tries to wipe the table, you can bring this guy out to eat your board, then spit it back up after the danger is gone. It'll cost you a 7/7 dragon, of course, but protecting the rest of your board would almost certainly be worth that price.

Sidenote: There are a few ways to go infinite with Magda, involving cards like Clock of Omens and Cloudstone Curio, but I don't tend to run many infinite combos as I feel they make the game less fun. If you feel like going in that direction, more power to you. Literally.

That's that. If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to leave them below. This is my first time doing a big guide like this for one of my decks, so hopefully you enjoyed it.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Update 1 — May 29, 2021
Edit

Added:

Lightning Greaves - Good protection for Magda, as she draws a lot of targeted removal.

Illusionist's Bracers - Attach this to Magda and her ability will trigger twice each time you sacrifice 5 treasures. Two dragons for the price of one.

Removed:

Mountain - 27 down to 26. We've still got lots of lands so we're fine to cut one.

Kyren Negotiations - One of the weaker and less versatile tap sources. Worth cutting to make room for other things.

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97% Casual

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