Multicolor Spellslinger

Commander / EDH Bracket 3 Multicolor Matters Spellslinger

ProgramIncomplete

Land (31)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forest
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Island
• 1x Ketria Triome
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Mystic Sanctuary
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Raugrin Triome
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Shifting Woodland
• 1x Spara's Headquarters
• 1x Starting Town
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Xander's Lounge
• 1x Zagoth Triome

Artifact (8)

• 1x Ancient Cornucopia
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Firemind Vessel
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Timeless Lotus
• 1x Tome of the Guildpact

Instant (29)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Auroral Procession
• 1x Azorius Charm
• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Cease / Desist
• 1x Embrace the Paradox
• 1x Endless Detour
• 1x Eureka Moment
• 1x First Family
• 1x Flotsam / Jetsam
• 1x Galvanic Iteration
• 1x Growth Spiral
• 1x Inevitable Defeat
• 1x Izzet Charm
• 1x Jeskai Revelation
• 1x Legion Leadership  ^Flip
• 1x Lorehold Command
• 1x Maestros Charm
• 1x Manamorphose
• 1x Obscura Charm
• 1x Planar Genesis
• 1x Prismari Charm
• 1x Prismari Command
• 1x Proctor's Gaze
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Revitalizing Repast  ^Flip
• 1x Sink into Stupor  ^Flip
• 1x Unite the Coalition

Enchantment (10)

• 1x Aligned Heart
• 1x Cosmic Crucible
• 1x Fiery Inscription
• 1x Glasswing Grace  ^Flip
• 1x Metallurgic Summonings
• 1x Rite of the Dragoncaller
• 1x Shark Typhoon
• 1x Stormchaser's Talent
• 1x Whirlwind of Thought
• 1x Widespread Thieving

Commander (1)

 ^Flip

Sorcery (20)

• 1x Bloodsoaked Insight  ^Flip
• 1x Culling Ritual
• 1x Expressive Iteration
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Great Intelligence's Plan
• 1x Moment of Reckoning
• 1x Mutinous Massacre
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Open the Way
• 1x Pillage the Bog
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Reborn Hope
• 1x Skyshroud Claim
• 1x Splatter Technique
• 1x Stump Stomp  ^Flip
• 1x Suppression Ray  ^Flip
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 1x Taunt from the Rampart
• 1x Three Visits
• 1x Time Wipe

Creature (1)

• 1x Lilah, Undefeated Slickshot

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Maybeboard

Sorcery (23)

• 1x Casualties of War
• 1x Decimate
• 1x Duneblast
• 1x Escape to the Wilds
• 1x Fevered Suspicion
• 1x Fractured Identity
• 1x Grave Upheaval
• 1x Ill-Timed Explosion
• 1x Lidless Gaze
• 1x Maestros Confluence
• 1x Make Your Own Luck
• 1x Migration Path
• 1x Mizzix's Mastery
• 1x Perennation
• 1x Pest Control
• 1x Push / Pull
• 1x Ranger's Path
• 1x Ruinous Ultimatum
• 1x Singularity Rupture
• 1x Solar Blaze
• 1x Unexpected Results
• 1x Urban Evolution
• 1x Vivid Revival

Instant (16)

• 1x Abandon Attachments
• 1x Abzan Charm
• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Artifact Mutation
• 1x Assure / Assemble
• 1x Aura Mutation
• 1x Cosmic Rebirth
• 1x Deathsprout
• 1x Despark
• 1x Fracturing Gust
• 1x Fuss / Bother
• 1x Hustle / Bustle
• 1x Jeskai Charm
• 1x Practical Research
• 1x Slip Out the Back
• 1x Windgrace's Judgment

Land (6)

• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Indatha Triome
• 1x Jetmir's Garden
• 1x Raffine's Tower
• 1x Savai Triome
• 1x Ziatora's Proving Ground

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Case of the Ransacked Lab
• 1x Cloven Casting
• 1x Jace's Sanctum
• 1x Strength of the Harvest  ^Flip

Artifact (3)

• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Primal Amulet  ^Flip
• 1x Urza's Filter

Battle (1)

• 1x Invasion of Ravnica  ^Flip

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Lilah, Undefeated Slickshot Secret Commander Deck or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Multicolor Bombs

OK OK bombs is a bit of a misnomer, it's more like multicolor jank but hey, call me an optimist.

Overview

This deck was born out of an overwhelming desire to build a Lilah, Undefeated Slickshot deck but I was always held back by the Izzet color restriction. How boring, only having access to one color pair in a multicolor matters deck!

But then one day I discovered the beautiful world of secret commander decks! Turns out for the low low price of running no other creatures, Esika God of the Tree let's you have any creature you want at the helm of a five color deck! And since I was already flirting with the idea of building an Oops! All Spells! deck anyway, this seemed like a perfect solution.

Weaknesses and How We Solve Them

Despite the lack of game changers I think this deck fits in bracket 3. We've got a competent curve, strong manabase and powerful wincons. However, I feel like the deck may end up playing like a bracket 2 deck due to inconsistency and inherent weaknesses. The main issues the deck faces are:

1. No creatures means it's very easy to die to combat.
2. It can be a little hard getting The Prismatic Bridge to stick and without it we can't really access our commander.
3. Multicolor spells are clunky.
4. We can't run a lot of the spellslinger staples due to our creature restriction.

The Death by Combat Problem

To mitigate the first issue we have token generators to provide us with board presence. Cheap interaction spells like Artifact Mutation and Aura Mutation can provide us with chump blockers in a pinch while repeatable token makers like Shark Typhoon and Rite of the Dragoncaller protect our lifepoints while also giving the deck the potential to win via combat.

Additionally, we're running a control game plan which means multiple board wipes, a wealth and variety of instant speed interaction and defensive spells like Taunt from the Rampart to give us some breathing room if we're behind on board.

The Commander Consistency Problem

The second issue is a bit tougher. The early game plan is to ramp into the bridge as quickly as possible but tapping out for it is risky as it's a bit of a kill on site target so we like to have a little mana open for a counterspell if possible. The deck doesn't run too many counters though so it's really up to luck most of the time. Sometimes you just gotta cast the bridge and pray. Some clever politicking can also help in this arena.

Redundancy for the bridge is another way we could mitigate this issue. The simplest way to do that would be to add some tutors but for now I really like how the deck feels sans tutors. Adds a bit more game play variety and keeps the power level where I want it.

The Clunky Spells Problem

The third issue is mitigated somewhat by our manabase. We've got a good base of triomes, shocks and fetches with a couple of rainbow lands thrown in so it's definitely strong. In play testing I haven't run into mana color issues but the sheer number of colored pips on these cards just means it's often difficult to cast more than one spell a turn. Unlike in traditional spellslinger decks, you get very little mileage out of discount effects like Case of the Ransacked Lab so you're not really gonna be storming off in this deck. Thankfully, Lilah herself mitigates this somewhat by letting us cast our multicolor spells for free once we've cast them once, so you're able to setup multi-spell turns albeit somewhat slowly. In play testing I haven't gotten to the point where I'm actually storming off but you can still do some fun things with enough setup.

The Missing Staples Problem

The fourth issue really hurts. No Archmage Emeritus or Storm-Kiln Artist is rough. Storm-Kiln especially is so good at mitigating the clunkiness of multicolor spells that I almost want to run him and just let bridge be a 50/50 but I think that would kill the spirit of the deck. That being said, we do have some fun alternatives. Widespread Thieving acts as a psuedo Storm-Kiln for our multicolor spells. You can't really use it to make more mana then you spend like in traditional spellslinger but it still helps.

The aforementioned Shark Typhoon and Rite of the Dragoncaller are fantastic payoffs alongside Metallurgic Summonings. And then we have Fiery Inscription as a potential way to burn down the table. The most interesting one I think is Aligned Heart. It relies on us double spelling which we've already established is a bit difficult until we've gotten setup. However, if we can reliably trigger it and get it to stick around, this card can create quite the formidable army of prowess threats.

The Charm Offensive

One thing I learned early on in testing is that flexibility is key. There are a lot of powerful instant speed multicolor spells that can only be cast at instant speed such as Dovin's Veto or Inkshield. While these cards are independently powerful and have some synergy with our 99 they're a complete nonbo with our commander because once plotted they can only be cast at sorcery speed. For this reason when selecting instant speed interaction for this deck I ended up looking for cards that can be used at both instant speed and sorcery speed: in a word, charms!

Abzan Charm can be used as a spot removal spell or a simple, albeit painful, Divination.

Azorius Charm can save us from a lethal attacker on their turn and then gain us some life off of our commander on our turn (she does have prowess after all!)

Obscura Charm can be used as a somewhat narrow counterspell and then held in exile as a "pseudo command zone" if Lilah ends up hitting the graveyard.

Maestros Charm can let us dig five deep for a silver bullet while simultaneously filling the grave for Moment of Reckoning and then turn around and be used to drain the table or ping off a small threat.

Boros Charm is a nice protection spell that can afterwards pair nicely with Lilah's prowess if I'm trying to go for command damage lethal (note: The author of this primer is stupid and thinks Lilah can do command damage. Please ignore him).

Endless Detour (honorary charm) works nicely as a counterspell and once it's plotted it can still be used to remove a threat or recover something from the graveyard.

And Unite the Coalition (charm on steroids) can be used for protection or problem solving on my opponent's turn and then turn around and be a draw 5 for zero (or whatever else I need) on mine.

Yes, some of these cards are quite clunky but I like running these inefficient but flexible spells that then become frighteningly efficient once our commander lets us recast them for free. It's what makes the deck fun!

To Wipe or Not To Wipe

Board wipes are really good, especially in a deck with no creatures! However, I have a concern about multicolor board wipes specifically. If we were to cast a Supreme Verdict or Time Wipe while Lilah is on the board it would get plotted afterwards. At this point, the board wipe in exile will act as a deterrent to our opponents committing to board. While this is nice in theory to keep them from putting potential attackers on the board, it may cause them to feel like they can't progress their game states until the looming threat is dealt with and the easiest way to deal with a plotted card is to kill it's owner.

So, for the purpose of keeping myself alive I'm trying to figure out if it wouldn't be better to run monocolor board wipes instead. It's so much more boring going off theme but it may be in my best interest to have more efficient board wipes like Blasphemous Act and Toxic Deluge that also do not draw additional ire from the table after resolving.

Another alternative would be to replace the multicolor board wipes with different multicolor spells that serve defensive purposes but don't make my opponent's feel overly threatened. There's always more charms I could be running after all. But, as noted in the weaknesses section, this deck really does rely on board wipes in order to not get overwhelmed so I don't think cutting them outright is the best solution. Still, it's an option worth considering in order to find space for more esoteric multipurpose spells.

Closing Thoughts

I think this deck is neat and I hope it plays well in actual games :)

Retrospective

Now that I've gotten a chance to play with the deck in actual games I do think it plays well! Stacking up a pile of free spells and then casting them all in one turn is quite effective at producing lethal board states or at least putting myself ahead. The biggest issue I've seen so far is that if you get cutoff from Lilah the deck can stumble quite a bit. Definitely had a few games where Lilah got exiled and I found myself stranded with an empty board and an empty hand. But I think that's just the risk you run with a deck like this. Overall very happy with the build and looking forward to adding new multicolor spells from Secrets of Strixhaven!

I'm surprised by how much I don't miss Storm-Kiln Artist. Widespread Thieving is a very serviceable replacement for the type of game plan we're going for. It's able to generate tons of mana over multiple terms to keep us multispelling and outvaluing our opponents.

It's also notable how well this deck is able to play the control game. Our glut of spot removal and board wipes means we're very capable at keeping people off the board!

The one place where I really found the deck struggling is card advantage. Even though we have plenty of card draw spells they are mostly either cantrips or midrange burst draw (i.e. Harmonize's). So while Storm-Kiln may not be missed, a draw engine like Archmage Emeritus very much is. I'm currently seeing which burst draw spell I can cut for Tome of the Guildpact to try to have a consistent source of draw in the mid to late game.

Date added	1 year
Last updated	2 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 46 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.64
Tokens	Clue, Construct X/X C, Copy Clone, Dragon 5/5 R, Monk 1/1 W, Otter 1/1 UR, Plot, Shark X/X U, Spirit 3/2 RW, The Ring, The Ring Tempts You, Treasure