Planet of the monkey (1v1 cEDH Ragavan)

Commander / EDH Competitive Control Mono-Red Voltron

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Artifact (23)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Jeweled Lotus
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mox Amber
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Currency Converter
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Liquimetal Torque
• 1x Mask of Memory
• 1x Ruby Medallion
• 1x Smuggler's Copter
• 1x Sorcerous Spyglass
• 1x Sphere of Resistance
• 1x Thorn of Amethyst
• 1x Tome of Legends
• 1x Umezawa's Jitte
• 1x Winter Orb
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1x Tangle Wire
• 1x Coercive Portal

Creature (12)

• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Gorilla Shaman
• 1x Dwarven Blastminer
• 1x Dwarven Miner
• 1x Goblin Cratermaker
• 1x Goblin Engineer
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Laelia, the Blade Reforged
• 1x Magus of the Moon
• 1x Seasoned Pyromancer
• 1x Emberwilde Captain
• 1x Fury

Sorcery (14)

• 1x Chain Lightning
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Forked Bolt
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Shattering Spree
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Shatterskull Smashing  ^Flip
• 1x Tectonic Break
• 1x Jeska's Will
• 1x Light Up the Stage
• 1x Pillage
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Fiery Confluence
• 1x Ruination

Land (30)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x City of Traitors
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Rishadan Port
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 18x Snow-Covered Mountain
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Urza's Saga
• 1x War Room
• 1x Wasteland
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Blood Moon
• 1x Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  ^Flip
• 1x Outpost Siege

Commander (1)

Instant (13)

• 1x Frost Bite
• 1x Galvanic Blast
• 1x Lightning Bolt
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Skred
• 1x Unholy Heat
• 1x Abrade
• 1x Fork
• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Thunderclap
• 1x Fireblast
• 1x Pyrokinesis

Planeswalker (4)

• 1x Chandra, Pyromaster
• 1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• 1x Daretti, Scrap Savant
• 1x Karn, Scion of Urza

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Introduction

Planet of the monkey is my Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer (mono-red) control-voltron list for competitive 1v1 EDH. If you like my Akiri-Bruse (RW) Aggro-Control or Grenzo Mono-Red Aggro-Control decks, then you'll probably like this one as well. Of note, this list follows the multiplayer EDH banned list but it is optimized for 1v1 EDH games.

Ragavan has two main functions as a commander. Contrary to intuition, the primary function is actually to ramp in a color that has not been traditionally characterized by ramping strategies. This is done by creating treasure tokens (a.k.a., Lotus Petal) and allowing us to cast planeswalkers (e.g., Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Karn, Scion of Urza) and other spells that generate card advantage (Coercive Portal, Outpost Siege) early in the game. The second (and less reliable) function is to generate card advantage by letting us cast spells from our opponent's deck. Even though the second function is unreliable, it poses a consistent turn 1 issue that our opponent cannot ignore and while they deal with the Ragavan issue, we try to resolve our payoffs.

Archetypes and strategy

The two main archetypes underlying this deck are control and voltron. The voltron side of things is straightforward: we take advantage that our commander has a very aggressive CMC to run equipment that either generate card advantage (Sword of Fire and Ice, Mask of Memory) or disrupt our opponent (Sword of Feast and Famine, Umezawa's Jitte).

On the control side of things, we have a two-pronged strategy in the early and mid game: (a) resource denial and (b) creature removal. Creature removal spells are mostly premium burn spells (e.g., Lightning Bolt, Pyrokinesis) that will let Ragavan connect in the early game, while also disrupting our opponent's early game strategy. Examples of the latter would be burning mana dorks or killing other low CMC commanders. Resource denial, on the other hand, comes in multiple forms:

• nonbasic mana disruption (Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon);
• land descruction (Tectonic Break, Ruination);
• artifact destruction (Shattering Spree, Vandalblast);
• tax (Thorn of Amethyst, Sphere of Resistance);
• tempo (Tangle Wire, Winter Orb);

As in many of my previous red decks (e.g., Grenzo Mono-Red Aggro-Control), resource denial plays a very important role in making the Ragavan deck viable. Mono-red struggles in mid and late game when the opponent is left unchecked because it does not have access to good permission spells and removals. We need to take a proactive role in preventing our opponent from casting anything meaningful from the get-go; otherwise, our chances of winning the game will decrease dramatically. However, just in case shit hits the fan, the deck still has outs in the form of Jokulhaups, for example. In addition, synergies like Liquimetal Torque + any artifact removal will let us remove troublesome permanents from the board.

Demo

• Vs. Breya
  

• Vs. Alela
  

Date added	2 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	18 - 0 Mythic Rares 38 - 0 Rares 17 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.19
Tokens	Construct 0/0 C, Copy Clone, Elemental 1/1 R, Emblem Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Emblem Daretti, Scrap Savant, Goblin Shaman, Morph 2/2 C, Rogue 2/2 B, The Monarch, Treasure
Folders	1v1 EDH