Pod Gang *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH

Whisk

Lands (30)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Botanical Sanctum
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 7x Forest
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 5x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wirewood Lodge
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

Other Ramp (7)

• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Utopia Sprawl
• 1x Wild Growth

Removal (5)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Natural State
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Reality Shift

Combo Chain (14)

• 1x Body Double
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Elvish Piper
• 1x Fatestitcher
• 1x Kiora's Follower
• 1x Peregrine Drake
• 1x Prime Speaker Zegana
• 1x Quirion Ranger
• 1x Scryb Ranger
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Sylvan Ranger
• 1x Trophy Mage
• 1x Vizier of Tumbling Sands
• 1x Walking Ballista

Mana Dorks (10)

• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Boreal Druid
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Joraga Treespeaker
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Lotus Cobra
• 1x Priest of Titania

Card Draw (5)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Shapers' Sanctuary
• 1x Sylvan Library

Tutors (5)

• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Commander (1)

Protection (13)

• 1x Autumn's Veil
• 1x Delay
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Misdirection
• 1x Negate
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Savage Summoning
• 1x Spellskite
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Xantid Swarm

Recursion (6)

• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Nantuko Tracer
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Regrowth
• 1x Riftsweeper
• 1x Whirlpool Rider

Haste Enablers (4)

• 1x Concordant Crossroads
• 1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir

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Introduction

Vannifar is a fast, consistent combo commander that relies on tutoring up a "chain" of creatures with untapping abilities that will allow you to win the game. Generally, getting to resolve a single Vannifar activation should result in a win (even through many forms of hate), making her a strong option in U/G.

You will probably enjoy playing Vannifar if:

• You want to end games quickly
• You enjoy more linear strategies, appreciate flexible approaches towards dealing with hate
• You value interesting deckbuilding options due to your commander choice
• You like the intricacies of trying to resolve a relatively fragile combo against multiple opponents

You will probably not enjoy playing Vannifar if:

• You enjoy slower strategies
• You like V A L U E
• You're not the kind of person who remembers all of the cards in their deck

Credit to I Can't Believe It's Not Pod for inspiring certain additions to this list.

Gameplan

The name of the game is resolving and activating Vannifar. If you can manage to do that, a win is generally within reach. This is challenging to do for a number of reasons, notably:

• Vannifar can only activate at sorcery speed, meaning you can't go off in response to removal.
• Once your opponents know that a Vannifar activation is GG, she will become a removal magnet.
• You generally will need a haste enabler in play to start the combo.

Many of the deckbuilding choices I have made in this list are a result of trying to work around these constraints in my playgroup. For context, the decks I regularly face are:

• A highly tuned Thrasios/Vial Smasher control deck (Big Brain Landfall).
• Kess reanimator/twin combo.
• Food Chain Prossh.
• Near-Death Experience Zur (generally getting Necropotence off the first Zur trigger, so it's still dangerous despite the win-con being silly).

As you can see, I'm not always playing against 100% tier one competitive stuff. That being said, I think the deck is very good and that this information still has value.

Playing the Early Game

Generally, our early game strategy can be broken down into two phases:

1. Ramp into Vannifar as quickly as possible.
2. Assemble/play out protection for the combo.

Balancing these two strategies is the key to success with this deck. If you can ramp into Vannifar quickly enough to go off on turn 3/4 while holding up protection either in the form of counterspells or disruption creatures, you'll often be able to just steal games. I'm going to break down some of the cards that help us achieve these two goals here:

Ramping

The best way to ramp in this deck is usually with any of our 9-10 mana dorks. These cards perform double duty as they can also be used as the first card in the combo chain when we start to go off.

We don't run as many mana rocks in this deck as it is generally better for us to utilize creature-based ramp. That being said, both Mana Crypt and Sol Ring are included as they enable some of our most busted starts (generally involving a turn 2 Vannifar/turn 3 win).

Carpet of Flowers is absolutely amazing against any other blue deck. I don't know what to say about this card that hasn't already been said elsewhere.

Utopia Sprawl and Wild Growth both act as pseudo mana dorks while also having some synergy with cards like Arbor Elf , Kiora's Follower , and Vizier of Tumbling Sands .

The only other ramp we play outside of that is Nature's Lore . I'm not completely convinced it deserves the slot right now, but Forests can be important for us when going off. The reason for this will be explained further down.

Protection

This list runs 10 counterspells to help protect our combo. Generally, the best are the ones we can play for free ( Force of Will , Misdirection , Pact of Negation ). I've heard some doubts about Misdirection's inclusion, but I am convinced the card is worth it in this deck. So much so, in fact, I'm going to give it its own section here.

Why do we play Misdirection?

We play Misdirection because (in our deck anyway) it's basically a second Force of Will. Consider the following:

• We're trying to win the game as quickly as possible, generally not caring about what our opponents are up to.
• The two times you will be most contested when going for the combo are generally either when casting Vannifar or in response to her first activation.
• Spot removal is especially good against Vannifar as her ability only works at sorcery speed.

Understanding the above, you may start to see why Misdirection is so valuable in this deck. I'll lay out some scenarios that the card is great in here:

• An opponent casts a counterspell on Vannifar/Thousand-Year Elixir.
• An opponent casts a targeted removal spell on Vannifar/Thousand-Year Elixir.
• An opponents casts a targeted graveyard hate spell on Fatestitcher/Peregrine Drake.
• An opponent casts a targeted spell (i.e. Reanimate or Splinter Twin ) that would win them the game.

Here's a situation I actually encountered in which Misdirection was the only card in my deck that could have saved me (which it did). I was going through the start of the combo when my opponent cast Abrupt Decay targeting my Thousand-Year Elixir (which I needed to win the game). Despite the fact that Decay can't be countered, I was still able to Misdirect it to one of my opponent's permanents.

For all of the reasons above (as well as other corner-case scenarios), I think Misdirection has more than earned its spot in the deck.

Our other protection pieces are generally aimed at preventing our opponents from stopping the combo in the first place. Spellskite is an amazing inclusion as it can eat removal spells for both Vannifar and Thousand-Year elixir which are our two most important permanents while going off. Xantid Swarm is also great for times when you know a specific opponent may be holding up more than one piece of interaction to stop your combo.

Finally, there's Savage Summoning which feels like it was made specifically for this deck. Savage Summoning is amazing for a number of reasons:

• It itself cannot be countered.
• It makes Vannifar uncounterable.
• It gives Vannifar pseudo-haste, as she can come in on your last opponent's end step.
• It adds an element of surprise, allowing you to go off before your opponents may suspect.

Savage Summoning is one of the safest combo starters this deck has available to it, as it completely blanks all opposing countermagic.

Playing the Midgame

Midgame? What's that? We're not trying to play any "midgame" here. That being said, if you do find yourself in a situation where the game is going on longer than you'd like, I'll explain below what your options may be.

The Combo

One of the great things about this list is that it is very flexible. Given the boardstate, there are a number of lines you can go for when comboing. That being said, there are some things you do need when going off:

• Either one of Fatestitcher or Elvish Piper in the deck.
• A haste enabler (either in play or available to tutor with Trophy Mage during the combo).

If you're missing either of these things, it's impossible to win right away most of the time. That being said, if you have both, it's very easy to go off starting at any CMC. Here are a few examples:

Starting from 0 (No Haste Enabler)

Boardstate:

• Dryad Arbor
• 4 other lands (at least 2 forests among them) that can generate at least one blue mana
• A land-drop available
• Vannifar

The Line:

1. Dryad Arbor -> Quirion Ranger , untap Vannifar, replay Forest
2. Quirion Ranger -> Scryb Ranger , untap Vannifar
3. Scryb Ranger -> Trophy Mage (tutoring Thousand-Year Elixir )
4. Cast Elixir, activate to untap Vannifar
5. Trophy Mage -> Fatestitcher , untap Vannifar
6. Fatestitcher -> Peregrine Drake , untap lands
7. Unearth Fatestitcher, untap Vannifar
8. Peregrine Drake -> Deadeye Navigator , soulbond to/flicker Vannifar
9. Fatestitcher -> Body Double , copy Peregrine Drake, soulbond to Deadeye
10. Make infinite mana
11. Body Double -> Prime Speaker Zegana , soulbond to Deadeye
12. Draw entire deck

Starting from 0 (With Haste Enabler)

Boardstate:

• Dryad Arbor
• 4 other lands (at least one Forest) that can generate at least one blue mana
• Vannifar

The Line:

1. Dryad Arbor -> Quirion Ranger , untap Vannifar
2. Quirion Ranger -> Kiora's Follower , untap Vannifar
3. Scryb Ranger -> Vizier of Tumbling Sands , untap Vannifar
4. Vizier of Tumbling Sands -> Fatestitcher , untap Vannifar
5. Fatestitcher -> Peregrine Drake , untap lands
6. Unearth Fatestitcher, untap Vannifar
7. Peregrine Drake -> Deadeye Navigator , soulbond to/flicker Vannifar
8. Fatestitcher -> Body Double , copy Peregrine Drake, soulbond to Deadeye
9. Make infinite mana
10. Body Double -> Prime Speaker Zegana , soulbond to Deadeye
11. Draw entire deck

Now, you may have looked at those requirements and thought "wow, we need a lot of lands to win the game". It's important to keep in mind that these are the 'worst case scenarios', as starting from 0 requires the most resources to win (especially when you have no haste enabler). The best place for us to start our line is at 2, which is why the deck runs a large quantity of 2-CMC creatures. Here's a very common line that allows us to win starting from any 2-drop:

Starting from 2 (With No Haste Enabler)

Boardstate:

• Any 2-drop
• 3 lands that can generate at least one blue mana
• Vannifar

The Line:

1. 2-drop -> Trophy Mage , (tutoring Thousand-Year Elixir )
2. Cast Elixir, activate to untap Vannifar
3. Trophy Mage -> Fatestitcher , untap Vannifar
4. Fatestitcher -> Peregrine Drake , untap lands
5. Unearth Fatestitcher, untap Vannifar
6. Peregrine Drake -> Deadeye Navigator , soulbond to/flicker Vannifar
7. Fatestitcher -> Body Double , copy Peregrine Drake, soulbond to Deadeye
8. Make infinite mana
9. Body Double -> Prime Speaker Zegana , soulbond to Deadeye
10. Draw entire deck

As you can see, the requirements to win from 2 are much less intensive. This is what we are aiming to do most of the time.

About Fatestitcher

The most important card regardless of which line we go for is Fatestitcher, which does double-duty for us. It both allows for us to untap on 4-mana and to split our pod lines between Body Double and Deadeye Navigator .

If Fatestitcher is in your hand when you are comboing, you can tutor for Elvish Piper as an alternative way to get Fatestitcher into play.

The only situations in which we do not need both Fatestitcher activations to win the game is if you have used Elvish Piper to put Fatestitcher into play and you also have another untap effect available to you (either through a land or something like Vizier of Tumbling Sands ).

What's really great about this deck is how unexpectedly resilient it is. Despite running what looks like n 8-10 card combo, you can find ways to navigate/win from most positions where Vannifar is online (mostly thanks to Eternal Witness and Riftsweeper ).

Finishers

We have two ways to kill once we've drawn our entire deck. The easiest is to cast Walking Ballista using our infinite mana. The other line is to use Beast Within , Reality Shift , and Eternal Witness . Since we have infinite mana + Deadeye, we can recur Beast Within and Reality Shift to exile our opponents' entire decks.

So You Didn't Quite Get There

It happened. You went to combo off, and someone at the table just had all of the right answers. It's ok, these things happen. Here are some things to consider if your combo fizzles on your first try:

• How many of my protection resources did I use?
• How many of my protection resources did my opponents use?
• In what way did my combo get disrupted?
• How quickly can I try to go off again?

The answers to these questions are going to vary based on the overall gamestate and your board in particular, but the first thing to keep in mind is that you'll almost certainly be able to recover if you're given some time. The exception to this is that you're going to get at most two chances to cast Vannifar from the command zone, assuming your other combo opponents are being kept in check. Once you're paying 8-mana to recast her, you've probably just lost the game.

The absolute worst case scenario for us is that our Fatestitcher gets exiled from our graveyard before we can unearth it to untap Vannifar again. This requires the most work to fix as we need to find Riftsweeper specifically to get Fatestitcher back into our deck.

If your Thousand-Year Elixir is destroyed after you activate it to untap Vannifar, you can be left in a difficult position. From here, I normally just continue to Fatestitcher as normal and pass, hoping to make it a turn around the board with the protection I have in my hand to win on the next turn. Your mileage may vary with this strategy depending on what sort of hate your opponents are packing.

Flex Slots/Interesting Inclusions

There are a couple of cards in this list that I've added because they're both generally interesting and work well against my playgroup. I'll lay some of them out here:

Shapers' Sanctuary is awesome against removal-heavy control decks that will often try to bounce/kill Vannifar as you try to go off. Bonus points if you have Misdirection or Spellskite to get an extra draw trigger.

Rhystic Study is a little on the slow side and generally not included in super-fast combo decks. Despite this, in longer games where you fizzle on the first combo attempt, it can be great for helping to rebuild/find more protection.

I would look to replace these cards with more answers if stax pieces such as Null Rod or Cursed Totem are prevalent in your meta. If counterspells are more common than targeted removal, I would consider swapping Shapers' Sanctuary with Multani's Presence .

Notable Exclusions/Deckbuilding Philosophy

Something you may notice is that Intruder Alarm is not in the deck. When Vannifar was first spoiled, this card was something everyone immediately jumped to as the combo enabler of choice to make Vannifar dangerous. I heard a lot of comparisons to Food Chain and Prossh, Skyraider of Kher . I was definitely on board with the card and assumed it would be one of the most important pieces in any Vannifar list. I was wrong. As I actually played with Alarm, it became abundantly clear that it was one of the worst cards in the deck. I'm going to quickly go over the pros and cons of running Alarm to illustrate what I mean:

Pros

1. Allows you to play any combination of creatures to chain up to your combo win.
2. Allows for playing multiple finishers that can be found starting from any CMC.

Cons

1. Almost impossible to tutor in our color combination.
2. Is a massive removal magnet.
3. Does not enable you to win in one turn without also having a haste enabler.

The final con is the most important one. Even if we have Alarm, we can't go for a kill unless we either have a haste enabler in play, or Vannifar has lived for an entire turn cycle. With the way this list is set up, we should be able to win in either of these situations without needing Alarm at all. The biggest downside to this is that some more slots get taken up for a combo line that wins without the free untaps, but this isn't such a big deal considering we can still start from basically any CMC.

This list does not run any of the ETB untappers (i.e. Deceiver Exarch , Breaching Hippocamp ). This is because it makes winning with Lightning Greaves impossible. Given that, I feel that those slots are better-suited for untappers that allow us to go off with any of our available haste enablers.

The other big combo omissions some may question are Flash and Protean Hulk . While this is certainly one of the best ways to win in cEDH, things are a little different in U/G. The most efficient line in our colors is to grab Ezuri, Claw of Progress , Sage of Hours , and 4 0-CMC creatures. This requires playing a lot of dead cards and is simply worse than Deadeye + Drake.

Upgrades

This list is not a finished product. There are some obvious upgrades that I have not had the opportunity to acquire yet, all of them being expensive lands.

Specifically: Gemstone Caverns , Gaea's Cradle , and Tropical Island should replace 2 Islands and a Forest.

Building Vannifar on a Budget

I will update this panel with a link to a more budget-friendly list at a later time. For now, note that the most important things to maintain in the deck are the ramp pieces/haste enablers. Downgrading anything else only effects the speed/safety of the combo.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 35 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 17 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.94
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Manifest 2/2 C