[PRIMER] Gigan Gigan Gigan - Copy Mill Control

Commander / EDH Combo Control Mill UB (Dimir)

poopyboner

Land (31)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 8x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Mystic Sanctuary
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Watery Grave

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Cruel Tutor
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Mnemonic Betrayal
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Windfall

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Copy Artifact
• 1x Leyline of the Void
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Steal Enchantment

Creature (21)

• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Clever Impersonator
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Dauthi Voidwalker
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Evil Twin
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Nightmare Shepherd
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Sakashima of a Thousand Faces
• 1x Sakashima the Impostor
• 1x Sakashima's Student
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Spark Double
• 1x Stunt Double
• 1x Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
• 1x Tidespout Tyrant
• 1x Vizier of Many Faces
• 1x Wall of Stolen Identity

Artifact (15)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Jeweled Lotus
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance

Commander (1)

Instant (20)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Displace
• 1x Essence Flux
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Ghostly Flicker
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Long-Term Plans
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Narset's Reversal
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Siren's Ruse
• 1x Submerge
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

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GIGAN GIGAN GIGAN!!!!!!!!

Do you like control? Do you like going fast? Do you like playing things for free? Do you like milling out your opponents? How about flipping into spicy cards? Do you like playing your opponents stuff? What about stealing, reanimating, and copying you and your opponents' permanents? Then Gigan Gigan Gigan is the deck for you!

Gigan Gigan Gigan is a flexible deck that can be played either fast or slow and controlling, and can be played to a couple different win conditions. The main focus of this deck is to use the commander, Gyruda, Doom of Depths ETB ability to mill out your opponents and simultaneously play creatures for free, and then to do it again and again with the many clone creatures, like Phyrexian Metamorph, in the deck. Because of the high density of clones in the deck you almost always have the ability to copy the best creature on the board; giving you the luxury of being able to frequently play cards outside of your colors. Furthermore there are enough powerful standalone creatures that you can easily out value opponents by making multiples of your own permanents. Gigan Gigan Gigan is a deck that is powerful on its own and always aims to be just as strong as what your opponents have on the table.

This deck can be pretty quick and can have you easily rocking your commander as soon as turn 2. This deck uses a full suite of mana rocks and black rituals to accelerate your deck to the point where it can mill, clone, and flicker your way to the finish line. Furthermore Gigan Gigan Gigan runs a full counterspell package to keep you protected and in control.

Commander Breakdown

So who is the commander?

Gyruda, Doom of Depths, AKA Gyruda, Doom of Depths is a Legendary Creature - Demon Kraken with a mana cost of and symbol:4 colorless and has 6 power and 6 toughness.

Ignoring the companion text, Gyruda, Doom of Depths’s abilities are as follows: When Gyruda enters the battlefield, each player mills four cards. Put a creature card with an even converted mana cost from among the milled cards onto the battlefield under your control.

Gigan’s ETB ability is incredibly powerful and usually sends you off to the races, especially when prepared ahead of time with the handful of top-deck manipulators like Scrollrack or with top-deck tutors like Vampiric Tutor. Even if Gigan doesn’t flip into anything his presence on the board gives you a great target for one of your many clone or flicker spells, furthermore Gigan is still a 6/6 and makes for a meaty blocker.

Why You Should or Should Not Play Gigan Gigan Gigan

You should play this deck if you...

• Enjoy milling out your opponents
• Enjoy having a lot of interaction.
• Enjoy playing creatures for free no matter who they belong too
• Enjoy playing counterspells, either to hinder opponents or to protect your game plan
• Enjoy having an extremely flexible game plan
• Enjoy playing creatures that ETB as copies of other creatures
• You like Godzilla

You should not play this deck if you...

• Can’t handle generating animosity by either counters opponents‘ spells, milling cards and playing their permanents.
• Don’t like playing blue (like what you doin’ here)
• Generating a game plan from everyone’s spells and you and your opponents spells.
• Running target dependent permanents.

The Legendary Rule

Unless you play other formats some of you may have never interacted with the legendary rule, but in this deck you will interact with the legendary rule A LOT, so it is important to get an understanding of what it is and how it affects you.

So what is the legend rule?

704.5j. If a player controls two or more legendary permanents with the same name, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners' graveyards. This is called the "legend rule."

In other words, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you have more than 1 legendary Gigan on the board you will be forced to sacrifice one of them before anything can happen.

What happened to my sick Gigan ETB? Do I still get it?

Before Gigan’s ETB can be placed on the stack a State-Based Action (SBA) must be performed, with this SBA being the Legend Rule.

116.5. Each time a player would get priority, the game first performs all applicable state-based actions as a single event (see rule 704, "State-Based Actions"), then repeats this process until no state-based actions are performed. Then triggered abilities are put on the stack (see rule 603, "Handling Triggered Abilities"). These steps repeat in order until no further state-based actions are performed and no abilities trigger. Then the player who would have received priority does so.

Once the SBA is resolved, by sacrificing one of your two Gigans, Gigan’s ETB effect will go on the stack REGARDLESS OF WHICH ONE YOU SACRIFICED, and everyone will mill 4 and you will ideally put a clone or another even cmc creature, and continue. So you can clone your commander, sacrifice your clone, ETB, and still have your commander on the battlefield.

Key Pieces

To have the best playing experience it is important to know what the big playmaking pieces are and how to use them effectively.

Top Clones

There are tons of clone spells out there but only 12 in this deck. Here are the best clones to tutor for.

• Sakashima of a Thousand Faces - the newest and probably most powerful clone added to the list. Standard Sakashima shenanigans but with some serious spice tacked on. Partner text aint relevant here, but what is huge is the little line of text “The ‘legend rule’ doesn't apply to permanents you control." Mirror Gallery was never good enough to make the cut, but now it is on an even CMC creature.
• Phantasmal Image - a 2 CMC clone. Do I need to say anything else?
• Sakashima the Impostor - Makes a clone but also doges the legendary rule.
• Spark Double - Before Sakashima of a Thousand Faces this was the only way to make copies of Gigan and not have them die to the legendary rule. Still just as good as it was before, but now has a little help in the area.
• Sakashima's Student - Ninjitsu is a very spicy mechanic, and can get you to sneak in another Gigan during combat.
• Phyrexian Metamorph - a 4 CMC artifact clone spell that has 1 phyrexian mana in the CMC. This guy is usually always cast for 3 colorless, making him one of the easiest clones to play. The artifact type is nice as you can clone it with Copy Artifact.

Independent Value Pieces

While this deck is mainly clones there are still a handful of powerful, independent, value generating creatures, with some that come close to broken when you have multiples of them.

• Archaeomancer - You are going to put a lot of cards into the graveyard and you might want to get them back to your hand. Also this guy + Ghostly Flicker + Gigan = repeatable combo
• Consecrated Sphinx - A 4/6 flyer is nothing to laugh about, a solid body that has a killer static effect. If not removed, expect to have 6 more cards in hand before it's your turn again. Since Consecrated Sphinx is not legendary it can be cloned easily; watch the color drain from your opponents’ faces when you start your turn with 12 new cards in hand.
• Gilded Drake - One of the most powerful cards in the deck, and my favorite in the list; this card is always spicy and always feels good to play. If it doesn’t feel good to play then you definitely should be dropping it on the board. Nice clone target too, because sometimes it’s better to just take their cards.
• Hullbreacher - Narset, Parter of Veils and Smothering Tithe had a baby.
• Tidespout Tyrant - Infinite mana engine. Also bounce whatever you deem worthy. You can target your permanents or your opponent’s.

Flicker Makes Plays Sicker

Your flicker pieces are your real bread and butter boys. They are extremely useful on Gigan as well as your many clones. You run a handful of low cmc instants and a couple creatures that enable you to get repeated benefit from Gigan’s powerful etb.

• Thassa, Deep-Dwelling - Thassa is wonderful in this deck! Not only is she free flicker on a stick, but she is also indestructible. She is great at all stages of the game but is especially impactful towards the earlier phases of the game - while libraries are still pretty full and mana is tight.
• Deadeye Navigator - This card is your game winner. I don’t think I’ve lost a game with this deck if I can resolve a deadeye. The ability to flicker your soulbonded target over and over again for 2 mana is super powerful, but to also be able to flicker the Deadeye itself and soulbond it to a new target is what sends it over the top and makes wins extremely easy.
• Ghostly Flicker - This is the only instant in the deck that can target permanents besides creatures. Being able to flicker a big mana rock and have it enter untapped (like a Grim Monolith or Mana Vault) is super useful in a pinch. Also you can combo this with Archaeomancer to be able to recast it again if you choose to return it to your hand with Archaeomancer’s etb. Works on lands too - especially Mystic Sanctuary.

See That Creature? You Can Clone It

There are so many good even CMC creatures that aren’t in your deck, or even in your colors, that will be available to you if you play this deck. In most cases, if a card is good enough your opponents will probably run it. EX. Every time I play against someone with red I can always count on them to run something like Dockside Extortionist. Strong cards like dockside make the best clone targets.

• Dockside Extortionist - the instant mana generation is broken at times, and usually will propel you to the win. This + Deadeye Navigator is a win. Honestly, I really just look forward to other people playing this card. And I am thinking of slotting in Bribery to play this card more reliably.
• Gilded Drake - yeah it’s already in the list, but who says you can’t copy your/someone else’s drake?
• Anything that gives you board presence, has a powerful effect or has a useful ETB.

Board Wipes and Single-Target Removal

Board wipes

There aren’t many slots dedicated to wiping the board, and this deck runs the 2 best wipes out there. Permanents with hexproof, indestructible and protection from… get hit by these 2 mass removal spells.

• Cyclonic Rift - this is probably the best mass-removal spell out there. It is a 2 cmc single target bounce spell that when overloaded acts as a mass bounce that hits all non-land permanents that your opponents control.
• Toxic Deluge - the most mana efficient board wipe in this deck. It is a more traditional board wipe as it only targets creatures. Indestructible creatures are toast as this buddy hands outs X -1/-1 counters where X is the amount of life you choose to spend.

Single-target removal

Single target removal is very important to have as you can’t counter everything. In Dimir you have limited ways to destroy anything besides creatures; thankfully blue has access to a wide selection of bounce spells, which have a larger selection

• Chain of Vapor - the most versatile and mana efficient bounce spell out there. This card can target any non-land permanent on the board regardless of player. There is a second half to the card that says “then that permanent’s controller may sacrifice a land. If the player does, they may copy this spell and may choose a new target for that copy.” Note this ability as it is super powerful. It can extend a combo or can have your opponent set you back by returning an important card to your hand.
• Cyclonic Rift - this card was mentioned earlier in board wipes. It is still a good single target removal spell, but do note that it can’t target your permanents.
• Drown in the Loch - modal cards are great and this one is perfect as it is both an (almost) unconditional counter and a removal spell. Sometimes this is a dead card as your target won’t meet its requirements. After you cast Gigan this shouldn’t be a problem.
• Rapid Hybridization - this card and his functionally identical twin Pongify are great creature destroying instants. Only caveat is that it gives them a 3/3 frog lizard token in its place. Always worth.
• Submerge - on its face this is a 5 cmc bounce to top deck. 99% of the time it is played for free as it only requires you to control an island and that one of your opponents controls a forest. Card is awesome as it also synergizes with Gigan’s ability.

Combo’s And Going Infinite

More combos to be added over time...

Generating Infinite Mana With The Tyrant

At this moment, the dramatic scepter combo is not present in the deck, but that doesn’t mean we can’t go crazy and make infinite amounts of mana, because we totally can! Feast your eyes on Tidespout Tyrant! Tidespout Tyrant is perfect for this deck because we don’t have to worry about it being milled into the graveyard. His even cmc allows us to flip into him and play him for free with Gigan’s etb.

Tidespout’s card text reads: Flying. Whenever you cast a spell, return target permanent to its owner's hand.

To create infinite with Tidespout on the board, we need at least 1 mana positive producer (Grim Monolith or Sol Ring) and 1 mana neutral producer (even if it produces no mana - as long as it costs 0 to cast, like Mox Opal or Lotus Petal). We can have both rocks in hand or one in hand and one on the board, but we need to have something to cast to start our infinite mana engine.

Tidespout triggers on cast, so make sure to tap and float your mana in response to the bounce trigger.

A quick example one of the many ways to generate infinite colored mana with Tidespout Tyrant:

1. Tidespout Tyrant is on the board as well as an Arcane Signet (mana negative -1).
2. You have a Mana Vault (mana positive +2) in hand.
3. Assuming you have open mana, cast Mana Vault, and in response to the Tidespout trigger, active your Arcane Signet and float a or mana.
4. Tidespout Tyrant trigger resolves and you bounce Arcane signet to your hand. There is one colored mana floating.
5. Tap your Mana Vault to float
6. Use of the floating colorless mana to cast Arcane Signet
7. Tidespout trigger and you bounce Vault back to your hand. You still have 1 U/B and 1 colorless mana floating.
8. You can repeat this combo over and over again until you have infinite mana.

You can then funnel your infinite mana and now infinite bounce to replay your commander or any clone you control as many times as you want. Hopefully you win with that.

Since Tidespout Tyrant triggers on cast you can use him to bounce permanents that are ruining your game plan.

Gigan’s Big Weaknesses

All decks have weaknesses and this one is no different. Watch out if you see people casting these cards- maybe save your counters for them if you know that they will make an appearance.

• Drannith Magistrate - This guy makes it impossible to cast your commander if it is still in the command zone when Drannith hits the board. This deck runs Command Beacon to potentially get around Drannith, but it is just 1 in the 99. Only positive thing I can say about this card is that nobody wants it on the board besides its controller, so you could see it be removed or countered before you have to interact with it.
• Hushbringer/Torpor Orb - Both of the cards shut down the deck in the same way - turns off enter the battlefield effects. Both cards render Gigan and every clone spell to be useless. Gigan at least is still a 6/6 blocker, but all of the clones die upon entering the battlefield as they will have zero toughness.
• Grafdigger's Cage - Cage shuts off our Gigan ability to play the cards we mill.
• Gigan is mana rock dependent and is vulnerable to artifact hate cards like Nul Rod and Collector Ouphe.
• Zilortha, Strength Incarnate

Recent Changes

All decks go through changes. Here are the most recent swaps.

• Sakashima of a Thousand Faces in. Necromancy out. - I’m very very quickly moving away from reanimating.
• Jeweled Lotus in. Expedition Map out.
• Hullbreacher in. No idea what I took out.
• Mnemonic Betrayal in. Massacre Wurm out.

Please feel free to leave any comments, questions, and/or suggestions down below in the comments section.

Have Fun!

Date added	3 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	19 - 0 Mythic Rares 48 - 0 Rares 13 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.70
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Spirit 1/1 C, Vizier of Many Faces 0/0 W