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Renegade recruiter? Hardly know her

Commander / EDH Budget Casual Jank Pirate Sacrifice Shapeshifter UR (Izzet)

Juxtamanguinican

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Creature (51)

Land (35)

Artifact (7)

Commander (1)

Commander: Zara, Renegade Recruiter

Instant (3)

Sorcery (2)

Enchantment (1)

Maybeboard

Creature (9)

Instant (3)

Enchantment (1)

Artifact (1)

This is my budget meme deck, when building this I placed the restriction on myself that every card (besides basic lands) would rhyme with the statement I make most often when playing edh with my good pal's: "I hardly know her", despite this contrived condition there is a surprising amount of synergy and cute little interactions, though much of it requires Zara, Renegade Recruiter to be in play. This is a janky deck but also very fun to try and make work, there's all sorts of shenanigans you can get into and it feels amazing to follow it all up with a classic phrase such as "I hardly know her".

In practice, the idea is to survive by utilising cute and unorthodox removal/interactions and stall long enough to set up some strong swings with Zara, Renegade Recruiter, maybe even start controlling the board if you're lucky. There are many ways to copy, borrow or steal your opponents creatures to further your own goals.

Some notable interactions are Coercive Recruiter and Bazaar Trader: borrow a creature and then target it and yourself with Bazaar Trader to establish that playing nice was just a pretense; Zara, Renegade Recruiter + Nephalia Smuggler, Conjurer's Closet, or Ghostly Flicker = keep what you borrowed from your opponents hand indefinitely!

If you're not able to keep the creatures you borrow and don't feel like giving them back you can always just use sac outlets such as Weaponize the Monsters or Carnage Altar to do a little damage somewhere or draw a card, also you can utilise Mistcaller so that the cards that you would borrow with Zara just end up being exiled, you can even set this up with one of the many bounce effects in this deck, Tradewind Rider being my favourite, to remove something especially problematic for good.

Rionya, Fire Dancer can enable all sorts of shenanigans, 2 notable little cards I like to combo it with are Humble Defector and Void Stalker : With Humble Defector, you basically get to draw your 2 cards before kindly sharing the temporary token with an opponent that won't get to use it, Void Stalker on the other hand becomes a nice, repeatable removal/tuck effect with literally no downside!

But my favourite interaction of all is a real flavor win: when you attack with Zara, Renegade Recruiter and her fellow renegade; Renegade Doppelganger, you get to have it become a copy of the creature you borrow, tapped and attacking, and if that borrowed creature happens to be legendary, go ahead and say "Smell you later, I hardly know her!" as the legendary rule kicks in and you're tragically forced to sacrifice the creature that doesn't belong to you. When building this deck, I was surprised to find just how much synergy there was, despite the rhyming restrictions!

Now, when I was doing my research I was able to come up with a combo, which I'm very proud of, that involves the following 4 cards: Zara, Renegade Recruiter, Bazaar Trader, Mindslaver and Leveler, who I hardly know. For this combo you need Leveler in hand and the rest of the pieces on the field, now this isn't a win con exactly, you are only really seeking to screw over an individual; So with your handy dandy Bazaar Trader you donate Zara, Renegade Recruiter to that individual, take control of their turn with Mindslaver, and then you attack yourself during your victims turn with your own commander that we hardly know: Zara, Renegade Recruiter, putting Leveler into play from your hand onto THEIR field, reducing your victim's library down to exactly zero while you take upwards of 14 damage from your own creatures to the face! This is absolutely a price worth paying!
Considering the difficulty of pulling the combo off due to mana cost, number of pieces, and lack of tutors that I hardly know, if you actually manage it you have my utmost respect.This deck is super fun and unique to play and fits in well at more casual tables. If you've actually read this far: Input is welcome, I'd love to hear your feedback!

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94% Casual

Competitive

Revision 5 See all

(5 months ago)

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