Junkus Opus [Primer | cEDH Hulk Combo] (Retired)

Commander / EDH BGW (Abzan, Junk) Competitive Infinite Combo Multiplayer Primer Rock

TetrAggressive

Creature (38)

• 1x Academy Rector
• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Dosan the Falling Leaf
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x False Prophet
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Knight of Autumn
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Loyal Retainers
• 1x Protean Hulk
• 1x Qasali Pridemage
• 1x Remorseful Cleric
• 1x Renegade Rallier
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Saffi Eriksdotter
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Spirit of the Labyrinth
• 1x Spore Frog
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Sylvan Caryatid
• 1x Terastodon
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Void Winnower
• 1x Wood Elves
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
• 1x Yosei, the Morning Star
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Land (32)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 2x Forest
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x High Market
• 1x Horizon Canopy
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Murmuring Bosk
• 1x Nurturing Peatland
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 2x Plains
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Sandsteppe Citadel
• 1x Secluded Steppe
• 1x Silent Clearing
• 1x Strip Mine
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Tranquil Thicket
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Wasteland
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Bastion

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Pattern of Rebirth
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Sylvan Library

Commander (1)

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Life from the Loam
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Sylvan Tutor
• 1x Wrath of God

Instant (8)

• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Artifact (4)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring

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Maybeboard

Land (5)

• 1x Bayou
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Diamond Valley
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Scrubland

Artifact (2)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Mox Diamond

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Living Plane

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Imperial Seal

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As good as Junk gets?

Introduction:

This Primer has gone the way of most Karador decks as I've slowly added cards to it. What started as a humble Rock attrition-based valuetown-toolbox deck, is now my version of cEDH Protean Hulk combo.

For some easy listening...

The Deck:

How it Works

The deck functions as you'd expect many other cEDH Karador lists to. Get Protean Hulk to die as soon as possible and win the game. I'll go over the other combos in the deck later, but that's the major player. There's also of course a Yosei, the Morning Star in the deck for the occasion I need to use him for a 1v1 blowout – similar in that way to Iona, Shield of Emeria, who has since been replaced with Void Winnower.

Combos

Your bread and butter combo is Protean Hulk + dead = win.

This is achieved by fetching an infinite loop via fetching Carrion Feeder/Viscera Seer and Karmic Guide off the first Protean Hulk trigger. The Guide will then reanimate the Hulk, and you immediately sac it to fetch Reveillark and anything else that fits into the 2 CMC range (most likely Grand Abolisher). You then sac your Guide, then Reveillark, use Rev to bring back Guide, and use Guide to bring back Hulk. Then, you sac Hulk once more, using it to fetch Saffi Eriksdotter and Blood Artist.

Once you have the aforementioned pieces assembled, you have an infinite loop with Karmic Guide/Reveillark/Saffi Eriksdotter and you use it to kill the table with Blood Artist. This can be done a number of ways, so look at this combo template as a good starting point, because more often than not a key-piece is going to get hated out and you're going to have to be adaptable.

Example of Turn 2 Win:

Opening hand must have: Reanimate, Entomb, Carrion Feeder/Viscera Seer.

T1 – Land, pass turn, end of opponent's turn Entomb a Protean Hulk

T2 – Land, Sac outlet, Reanimate Protean Hulk, sac it, win the game.

The Turn 2 win is typically pretty uncommon, this deck is more suited to win on Turn 3 or 4. Allowing you that extra time/mana for cards like Animate Dead/Dance of the Dead/Necromancy and tutors makes it much more consistent.

Other combos include, but are not limited to:

Saffi Eriksdotter + Sun Titan/Loyal Retainers/Renegade Rallier + Blood Artist/Zulaport Cutthroat/Altar of Dementia = Infinite life loss to opponents/infinite mill.

The aforementioned combos have many variations, and coupled with certain cards in the deck like Blood Artist or Altar of Dementia are typically game-enders. I probably missed a few obvious ones, but the general overarching theme is infinite recursion.

Card Advantage in ?

It's no secret that Junk/Abzan colored decks lack card advantage inherently. But there are some ways to get there:

Sylvan Library: An obvious include and super strong enchantment for early game advantage.

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician: A powerful sac-outlet and card draw engine.

Skullclamp: Self-explanatory. In a deck where creatures die so often, it essentially reads as ": Draw two cards."

Life from the Loam + Secluded Steppe/Barren Moor/Tranquil Thicket or Horizon Canopy/Nurturing Peatland/Silent Clearing: This chain allows you to grind out card advantage in both draws (cycling or saccing) as well as graveyard fuel from Dredge.

Removal

Creatures:

False Prophet: Recurable board wipe that exiles all your opponents creatures. Be careful with this one, you don't want to accidentally exile a key-piece of your deck, generally only use it when you have a sac-outlet to ensure your other creatures die first.

Knight of Autumn/Qasali Pridemage: Recurable artifact/enchantment removal.

Remorseful Cleric: My meta is heavily graveyard dependent. Recurable exile for your opponent's yards.

Terastodon: Big creature, hits three noncreature permanents.

Instants/Sorceries:

These are typically not as strong due to the fact they're not creatures, but they don't hurt to have as get-out-of-jail-free cards on occasion.

Wrath of God/Damnation: Board wipes.

Path to Exile/Swords to Plowshares: For when you need a cheap, clutch removal.

Tutors

For an EDH deck to be consistent tutors are super important, this deck runs a decent amount of them.

Creatures:

Academy Rector: Super powerful tutor, typically he grabs Pattern of Rebirth, gets sacced, then fetches Protean Hulk.

Fauna Shaman: Sort of a bad Survival of the Fittest, but doubling-up on such a powerful effect is always a good idea.

Protean Hulk: As mentioned, the big-bad of the deck. He dies, you win, simple as that.

Instants/Sorceries:

Buried Alive: Throw up to three creatures into the yard, hugely powerful.

Demonic Tutor: Best tutor in the game.

Diabolic Intent: Demonic Tutor that requires a sac, and in some cases is better off for it.

Idyllic Tutor: Enchantment tutor, typically used to grab Survival of the Fittest or Pattern of Rebirth.

Sylvan Tutor: A bad Worldly Tutor, but doubling up on one-mana creature tutors is huge.

Crop Rotation: Land tutor, useful for fetching a sac-outlet land if needed, or just Ancient Tomb for ramp.

Eladamri's Call: Instant-speed creature tutor, typically going to grab Academy Rector.

Enlightened Tutor: Will almost always be grabbing Survival of the Fittest, but has versatility.

Entomb: Super good in any graveyard centered deck, necessary for a Turn 2 win.

Vampiric Tutor: Second best tutor in the game.

Worldly Tutor: Instant speed creature tutor.

Enchantments:

Pattern of Rebirth: Super powerful card, fetch it with Academy Rector then grab Protean Hulk and win.

Survival of the Fittest: Ridiculously powerful card, powers the entire deck.

Artifacts:

Birthing Pod: Solid card, mainly for cheating out Void Winnower by saccing a 3-drop Karador, Ghost Chieftain. A bit slow when using it otherwise.

Ramp

Avacyn's Pilgrim/Birds of Paradise/Deathrite Shaman/Elves of Deep Shadow/Llanowar Elves/Sylvan Caryatid: Manadorks.

Sakura-Tribe Elder/Wood Elves Sac/ETB for mana.

Sol Ring.

Answers

Cards that are slotted in to help answer problems created when facing your opponent's deck (heavily meta-reliant).

Aven Mindcensor: Helps stop your opponent's tutoring for answers to your combo pieces/their own combo pieces, also hilarious when played in response to a fetchland.

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite: One of the best shutdown cards, hoses quite a few decks and requires immediate answers which takes heat off combo pieces.

Eternal Witness: Solid card in general, helpful in this list for when you need a recurable way to bring instants/sorceries back (namely Tutors or Path to Exile/Swords to Plowshares).

Dosan the Falling Leaf: Go off on your turn unhindered.

Grand Abolisher: Same as Dosan the Falling Leaf.

Remorseful Cleric: Graveyard decks are super common in my meta, and Karador decks have been begging for this dude to be printed as an answer to them.

Sheoldred, Whispering One: Good lockdown card, with reanimation to boot.

Spirit of the Labyrinth: This deck doesn't rely on card draw nearly as heavily as other competitive decks, so slowing down card draw hurts them way more than you.

Spore Frog: Don't underestimate this card, very strong against quick aggro creature-based decks like elves (which is coincidentally also played in my meta).

Yosei, the Morning Star: Super anti-fun card, but necessary when a particular deck is grinding out too much value or is about to win uninhibited.

Void Winnower: A replacement for Iona, Shield of Emeria, easily fetchable off a Birthing Pod-ing Karador, Ghost Chieftain to hate out your opponents.

Smothering Tithe: The earlier this card is out the better, makes opponents either slow their pace or be punished by giving you tons of mana when drawing cards.

Conclusion:

That about wraps it up, there are probably some things I may have missed – in my defense the deck is very resilient and toolboxy – so if you have any questions/suggestions, please ask away. Thanks for reading.

Maybeboard is cards I'm considering and/or need to acquire.

Top Ranked	Achieved #25 position overall 8 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	3 years
Exclude colors	UR
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 52 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.79
Tokens	Elephant 3-3 G, Treasure
Folders	more commander decks, inspiration, Commander Folder, EDH, Inspire me, fun commander decks, Kara, EDH, edh, EDH MP Comp