Saffi BoonHulk *cEDH Primer*

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive GW (Selesnya) Infinite Combo Reanimator Sacrifice Toolbox

Nillstan

Lands (28)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1x Bountiful Promenade
• 1x Branchloft Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Brushland
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Horizon Canopy
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Snow-Covered Forest
• 2x Snow-Covered Plains
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Thran Quarry
• 1x Turntimber Symbiosis  ^Flip
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x War Room
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Stax (6)

• 1x Archon of Emeria
• 1x Deafening Silence
• 1x Drannith Magistrate
• 1x Ethersworn Canonist
• 1x Root Maze
• 1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

Protection (5)

• 1x Allosaurus Shepherd
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Ranger-Captain of Eos
• 1x Silence
• 1x Veil of Summer

Ramp (13)

• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Amber
• 1x Priest of Titania
• 1x Sol Ring

Card Advantage (10)

• 1x Archivist of Oghma
• 1x Compost
• 1x Elvish Visionary
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Mentor of the Meek
• 1x Oakhame Adversary
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Smuggler's Copter
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Vessel of Nascency

Kickstarters (7)

• 1x Boonweaver Giant
• 1x Extraction Specialist
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Pattern of Rebirth
• 1x Renegade Rallier
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Sun Titan

Combo Outlets (5)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Blasting Station
• 1x Greater Good
• 1x Phyrexian Altar

Commander (1)

Tutors (12)

• 1x Academy Rector
• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Moonsilver Key
• 1x Oswald Fiddlebender
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Removal (9)

• 1x Fiend Hunter
• 1x Force of Vigor
• 1x Kenrith's Transformation
• 1x March of Otherworldly Light
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Outland Liberator  ^Flip
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Skyclave Apparition
• 1x Swords to Plowshares

Recovery (4)

• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Felidar Guardian
• 1x Recommission
• 1x Sevinne's Reclamation

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Sideboard

Other (15)

• 1x Alms Collector
• 1x Angel's Grace
• 1x Archon of Valor's Reach
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Collector Ouphe
• 1x Dryad Militant
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Endurance
• 1x Gerrard's Hourglass Pendant
• 1x Leonin Arbiter
• 1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1x Sanctum Prelate
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Seedtime
• 1x Spirit of the Labyrinth

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Saffi Boonhulk: A Primer

The Body Slinger’s Guide to Eriksdotter Boonhulk in cEDH

Overview

What we have here is a quick, resilient Adaptive Midrange deck designed to generate infinite ETB triggers and sacrifice effects. It intends to do most of its work in the 2-4 turn range, be that disrupting play or just setting up to win. This is a deck for the problem-solvers who enjoy intricate and complex lines of play in a deck that doesn’t just crumple to removal.

Pros: * Highly Adaptable to matchups and in-game situations * Transformative lines of play * Not infinitely reliant on commander * Filled with backup lines * Few dead slots * Can play fast or slow depending on your current situation * Extremely Resilient to hate

Cons: * Somewhat light on Card Advantage * Loses to a few effects (e.g. Rest in Peace) * Lighter than average on interaction * Reliant on Sacrifice Outlets in colors that can struggle to find them reliably.

Come now, and join me on my quest to build Saffi's name into the stuff of competitive legend!

Gameplan Basics

Saffi relies heavily on generating ETBs to win. To do this infinitely requires one of several Recursive Creatures, and a Sac Outlet. An example line would be as follows:

Sacrifice Saffi (using her ability) targeting Renegade Rallier, then Sacrifice Renegade Rallier to Phyrexian Altar (generating one mana of any color). As a result of Saffi's ability, Renegade Rallier will reenter the battlefield, triggering it's ETB trigger and dragging Saffi Back from the grave with it. This process generates infinite mana when repeated.

The pieces are interchangeable with each other. Renegade Rallier can easily be replaced by the likes of Karmic Guide and Sun Titan and nothing will change.

Conversely, the Sac Outlet you use will affect what effect your loop generates. Phyrexian Altar and Ashnod's Altar generate infinite Mana. Altar of Dementia and Blasting Station win the game (be it through infinite Mill or Damage). Greater Good draws your deck/pitches your deck to the grave (depending on which recursive creature you're using).

The entire deck is built to create these interactions and capitalize off of them.

Boonhulk Basics

But where exactly does the term Boonhulk come from? Boonhulk is a combination of the names of Protean Hulk and Boonweaver Giant, due to the primary gameplan of the deck being based around one of them (they're interchangeable depending on preference). The main advantage of Boonhulk is that it's a resilient, insulated combo whose pieces are not only noninvasive to the build, but actively make it stronger.

For this example, I'll be using Boonweaver Giant+Pattern of Rebirth as it's my preference between the two, and I believe it to be a bit better. Saffi is not required for this line, but she introduces a very solid safety blanket under you so optimally you'd have her on board as well.

For this to kickstart, you need either Boonweaver Giant or Pattern of Rebirth on the board to find one another alongside a Sac Outlet (preferably not Greater Good as the drawing can mess with the line, but it can work with smart play). As with before, the effect of the Sac Outlet will vary but that's irrelevant to the function of the line. We'll be using Phyrexian Altar to avoid complication. The line goes as follows:

1. This step only matters if Saffi is on board. If this is the case, Sac Saffi targeting Boonweaver Giant, then Sac Boonweaver Giant to Phyrexian Altar. Pattern of Rebirth fetches Grand Abolisher which adds absolute safety. Saffi gets back Boonweaver Giant whose ETB trigger gets back Pattern of Rebirth. This is the main plus of having Saffi on board. Without her, you are susceptible to removal and disruption. If you don't have Saffi, skip this step.

2. Sacrifice Boonweaver Giant to trigger Pattern of Rebirth, which will tutor Karmic Guide to board. Karmic Guide will trigger on enty and revive Boonweaver Giant, which brings Pattern of Rebirth back with it.

3. Sacrifice Boonweaver Giant again and have Pattern of Rebirth find one of two creatures.

2a. If your Sac Outlet is Altar of Dementia or Blasting Station, you can get Reveillark and stop here, as Karmic Guide+Reveillark is an infinite loop with a game ending Sac Outlet. You can also stop here with Greater Good as this loop will allow you to draw your deck.

2.b. If your Sac Outlet is a mana outlet, get Felidar Guardian. Its ETB trigger will flicker Karmic Guide, which will then get back Boonweaver Giant and Pattern of Rebirth.

1. Sacrifice Boonweaver Giant once more and get Reveillark. Then, sacrifice both Karmic Guide and Felidar Guardian. Afterward, sacrifice Reveillark. Its death trigger will bring back Karmic Guide and Felidar Guardian. Karmic Guide gets back Boonweaver Giant, and Felidar Guardian flickers it to also get back Reveillark.

Repeat step 3 indefinitely. This creates a tutor loop that ends with every creature in your library and graveyard on board. The main one of note being Elvish Visionary.

1. Sacrifice Elvish Visionary and Karmic Guide. Then, sacrifice Reveillark to get them back (Saffi can replace Karmic Guide here if for some reason it was exiled). Elvish Visionary draws you a card, and Karmic Guide gets back Reveillark. Repeat this loop to draw your deck.

Then using your infinite mana, simply cast a game-ending Sac Outlet and repeat any prior loop to win.

You'll notice any and all pieces of this line fall well into use outside of this line as well. You don't have to do Boonhulk in it's entirety if you simply draw certain parts, and it's fully customizable to board states and play patterns.

Greater Good Lines

Now how you play with Greater Good as your Sac Outlet depends on which recursive creature you’re looping with, as that determines how many cards you draw.

Reveillark and Sun Titan are simple. They go card positive, meaning you'll end up with more cards than you had. Simply keep any free mana rocks so you can afford to cast a winning sac outlet when you get one.

Renegade Rallier, and by extension Extraction Specialist go neutral on cards, meaning you need a certain number of cards in hand to go for it. 2 is usually the bare minimum, as you need to able to keep a mana rock and a Sac Outlet to cast with it. However, the number of cards you need in hand is also dependent on the amount of mana you have. If you have 2 mana up you can loop with 1 card in hand, as that's enough to cast Altar of Dementia. If you have 1, you can loop with 2 cards, as that gives access to all Sac Outlets through Mana Vault. With 0 mana available, you'd ideally have 3 cards in hand so you don't have to over rely on Altar of Dementia. Though in a pinch, Mana Crypt can still make it happen.

Karmic Guide is the worst case when it comes to Greater Good lines, as you're pitching the deck into your grave instead of drawing it. From here, you have a few options. The easiest of which is just to simply have 5 mana to Sevinne's Reclamation back your Sac Outlets. Unfortunately, this is not typically the case. From here, you're looking to assemble a different loop while not milling out. An example of which is the following.

1. Mill until you have Reveillark, Sun Titan, and a Sac Outlet in your graveyard.
2. Instead of returning Saffi with Karmic Guide, get Reveillark.
3. Sac Karmic Guide, milling 2. Then Sac Reveillark. This puts about a million triggers on the stack. 3a. Firstly, Greater Good draws 4 and discards 3. 3b. Then, Reveillark will get back Karmic Guide and Saffi. 3c.Karmic Guide gets back Sun Titan, and Sun Titan gets back your Sac Outlet.

From there you can simply loop to win, or continue to draw, now going positive on cards, until you draw a game winning outlet. Of course that's just an example. Renegade Rallier can replace Sun Titan if your pitched Outlet is Altar of Dementia. That means it doesn't just fail if you're missing a piece.

Handcrafting

When mulliganing for your starting hand, Saffi is a little picky. Optimally, you want a Sac Outlet, a recursive creature, and the ramp to get you there, as you'll want to prioritize the win of course. But in the event you can't just win, you want to prioritize ramp and card advantage, with Stax being a close 3rd. You either want to power towards those combo pieces as quickly as possible, or stop your opponents.

We'll go through a couple of example hands and give insight on what's worth keeping. This will help you to evaluate your openers better as you become more familiar with the deck.

Hand Number 1 ||Temple Garden,Wooded Foothills,Fyndhorn Elves, Renegade Rallier, Altar of Dementia, Silence||

Sample hand 1 is a close to perfect example of an optimal hand. By ramping turn 1 with Fyndhorn Elves, you get set up to cast Renegade Rallier on 2 (getting back the Fetchland for even more ramp), and to win on 3. And if you draw a land, you get to protect it. Snap keep every time, 9/10 hand.

Hand Number 2 ||Savannah, Mox Amber, Lotus Petal, Oswald Fiddlebender, Wooded Foothills, Renegade Rallier, Skullclamp||

Sample hand 2 is just a bit worse. As you can probably sniff out, it contains a Recursive creature, but no Sac Outlet. And at first glance, you’d be right. But look a bit closer and you’ll find Oswald Fiddlebender, which counts as a tutor for your artifacts and enchantments, and that more than meets the requirements for a well above average hand. The play pattern would be something along the lines of Savannah and Lotus Petal turn1, into Oswald Fiddlebender, Mox Amber, and Skullclamp. This would let you Saffi on 2 and pod Skullclamp into Altar of Dementia. Then it’s as simple as Renegade Rallier on 3. Solid hand, 7/10.

Hand Number 3 ||Snow-Covered Forest, Elvish Visionary, Eladamri's Call, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Path to Exile, Eternal Witness, Priest of Titania||

Sample hand 3 is a perfect example of everything you don't want in a hand. 1 land, only 1 color, ramp you can’t cast, no Sac Outlet, and so on. Now there IS a creature tutor, which isn’t nothing. But at the same time you can’t cast it, as well as creature tutors being fairly replaceable. This is a hand that does absolutely nothing on a good day. Easy mulligan, 3/10 hand.

Hand Number 4 ||Savannah, Mana Crypt, Drannith Magistrate, Moonsilver Key, Vessel of Nascency, Archivist of Oghma||

Our final sample hand is decent enough. As you can see, it's a slower hand, but it contains Drannith Magistrate on turn 1. This is an absolutely backbreaking stax effect in cEDH and evens the odds significantly regardless of the matchup. It contains land, ramp, and an Artifact tutor. These are the makings of a solid hand. It does lack a recursive creature, but has card advantage to dig for some. All in all, a solid hand. 6.5/10, definitely keepable.

Meta Spells

In EDH, use of a sideboard is not permitted. This provides me the perfect space to place meta calls and other useful spells, along with an explanation here.

Angel's Grace- This spell basically reads "Target Thassa's Oracle player loses the game." You can probably imagine why that's good. But not every meta has Thoracle as it's main leader, which is why I have it under the meta calls list.

Endurance- This spell is both useful when used on yourself and useful when used on a Thoracle player. It can straight up cause a Thoracle player to lose the game if their grave isn't pretty. It's in the sideboard in a similar vein to Angel's Grace, but different enough in function to be considered separately.

Dryad Militant and Scavenging Ooze- In a Graveyard-based combo deck like Saffi, graveyard hate is a real touchy subject. You can't exactly run the gold standard of Rest in Peace without it just killing you as much as your opponents. Dryad Militant and Scavenging Ooze do a good job of countering other Graveyard-based combo decks like Gitrog and Breach without hurting you much at all.

Collector Ouphe- This card is a real double-edged sword. It's the best in the business at stopping Urza, Codie, Kinnan and the like, but it shuts your Sac Outlets off outright. Use well, use with caution.

Linvala, Keeper of Silence- This ones a bit slow and doesn't advance the game plan much, but on the right table it can be absolutely smothering. Kinnan and Codie shiver in fear.

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite- This one is an absolute house. A very slow house, but a house nonetheless. An extremely crippling effect that can put all sorts of decks out of commission until it's gone. Goodbye Kinnan, Najeela, and Tymna.

Archon of Valor's Reach- A catch-all stax piece for whatever is bugging you the most. Expensive, but useful. It can even shut off entire hands in certain matchups.

Sanctum Prelate- Naming one or two can entirely shut off hands and decks completely, much like Archon of Valor's Reach. Or you could just simply name 5 and turn off Ad Nauseam completely.

Aven Mindcensor and Leonin Arbiter- Both of these heavily punish tutoring, which is common and the most powerful effect available in magic. They either tutor and are forced to wait till next turn while you prepare, or just flat out only search four deep. Crippling to many cEDH decks. Have dropped off significantly in power at the time of writing this, but still are worth mentioning.

Alms Collector- In a metagame where players love nothing more than to draw cards, few creatures punish the table harder. A superstar in blue and black-focused metas, which to be fair is most of them. Has dropped off significantly in power at the time of writing this, but still is worth mentioning.

Spirit of the Labyrinth- In a similar vein to Alms Collector, this girl absolutely clowns on the average cEDH player who loves to draw those cards. As they should, drawing cards is raw dopamine. It has it's ups and downs compared to Alms Collector. The positives being it still has the relevant stax effect at 2 less mana, all while being a body that dies on demand to Skullclamp. In exchange, you don't gain any benefit or break parity, but hey, 2 mana is a much more competitive rate than 4.

Gerrard's Hourglass Pendant- This is a newer piece of hate well suited to matchups full of commanders like Yennett and Edric. Also be on the lookout for Final Fortune, and other common turns spells in many red decks. Notably, the Pendant also contains a second line of text which is quite a relevant effect for Saffi. More redundency never hurt anyone!

Seedtime- Is your meta rife with blue players? Makes sense, it's one of the best colors in the format. Are you constantly just one turn away from that sweet victory because of em? Boy do I have the sideboard card for you. A rarely expected and never prepped for solution to a problem we've all had at least once.

Problem Spells and Effects

Ashiok, Dream Render- A planeswalker tailor-made to screw up Saffi's plan. Uncommon, but too dangerous to forget.

Cursed Totem Effects- Shuts off Saffi and mana dorks. You can do without them, but it makes life much harder.

Opposition Agent- Having your tutors stolen blows for every deck, and Saffi is no exception. Kill on sight.

Torpor Orb Effects- The anti-Saffi spells. Your deck is built around ETB triggers, and doesn't function without them. These must be removed at all costs.

Null Rod Effects- Shuts off your Sac Outlets with exception to Greater Good. If you have Greater Good you can ignore it and draw out, but otherwise it's a top priority removal target.

Tergrid, God of Fright  - Shuts off your sacrificing. You can't play the game with her on the board, so get rid of her as soon as possible. Notably, she helms a cEDH deck of her own, so be prepared to face her more often than you'd like.

Yasharn, Implacable Earth- Another cEDH commander with anti-Saffi text on it. And a fellow Selesnya deck at that! This time, it fuels it's own commander tax by keeping the opponent's hand full of lands. Just remember to set up when you can't remove it, and try to win as soon as it's, because it'll be back sooner than you'd prefer.

Grafdigger's Cage- This is a rare spell these days but it stops everything you want to do. Get rid of it as soon as it drops.

Notable Exclusions

Chord of Calling- I found myself unable to ever cast it for what I actually want. Still great, but I don't seem to put as many creatures on board as I used to.

Vivian on the Hunt- It's a second copy of Birthing Pod, which is fantastic, but at 6 instead of 3 I found it too slow for my particular build of Saffi, considering this build cannot just win off of one pod. Slower and Staxier builds will love it.

FAQ

Boonweaver vs Hulk

I prefer Boonweaver over Hulk because I prefer Pattern of Rebirth over Natural Order. The reasoning behind that being it allows you to kickstart off of Academy Rector as well. You can play both, but it can get a bit topheavy and generally takes up valuable slots in a deck that would prefer to have them available. That being said, they are COMPLETELY interchangeable and the Boonhulk line functions identically with either, so it's entirely down to personal preference.

Why Saffi?

At the time of writing this, there are three major cEDH builds on this strategy to compete with. Those being Minsc, Beloved Ranger, Thrasios, Triton Hero+Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools, and Tymna the Weaver+Kodama of the East Tree. Minsc having a sac outlet in the command zone, Thrasios/Tevesh being in optimal colors and having the best Hulk pile, and Tymna/Kodama having access to Black and all of its benefits. You have to remember that Saffi will always struggle against decks with additional colors and their more reliable consistency. Her strength in comparison to these builds lies in her resiliency. She can easily keep pace while being more than capable of recovering from large amounts of hate.

The matter of Tymna/Kodama is fairly simple. You can beat them out in speed with aggressive mulliganing and play. Your command zone contains a piece of your combo, which cannot be said of Tymna/Kodama. This allows you to play faster and more aggressively while having the added bonus of not being soft to most of their best Stax. Their access to black tutors makes it a tricky matchup to play successfully, but as long as you can beat out that Hulk in speed, you're golden.

Similar can be said about Thrasios/Tevesh. You outpace them reasonably often, and they're quite soft to your common stax. Tevesh in the command zone is an easily accessible way to sacrifice Hulk, but at 5 and 7 mana respectively, it can be quite slow at times. And that's not taking into account your stax slowing them even further. Mulligan aggressively and know your matchup and you can quickly make the game feel suffocating.

Minsc is another problem entirely. With a Sac outlet in the command zone and access to several 1 card wincons because of it (as opposed to the 2 Saffi requires), this is by far our worst competitor. Minsc is undeniably more consistent as a Hulk deck, so I cannot in sound mind call Saffi better, but I believe it's fair to say she's a decent sidegrade, rather than a strict downgrade. Saffi herself is a more difficult to replicate piece of the combo in the command zone.. You keep pace easily and aren't soft to most of their stax. At sorcery speed, Minsc is also much easier to pin down than your average Saffi deck, so the resilience is definitely a plus in Saffi's favor.

Also she's cool.

Additional Resources

cEDH Decklist Database

https://cedh-decklist-database.com/

Official Saffi Discord

https://discord.gg/4QRrPhj

Merits

5/26/2020- Top 10 of The Crucible deck building contest. 9/3/2022- 2nd Place at Cardboard Connoisseurs 15.

Top Ranked	Achieved #17 position overall 4 years ago Achieved #12 position in Commander / EDH 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Combo 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Competitive 4 years ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 4 Mythic Rares 53 - 9 Rares 22 - 2 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.23
Tokens	Day, Illusion */* U, Night
Folders	cEDH ideas, maybe, NICE, Combo Deck, Commander, Decks, Cool decks, Saffi, Ispirazioni, Deck Inspirations