pie chart

Tayam to Die

Commander / EDH Aristocrats BGW (Abzan, Junk) Combo Multiplayer Reanimator Value Engine

makarzorklin

Upvote 0
0

Creature (45)

Land (32)

Planeswalker (1)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Tayam, Luminous Enigma

Enchantment (10)

Artifact (4)

Instant (4)

Sorcery (3)

Maybeboard

Creature (27)

Sorcery (4)

Enchantment (3)

Artifact (2)

Planeswalker (3)

Instant (3)

Land (1)

Overview

Tayam, Luminous Enigma has the combo potential of Ghave, Guru of Spores paired with the recursive potential of Karador, Ghost Chieftain.

Tayam to Die is a strong, but fair value based aristocrat style deck. It uses Tayam to grind value and replay small creatures that have been sacrificed. I'm playing light tutors, no easy infinite combos, and want to keep it in the high powered range (7-8), but not cEDH (9-10).

For a competitive cEDH build see: tayam-is-on-my-side

Tayam fits the aristocrat play style well with a repeatable recursion engine. It aims to pair a Blood Artist effect with sacrificing for cards for value. Then use Tayam's ability to recur the artists, sacrifice outlets, and creature/counter generators.

The biggest restriction is balancing counters with the ability to generate mana. You need 3 counters and 3 mana to recur something. This means there is some setup to get going.

Early game you want to ramp fast into Tayam and hold as many creatures in your hand as possible. This means you want to play your non-creature ramp and card advantage first. Mana dorks can be played to get Tayam out faster, but don't over commit you only need 4 mana on your turn.

Once Tayam hits the board you can unload your utility creatures and remaining dorks for extra vigilance counters. This will give Tayam the gas to get started.

If Tayam is removed still hold back any creatures that don't give you card advantage and slow play them until you get Tayam online again.

Mid game you want to setup your creature/counter enablers. Tayam's flexibility is very useful here since we can recur fetch lands to ramp into bigger value engines in hand or recur the smaller draw engines or counter producers in your grave. The key is to try to keep up card advantage and use those counters once you get 3.

Once your grave starts to fill up Tayam offers great flexibility to recur the right pieces you need.

Wall of Roots, Devoted Druid, and Rishkar, Peema Renegade are some of the best dorks as they provide both counters and mana. Incubation Druid is also nice since for 5 mana you can put 3 counters on the druid, tap the druid and activate Tayam. Knight of Autumn can also give extra counters for an activation and has the flexibility to destroy artifacts/enchantments. Woe Strider is another sneaky one as he can recur itself with extra counters. These all don't rely on Tayam being out ahead of time.

If Tayam is on the board Weaponcraft Enthusiast, Promise of Bunrei and Chittering Witch are good cheep counter enablers. Caller of the Claw and Hallowed Spiritkeeper are conditionally the best low costed enablers if you have a bunch of death triggers or creatures in your grave.

End game you want to setup your Blood Artists and sacrifice outlets paired with a large board state or the ability to recur a permanent that generates 3 counters (or two undying/persist creatures). This will allow you to sac the generator and repeat the process for 3 mana. Luminous Broodmoth and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed can also enable easy recursion.

Caller of the Claw and Hallowed Spiritkeeper can be huge late game and can really up your creature/counter count.

Avenger of Zendikar is the best enabler in the deck as the plants don't rely on Tayam to get counters. With Tayam, Avenger is self sustaining being able to recur fetch lands for counters and reanimator effects Animate Dead / Necromancy / Dance of the Dead.

Craterhoof Behemoth and Finale of Devastation also allows for finishers outside the main aristocrat line.

The deck has low tutors, but if you can get a combo online it also can finish the game quickly (combos discussed in next section).

Combos in this build are less reliable since we are light on tutors, but once you activate Tayam enough times being able to recur one from your grave and pair with one you draw gets easier.

  1. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician + two undying creatures Young Wolf, Butcher Ghoul, Strangleroot Geist, Geralf's Messenger: You can place the - counters on the undying creatures to cancel out the + and repeat this process as many times as you have life to draw that many cards.
  2. Luminous Broodmoth + one undying/persist creature + a sac outlet: Sacrifice the undying creature and it will trigger unflying and undying. You only get to pick one to resolve so stack the triggers. Then it reenters the battlefield with that effect. Sacrifice again, pick the other ability, and it will enter the battle field with the other effect. Rinse and repeat for the sacrifice effect.
  3. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Yawgmoth, Thran Physician + 2 non-human creatures: to repeat Yawgmoth's card draw combo above.
  4. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Luminous Broodmoth + 1 non-human/flying creature + a sac outlet: for a repeated sacrifice effect.
  5. Sun Titan + 2 of Animate Dead / Dance of the Dead / Necromancy + a sac outlet: for infinite sac effects.
  6. Pawn of Ulamog + Tayam, Luminous Enigma + 3 undying/unflying creatures + a sac outlet: infinite sac and mill.

Pair any of the repeatable sacrifice combos with a Blood Artist effect to win the game: Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Cruel Celebrant, Corpse Knight, Bastion of Remembrance. Or use Blasting Station as the sac effect.

Note the main combo lines for Tayam is below, but since this is a powered down version it is not included in the decklist:

  • Tayam, Luminous Enigma + a mana per creature altar + a cmc3 or less permanent that generates 3+ creatures: Allows you to repeat Tayam's ability for 3 mana and 3 counters, mill your library, and recur your win con for a same turn win.

Altars: Ashnod's Altar / Phyrexian Altar / Pitiless Plunderer / Earthcraft (with a sac outlet)

CMC3 enablers: Promise of Bunrei, Caller of the Claw, Hallowed Spiritkeeper, Weaponcraft Enthusiast, Ministrant of Obligation

Elesh may find its way into the deck as a finisher anyway.

Strengths:

  1. Tayam has the built in recursion to help get value pieces back and any cmc3 or less permanent is most of the deck.
  2. Tayam has self milling increasing your chance to have something relevant in your grave to impact the game state.
  3. Abzan has good grindy cards with aristocrat style decks allowing you to draw many cards and has great graveyard synergy.
  4. Tayam has crazy combo potential and synergies with many different options. You can rotate your deck's focus to keep it fresh. Or power it up in a competitive meta.

Weaknesses:

  1. Counters are often hard to come by for value grinds. You need Tayam to stick on the board first before casting your creatures or you need to find a creature/counter enabler.
  2. Grave hate. If your graveyard is exiled, it really cuts down the power level and staying power of the deck. There are some alternate win cons with combat, but they are much less consistent.
  3. Since it lacks blue, interacting with spells slinging decks can be hard and you don't have counterspells which interact with pretty much everything.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Comments

Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!

Become a supporter of TappedOut and hide ads for only $3/month!

Important! Formatting tips — Comment Tutorial — markdown syntax

Please login to comment

Casual

92% Competitive