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Competitive Tayam and Tayam Again

Commander / EDH BGW (Abzan, Junk) Combo Counters Druid Reanimator

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Creature (32)

Artifact (5)

Land (30)

Sorcery (5)

Planeswalker (1)

Commander (1)

Commander: Tayam, Luminous Enigma

Enchantment (15)

Instant (11)

Maybeboard

Instant (2)

Artifact (2)

Enchantment (1)

Please excuse the dust I'm expanding this into something much like a primer

Our strategy is to muck up the battlefield with stax and prison cards until we can assemble the cards we need to go to infinite mana and counters.

*Thank you to Ryland, Ad Naus addict and Zero on the Tayam Discord server Tayam's Enigma

Making infinite Mana

Devoted Druid is the key card to our deck. Once we give it a bit more toughness it becomes a one card wrecking crew which gives us both the mana and the counters we need for infinite activations of Tayam, Luminous Enigma. The name of the game is getting Devoted Druid to produce infinite mana. At this point the only way to do this is with a long forgotten card from Exodus Shield Mate.

1) Sacrifice Shield Mate to give +0/4 to Devoted Druid

2) Tap Devoted Druid to produce and put on 4 -1/-1 counters

3) Use Tayam, Luminous Enigma to return Shield Mate to battlefield, which'll immediately be sacked to give another +0/+4 to Devoted Druid

4) Rinse and repeat.

There will always be -1/-1 counters on Devoted Druid but it's toughness will never go low enough to die until the end of our turn. This'll also provide the counter food for additional Tayam, Luminous Enigma activations.

Devoted Druid + Shield Mate - both halves can searched out by either Ranger-Captain of Eos or Recruiter of the Guard in addition to our other spell based search.

Getting all our Permanents into Play with Infinite Activations but Static Mana

Same idea as above, but we won't be netting any mana. We'll be looping all of the permanents in our library with CMC 1-3 with the help of:

Devoted Druid + Centaur Garden or Hashep Oasis - The lands each have their own advantages and disadvantages. Both are un-counterable. Both ping us for damage when we tap for coloured mana. Hashep Oasis can tap for a painless but its activation costs more than Centaur Garden. That being said, Centaur Garden requires some setup, needing threshold to activate.

Devoted Druid + Seal of Strength - This was a Wax / Wane which was nice when it was in hand and we needed to destroy an enchantment. However, when we're flipping cards into the 'yard with our Commander just looking for a card to pair with Devoted Druid we need all of the options we can muster.

Riftsweeper - to protect Devoted Druid from exile and potentially prevents us from death by self mill.

Other cards which can give Devoted Druid enough toughness to go infinite:

Allosaurus Shepherd - this is a pretty glaring omission from the deck. Not only would it give us access to unlimited activations it could be a backup wincon. Plus, it stops our green creatures from being countered. Destiny Spinner is fine but will be the easiest swap out ever.

Blossoming Defense - can also be used as a shield to grant hex proof or even add vital points of toughness if targeted by a Lightning Bolt.

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Vines of Vastwood -Similar to Blossoming Defense, this will give us protection and enough toughness to get infinite activations going. That second green to get things going is almost too much as a cEDH deck.

Wax / Wane - This is the odd one out as it's the only one of our Devoted Druid enablers which cannot be recycled by our Commander but comes with a slight bonus of a second spell attached which basically says "destroy target Rhystic Study". Wane actually lets us destroy target enchantment but we all know where it's going most of the time.

Democracy in its purest form means one person, one vote. We're importing this idea to our Commander groups. With these cards we'll be making sure everything is nice and fair and everybody is limited to only one spell per turn. The fact our commander gets around this restriction with an activated effect to play from the graveyard is merely a coincidence.

Archon of Emeria -

Deafening Silence -

Eidolon of Rhetoric -

Ethersworn Canonist - the most expendable of these options because it's the softest at stopping their strategies because so many revolve around artifacts.

(...okay maybe we're a dictator)

Democracy isn't enough and we need to hit the table with a good hard shot of fascism. When we absolutely positively need to go off these cards will completely shut out one opponent or the rest of the table we turn here.

Silence - Turns the game into solitaire if we can't completely combo off or if we're unsure if we'll completely combo off. We can also keep the table from casting spells if we loop this and Eternal Witness.

Ranger-Captain of Eos -As with above we can sac this to stop our opponents from playing spells to stop it and we can keep looping it if we can't completely combo off.

Aura of Silence -

Collector Ouphe -

Drannith Magistrate - Keeps the other commanders in the Command Zone. Also a big target for removal. Not a big deal we can bring it back with Tayam, Luminous Enigma. Keep in mind, it has to be in play before your opponents cast their commander. He's powerful but once their on the stack Drannith Magistrate can't become a counterspell.

Hushbringer - better than Tocatli Honor Guard. It can block flyers and stops effects as they come into play AND when they hit the graveyard.

Aven Mindcensor -

Opposition Agent -

Spirit of the Labyrinth - this could also be up in the Magic Democracy tab as it puts a cap on the number of cards anyone can draw per turn. The best place for this card is forgotten in the 'yard and being brought out at instant speed when someone plays a Brainstorm or a big draw spell. Read the table before doing this when a Wheel of Fortune type card is played. If a Nekusar, the Mindrazer player casts it and there's a Teferi's Puzzle Box on board you'll score some political points. If the big bad is going to win next turn and the next player is trying to gas everyone up maybe leave Spirit of the Labyrinth in the grave.

At first glance Seton, Krosan Protector seems like we're putting a hat on a hat. Most, if not all of our druids already tap for mana. That being said Seton gets around summoning sickness making many mana dorks mana neutral. In the case of Devoted Druid we can go off immediately. He can also tap himself for a the he enters the battlefield which practically makes him cost . Think of Seton, Krosan Protector as a poor man's Concordant Crossroads, a rich man's Instill Energy or a backup for Concordant Crossroads.

Arbor Elf - Perhaps gains the most from Seton, Krosan Protector's presence. With a three colour mana-base we aren't guaranteed to have a Forest in play and turning a blank into a mana dork is a good deal. We're running a few land auras so we'll prioritize putting them on Forest cards to get even more mana.

Elves of Deep Shadow - Also, gains a niche benefit from Seton, Krosan Protector because tapping won't deal us damage.

Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves & Llanowar Elves - Can't mess with a classic. That's why WoTC the same card three ways.

A group of elite elves who serve under Tyvar Kell. They also work with Seton, Krosan Protector but they also have a talent. Their special talent...they can produce more mana than one mana. With our Planeswalker's +1 we untap an elf give it a disposable +1/+1 counter, net some more mana and then there's something about deathtouch.

Incubation Druid - played on the turn before card:Tyver Kell he can be immediately be untapped and the +1/+1 counter turns on his tap for 3 mana clause and our Planeswalker was essentially cast for nothing.

Joraga Treespeaker - Not just a druid, not just a mana dork but also a counter generator. The first one is fairly free, the level up is and we'll be able to tap it for after. In future turns we can pour extra mana to make some extra yummy counters for Tayam, Luminous Enigma. Much like the ultimate of a Planeswalker the last ability is nice to get to but isn't the goal or is moot because we're generating infinite mana.

Priest of Titania - The big mama of mana dorks. She'll always add at least one but more is very likely.

Sylvan Safekeeper - also gets a mentions because Tyvar Kell turns them into a mana dork.

Deathrite Shaman - remains a mana dork even with graveyard hate in play, looking at you Rest in Peace. For more information look at the "How we win" tab.

If these work the way there supposed to and with consistency, Bloom Tender Gyre Sage and perhaps a Wirewood Lodge will have to be added.

Also, something to consider. card:Tyver Kell's static text also applies to tribal elf permanents. Right now that's just one, Prowess of the Fair, but who knows what the future holds.

Avacyn's Pilgrim - The lost card:Llanowar Elf which is not a druid or a cleric. It may be technically correct to play Boreal Druid over this because of the advantages Seton, Krosan Protector provides.

Birds of Paradise - to cast. Taps for any colour of mana. Chump blocks a big flyer. Seems legit.

Carpet of Flowers -

Chrome Mox - It puts us down a card in hand but provides so much more.

Lotus Petal - Once we have infinite and infinite activations of our Commander we'll need to filter some of that into or (maybe).

1) sacrifice Lotus Petal and add or to the mana pool

2) Activate Tayam, Luminous Enigma to return Lotus Petal to play

3) Repeat 1 & 2 as needed

Mana Crypt - Cost prohibitive for many players this card is a step up from Sol Ring. Don't let the 50/50 chance at damage scare you. After all we're in a 40 life format.

Mox Diamond -

Sol Ring - The reigning champion of mana acceleration for Commander/EDH. Just an auto-include in every deck.

Wild Growth - Prioritize putting this on a basic land so that we can pair it with Earthcraft turning all our creatures into double mana dorks (mana dorks squared?).

We'll have to get a little more specific considering our Commander. This is reanimation for creatures with more than CMC. Of course we can use it for creatures of or less but there are bigger boys to pull from our graveyard.

Reanimating from the Graveyard -

Animate Dead - Reanimates from either graveyard at the low cost of one less power.

Necromancy - Reanimates from either graveyard at the cost of more than Animate Dead. It also can be cast from the hand at instant speed but with the "downside" of being destroyed at the end of the turn ready for our Commander to bring back at another time.

Dance of the Dead - The weakest of the three reasonable auras to resurrect a creature, because it brings the creature into play tapped and we have to pay to untap it and we can only pay to untap it during the upkeep. There's some slight potential with Tyvar Kell but not much. This is the easiest cut to make and you don't have to feel sad or that you're missing out if you cant find it.

Once Tayam, Luminous Enigma has milled these into the graveyard we can use them at instant speed...as long as we have the mana and the counters.

The fixed version of Academy Rector, Lost Auramancers, is a prime target for reanimation. It costs too much to be returned with our Commander so we'll need some help from any of our reanimating auras. They'll come into play with the perfect number of counters so they can be eaten by our Commander and get an immideate death trigger. From there we can grab any enchantment left in our deck. The ones we should be prioritizing are the ones which Tayam can't bring back. It's nice just this once that the cheap card is better for this deck than the more expensive one!

Felidar Retreat - An excellent source of beatdown and a source of counters. Try and recover fetch lands to create a cat beast followed by a +1/+1 counter on all creatures until we have enough counters for this activation and a cumulative next activation. Six total creatures is the best in combination with Gaea's Cradle along with Sylvan Safekeeper.

  1. Tap the Cradle for six

  2. Sacrifice it to the Sylvan Safekeeper

  3. Return it to play with our Commander

  4. Add +1/+1 counters to all our creature

  5. Activate our Commander again and return whatever is needed or wanted

  6. Repeat, until all permanents are in play

***The same strategy can be used with Serra's Sanctum it's just a little harder to get going but it is workable.

Freyalise's Winds - Another piece of stax which is secretly a way for us to generate counters. This could be another piece of Magic Democracy and it does affect everyone it's also how quickly the mucks up the board. If people complain just tell them they did it to themselves. This is another card which partners with Earthcraft surprisingly well.

  1. Tap a land for mana, land gets a counter.

  2. Then tap a creature to untap the land, the creature gets a counter.

  3. Tap the land for mana it gets a second counter.

With that we've created the counters and 2/3s of the mana for an activation of our Commander. This is about $0.25 give it a try you wont be disappointed.

Even if these two enchantments have been milled away it's still worth reanimating Lost Auramancers over and over. We'll make it a point to grab Wild Growth and put it on a basic land, then go for Earthcraft. This covers the counters and 2/3s of the mana we need to keep going. Next focus on grabbing the remaining creature enchantments and we'll start netting mana for later use.

If sending these, or anything else, to the graveyard with no hope of ever coming back there are cards which can help us out

Mistveil Plains -

Noxious Revival - Accept no substitutes. Reclaim may look okay but pales in comparison to its Phyrexian counterpart.

Crop Rotation - the primary targets will be Gaea's Cradle to generate a lot of mana to (hopefull) win, Ancient Tomb if we've already taken the Cradle and Bojuka Bog to stop someone else from doing something silly.

Demonic Tutor -

Eldritch Evolution - here to change our mana dorks into the piece we need to finish our puzzle.

Enlightened Tutor -

Green Sun's Zenith -

Recruiter of the Guard -

Vampiric Tutor -

Worldly Tutor -

Gaea's Cradle & Serra's Sanctum -

*All of the lands in the deck are unique. This is a holdover from when Tainted Pact was in the deck and there's no real reason to change. Snow lands aren't the flex they used to be.

Ad Nauseam - If we're feeling particularly greedy we can add Gideon of the Trials give ourselves an emblem and we can draw our entire deck.

Necropotence - When this came out in Ice Age it was considered one of the worst cards in the set. Oh, how times have changed!

*these cards get around Spirit of the Labyrinth's draw clause because we're not drawing any cards with the above...we're putting them into our hand.

In combat we can assemble a bunch of creatures and use Finale of Devastation like a Craterhoof Behemoth. +999/+999 is good...more can, be argued to, be better.

Earthcraft + Squirrel Nest -

  1. Tap the basic land enchanted by Squirrel Nest to create a token

  2. Tap the new token with Earthcraft untap the enchanted land

  3. Create an arbitrarily large number of squirrel tokens

It's important to remember that we will be left with only one untapped squirrel token if we were to do this on our turn. Using our commander with one piece in the graveyard, or both, or even none, and/or the other in play we can create our tokens at the end of our opponent's turn and win. Just remember that for this to work Squirrel Nest needs to be on a basic land (yes basic snow-lands count). This also gives us all the counters we'll need to feed to our Commander.

Assassinate the Board -

1) Put a Tayam, Luminous Enigma trigger on the stack and put Eternal Witness into play and target Assassin's Trophy

2) Cast Assassin's Trophy on whatever you want.

3) Use Phyrexian Tower to sacrifice the Eternal Witness

4) Use Sylvan Safekeeper to sacrifice the Phyrexian Tower

5) Use Tayam, Luminous Enigma to bring back the Eternal Witness and Phyrexian Tower

6) Repeat stepes 1 - 5

Other cards which can be looped instead of Assassin's Trophy to win:

Praetor's Grasp - Exile all of our opponent's libraries AND cast the non-land cards

Vindicate - In case we don't want to waste time on our opponent's searching their libraries or...we want to flex with a Jusge promo...maybe

We can also loop and sac a bunch of permanents and cast Bitter Ordeal to exile all of the libraries. Because of the Gravestorm making copies this may be able to go under all of our Magic Democracy cards. Should investigate further.

Even if our opponents bring out their basic lands from their decks we'll still be able to assassinate them. Eventually, all our opponents will have will be cards that have Shoud, Hexproof or some other protection.

If any pieces are exiled Riftsweeper will be there to help pick us up.

You have the Deathrite to Concede

This one can be used done on any turn because...

1) Sacrifice Emergence Zone so we can cast spells at spells at instant speed

2) Cast Eternal Witness targeting Finale of Devastation

3) Cast Finale of Devastation for an any amount as long as the haste clause is activated

4) Search for Deathrite Shaman if it isn't in play otherwise for anything else our little heart desires then use Deathrite Shaman's ability and drain life from our opponents

5) Use Phyrexian Tower to sacrifice Deathrite Shaman for

6) Sacrifice the Phyrexian Tower to the Sylvan Safekeeper

7) Use Tayam, Luminous Enigma to bring back Deathrite Shaman and Phyrexian Tower. Then use the Tower to sacrifice the Eternal Witness for , sacrifice the Tower again

8) repeat steps 2-7

Again, if one of our pieces has been exiled Riftsweeper is our guy. It also returns Instants and Sorcieries to our graveyard to finish off our opponents if needed

*Thank you to Ryland, Ad Naus addict and Zero on the Tayam Discord server Tayam's Enigma for your primer and writing these loops up. It helped me understand the strategies so much better and it made writing this a lot easier.

These are the cards that were in the deck but have been used at one time or another. These should give you ideas of where this deck once was and to save time if they're ever added back into the deck.

Avenger of Zendikar - the required counters won't immediately appear they're just one land away. Also, with our commander up and running we can cheat lands from our graveyard into play for more and more counters.

Boreal Druid - Gains a niche benefit from Seton, Krosan Protector as her is going to be just a for us. With our centaur lord this druid taps for a coloured mana which can be useful here and there.

Deep Forest Hermit - now we're talking! This shaman brings four of his closest friends with him for Altar food. He also goes back to the bin when our General eats his Vanishing counters. 99 times out of 100 we won't be casting this guy we'll be using our suite of reanimation auras to bring this backwoods madman into play.

Elvish Spirit Guide - Not meant to be cast, it would just be a Gray Ogre. Think of it as an extra Lotus Petal.

Leyline of the Void - Great when it's in our opening hand and adequate any other time. We need to plan to bring this out proactively as it only exiles cards that go to our opponent's graveyard once it's in play. Once a juicey reanimation target is in an enemy graveyard and we don't have a way to bring it back we need to find a Bojuka Bog ASAP. If you don't like Leyline of the Void as a piece of graveyard removal that's okay. However, we need to have some sort of graveyard removal and we need it to be something that doesn't touch our graveyard.

Knight of Autumn - an incredible Swiss Army Knife. She can also become a Disenchant if the need should arise. And if we really really need it we can gain some life. Solid all around. Great Without Tayam, Luminous Enigma.

Orim's Chant - Only stops one opponent from casting spells, however the kicker gives us an emergency pseudo-Fog. We'll have to deploy it before combat so make sure your politics skills are sharp.

Rain of Filth - this is here because I can't find a Squandered Resources, which would work much better with our commander and anti-spell plan. Also, it only works on lands in play when we cast it. For those familiar with Past in Flames storm decks it only gives flashback to the cards in the graveyard when it's cast. Same principal is true for Rain of Filth. It only gives the ability to lands that were in play when it was cast. If we bring lands out of the graveyard with Tayam, Luminous Enigma we won't be able to sacrifice them which is very important for Gaea's Cradle and Cabal Coffers where we want to Recycle them over and over. Therefore, we'll be leaning on Sylvan Safekeeper as our land sac outlet.

Overgrowth - this may seem a bit weird but when it's attached to a basic land in tandem with Earthcraft we're gifted with the mana to keep activating Tayam, Luminous Enigma. If you'd prefer Utopia Sprawl that's also a good choice.

Tainted Pact - We've cleverly decided to play with 99 unique cards in our deck with this card in mind. We'll be able to get to the exact card we need.Riftsweeper is an emergency button in case we need an exiled card returned to our library. This gets around Spirit of the Labyrinth's draw clause because we're not drawing the card we find...we're putting it into our hand.

Expanded Graveyard Tactics - Reanimation from our Hand -

Reanimate - Both of these come at the cost of life equal to the creatures CMC. Considering the format life won't be an issue and if it is we probably weren't winning anyway. This card allows us to to pull from both players graveyard which is something to always keep in mind.

Life / Death - The "Life" half of Life / Death is going to be cast as a finisher now-and-then. Ironically (or sadly), the best time to cast it is when Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is in play but we've probably just used Life / Death to cheat her into play. The card is here for the "Death" half and is the side we'll be using most often. Unlike Reanimate we can only bring things back from our graveyard.

Our Big Guys - Now that we've established HOW we're going to be bring creatures without the assistance of Tayam, Luminous Enigma we're going to discuss WHAT we're going to bring back.

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite -

Razaketh, the Foulblooded -

Lost Auramancers has a very specific purpose and toolbox they access so they're getting their own tab.

What if our 4+ CMC creatures aren't in the graveyard?

Entomb - For when a card stubbornly refuses to get out of our library. When I say card I mean it can be used to get ANY card out of the deck. Most of the time it'll be to get one of our fatties. When we're not getting a creature out of our deck Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead & Necromancy will be our most common targets.

Putrid Imp - For when our giant creatures foolishly chose to be drawn we can freely discard them. This can also be used as a way to put other cards we want in the graveyard where they belong. The slight bonus it gets when we have threshold is nice but realistically won't be winning too many games.

Nature's Revolt - teamed with Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite we'll wipe out our opponent's lands. Just watch out for Anthem effects. In a perfect world this would be Living Plane but, I own a Nature's Revolt and Living Plane is hard to find and pretty pricey. The extra mana could make a difference but we'll be cheating it out most of the time .

Build More Counters!

These cards help create a bunch of creatures with vigilance counters (as long as Tayam, Luminous Enigma is in play) to eat and keep reanimating cards from the 'yard.

Caller of the Claw - she requires a bit of setup. Early testing leads me to conclude that a creature death counter should be used any turn our commander starts going off. Similar, to when you'd start counting spells for Storm. Don't underestimate Caller of the Claw's value following up a Wrath either.

Hallowed Spiritkeeper -

Promise of Bunrei -

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Casual

92% Competitive

Date added 3 years
Last updated 2 years
Exclude colors UR
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

6 - 0 Mythic Rares

48 - 0 Rares

24 - 0 Uncommons

16 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 1.93
Tokens Cat Beast 2/2 W, Elf Warrior 1/1 G, Emblem Tyvar Kell, Squirrel 1/1 G
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