Prior to the release of Dominaria, the best versions of Godo, Bandit Warlord were value Voltron decks. The game plan typically involved tutoring for Blade of Selves , using that to tutor up multiple strong equipment cards, and beating face for commander damage or using convoluted but fragile combos. The new Godo-Helm deck is decidedly NOT a Voltron build. The addition of Helm of the Host lends itself to a fast-combo style deck more appropriate for a competitive environment. We also use some powerful stax cards, and sometimes the deck can play as a reasonably efficient stax archetype depending on what you draw. We include the most impactful stax elements that support our main combo strategy.

Yes, in my real-game experience, Godo has performed well in competitive pods. A member of the Red Love Discord each managed to get to the final table of the last two Cockatrice cEDH tournaments with the deck.

The zero-card combo from the command zone provides the necessary speed for a competitive metagame, typically threatening a win on turns 2-4. Interaction can be found in artifact and creature removal as well as very powerful stax pieces. Protection for the combo is available using anti-blue counterspells, fork effects, utility lands, indestructability effects, and other protection measures. Artifact recursion effects are available in mono-red for the Helm if it is destroyed, and recursion for Godo is built into the command zone. The combo has many elements of natural counterspell and stax resistance.

The Godo-Helm combo is certainly fast enough for cEDH pods, typically comboing between turns 2-4 on average. There are multiple lines to a turn 1 win, some requiring as few as one non-land card and two ramp sources. Because the combo only typically requires one red Mana, we can use the best fast-mana colorless artifacts to full effect. Red also has access to additional fast mana rituals. Combo cost reducers, many through Hammer of Nazahn , as well as extra turn effects ( Final Fortune ) can also speed the combo turn up dramatically. This speed is on par with many of the fast combo decks in the current cEDH meta.

As a fast combo deck, there is a certain amount of inherent fragility. Often, however, the deck is no less risky than many of the format’s other top tier decks, which all come with their own specific weaknesses. The deck has significantly more resilience than you might expect for mono-red, and I will go into more details in the questions below. The deck often is able to attempt to win multiple times per game, sometimes multiple times per turn.

We actually have quite a few options to protect the combo from countermagic. The vast majority of counterspells we will see are blue, so we can run all the anti-blue counters. Cavern of Souls gives total counter protection for the combo, as we only really need to cast one creature spell (Godo) to be able to win, and can be tutored with Expedition Map . Many of the format staple counterspells like Swan Song , Negate , and Spell Pierce can’t hit our combo at all. Many counterspells can be countered with Fork effects (which also sometimes function as tutors). Because Helm of the Host is tutored straight to the battlefield, it can’t be countered outside of Stifle effects. This is as much density of combo protection as you see in many of the top decks running blue. If our only combo piece that needs to be cast does get countered, recursion for the only combo piece we need to cast is built right into the command zone, allowing us to re-attempt the combo with an additional 2 mana at a later time.

This deck is naturally resistant to most format staple stax elements. Blood Moon effects are usually helpful to our strategy (and we run both). Tax cards and Rule of Law effects can slow us down, as we would often like to cast multiple ramp spells in a turn, but they don’t shut the deck down entirely as they do to storm archetype decks. We run enough rocks to keep up with winter orb effects. Null Rod effects can prove problematic due to the high density of mana rocks in our deck, though they don’t actually fully stop our combo entirely as we can use Hammer of Nazahn to avoid having to activate an equip ability. Supplemental equipment lets us continue to combo out through Propaganda effects. We don’t use the yard much, so graveyard hate is largely irrelevant except where artifact recursion is involved. The biggest stax pieces that stop the deck are Torpor Orb , Aven Mindcensor , or Stranglehold .

We can run several of red's available artifact hate or creature removal spells for dealing with many of these problem. The plethora of Shatter , Lightning Bolt , and Pyroclasm type effects gives us a ton of options for dealing with a stax heavy metagame.

Dealing with enchantments like Stranglehold or Stony Silence leaves us down to less than optimal choices like Chaos Warp and Argentum Armor for removal. While this does reveal one weakness in the deck, Stranglehold can effectively spoil many successful cEDH strategies, and stopping Godo is in no way unique there. The deck is surprisingly resilient against most stax strategies though, and fast enough to race them with some regularity. Stax is not a substantial weakness of this deck relative to other top tier decks.

Creature and artifact removal can be a problem for the deck, and this is something to play around carefully. If we do get hit by a creature counter or kill/exile spell, the deck has more than enough ramp to keep pushing out Godo with the commander tax quickly. There is no need to seek out creature recursion, as this is built into the command zone. If creature destruction is a huge problem for your particular meta, running Goblin Chirurgeon or Veilstone Amulet are perhaps worth a consideration for pre-emptive protection.

Artifact destruction is more of a problem, as we do need to find recursion if the helm is destroyed. We have some pre-emptive protection for the helm available in the form of Welding Jar or Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer and cards that help limit interaction such as Chalice of the Void (usually set on 1) and Defense Grid . Should the helm get destroyed, red does have quite a bit of artifact recursion available. Fortunately, we don’t tend to see a lot of artifact exile in competitive pods. Cards like Return to Dust tend to have too high a CMC to be truly worthwhile, so we can almost always try to get the helm out of the yard. While red doesn’t have the same powerful recursion as black or green, there are still several good options for salvaging a helm that is claimed by nature ( Buried Ruin , Codex Shredder , Sequestered Stash , Daretti, Scrap Savant , Trash for Treasure ).

Despite being mono-red, this deck interacts in much the same way as other relevant cEDH decks, using carefully selected removal, protection, and stax interactions. Some of our interaction with other decks comes pre-emptively from our powerful stax pieces, especially if these are played early. They often serve dual a purpose, both hampering opponents wins while protecting our own combo. Protection has been discussed in the FAQ's on removal and counterspells above. To stop others from comboing off, we can make use of red's many inexpensive instant-speed artifact or creature removal spells as well as efficient board sweepers. We can often simply out race many other competitive midrange or control decks. Against fast archetypes that we have difficulty stopping once they go off ( Ad Nauseam for example) we can use those same relevant stax and removal pieces to try and keep them off fast mana long enough to combo ourselves. Our deck has enough natural resistance to stax builds that we can often play through soft locks for a slower but eventual win, removing hard locks where necessary.

This is discussed in more detail in the “game plan” tab of this primer. Generally speaking, the backup plans for a disrupted combo are to recast Godo, recur Helm of the Host, or to use tutorable equipment control pieces like Argentum Armor or Umezawa's Jitte to power out a win. Plan A, however, significantly outclasses our backup strategy, and should be protected wherever possible.

Yes and no. The majority of competitive Godo decklists right now, most developed in the Red Love Godo discord, include a common core of similar cards. Many cards in the deck, however, are very much meta dependent, as described in the “single card and category” discussions. We don’t have many slots for stax pieces, for example, so the best ones for you will depend highly on the decks you typically face. The same can be said for protection and interaction. I have tried to create this list as a general guide for this deck in a blind cEDH meta, but it is not the end-all list for competitive Godo, Bandit Warlord . I hope by reading through the process of the deck in this primer, you will be able to tweak the deck to your play style and your play group. If you have any suggestions for cards I may have missed, or questions about why a particular card was included, I encourage you to leave a comment below or send me a message!

The game plan here is pretty simple -- ramp into Godo, Bandit Warlord from the command zone and combo off for the win as efficiently as possible. Godo will fetch Helm of the Host straight to the battlefield, which you then have to equip. When you enter combat, the Helm makes a hasty token Godo, which can attack netting you another combat step. Which makes a hasty Godo. Which gives you another combat. I think you see where I’m going with this.

There are a number of ways to ‘cheat’ the equip cost; cards like Magnetic Theft and Brass Squire . You can also use cards like Panharmonicon , Twinflame , and Strionic Resonator to double Godo’s ETB trigger, fetching Hammer of Nazahn with the first trigger for a free auto-equip on the helm. You can also use extra turn effects like Final Fortune to pay the equip cost on the extra turn. There are essentially two paths to victory here. The first is the fast combo route, which is my preference. The secondary plan is through a stax slowdown. Don’t get me wrong, you will still need plenty of fast Mana for the stax route. But we have access to some of the best stax pieces in commander, and using these will help to lessen the interaction gap we have with most other decks in the current meta. Things like Stranglehold , Blood Moon , Trinisphere and Possibility Storm can keep opponents from winning while at the same time helping to protect our own combo. Some Godo lists go heavier into stax than others, and you will have to find the right balance of stax and speed for your specific meta.

I want to include a quick note about when to cast Godo. Often times the technically fastest route to victory may be to cast Godo, tutor for the helm, and pass turn. I would strongly encourage you to do that as infrequently as possible. Waiting as everyone untaps with your win in plain sight, in a deck known for so little interaction, is just asking for someone to deal with Godo, Helm, or both before you get a chance to go off. And it’s surprisingly easy to get to the full 11 Mana (or less, which I will discuss) needed to go off in one turn. Your opponents either have an answer available or they don’t, but let’s not give them the opportunity to find one.

To evaluate when to play Godo early, look at the difference between what turn you can play and pass and when you predict being able to play and equip together. Even if you have the combo on one turn, consider who is keeping up mana and try to evaluate whether it would be better to wait for a better opportunity. Picking the right time to combo off is often a key to success with this deck. For example, casting Godo turn 1 and passing is not bad at all, though that's still riskier than casting and equipping together on turn two if possible. If you can tell that delaying Godo to equip simultaneously would mean casting on turn 4 or more instead, then the turn 1-2 godo-pass may be a good call. Of course much of the depends on the meta and the specific pod, as well. This will include the decks in the pod (likelihood of counter vs removal interaction), the available resources they are showing at the time, your protection or recursion options in hand, your stax pieces in play, etc.

We are definitely looking for a strong opener, and it’s okay to mulligan aggressively to see what you want. There are routes to a T1 victory with as few as three cards and a mountain, so mulling to 6 or 5 if your hand is just bad should be encouraged. The ideal hand would give you the ramp needed for a T1-3 victory without a card draw, and will often have some interaction, recursion, or stax as well. You can prioritize your interaction and stax for the table -- Blood Moon isn’t good vs baral, teferi, and Jace, but Pyroblast might be just what the doctor ordered. Beggars can’t be choosers though, especially when our interaction is so limited in mono red.

Godo does avoid one problem of many other decks, in that we don’t have to worry about “the ramp to nothing”. Since the only combo piece we need to cast is in the command zone, a hand that’s nothing but ramp is A-okay!

This deck is all-in by nature, but if something happens to Godo or the helm during the combo turn, we will need to recast him and/or recur the helm if we are to win. While “all-the-ramp” hands can be good, be careful about hands that have too much ramp from expendable sources like Lotus Petal , Lion's Eye Diamond , Sandstone Needle , or rituals. Also, if we are going to ramp into Godo and have to pass turn before equipping the helm (which I don't recommend, but is sometimes unavoidable), make sure you have enough Mana from repeatable sources for the equip cost on the next turn.

Be aware that having both Helm of the Host and Hammer of Nazahn together in the opener should be shipped back. It’s fine to start with Helm in your hand if the rest is good enough (though a bit risky if you get a T1 Wheel of Fortune or Thoughtseize , so try to keep it in the deck if possible). Instead of tutoring for Helm, you pull the hammer with Godo. Casting the helm then autoequips it, and for one less Mana than equipping the traditional way (though helm here is quite vulnerable to countermagic). Hammer by itself in the opener can be great - If you play the hammer the turn before Godo, all you need is the 5+R for the commander and the tutored helm will auto equip. Be mindful if you have hammer with other pieces that require it in the deck. A hand with cards like Panharmonicon , Twinflame , and Strionic Resonator together with Hammer of Nazahn is mostly redundant. A hand with Hammer, ramp, and interaction, on the other hand, can be amazing.

I don’t like to see both Helm and Hammer in an opener together, though, as you can't tutor for either one when Godo ETB's. You will have to hard cast both, or cast helm and actually play it's equip cost. Both in the same hand actually raises the total combo cost considerably.

Mulliganing is a bit of an art with any deck, but especially with this deck. User: Insertcleverphrasehere has prepared the following mulligan guide to help understand the decision process. There are 20 sample hands with rationale for how to mulligan with them. These 20 hand came up at random and I have done my best to mulligan them through the series of hands that came up, as I would in actual games. As such, in a couple cases I have ended up with worse hands than if I had kept an earlier hand, however, it is advisable under the London Mulligan to mulligan aggressively with this deck. Picking 5 of 7 really isn’t that bad for this deck, so don’t be afraid to mull down that low. The deck can win on turn 1 with as few as 4 cards in hand. The more cards you see, the stronger your opener will generally be as this deck has a high variance in card quality.

This mulligan guide uses the new London Mulligan and was built from scratch. The old mulligan guide, which was with an older version of the deck and before the London Mulligan can be found at the bottom of this section in spoiler tags.

The London Mulligan Guide! Hand 1: Mountain , Mountain , City of Traitors , Dire Fleet Daredevil , Argentum Armor , Red Elemental Blast , Blood Moon .

Hand 2: Mountain , Sandstone Needle , Dockside Extortionist , Magnetic Theft , Twinflame , Chalice of the Void , Argentum Armor .

Hand 3: Mountain , Buried Ruin , Mana Crypt , Honor-Worn Shaku , Prismatic Lens , Argentum Armor , Magnetic Theft

Hand 4: Mountain , Mountain , Great Furnace , Dwarven Ruins , Whipflare , Flameshadow Conjuring , Welding Jar .

Hand 5: Great Furnace , Manifold Key , Fellwar Stone , Defense Grid , Flameshadow Conjuring , Stranglehold , Pyroblast

Hand 6: Mountain , Mountain , Mox Diamond , Lotus Petal , Goblin Engineer , Hammer of Nazahn , Whipflare

Hand 7: Inventors' Fair , Lotus Petal , Everflowing Chalice , Treasonous Ogre , Blood Moon , Cursed Totem , Possibility Storm

Hand 8: Mountain , Mountain , Sandstone Needle , Buried Ruin , Mana Vault , Lotus Petal , Ricochet Trap

Hand 9: Mountain , Expedition Map , Basalt Monolith , Goblin Engineer , Ricochet Trap , Grafdigger's Cage , Dire Fleet Daredevil

Hand 10: Mountain , Mountain , Buried Ruin , Darksteel Citadel , Chalice of the Void , Sensei's Divining Top , Welding Jar

Hand 11: Mountain , Mountain , Prismatic Lens , Expedition Map , Brass Squire , Krark-Clan Ironworks , Daretti, Scrap Savant

Hand 12: Mountain , Hammer of Nazahn , Goblin Engineer , Red Elemental Blast , Ricochet Trap , Thunderclap , Possibility Storm

Hand 13: Mountain , Darksteel Citadel , Metalworker , Chalice of the Void , Goblin Engineer , Grafdigger's Cage , Argentum Armor

Hand 14: Sequestered Stash , Inventors' Fair , Prismatic Lens , Mana Vault , Goblin Engineer , Thunderclap , Whipflare

Hand 15: Mountain , Mountain , Blast Zone , Sequestered Stash , Trinisphere , Lightning Bolt , Helm of the Host

Hand 16: Mountain , Mountain , Blast Zone , Hammer of Nazahn , The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale , Whipflare , Grafdigger's Cage

Hand 17: Mountain , Emergence Zone , Thran Dynamo , Treasonous Ogre , Abrade , Mogg Salvage , Chaos Warp

Hand 18: Mountain , Mountain , Mountain , Rite of Flame , Dockside Extortionist , Red Elemental Blast , Welding Jar

Hand 19: Mountain , Mountain , Great Furnace , Metalworker , Brass Squire , Hammer of Nazahn , Daretti, Scarp Savant

Hand 20: Mountain , Buried Ruin , Fellwar Stone , Manifold Key , Brass Squire , Flameshadow Conjuring , Possibility Storm

(this part of the guide is a bit outdated, and uses a lot of cards that are no longer run, but it is still nevertheless useful for learning some of the interesting tricks that you can do with the deck. There are 30 sample hands with rationale for how to mulligan with them. The first 25 came up at random, and then there are 5 more to demonstrate some other typical early win strategies.

Hand 1: City of Traitors , Chrome Mox , Chaos Warp , Red Elemental Blast , Possibility Storm , Vandalblast

Hand 2: Scavenger Grounds , Gemstone Caverns , Mountain , Mountain , Cavern of Souls , Sol Ring , Panharmonicon

Hand 3: City of Traitors , Buried Ruin , Seething Song , Everflowing Chalice , Ricochet Trap , Honor-Worn Shaku , Treasonous Ogre

Hand 4: Crystal Vein , Mox Diamond , Coalition Relic , Seething Song , Goblin Welder , Dire Fleet Daredevil , Helm of the Host

Hand 5: Mountain , Mountain , Mox Diamond , Buried Ruin , Thought Vessel , Gamble , Fiery Cannonade

Hand 6: Mountain , Mountain , Dwarven Ruins , Buried Ruin , Coalition Relic , Krark-Clan Ironworks , Argentum Armor

Hand 7: Mountain , Crystal Vein , Mana Vault , Pyretic Ritual , Hammer of Nazahn , Mogg Salvage , Magnetic Theft

Hand 8: Mountain , Mountain , Ancient Tomb , Fractured Powerstone , Honor-Worn Shaku , Treasonous Ogre , Helm of the Host

Hand 9: Mountain , Mountain , Gemstone Caverns , Chrome Mox , Dire Fleet Daredevil , Ricochet Trap , Fork

Hand 10: Mountain , Dwarven Ruins , Honor-Worn Shaku , Desperate Ritual , Goblin Welder , Panharmonicon , Twinflame

Hand 11: Mountain , Lotus Petal , Gamble , Abrade , Goblin Welder , Mogg Salvage , Final Fortune

Hand 12: Mountain , Crystal Vein , Chrome Mox , Lotus Petal , Seething Song , Soulbright Flamekin , Thran Dynamo

Hand 13: Mountain , Mountain , Mox Diamond , Fractured Powerstone , Red Elemental Blast , Treasonous Ogre , Grafdigger's Cage

Hand 14: Mountain , Mountain , Mountain , Crystal Vein , Lotus Petal , Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer , Magus of the Moon

Hand 15: Chrome Mox , Lotus Petal , Voltaic Key , Rite of Flame , Thran Dynamo , Dire Fleet Daredevil , Last Chance

Hand 16: Mountain , Sandstone Needle , Mana Crypt , Coalition Relic , Desperate Ritual , Abrade , Hammer of Nazahn

Hand 17: Cavern of Souls , Thran Dynamo , Brass Squire , Heat Shimmer , Dire Fleet Daredevil , Last Chance , Fiery Cannonade

Hand 18: Mountain , Ancient Tomb , Chrome Mox , Mox Diamond , Voltaic Key , Seething Song , Grafdigger's Cage

Hand 19: Mountain , Mountain , Great Furnace , Chrome Mox , Chalice of the Void , Twinflame , Krark-Clan Ironworks

Hand 20: Mountain , Mountain , Jeweled Amulet , Prismatic Lens , Expedition Map , Grim Monolith , Goblin Welder

Hand 21: Mountain , City of Traitors , Chrome Mox , Rite of Flame , Mogg Salvage , Magnetic Theft , Hammer of Nazahn

Hand 22: Mountain , Sandstone Needle , Inventors' Fair , Simian Spirit Guide , Faithless Looting , Fork , Abrade

Hand 23: Mountain , Sandstone Needle , Darksteel Citadel , Desperate Ritual , Codex Shredder , Abrade , Treasonous Ogre

Hand 24: Cavern of Souls , Buried Ruin , Twinflame , Treasonous Ogre , Possibility Storm , Fiery Cannonade , Brass Squire

Hand 25: Mountain , Mountain , Seething Song , Worn Powerstone , Honor-Worn Shaku , Vandalblast , Possibility Storm

5 more hands to highlight interesting plays.

Hand 26: Mountain , Mana Crypt , Rite of Flame , Lion's Eye Diamond , Imperial Recruiter , Goblin Welder , Panharmonicon

Hand 27: Mountain , Great Furnace , Mox Diamond , Sol Ring , Jeweled Amulet , Seething Song , Krark-Clan Ironworks

Hand 28: Mountain , Sandstone Needle , Chrome Mox , Mana Vault , Voltaic Key , Final Fortune , Red Elemental Blast

Hand 29: Ancient Tomb , Mana Vault , Voltaic Key , Chrome Mox , Lion's Eye Diamond , Final Fortune , Wheel of Fortune

Hand 30: Sol Ring , Simian Spirit Guide , Rite of Flame , Pyretic Ritual , Desperate Ritual , Mox Opal , Lion's Eye Diamond

Okay, so we know the deck is fast, but it’s not the most resilient deck and things don’t always go smoothly in cEDH. What happens if plan A goes sideways? If Godo gets countered or killed, we simply recast him and try again. The deck ramps pretty hard, so getting the command tax should be possible unless most of your initial mana came from rituals. If helm ends up in the yard, we do have some recursion sources. We can Gamble for any of them (maybe), Imperial Recruiter for Goblin Welder , Expedition Map for Buried Ruin or use Inventors' Fair for Expedition map or Codex Shredder .

Things get harrier if Helm is exiled. Fortunately we don’t see a lot of that in the top-tier decks, as cards like Return to Dust are too expensive for most cEDH. Praetor's Grasp will likely be the biggest offender, or graveyard removal following a Nature's Claim . Our best defense here is just to win first, but if we don’t quite get there plan C is. . .

Cry? Seriously though, there really aren’t too many great options, but let’s discuss what we do have.

Some Godo-tutorable equipment cards can function as a backup win, such as Grafted Exoskeleton , sword of X and Y, Argentum Armor , or Umezawa's Jitte . With two attacks each round, Jitte can rack up counters pretty quick. They can be used to strike down Mana dorks, blockers, and most importantly creature based wincons.

We are most impressed with Argentum Armor for it's ability to pressure life totals quickly and nuke problem permanents or blockers. It even adds a bit if resilience in the main combo, tutorable for free to the battlefield with Godo and equipped free after Hammer of Nazahn during the middle of the combo. From there it gets two chances to destroy combo stoppers like Glacial Chasm and Propaganda type effects or other oddball stuff that might show up in metas that are slightly less tuned than the top tier of cEDH. With Hammer of Nazahn also equipped, it is a 2 hit commander damage KO, and can also nuke blockers out of the way (our commander attacks twice per turn; isn’t that convenient?).

Also, please note – this is a combo deck, NOT a Voltron deck. We are way too tight on card slots to bother with anything more than one other backup tutorable equipment. They just aren’t generally good enough for any more than that. Unless Helm is gone for good, any of these equipment backups are basically dead draws on their own. One notable exception might be Conqueror's Flail , which is a useful card off the top of the deck with Treasonous Ogre or our other utility creatures, or used with cards like Twinflame for some lines. This isn't really a backup win condition though, rather a type of protective card that is tutorable.

Dualcaster Mage (or Imperial Recruiter ) plus Twinflame or Heat Shimmer is another possible backup wincon if helm is perma-toast, as these are all cards we might want to run anyway. We would be really relying on the top deck (or the Gamble ) to get us there, though. While it's clearly not the best win on its own, all the parts of the combo can be useful in the deck on their own, so it is worth mentioning here as well, even though the deck no longer runs Dualcaster Mage after playtesting has shown dualcaster to not be good enough on its own and not reliable enough as a backup to keep a slot.

(Note, after the banning of Paradox engine, the below notes about it are kept out of posterity.)

Paradox Engine , a card with a similar power level to Krark-Clan Ironworks in our deck, made it into the list after it playtested very well. I mention it here because together with Sensei's Divining Top and Voltaic Key (also in this list), you can draw your deck with it. While a three-card combo, we can tutor for parts of it with Gamble or Inventor’s Fair (or via Expedition map).

After drawing the deck, there are a number of win options available even with Helm exiled. These use a Rube Goldberg machine comprised of the Paradox Engine , Goblin Welder , Codex Shredder , Voltaic Key , Twinflame , and Metalworker / Brass Squire to infinitely mill your opponents, cast any card in your deck any number of times (infinite damage with Lightning Bolt ), make infinite hasty tokens of any creature in play, and cast all the instants and sorceries from your opponent’s decks. You should be able to win from there.

You can also add another card such as Searing Touch to enable a two-card combo win with the Paradox Engine. Searing Touch is a generally useful card anyway as protection for the main combo (killing offenders such as Aven Mindcensor and Hushwing Gryff ), and can also create infinite damage with the Engine, providing you have mana rocks that tap for at least 4R. Getting the red mana can be difficult however, as we only run 4-5 mana rocks that can fill this role, so even if Engine ends up in the main list for you, it still might not be worth running Searing Touch as a backup wincon.

Treasonous Ogre This is the single best Mana source in the deck, bar none. Almost every path to a T1 win (and there are quite a few) goes through the ogre, and some with as few as two other non-land cards. Pay 33 life, make 11 Mana, cast Godo/Helm, and win the game. Need more Mana for a counterspell or fork? There’s even enough left over from your starting total. It’s a slightly-fixed red Channel , and it is insanely powerful in this deck.

Ancient Tomb / City of Traitors / Crystal Vein / Dwarven Ruins / Gemstone Caverns / Sandstone Needle Our land based ramp package is pretty intense. Some are more like rocks, others more ritual in functionality. Keep that in mind as you play and mulligan, and read the section on ritual spells for more consideration there.

Honor-Worn Shaku This is a really interesting rock, brought to my attention by the Red Love discord. Before the combo turn, it’s a 3 Mana rock that taps for one. Kinda meh. But when used on the combo turn, we get a bit more. Once Godo ETB's and fetches the Helm, we have two more legendaries to untap the Shaku and help pay for the equip cost. Neither one needs to be untapped for the combo to go off. Other notable legendary permanents are Hammer of Nazahn , Paradox Engine (now banned), Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer , and Umezawa's Jitte . So your three Mana rock is now tapping for 3+ on the combo turn to help pay for equipping the helm. That’s worth it.

Lion's Eye Diamond What’s notable here is that we have a zero card combo in the command zone, so dumping our hand isn’t as bad as it might seem. In terms of how the deck plays, it may as well be a Black Lotus in some cases. Also, if you are playing Imperial Recruiter for Treasonous Ogre (more on this later), you can crack the LED with the recruiter trigger on the stack to help pay for the ogre.

Basalt Monolith / Grim Monolith / Mana Vault I try to only tap these for the combo turn, although Basalt and Grim can be safely tapped for enough rocks to untap them immediately. Having to wait another turn to untap them, and then another to use them again is just too slow. Also remember if you are going to Godo and pass (which isn’t recommended, but you have to sometimes) or Godo and Final Fortune , you have to save enough Mana to equip. Make sure you keep that in mind when you use these to pay for your combo. They synergise very well if you draw Voltaic Key .

Krark-Clan Ironworks This is one path to a T1 win, although it’s more or less a God hand. If you are playing it on the combo turn it can still net Mana with as few as two other artifacts. Played before the combo turn and you can often have excess Mana for interaction. Cast early enough when opponents are tapped out, and you can make a huge swing play to win out of nowhere (barring FoW). It is a very all-in move though, so you’ve got to be prepared to live on the edge. I am also running Darksteel Citadel and Great Furnace , which can be more fuel for the ironworks.

Paradox Engine is similar to Krark-Clan Ironworks in power level. It is a bit slower early in the game, but much less of an all-in move. Often even if stopped you will easily have enough mana to try again the next turn, or maybe even a second time on the same turn. Synergises well with Sensei's Divining Top , so if you decide that the Engine is right for your build, Top is probably worth including too. Unfortunately for us, the P-Engine is now banned, so not much to be done there.

Mox Opal We do have enough density of rocks to run the opal. As with KCI above, the two artifact lands can help turn it on, too.

Manifold Key / Voltaic Key On it's own, the keys don't do much for us. Combined with many of our fast mana rocks, however, and we have a powerful combo accelerant. With a 2 mana-producing rock it is a 1 for 1, with a three mana rock it is a Sol Ring. With cards like Mana vault or the monoliths, Key provides some truly impressive levels of ramp. The card rewards aggressive mulligans, and while it won't work with every opening hand, the openers it doesn't work with likely don't contain enough fast mana to be particularly viable in the first place. We are currently only running 1 key, as drawing 1 of them dead isn't too bad, but drawing two of them dead is a disaster we don't want to run into.

Prismatic Lens This can both ramp and color fix your Mana for interaction like counterspells and forks. Fellwar Stone is similarly good, and the colourless versions are also solid ( Thought Vessel and even Fractured Powerstone is a solid card. Everflowing Chalice is nice as it can also scale upwards when you have extra mana to spend. We currently aren't running Fractured Powerstone as the deck has just run out of slots and we simply don't need that much 1 mana ramp. The upcoming Arcane Signet will take the place of Thought Vessel as an almost strict upgrade.

Jeweled Amulet Affectionately known as the “wind up mox”, this little rock is great for saving up that spare mana that you have and using it on the turn that you need a whole lot.

Metalworker This card can result is some pretty explosive hands, with the tradeoff of a bit higher variance. Be careful not to fall into some of the possible trap hands where a greedy metalworker can actually slow you down, but played properly it can give you extreme amounts of Mana as early as turn 2-3 in order to combo, and often with sufficient excess to hold up protection.

Dockside Extortionist The pirate is a solid creature, likely to see play in other cEDH decks that run red. Early game it might only generate a couple of treasures, but a few turns later it can explode into an easy win. Most often he is a positive mana ritual, even early in the game and he synergies amazingly with Panharmonicon and Flameshadow Conjuring . It can even be worth hitting this guy with Twinflame/Heat Shimmer to make an even bigger pile of gold.

The rest of the rocks I’m sure you know what makes a good Mana rock.

Desperate Ritual / Pyretic Ritual / Rite of Flame / Seething Song / Simian Spirit Guide / Lotus Petal These are pretty straightforward and don’t warrant much individual discussion. The staxier builds eschew some of these in favor of more stax pieces. I'm a big proponent of rituals, as they can be really explosive. When it looks like you’re well away from your combo early on, your opponents are more likely to tap out allowing you to Seething Song your way to a win. They can also Mana fix red for some of the cost reduction lines or forks. A word of caution with rituals and one-time rocks like Lotus Petal and LED if you’re combining them with Final Fortune effects. Make sure you have enough permanent Mana for the equip cost on the extra turn! Seems silly to have to point out, but ritual too hard into Final Fortune and you’re left with an unequipped helm, no Mana, and an awkward end of turn. As the meta has shifted away from fast combo ‘races’ and more toward midrange conrol/combo hybrid decks that grind advantage with creatures, rituals have become somewhat less powerful, as comboing off as fast as possible often isn’t the best plan anymore and they do generate negative card advantage. It was decided to cut a couple of them in favour of Trinisphere and some boardwipes. All except Seething Song are dead cards with Trinisphere, but Rite of Flame remains as it is often a good Turn 1 play and chains into rocks in a way that the other two mana rituals don't.

We have talked about ramp and rituals to get to the 11 Mana combo, but we have ways to reduce that overall cost, too. Let’s look at some of them specifically. Several of these lines require Hammer of Nazahn to be in the deck, not hand or graveyard, so be mindful of that when evaluating mulligans. Hammer in hand is great to play before Godo, drastically reducing the combo cost, but renders some of these other cost reducers dead.

Brass Squire Summoning sick, but if he survives around the table you can now cast Godo/helm for 5+R and equip it.

Magnetic Theft One red to equip? Sure. Let’s bring the cost down to 5+RR.

Final Fortune / Last Chance / Warrior's Oath Cast godo and tutor for the helm for 5+R. Then RR for an extra turn. Yeah, the you lose clause may cost you a game from a removal spell. But dropping the combo cost from 11 to 8 is huge for an early surprise win. Once godo resolves, you don’t need to cast anything else for a win. If they had a Counterspell , it’s too late to use it on the combo. If they counter Final Fortune , you can pass and still have a good chance to win the following turn. Removal of godo or helm on the extra turn is a problem, so watch for open mana. Its often so early in the game most opponents are tapped.

Of the three turn cards, only Final Fortune is an instant. Be aware that you can utilize that instant speed for some out-of-turn sneak plays, for example as an extra-turn win after the last blue taps out. However, the Instant is slightly more vulnerable to counters such as Dispel

Hammer of Nazahn If you have hammer in your hand, it’s cheaper by one to cast first before tutoring the helm on he same turn, or by five Mana if cast the turn before Godo. If you have helm in hand, tutor hammer first and cast the helm for one cheaper than equipping. Hammer of Nazahn also plays a vital role in some of our other cost reduction.

Heat Shimmer / Twinflame Cast Godo, and tutor for Hammer of Nazahn, which will auto-equip. Then, use Twinflame or Heat Shimmer to copy him. Yes, the copy goes away to the legendary rule, but you get another equipment tutor trigger to search your deck a second time. Pull Helm of the Host, and the hammer will autoequip it. This brings the total mana cost for the whole combo from 10+R to 6+RR (Twinflame) or 7+RR (Heat Shimmer). These cards are also great recovery cards. If you lose your Helm you can search and equip an Argentum Armour and start knocking players down, and can allow you to combo through a Null rod or Ouphe. Heat shimmer can target other people's creatures, hitting things like Eternal Witness, etc. These are core cards that should probably see play in every Godo list, from casual to cEDH.

Panharmonicon If played on the combo turn it still reduces total cost by one. Played the turn before gives a bigger -5 cost reduction, and away we go. Both lines run through Hammer of Nazahn, which make combo reattempts or argentum backup plans easier.

Flameshadow Conjuring is similar to Panharmonicon, though it only reduces the combo cost to 5+RR. It is nice that it is an enchantment though, and can play through a Null Rod. It also is a haste enabler for godo when you need to blow up a permanent ASAP, and gives haste to Goblin Welder/Engineer/Brass Squire. It copies Dire Fleet Daredevil , Goblin Engineer , Imperial Recruiter , and Dockside Extortionist 's ETBs. Though we are running a lot of lines that are redundant to each other through Hammer of Nazahn, other creatures in the deck with ETBs give these cards more utility beyond just copying godo's trigger. If Null Rod effects are common for you, this is another way out of it if you can get 7 mana from non-artifact sources, so might be worth running for that in some metas, especially with Collector Ouphe being much more common (although if Ouphe is your major concern, consider running more boardwipes instead). With the printing of Dockside Extortionist and other nice creatures, this is looking better and better. Note that it also has built in protection against destroy or damage on Godo, as you should stack the Flameshadow trigger under Godo's search trigger, and only get the second Godo token after Godo is safely indestructible. If they kill him in response, you can just attach Helm to the token and win anyway.

Emergence Zone is sort of a cost reducer, allowing you to drop Godo for 8 at the end step before your turn and then equip him after you untap. Winding Canyons can also be used that way, but 9 mana is quite a bit more, and also Emergence Zone can be used to cheat other cards like Panharmonicon into play, or to drop stax pieces or normally sorcery speed interaction in response to other players.

On the Others:

Strionic Resonator is a decent cost reducer that we don’t run. It is relatively cheap with an upfront cost of 2 mana, but it can't play through a null rod, though only reduces the combo cost to 8, and telegraphs your next-turn win, which is usually not great for us. It does reduce the combo cost by 1 even when played on the same turn, which is nice, and also combos with Paradox Engine for infinite mana (with three total mana from mana rocks), unfortunately P-Engine is now banned, so I guess that interaction doesn't matter much anymore. It has some ok synergies with other creatures in the deck with ETBs, but paying 2 extra mana for them isn't ideal.

The utility section covers things like forks, combo protection, and recursion. I will also include some of the utility lands here that have a similar function.

Argentum Armor This is an interesting choice to help force through the combo against hate cards, and a potential backup plan as well. At 6 to cast and 6 to equip, it's mostly a dead card as a draw. On the combo turn, however, the first token can go for hammer of nazahn and the second token tutors for argentum armor which equips free. This will allow the combo to force through combo-stoppers like Glacial Chasm and Propaganda type effects. When equipped with hammer of nazahn on the original-Godo it's a one-turn clock per player, which can be relevant if Helm of the Host has been exiled. In that case Argentum triggers can be useful to clear away chump blockers.

Cavern of Souls counterspells are annoying, so cavern is kind of a no brainier. After all, we only need one creature to resolve to get everything we need to win the game. While most counters in cEDH are of the non-creature variety, there are enough Mana Drains and Counterspells around to warrant grabbing this card with your Expedition Map a lot of the time.

Buried Ruin / Sequestered Stash / Goblin Welder / Codex Shredder This is our artifact recursion package. If helm gets nature's claimed, it’s helpful to be able to pull it back up. It’s worth noting again that while we don’t have a lot of tutors in the deck, you can pull up Goblin Welder with Imperial Recruiter , or Buried Ruin with Expedition Map , which gives us a few more chances to pull recursion if needed. Goblin Welder also has some good surprise plays off Lion's Eye Diamond . Remember, we don’t have to have a hand to cast our wincon, and cracking LED twice in a turn sounds pretty good. Codex shredder can get back any card, and has the added upside of working as a Pseudo stax piece against opponents’ top deck tutors. Shredder also used to enable the Rube Goldberg Combo after drawing your deck with Paradox+Top+Key before Paradox was banned, welp. The new Goblin Engineer actually CAN get helm back from the grave, but only if you search for Codex Shredder or Expedition Map first. Currently Codex Shredder isn't in the main list (mostly to make room for Tabernacle), but it has proven its worth as a solid card and is definitely worth playing.

Daretti, Scrap Savant / Trash for Treasure Artifact destruction is one of our biggest threats, so protecting or recurring helm is incredibly important. Although T4T is a dead card in the opening hand, it allows you to rush the combo by playing godo and passing fairly safely and still have a chance for the combo the following turn if Helm is destroyed. Daretti does similar things, but can also be used to filter into more gas, or cheat expensive things into play, so managed to snag a slot, while T4T currently doesn’t have a slot in the Primer.

Sensei's Divining Top Obviously the Top loses some lustre without many shuffle effects, but we can include the off color fetches if you want (was tested, but these can do significant damage to our Treasonous Ogre lines, and are vulnerable to things like Root Maze etc.). Even without a lot of deck manipulation, top can still be a good way to dig into your deck, especially with mono-red's otherwise limited draw and search. It also gives you a fresh three to look at after Godo’s search trigger resolves if you have a bit of spare mana available to spin it and look for interaction.

Fork / Reverberate / Dualcaster Mage Forking a tutor is never a bad thing. If you end up with extra Mana on combo turn (drew into one of those cost reducers, for example), your Fork is now a counter- Counterspell . Playtesting led us to conclude that 3 mana for dualcaster is generally more than you want to leave open on the off chance someone tutors, and often more than you have available as extra mana when comboing off. Ultimately Fork and Reverberate also fell of the list for more reliably useful cards, as this deck really doesn’t like leaving mana open in the early stages of the game when a lot of tutors tend to get played.

Dire Fleet Daredevil This card replaced Dualcaster Mage in the primer, and can end up doing so much work in areas typically very challenging for red - but can be a bit unpredictable, in classic red form. You can copy tutors, removal, recursion, or whatever else you may need, IF it's already in a graveyard. Despite not having as much choice in what you want this utility spot to be, it seems to be still worth it in most cases. Though he's doesn't have flash, you can still exile a cheap counterspell for combo backup until end of turn (e.g. Swan Song ). Even if you have no intention of casting the spell, it is still cheap targeted graveyard hate. Enables some of the more memorable plays that can be done with the deck (like winning off casting an opponent's Ad Nauseam )

Welding Jar This is straight-up combo protection. A naturalize can wreck us on the combo turn, but when you can get rid of a different artifact instead, we can make all the Godos and smash face.

Defense Grid Playing out grid on the combo turn adds to the total cost, but will often act as a preemptive counter to many of our combo stoppers like nature's claim, swords, or counter magic. Be careful playing it out before the combo turn, especially showing a win on board. In that case you may simply give the game to another fast combo deck before you get back around the table, and telegraphing a win means your opponents are likely to leave the extra Mana open for the stop. Played correctly however, this can certainly serve as much needed combo protection. A nice target for Goblin Engineer , allowing you to sneak it in to play uncounterable on your combo turn for one red mana.

Wheel of Fortune This one just kind of speaks for itself. It’s an amazing card in red, and you should run it.

Memory Jar Jar has been being tested recently with some positive results. It has the advantage of being able to wheel without also re-filling your opponent’s hands for their turns (they can still net some instants temporarily). As well as being able to wheel with all your mana untapped. It also synergises amazingly with Goblin Welder and Daretti, Scrap Savant . On the downsides, it can be very awkward to draw into Helm of the Host with it, as this will lead you to a situation where you will be forced to cast the Helm into whatever counterspells you just drew for all your opponents, or else discard it at end step.

Blast Zone This card is a great new addition and kinda speaks for itself. It provides a great answer to Null Rod effects and can be used to nuke problem permanents that we otherwise might have serious issues dealing with. All for the low cost of tapping for colourless, which we don’t overly care about. An auto-include for certain.

Expedition Map We don’t get a lot of tutors in the deck, but this one is actually fairly versatile. It can ramp with Ancient Tomb or City of Traitors . It can fetch recursion for helm in the way of Buried Ruin . Often it will be used as combo protection to pick up Cavern of Souls . Via Inventors' Fair , it can tutor for artifacts to hand as well, albeit slowly.

Inventors' Fair Another land-slot tutor, inventors' fair can help get us back in the game after a failed attempt, or get around some problem stax. It can be used to search for recursion by tutoring for Codex Shredder or Expedition Map into Buried Ruin . It can help pull specific stax pieces like Cursed Totem . The Fair can also help get through stax, for example tutoring helm through Torpor Orb , after a Godo search trigger has been Stifle ed, or helm hit by a shuffle effect. Tutoring Hammer of Nazahn to get through Stony Silence . Although it can be a bit slow, the land slot is definitely worth filling here with Fair for a bit more flexibility and resilience for the deck.

Gamble I have such a love hate relationship with this card. It’s a tutor for anything in the deck… maybe. In all fairness, it’s most likely Treasonous Ogre in the early game, or occasionally a Mana Crypt , although it can also pull interaction, combo protection, or helm recursion. It’s so classic red, and despite the risk, it’s definitely worth playing. Gamble wins a lot more games than it loses us, especially when we have such amazing cards to search up with it.

Dire Fleet Daredevil / Fork / Reverberate I have already discussed these cards in the utility section of the primer because of how general their use can be. However, I feel it is worth a reminder that these cards can be powerful tutors for the deck, hitching a ride on the inevitable tutors that will show up any cEDH table as they are cast (forks) or those previously cast in the game (dire fleet). Ultimately Direfleet snags a slot where the others have not, because it doesn't require us to leave mana open.

Imperial Recruiter This is a very versatile tutor for the deck, able to get literally any creature in the deck, although most likely it’s another copy of Treasonous Ogre . Fetching ogre, you can win off just 7 mana total. Don't forget that you can crack an LED with the search trigger on the stack to help pay for whatever you tutor. If you need helm recursion you can also get Goblin Welder . If you have low life, you can get Brass Squire as a cost reducer. You might even consider Magus of the Moon , or Goblin Engineer to grab a stax piece or Defense Grid.

Goblin Engineer A solid card for us from Modern Horizons that is currently being tested. While he might seem bad at first because of the 3 CMC restriction not being able to rescue Helm (well he can but it is a slow line involving Codex Shredder or Expedition Map/Buried Ruin), he is actually really useful in a lot of other ways. He can ramp via a Basalt Monolith or Sol Ring search, or grab a Defense Grid , Trinisphere , Cursed Totem or Grafdigger's Cage , he can also grab Welding Jar as a way to preemptively stop any artifact destruction effects your opponents might have. Although slow, getting metalworker can sometimes be a lot of mana, but you will have 2 turns of waiting for a highly telegraphed payoff.

Goblin Matron With the recent printing of Dockside Extortionist , this card is looking to be a potentially good card. Targets in the primer include Dockside Extortionist (lots of mana, especially later in the game), Goblin Engineer (a stax piece or ramp), and Goblin Welder (recover helm). If you run this card you'll also likely want to run the aforementioned Goblin Cratermaker to add some extra utility to it. How good the matron is will likely boil down to how good Dockside Extortionist turns out to be in your meta (generally amazing). Her ETB can also be copied by Panharmonicon and Flameshadow Conjuring, helping you build card advantage to and recover from a failed combo attempt.

Abrade This is an excellent card for the deck, giving us flexibility to hit problem artifacts or creatures.

Thunderclap This card provides a zero mana protection option from Aven Mindcensor during our combo, or can kill an opponent's creature based combo piece at instant speed. Sacrificing a mountain is a steep cost, but not nearly as bad if we win the game as a result (or don't lose the game). And of course, when mana is available we can still play it for the full mana cost. The ability to protect the combo without making it more expensive more than justifies a slot for thunderclap. Three damage is relevant for taking out opponents large toughness creatures like Yisan, or for killing our own Godo to recast for another search trigger if a first attempt fails.

Mogg Salvage / Shattering Spree For additional artifact removal of stax or opponents combo pieces, we have these two gems. Shattering Spree can be used to double or triple up on an offending Null Rod, or something you really need to kill, so can effectively be made uncounterable. If you would like additional artifact destruction, look to add By Force or Vandalblast for mass destruction, or Smelt for instant-speed. Fiery Confluence is another more expensive, but versatile option.

Pyroblast / Red Elemental Blast These two are part of our surprisingly large anti-counter magic arsenal. Remember though, they don't have to be used solely to defend our own combo. Many game winning spells and permanents are blue, and can be taken out with pyroblast or REB. The dream is to cast them from a tapped out board with Simian Spirit Guide as the red Force of Will.