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Zur the Enchanter: Lessons Learned

Commander / EDH Control Enchantment Voltron WUB (Esper)

Forkbeard


Please note that I've decided to retire this deck - behold, Zur II

Ah, the naïve halcyon days of my fledgling forays into EDH. This was the first EDH deck I ever threw together. Although it sounds quaint now, at the time I didn't realize the rage and hate Zur tends to bring out, I simply thought he was neat. I soon realized that 'neat' is definitely not the word my friends would use to describe Zur. Like all Zur decks, it quickly earned a reputation and became despised by everyone in my play group for a couple of reasons - It won a lot and quite frankly it gets annoying for opponents to see answers to virtually anything tutor'd up every turn. He's kind of anti-fun - Zur deserves the hate.

With all of that in mind, I can't bring myself to dismantle the deck - being my first EDH deck and all, the nostalgia is too strong! I would also say that this is a “fair” Zur deck. It's easy enough to go the full competitive/degenerate route (Ad Nauseam + Doomsday style) but because I'm not a tournament EDH guy, for the sake of friendships I opted to stick with a generic Zur modus operandi voltron package with some Esper toolbox stuff splashed in. That's not to say this build doesn't pack its fair share of douchebaggery, it does, but it's not on a cruel level like the competitive Zur builds out there. To keep things interesting for those rare occasions I dust off Zur, I continue to tweak this deck with a few surprises such as Inkshield, just for funsies.

So yes, lessons were learned. Finding that balance of what's fun for you, me...us. Clearly I didn’t learn these lessons fast enough. Let me introduce you to my second, equally loathed deck:


Uril, the Miststalker: Feast of the Beast

Commander / EDH Forkbeard

SCORE: 82 | 77 COMMENTS | 25794 VIEWS | IN 48 FOLDERS



Suggestions and comments welcome.


Zur the Enchanter: Lessons Learned

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Welp, after 14 years of piloting Zur the Enchanter - my very first EDH deck - I've decided to dismantle it for parts. If I'm honest, it just became unappealing to play. I tricked myself into thinking it was a swiss army knife toolbox brew, but in reality I tried to do the same things every game: cast Zur, ensure Zur survives via counterspells, slowly amass protection for Zur, swing/control the board ftw. I rarely play this deck anymore as the paths to victory felt linear and unexciting + I grew weary of searching & shuffling every. damn. turn. I'm going to keep this list up in it's current iteration for reference, but I will be using the majority of the spicy lands and $$$ cards in a new deck. What is the new deck you ask? None other than Zur, Eternal Schemer. So yeah. Just building another Zur deck, but different.

I've swithered on this decision for a while. I'm nostalgic for this deck because it's my first Commander brew & I have a lot of expensive cards in here that seemed specific to Zur the Enchanter. Because of this I wanted to build another Esper enchantment based deck but couldn't decide on a general. After talking this conundrum through with a friend, he reminded me that new Zur exists and that my land base + many of my current enchantments would slot nicely into an Eternal Schemer build. The neat little bonus is that it's still Zur, so my personal lore is that my initial Zur deck has simply evolved into something different. Something more fun. I'm liberated and excited to try it out.

Thank you to everyone who provided their insights into this deck here over the years, you're all a bunch of MTG heroes.

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Revision 69 See all

(1 year ago)

-1 Darkwater Catacombs main
+1 Plaza of Heroes main
Top Ranked
Date added 10 years
Last updated 1 year
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

3 - 0 Mythic Rares

53 - 0 Rares

27 - 0 Uncommons

10 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.68
Tokens Elephant 3-3 G, Inkling 2/1 WB
Folders Commander / EDH, others decks, idea deacks, cool decks, Commander, play with josh, Zur, EDH Stuff, Ench. Deck, edh
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