A friend of mine has been playing Glissa, the Traitor in Multiplayer EDH since she was released, he's had a lot of success and fun with the deck so I thought I'd post it here. He left a good deal of notes so I figured it'd be worthwhile to start a primer thread for it and get others feedback.
First from playing Glissa, the Traitor I find that Glissa, the Traitor needs to be aggressive herself to force the opponnents to block. If you get their poison count up, they have to block. So an early Glissa, the Traitor drop is good. Ideally some pump spells are good, but in EDH I don't want to play anything that I can't play multiple times over. So Giant Growth would be bad, Rancor would be good, however, Moldervine Cloak is excellent. If you don't connect with Rancor you lose it whereas the Moldervine Cloak can recur and feeds into Glissa the Traitor's ability with dredge. Swords are good ideas, but personally I don't like them as much because they suck down a lot of mana pretty much just to equip them and then they sit around waiting to be useful. There are a couple I think would be very good to use; Sword of Light and Shadow, Sword of Feast and Famine, Sword of Vengeance. This would only make Glissa, the Traitor that much more mana hungry and she is very mana hungry with the sorts of things she wants around her. Ways to sneak some damage in with her are good too--fear?
Second Glissa, the Traitor needs to stay on the board to trigger the ability. So some umbras would be good. Particularly Bear Umbra and Snake Umbra as the abilities are good, but also some recursion seems reasonable. Regeneration seems good too.
Third you need to be able to trigger the ability. You need to get them to lose something. If you have anything good in the grave they won't want to attack into Glissa, the Traitor, but Glissa, the Traitor should have attacked anyhows. Edict effects seem very useful here especially with artifact creatures that you can sacrifice and recur. There is a possibility that they have no creatures as well though, so being able to give them a creature seems useful if they are giving you nothing to work with. And barring any creatures on their side of the board, Glissa, the Traitor still needs to be able to destroy stuff and take control of the game. So stuff like Spine of Ish Sah, Primal Command and Sadistic Hypnotist seem good.
Fifth, if everything is working right you will need tons of mana to replay all of the artifacts that are bouncing back to hand. So to me it seems necessary to have Primeval Titan, Exploration, Oracle of Mul Daya and some other goodies to make sure you can play it all if you need to. This makes Life From the Loam a good engine for the deck as well as Crucible of Worlds. It makes sense to have a fairly diverse set of utility lands as well then.
Lands 38
1 Bayou
1 Bojuka Bog (grave hate)
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers (pump for glissa)
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse (fear for general)
1 Strip Mine
1 Tainted Wood
1 Twilight Mire
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wasteland
1 Yavimaya Hollow (regen glissa)
1 forbidden orchard (give them a creature)
1 Cabal coffers
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Phyrexian Tower (sac outlet)
1 Vesuva
1 Volrath’s Stronghold (recursion)
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 arena (allows a glissa trigger)
1 barren moor (cycling land, life from loam)
1 boseiju (anti counter land)
1 Hickory woodlot (turn two glissa)
1 phyrexias core (artifact sac outlet)
1 tree of tales
1 vault of whispers
6 swamp
7 forest
62 others
1 Glissa, the traitor (general)
2 life from the loam (good way to feed the grave and get your good lands set up)
3 eternal witness (combo’s nicely with dredge, phyrexia’s tower +volrath’s stronghold lets you do it each turn, works well with gravepact effects)
4 spine of ish shah (good kill card, phyrexia’s core/krark’s clan ironworks, can trigger glissa)
5 expedition map (finds any good lands you need)
6 Oracle of mul daya (play more lands out)
7 exploration (play more lands out)
8 gravepact (good with glissa and sacrificing creatures)
9 Butcher of malakir (gravepact effects)
10 Myr battlesphere (gives creatures for gravepact effects, combos out for infinite colorless and myr with krark clan and nim death mantle, recursion target for glissa)
11 nim death mantle (combos with krark clan iron works and myr battlesphere/precursor golem, saves glissa from wrath effects)
12 krark clan iron works (sac outlet for artifacts and ramps, combo piece)
13 precursor golem (good for gravepact, death mantle combo target)
14 Duplicant (recurrable rfg, good with sac outlet/glissa, gravepact)
15 solemn simulacrum (ramp and good with sac outlet/glissa, grave pact)
16 sylvok replica (disenchant good with glissa and gravepact effects)
17 Terrastodon (creates creatures to kill, good with death mantle/mimic vat)
18 Mimic vat (just good all around, stick any of your creatures to this especially with a gravepact and you are golden)
19 Mind slaver (lock with glissa and forbidden orchard - Take their turn force them to attack into glissa, recur)
20 Scarecrone (recurs non artifact creatures (terastodon, e witness, etc)-protects glissa, they kill her-he recurs her, sacs to draw a card so works well with glissa)
21 primeval titan (get good lands fast)
22 vedalken orrerry (flashy speed goodies)
23 Sheoldred (forced sacrifice and recursion for you, entomb works well here)
24 kamal fist of krosa (create creatures out of their lands to kill with grave pact/edict/wrath effect/glissa triggers, overruns)
25 Thornbite staff (glissa killing machine)
26 memory jar (draws you new hand, glissa recursion, mills)
27 excutioner’s capsule (glissa combo)
28 nihil spellbomb (glissa goodness)
29 sol ring (seems good always, recurable)
30 lotus petal (turn1-2 glissa, recurable)
31 mox diamond (turn 1-2 glissa, recurable)
32 mox opal (free mana, recurable)
33 lotus bloom (free mana, recurrable)
34 dreamstone hedron (card draw and mana excel, good with orrerry)
35 sorin markov (kills creatures, wrecks life counts, takes other players turns-sculpting steel and contagion engine)
36 liliana (searches, recurs everything, sculpting steel contagion engine)
37 garruk (ramps, overruns, creates more creatures)
38 Plague boiler (recurrable wrath)
39 Nevynril’s disk (recurrable wrath)
40 Oblivion stone (recurable wrath)
41 contagion engine (wrath effect, pumps walkers, smokestack, ratchet bomb etc.)
42 sculpting steel (copies goodness)
43 caged sun (mana ramp)
44 ratchet bomb (kill all tokens)
45 beacon of unrest (recursion for creatures and artifacts)
46 Planar portal (reusable tutor)
47 Vampiric tutor
48 Kuldotha forgemaster (reusable tutor, sac outlet)
49 Demonic tutor
50 entomb (instant speed tutor for artifact in response to glissa trigger, sheoldred goodness, grabs dredge engine)
51 Avenger of zendikar (token generation for edict effects, overruns, good with playing lots of land out quickily)
52 sadistic hypnotist (creature sac outlet, discard for control, good with most of your creatures)
53 triskelavus (combos with death mantle, dudes for edict effects, can kill stuff for glissa, more counters with contagion engine, creates cratures for hypnotist)
54 myojin of night’s reach (infinite hand discard, put more counters on with contagion engine)
55 primal command (tutor, gets rid of annoying things, protects from milling yourself out)
56 moldervine cloak (dredge, pump for glissa)
57 Jesters Cap (RFG 3 annoying cards in their deck, recur and do it again)
58 lifespark spell bomb (creates land creatures to kill with glissa, draw)
59 extractor demon (combos nicely with all sorts of sacrifice stuffs, mill yourself for glissa triggers or mill them and play nihil spellbomb)
60 phyrexian plaguelord (sac outlet, kills stuff for glissa, good with edict effects)
61 smokestack (sac outlet, good with contagion engine, edict effects, creatures that give multples, glissa)
62 Crucible of worlds (play good lands out of grave)
The General: Glissa, the Traitor
Introduction
Here's some of my thoughts on a Glissa, the Traitor deck.
First from playing Glissa, the Traitor I find that Glissa, the Traitor needs to be aggressive herself to force the opponnents to block. If you get their poison count up, they have to block. So an early Glissa, the Traitor drop is good. Ideally some pump spells are good, but in EDH I don't want to play anything that I can't play multiple times over. So Giant Growth would be bad, Rancor would be good, however, Moldervine Cloak is excellent. If you don't connect with Rancor you lose it whereas the Moldervine Cloak can recur and feeds into Glissa the Traitor's ability with dredge. Swords are good ideas, but personally I don't like them as much because they suck down a lot of mana pretty much just to equip them and then they sit around waiting to be useful. There are a couple I think would be very good to use; Sword of Light and Shadow, Sword of Feast and Famine, Sword of Vengeance. This would only make Glissa, the Traitor that much more mana hungry and she is very mana hungry with the sorts of things she wants around her. Ways to sneak some damage in with her are good too--fear?
Second Glissa, the Traitor needs to stay on the board to trigger the ability. So some umbras would be good. Particularly Bear Umbra and Snake Umbra as the abilities are good, but also some recursion seems reasonable. Regeneration seems good too.
Third you need to be able to trigger the ability. You need to get them to lose something. If you have anything good in the grave they won't want to attack into Glissa, the Traitor, but Glissa, the Traitor should have attacked anyhows. Edict effects seem very useful here especially with artifact creatures that you can sacrifice and recur. There is a possibility that they have no creatures as well though, so being able to give them a creature seems useful if they are giving you nothing to work with. And barring any creatures on their side of the board, Glissa, the Traitor still needs to be able to destroy stuff and take control of the game. So stuff like Spine of Ish Sah, Primal Command and Sadistic Hypnotist seem good.
Fourth, you need things to recur from your grave. So some way to feed the grave seems good. Dredge works well here. Life from the Loam and Moldervine Cloak are excellent. Extractor Demon and Memory Jar are good as well.
Fifth, if everything is working right you will need tons of mana to replay all of the artifacts that are bouncing back to hand. So to me it seems necessary to have Primeval Titan, Exploration, Oracle of Mul Daya and some other goodies to make sure you can play it all if you need to. This makes Life From the Loam a good engine for the deck as well as Crucible of Worlds. It makes sense to have a fairly diverse set of utility lands as well then.
The List
1 Glissa, the Traitor
Creatures (9)
1 Terrastodon
1 Primeval Titan
1 Eternal Witness
1 Extractor Demon
1 Sadistic Hypnotist
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Phyrexian Plaguelord
Artifact Creatures (8)
1 Duplicant
1 Triskelavus
1 Scarecrone
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Precursor Golem
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
Artifacts (28)
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Opal
1 Mimic Vat
1 Mindslaver
1 Caged Sun
1 Memory Jar
1 Lotus Petal
1 Lotus Bloom
1 Jester’s Cap
1 Smokestack
1 Plague Boiler
1 Planar Portal
1 Mox Diamond
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Expedition Map
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Thornbite Staff
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Nevinyrral’s Disk
1 Spine of Ish Sah
1 Contagion Engine
1 Nim Death Mantle
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Dreamstone Hedron
1 Krark Clan Iron Works
1 Executioner’s Capsule
1 Exploration
1 Grave Pact
1 Moldervine Cloak
Instants (2)
1 Entomb
1 Vampiric Tutor
Legendary Creatures (3)
1 Kamal Fist of Krosa
1 Myojin of Night’s Reach
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
Planeswalkers (3)
1 Liliana Vess
1 Sorin Markov
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
Sorceries (4)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Primal Command
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Life From the Loam
Basic Lands (13)
7 Forest
6 Swamp
Lands (25)
1 Arena
1 Bayou
1 Vesuva
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Barren Moor
1 Twilight Mire
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Tree of Tales
1 Tainted Wood
1 Phyrexia’s Core
1 Hickory Woodlot
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Yavimaya Hollow
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Forbidden Orchard
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
Individual Card Explanations
Lands 38
1 Bayou
1 Bojuka Bog (grave hate)
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers (pump for glissa)
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse (fear for general)
1 Strip Mine
1 Tainted Wood
1 Twilight Mire
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wasteland
1 Yavimaya Hollow (regen glissa)
1 forbidden orchard (give them a creature)
1 Cabal coffers
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Phyrexian Tower (sac outlet)
1 Vesuva
1 Volrath’s Stronghold (recursion)
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 arena (allows a glissa trigger)
1 barren moor (cycling land, life from loam)
1 boseiju (anti counter land)
1 Hickory woodlot (turn two glissa)
1 phyrexias core (artifact sac outlet)
1 tree of tales
1 vault of whispers
6 swamp
7 forest
62 others
1 Glissa, the traitor (general)
2 life from the loam (good way to feed the grave and get your good lands set up)
3 eternal witness (combo’s nicely with dredge, phyrexia’s tower +volrath’s stronghold lets you do it each turn, works well with gravepact effects)
4 spine of ish shah (good kill card, phyrexia’s core/krark’s clan ironworks, can trigger glissa)
5 expedition map (finds any good lands you need)
6 Oracle of mul daya (play more lands out)
7 exploration (play more lands out)
8 gravepact (good with glissa and sacrificing creatures)
9 Butcher of malakir (gravepact effects)
10 Myr battlesphere (gives creatures for gravepact effects, combos out for infinite colorless and myr with krark clan and nim death mantle, recursion target for glissa)
11 nim death mantle (combos with krark clan iron works and myr battlesphere/precursor golem, saves glissa from wrath effects)
12 krark clan iron works (sac outlet for artifacts and ramps, combo piece)
13 precursor golem (good for gravepact, death mantle combo target)
14 Duplicant (recurrable rfg, good with sac outlet/glissa, gravepact)
15 solemn simulacrum (ramp and good with sac outlet/glissa, grave pact)
16 sylvok replica (disenchant good with glissa and gravepact effects)
17 Terrastodon (creates creatures to kill, good with death mantle/mimic vat)
18 Mimic vat (just good all around, stick any of your creatures to this especially with a gravepact and you are golden)
19 Mind slaver (lock with glissa and forbidden orchard - Take their turn force them to attack into glissa, recur)
20 Scarecrone (recurs non artifact creatures (terastodon, e witness, etc)-protects glissa, they kill her-he recurs her, sacs to draw a card so works well with glissa)
21 primeval titan (get good lands fast)
22 vedalken orrerry (flashy speed goodies)
23 Sheoldred (forced sacrifice and recursion for you, entomb works well here)
24 kamal fist of krosa (create creatures out of their lands to kill with grave pact/edict/wrath effect/glissa triggers, overruns)
25 Thornbite staff (glissa killing machine)
26 memory jar (draws you new hand, glissa recursion, mills)
27 excutioner’s capsule (glissa combo)
28 nihil spellbomb (glissa goodness)
29 sol ring (seems good always, recurable)
30 lotus petal (turn1-2 glissa, recurable)
31 mox diamond (turn 1-2 glissa, recurable)
32 mox opal (free mana, recurable)
33 lotus bloom (free mana, recurrable)
34 dreamstone hedron (card draw and mana excel, good with orrerry)
35 sorin markov (kills creatures, wrecks life counts, takes other players turns-sculpting steel and contagion engine)
36 liliana (searches, recurs everything, sculpting steel contagion engine)
37 garruk (ramps, overruns, creates more creatures)
38 Plague boiler (recurrable wrath)
39 Nevynril’s disk (recurrable wrath)
40 Oblivion stone (recurable wrath)
41 contagion engine (wrath effect, pumps walkers, smokestack, ratchet bomb etc.)
42 sculpting steel (copies goodness)
43 caged sun (mana ramp)
44 ratchet bomb (kill all tokens)
45 beacon of unrest (recursion for creatures and artifacts)
46 Planar portal (reusable tutor)
47 Vampiric tutor
48 Kuldotha forgemaster (reusable tutor, sac outlet)
49 Demonic tutor
50 entomb (instant speed tutor for artifact in response to glissa trigger, sheoldred goodness, grabs dredge engine)
51 Avenger of zendikar (token generation for edict effects, overruns, good with playing lots of land out quickily)
52 sadistic hypnotist (creature sac outlet, discard for control, good with most of your creatures)
53 triskelavus (combos with death mantle, dudes for edict effects, can kill stuff for glissa, more counters with contagion engine, creates cratures for hypnotist)
54 myojin of night’s reach (infinite hand discard, put more counters on with contagion engine)
55 primal command (tutor, gets rid of annoying things, protects from milling yourself out)
56 moldervine cloak (dredge, pump for glissa)
57 Jesters Cap (RFG 3 annoying cards in their deck, recur and do it again)
58 lifespark spell bomb (creates land creatures to kill with glissa, draw)
59 extractor demon (combos nicely with all sorts of sacrifice stuffs, mill yourself for glissa triggers or mill them and play nihil spellbomb)
60 phyrexian plaguelord (sac outlet, kills stuff for glissa, good with edict effects)
61 smokestack (sac outlet, good with contagion engine, edict effects, creatures that give multples, glissa)
62 Crucible of worlds (play good lands out of grave)
RWU
Zedruu, the Greathearted
RGW Uril, the Miststalker