MTG Salvation

A pretty straightforward question for a pretty shady guy. However, Edric, Spymaster of Trest has a pretty straightforward strategy: drawing cards like a mo'fo. This is true to his flavor of being a spymaster. His spy network constantly brings him information on things he or his clients want to know. So with every creature that lands a blow on one of your opponents, you’re rewarded with some much needed knowledge. Now, the trickiest aspect of Edric is his wonderful color combination GU and the exquisite card pool this leaves at our disposition. Some of the slyest creatures around (and spells) are either G, U, or both!

Thus, you’ll enjoy playing with Edric, Spymaster of Trest if you:

• like being able to cast your commander and make use of its ability before most of the rest of the players are able to
• like having access to both control, aggro, and midrange strategies
• like having a huge army out by turn 5
• love being able to constantly draw a significant amount of cards
• want a deck that is not completely dependent on having your commander in play
• want your total economic investment into the deck to be minimum

However, you won’t enjoy playing with Edric, Spymaster of Trest if you:

• like playing fatties
• don’t like beatdown strategies
• want a more combo-oriented build
• don’t like playing control or midrange
• like to take your time playing a game
• like giving ludicrous amounts of commander damage
• like being the center of attention
• don't like others benefiting from your commander

Edric, Spymaster of Trest is a ridiculously cheap and manageable deck to build. The most expensive cards in my list are Gaea’s Cradle and Force of Will, and even so, the copies I run are the gold-bordered championship reprints so they cost me next to nothing. If your playgroup is against using gold-bordered cards and you don’t want to pay for two cards which will cost more than the rest of your deck, then fear not, they are not essential (Gaea’s Cradle is incredibly broken, but not essential). Another thing to consider is that more than likely you will already be in possession of most of these cards, assuming you kept all those crap rares, commons, and uncommons opened from booster packs.

Unfortunately, not all of the cards in my current decklist are presently acquirable as foils.

Okay, so let’s say you’re on board with running a GU EDH deck. Check. Now, why Edric, Spymaster of Trest and not one of the incredibly many (5 others) similarly-colored Legendary Creatures that WotC has been gracious enough to design for us? Okay, that may have been brimming with a bit too much sarcasm. We still have another block coming out that has a wedge theme (or Khans of Tarkir, at least) so maybe we’ll have more GU legends. Anyways, let’s see what the others do.
Now, playing Edric, Spymaster of Trest obviously has its pros and cons depending on how you choose to build your deck.

Having Edric tucked
Personally, I don’t like to depend so much on a commander in play when there is so much creature removal in the format. So, I choose some Edric-esque cards just so I don’t have to depend too much on him (Bident of Thassa and Coastal Piracy). So, by turn 3 you can already have the draw per creature giving combat damage effect by simply casting Edric. However, if you’ve cast him many times and he becomes increasingly more expensive to cast, that’s what Bident of Thassa and Coastal Piracy is for. But, I will cover these two enchantments later in greater detail. Basically, this deck is one that may seem to depend heavily on the commander but you don’t need to freak out if somebody tucks him. That just means that you’ll just have at least 3 cards in your library that can do the same.

Creature hate
Now, there are many strategies that involve epic creature hate. This can be somewhat of a problem. Boardwipes, massive –X/-X, etc., can really slow us down. However, since we have access to U, we should be fine as long as we use that to our advantage and balance out some much needed control in these circumstances. Unless it’s also convenient to us for that player to Wrath of God a board full of fat fatties with trample that may soon come our way, we just suck it up and try to recover – at least we’ll have an easier time to do so than that player who we just let get wrathed.

Pillowfort and Stax
Again, the good thing about U is being able to counter whatever may hurt us. Cheap creatures means plenty of untapped land left over to cast a much needed Counterspell. However, we also have the power of G, meaning that if there are a lot of pillowfort effects in play, we have access to a ridiculous amount of instants (and some sorceries) that destroy all enchantments in play. Stax doesn’t hurt us as much as other players because we can simply sacrifice a weenie or a land. If it ever becomes a hassle, again, destroying enchantments is child’s play to G.

Milling
Milling can hurt us. Bad. We’re drawing a bunch of cards each battle. However, we have counterspells at our disposal and ways of dealing with recovering a graveyard, etc. There are many cards that can help with this, which will be discussed in detail later on.

Aggro and Midrange
So, you have an army of unblockable 1/1s. What about another army or a squad of fatties? Well, tucking, bouncing, tapping, or removing creatures isn’t that much of a hassle for U. Obviously, you’re gonna wanna take out the aggro player first. Unless that player doesn’t see you as a threat. Then, by all means allow that player to finish off opponents. Those creatures will trigger Edric’s ability as well, which should benefit those players when not attacking you.

So, my Kruphix, God of Horizons EDH deck and pulling a foil Edric, Spymaster of Trest from a Conspiracy booter is my main inspiration for building a deck around Edric. More or less knowing what cards to put in from what was left over from my Kruphix deck, I decided to delve deeper into my very old card collection. Since Edric costs a measly 1GU, I figured weenies were the way to go. However, it’s incredibly difficult to beat multiple opponents with a mere horde of weenies, so I figured that control and pumping would be the game ender.

I searched the forums here to see if there was an Edric, Spymaster of Trest primer. There wasn’t. I found a couple of decklists that seemed great to work with Edric, like this one here and here. I liked their strategies but I still felt like I wanted something else. There’s a great strategy concerning extra turns (but I already run that in my Kruphix build) and the other one is just permanents with a single Primal Surge (but that concept is similar to my Roon of the Hidden Realm build). So, in quest for something different and with all the cards at hand, I settled for the one-fell-swoop method, which is my current build.





The main strategy of the deck is to try and get 2 unblockables on turn two and cast Edric on turn 3 then attack. You just drew 2 cards. Continue in that fashion until you have a hand full of responses and the board full of creatures. Eventually, if you haven't already killed off any eminent threat already with your weenie horde, use the facilitators to make way and then strike hard and fast. It's very easy to start with a decent hand. The perfect hand would be any three lands that would give you the necessary mana to cast Edric and 3-4 1-drop creatures with flying or other some other kind of evasion. All heavy cards should be mulligan-ed away because you'll draw them soon enough. Given the amount of cards in the deck for its main purpose, it's highly improbable to not draw an excellent starting hand. Very rarely do I even mulligan a single card.

Reaching the point for the one-fell swoop is accomplished in many ways. The easiest way is to simply Cyclonic Rift before you attack. Other methods involve tapping any possible blockers with Winter Blast, Icy Blast, Sleep, and Gridlock and then attacking. Also, you can also have your weenies pumped before attacking thanks to Beastmaster Ascension and with Akroma's Memorial they will also have flying and trample. They can also become ridiculously large after casting Biomass Mutation and Vitalizing Wind. That makes your army much more lethal, though an instant kill is imparted by Triumph of the Hordes.

In order to prevent your opponents from doing the same or from trying to hinder your strategy, that's what all the counterspells are for. Mindbreak Trap is there for those pesky uncounterable spells that could be a huge nightmare, like Obliterate. Also, Simic Charm helps out incredibly. Wrap in Vigor is a nice way to turn a boardwipe upon itself, meaning that someone else was nice enough to pave the way for you.



I've played this deck but somehow found it lacking intensity. So I added in Chasm Skulker, Lorescale Coatl, Horizon Chimera, and Notorious Throng. Now, these may just seem like "winmore" cards, but they're not. Chasm Skulker (and Lorescale Coatl) becomes incredibly huge incredibly quick. An opponent will not waste time with a removal in hand. Destroying Chasm Skulker gives you the added benefit of giving you that many more 1/1 islandwalkers. It makes the decision hard indeed. In any case, you can kill the skulker yourself with the two spot removals, Pongify and Rapid Hybridization - used of course to save your hide from a fatty or other creature that may do some serious damage to you. Horizon Chimera helps you stay on the offensive because all the life you'll be gaining will let you take some shots from unblocked creatures without any hesitation. If somehow an opponent were to amass the mother of all armies against you (or attacks with a hasted and unblockable Phage the Untouchable), you can always cast Constant Mists and pay the buyback one of the many lands you should already have in play. Notorious Throng is just ridiculous. After casting it you can definitely win on the next turn. And, it gives you the added bonus of an extra turn if a Rogue attacked. Now, there are only two Rogues in the entire deck (3 if you count Edric), but at least one of them is totally unblockable (Triton Shorestalker). However, you're almost always guaranteed to have a Rogue attacking being as you can cast Edric whenever you want. Yay!

Now, to explain the toolbox. Elixir of Immortality is pretty self-explanatory; it helps recover graveyard and stunts premature decking. Expedition Map and Sylvan Scrying are for fetching Reliquary Tower, Gaea's Cradle, or Boseiju, Who Shelters All. Speaking of which, Boseiju helps you to guarantee your game enders. Druids' Repository is insane here, especially with X spells. It's a great way to accumulate mana in order to cast the much needed facilitators to help you win. That and players usually forget to pay attention to it when they see you all tapped out. So they think they're safe 'til you use it to get mana for your counterspells. Equilibrium is ridiculous. That paves the way all its own. For simply making your already 1-drop to 2-drop creatures cost a mere 1 more, you get to bounce any potential blockers with every weenie you cast. Epic. Alchemist's Refuge helps you cast those sorceries at instant speed and along with Winding Canyons allows you to play creatures at the end of the turn before yours, thus leaving your mana free in case you need to counter anything outside your turn. Cloudstone Curio + Aluren - this is a common combo I've seen used with Edric. Basically, Aluren makes all your creatures free and have the added bonus of basically getting flash. The only real downside being that your opponents can do the same. However, combining this with Cloudstone Curio is basically giving your creatures the ultimate protection. If one of your creatures gets targeted by something you don't like, play another creature and bounce it. This, of course, thanks to having both these cards in play.


All in all this is a very straightforward, fun, easy to pilot, inexpensive deck to play.


As I said before, there are many ways to run an epic and efficient Edric, Spymaster of Trest deck - and I even gave links to two excellent builds of different strategies. However, I wanted to keep the price range way down, and even with including Gaea's Cradle and Force of Will, the entire deck still cashes in at less than $400. Without them, the deck comes at around $200. Also, if you happen to have the commons or uncommons or can get them for free off those who have them but care not for commons or uncommons, you could even build this deck for around $100. That being said, there are some cards that I have considered or have used or have taken out or put back in, etc. So there's really just a possible cards pool along these lines:

• Thassa, God of the Sea - a very versatile card. It allows me to scry the first card during each of my upkeeps, can make a creature unblockable for a mere 1U, and becomes an indestructable blocker or attacker very quickly thanks to its low devotion of 5.
• Cloudfin Raptor - a 0/1 flyer for U that can easily become 3/4. However, like Wingcrafter, it depends on another creature to make it work. So, I scrapped them for the moment in favor of creatures that did their thing independently.
• Wingcrafter - see above.
• Fade into Antiquity - excellent artifact and enchantment removal, especially against a God. However, I can't seem to find space for it.
• Tranquility, Calming Verse, Essence Filter - essential cards against stax and pillowfort strategies.
• Erayo, Soratami Ascendent - drew too much hate. In this deck it flips incredibly easily into Erayo's Essence and once that happens my opponents make it their mission to either wipe the board, destroy Erayo, or eliminate me altogether. I don't really have such a need to be such a menace when I already have an army that gathers enough attention as it is. Recently banned from EDH :'(.
• Plasma Capture - a great counterspell that can potentially give me a lot of colorful mana. However, again, this deck doesn't require an insane amount of mana (though, if you're not running Gaea's Cradle, you may consider adding Plasma Capture).
• Swan Song - a very cheap and amazing answer to a board wipe, pillowfort, stax, or God your opponent may want to play. However, it gives them a 2/2 flyer which is the worst thing you can give your opponent when all your flyers are 1/1.
• Quietus Spike - sure, it halves your opponent's life total. But I found it to be clunky. If I want to use it the moment I drop it I have to spend a whopping 6 to do so. Too expensive.
• Archetype of Imagination, Sun Quan, Lord of Wu - both of these creatures basically guarantee (especially the Archetype) that your creatures are gonna be unblockable. However, they're a bit expensive (4UU each) and for a mere 1 extra I can just cast a completely colorless artifact that more or less does the same, but gives me the added protection against spot removal: Akroma's Memorial. It also gives the added bonus of haste, meaning I can attack with new creatures and can tap mana dorks for mana the same turn I cast them.
• Witchbane Orb - it's always good to have some hexproof to protect you from burns, discards, mills, etc. However, I don't really think anything should come out to put this in, good as it is.
• Drifter il-Dal - shadow is even harder to block than flying. On top of that, this guy is a 2/1 for a measly U. However, you have to pay that U each of your upkeeps. So he's not an absolute inclusion.
• Wasteland Viper, Sedge Scorpion - excellent 1-drop vipers. Bonus points for flashing them into play in response to your opponent attacking with something you want to get rid of.
• Looter il-Kor - 2-drop with shadow, which is even harder to block than flying. This one lets you draw yet another card (though you'll be discarding one).

Now, if you want to totally dominate with full-blown aggro and don't really want to play so much control, there are obviously a lot more creatures you can play that are 1-drops or even 3-drops. Or, maybe you just want to play as many guaranteed unblockables as possible. Here's some other spies you can play:

• Grayscaled Gharial, Jukai Messenger, Marsh Boa, Merfolk Spy, Shanodin Dryads, Willow Dryad, Zodiac Rabbit - 1-drops with landwalk. These are incredibly useful against decks that run a lot of basic lands (so sometimes it comes down to a meta call). These shouldn't be considered as too viable unless you also run Nylea's Presence. Just enchant some hapless opponent's important land with that and swing away!
• Elusive Krasis, Ferropede, Latch Seeker, Neurok Invisimancer, Phantom Warrior, Talas Warrior, Cephalid Pathmage - 3-drop unblockables. Though they are completely unblockable, I highly recommend against playing with them. They cost 3 and you want your creatures to be as cheap as possible in order to take advantage of Edric as quickly as possible. Though, if your build is going to be very dedicated to aggro and not so much control or midrange, then I guess they're fine for that. However, I don't think I'll run them in my build, due to the main strategy of it.
• Altar of the Brood - combined with Aluren + Cloudstone Curio you can mill all opponents (assuming they don't have Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, or Gaea's Blessing inside the deck - then again, that's what Rootwater Thief is for).
• Essence Warden - combined with Aluren + Cloudstone Curio is essentially infinite life. Though, infinite life is nothing when faced with 10 poison counters, 21 commander damage, or milling. Still, infinite life is not a bad thing :P.

So far, all of you for your attention!

So far the deck has been running amazingly. Edric is a very political general so people usually attack other players in order to get the draw bonus he gives. Also, since all I run are weenies, people aren't worried too much about my creatures until I cast Vitalizing Wind, Triumph of the Hordes, or an epic Biomass Mutation. By then it's already too late. My hand is chocked full of responses. So I've been able to eliminate almost all opponents at once when I finally pump up the weenies into meanies. I decided to pay a little extra for creatures just to guarantee their unblockability versus simply depending on landwalk. It has proven to be much more efficient at it. This has been the result of 4 months of intense testing! Anyways, here's the list that has yet to let me down!



I will eventually edit the main post to reflect these changes.

TOTAL UPDATE TO ORIGINAL POST (new decklist can be found on its own in second post).