This is an Infect deck based around the commander Ezuri, Claw of Progress. It wants to land Ezuri, give him experience counters by generating tokens and use his ability to dump 10 counters onto an infect creature, make that infect creature unblockable and swing for the win. It also includes a few pump spells so that your infect creatures remain a threat even when Ezuri is not around. The rest of the deck is tutors, protection, mana ramp/fixing and general value cards. I have not bought this deck and would like some suggestions on how to improve it before I do. Please try to keep it relatively budget.
Thanks.
I purchased the Ezuri premade commander product about a month ago, and have refined the deck by changing about 75% of the cards already. I have ran the deck about 4x now, and I really like where its at. However, let me provide some insight to help you develop what you are proposing to do.
1. You are running 13 creatures who would trigger Ezuri's Experience Counters when they enter the battlefield. None of these produce tokens upon entering the battlefield, and I did not see any instant / sorcery cards which produces multiple tokens to trigger the experience counters. Without more ways of increasing Ezuri's experience counters, it will be very difficult for you to get to 10 experience counters by mid / late game.
2. You have a few proliferate cards, which will help you increase the poison counters on your opponents once you do infect damage to them, however, if you are going to rely on this strategy to get to 10 poison counters, you will need everything in blue / green or colorless that has proliferate. I run everything minus 1 card that I can which has proliferate, and I usually can proliferate 2 or 3 times during an entire game. So with your setup, you are probably looking at 1 - 3 times per game, which isnt enough for you to get there.
3. It will become obvious pretty quickly to other players what your angle / win condition is. Infect players in Commander can usually kill 1 other player, but then get destroyed by the remaining players, because 10 poison counters sounds so threatening. With Triumph of the Hordes (I am running that card too) you could kill all other players in a single combat step, however, you will need multiple creatures on the board, with trample or unblockable, and all pumped up from Ezuri's +1/+1 ability, which takes multiple turns to get there. It has to come out of nowhere, or other players wont let you have enough creatures to pull it off, especially if you have multiple creatures on the table with Infect, and if someone knows you have that card in your deck.
4. You want Ezuri around, like each turn. Its way too weak to have 1/1, 2/2, 2/3 creatures making up the majority of your minions, and not place 1/1 counters on them each turn from Ezuri. So you have to have him out as much as possible.
5. You need stuff that creates tokens. My deck has a bunch of options to do this, and the highest I have taken my experience counters is 16. Now, I had the potential of hitting 40 or so, however, when other players see what you are doing, they will use disruption like exiling your Chasm Skulker with 18 counters on it, or your Hooded Hydra with 21 counters on it, preventing them from actually dying. With so few creatures, and not many token generators, you will probably end up around 5-8 experience counters by turn 12 or so, which is still short of where you want to be in order to take out 3 other players with Infect. Your Beacon of Creation can get you there, but thats about the only thing you are running that will boost your experience counters in a non-linear fashion. Playing 1 or 2 creatures each turn after you get Ezuri on the board just isnt enough to turn on that ability the way this mechanic wants to operate.
6. It will be really tempting to cast your 1-2 cost infect creatures on turn 2 or 3 or 4, and start swinging with them. However, remember, that Ezuri will not get experience counters unless you have Ezuri out. So if you cast Glistener Elf on turn 1, Blighted Agent on turn 2, Rot Wolf on turn 3, then Ezuri on turn 4, you will have 0 Experience Counters at the start of your turn 5, which means that your creatures are not any larger than when you started, and most likely they will be removed before you kill anyone, and they will be attacking with their original attack power, which is 1 or 2 for those creatures.
So, I think the idea is viable, however, I would recommend the following ideas to tweak your deck:
1. Include more ways to generate multiple experience counter activations in a reliable manner.
2. Run more creatures to trigger Ezuri's experience counters, and have more options for doing things with your +1/+1 counters (unblockable, token generation, artifact / enchantment removal, etc...).
3. Give the appearance of a different win condition other than Infect, then go crazy with Infect in a single turn.
4. Add more (like all ever created) proliferate cards in blue, green, and colorless. Your gonna need them. It would be viable to hit someone for 4 or 5 infect, then proliferate those to 10 FTW in the next few turns, while you are dealing infect damage to other players with your creatures.
5. Dont play any card that would trigger Ezuri's experience counters if he isnt on the table (unless its absolutely necessary). So, the first four turns are usually boring.
Hope that helps. Ezuri is my favorite Commander right now, and he can totally dominate the board.
Many of the ramp cards you're running seem a little misguided. For instance, your deck has a relatively low mana curve, so does Thran Dynamo do enough here? Because of Ezuri's first ability I think you'll want to run mana creatures over mana rocks. The dorks also tend to have a lower CMC. If this deck is intended for multiplayer, I'd probably cut most of the pump instants (Vines of Vastwood can certainly stay) in favor of pump auras and/or equipment. You've got a few big card drawers, but I think you'll want more and cheaper sources of card advantage. Here are some suggestions:
1 Ezuri, Claw of Progress
1 Glistener Elf
1 Blight Mamba
1 Blighted Agent
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Plague Myr
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Eternal Witness
1 Rot Wolf
1 Trygon Predator
1 Viridian Betrayers
1 Viridian Corrupter
1 Blightwidow
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Viral Drake
1 Spinebiter
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Aqueous Form
1 Bonesplitter
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Groundswell
1 Might of Old Krosa
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Piracy Charm
1 Rancor
1 Slip Through Space
1 Sol Ring
1 Vines of Vastwood
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Aspect of Mongoose
1 Contagion Clasp
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Dolmen Gate
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mind Spring
1 Simic Signet
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Sylvan Library
1 Veil of Secrecy
1 Awakening Zone
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Genesis Wave
1 Invigorate
1 Krosan Grip
1 Rhystic Study
1 Whispersilk Cloak
1 Beacon of Creation
1 Distant Memories
1 From Beyond
1 General's Kabuto
1 Grafted Exoskeleton
1 Power Matrix
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 Stonewood Invocation
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Triumph of the Hordes
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Bribery
1 Corrupted Conscience
1 Inexorable Tide
1 Primal Vigor
1 Contagion Engine
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Cathedral of War
1 Command Beacon
1 Command Tower
9 Forest
1 Halimar Depths
1 High Market
1 Hinterland Harbor
6 Island
1 Maze of Ith
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Simic Guildgate
1 Skyshroud Forest
1 Strip Mine
1 Temple of Mystery
1 Temple of the False God
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Thornwood Falls
1 Woodland Stream
1 Yavimaya Coast
100 Cards Total
This is an Infect deck based around the commander Ezuri, Claw of Progress. It wants to land Ezuri, give him experience counters by generating tokens and use his ability to dump 10 counters onto an infect creature, make that infect creature unblockable and swing for the win. It also includes a few pump spells so that your infect creatures remain a threat even when Ezuri is not around. The rest of the deck is tutors, protection, mana ramp/fixing and general value cards. I have not bought this deck and would like some suggestions on how to improve it before I do. Please try to keep it relatively budget.
Thanks.
1. You are running 13 creatures who would trigger Ezuri's Experience Counters when they enter the battlefield. None of these produce tokens upon entering the battlefield, and I did not see any instant / sorcery cards which produces multiple tokens to trigger the experience counters. Without more ways of increasing Ezuri's experience counters, it will be very difficult for you to get to 10 experience counters by mid / late game.
2. You have a few proliferate cards, which will help you increase the poison counters on your opponents once you do infect damage to them, however, if you are going to rely on this strategy to get to 10 poison counters, you will need everything in blue / green or colorless that has proliferate. I run everything minus 1 card that I can which has proliferate, and I usually can proliferate 2 or 3 times during an entire game. So with your setup, you are probably looking at 1 - 3 times per game, which isnt enough for you to get there.
3. It will become obvious pretty quickly to other players what your angle / win condition is. Infect players in Commander can usually kill 1 other player, but then get destroyed by the remaining players, because 10 poison counters sounds so threatening. With Triumph of the Hordes (I am running that card too) you could kill all other players in a single combat step, however, you will need multiple creatures on the board, with trample or unblockable, and all pumped up from Ezuri's +1/+1 ability, which takes multiple turns to get there. It has to come out of nowhere, or other players wont let you have enough creatures to pull it off, especially if you have multiple creatures on the table with Infect, and if someone knows you have that card in your deck.
4. You want Ezuri around, like each turn. Its way too weak to have 1/1, 2/2, 2/3 creatures making up the majority of your minions, and not place 1/1 counters on them each turn from Ezuri. So you have to have him out as much as possible.
5. You need stuff that creates tokens. My deck has a bunch of options to do this, and the highest I have taken my experience counters is 16. Now, I had the potential of hitting 40 or so, however, when other players see what you are doing, they will use disruption like exiling your Chasm Skulker with 18 counters on it, or your Hooded Hydra with 21 counters on it, preventing them from actually dying. With so few creatures, and not many token generators, you will probably end up around 5-8 experience counters by turn 12 or so, which is still short of where you want to be in order to take out 3 other players with Infect. Your Beacon of Creation can get you there, but thats about the only thing you are running that will boost your experience counters in a non-linear fashion. Playing 1 or 2 creatures each turn after you get Ezuri on the board just isnt enough to turn on that ability the way this mechanic wants to operate.
6. It will be really tempting to cast your 1-2 cost infect creatures on turn 2 or 3 or 4, and start swinging with them. However, remember, that Ezuri will not get experience counters unless you have Ezuri out. So if you cast Glistener Elf on turn 1, Blighted Agent on turn 2, Rot Wolf on turn 3, then Ezuri on turn 4, you will have 0 Experience Counters at the start of your turn 5, which means that your creatures are not any larger than when you started, and most likely they will be removed before you kill anyone, and they will be attacking with their original attack power, which is 1 or 2 for those creatures.
So, I think the idea is viable, however, I would recommend the following ideas to tweak your deck:
1. Include more ways to generate multiple experience counter activations in a reliable manner.
2. Run more creatures to trigger Ezuri's experience counters, and have more options for doing things with your +1/+1 counters (unblockable, token generation, artifact / enchantment removal, etc...).
3. Give the appearance of a different win condition other than Infect, then go crazy with Infect in a single turn.
4. Add more (like all ever created) proliferate cards in blue, green, and colorless. Your gonna need them. It would be viable to hit someone for 4 or 5 infect, then proliferate those to 10 FTW in the next few turns, while you are dealing infect damage to other players with your creatures.
5. Dont play any card that would trigger Ezuri's experience counters if he isnt on the table (unless its absolutely necessary). So, the first four turns are usually boring.
Hope that helps. Ezuri is my favorite Commander right now, and he can totally dominate the board.