The deck's goal is to cast a turn two Edric, Spymaster of Trest while using its little creatures to draw into countermagic and extra turn cards, the latter of which begets more cards and extra turns until you've achieved critical mass and can start killing players by prowling Notorious Throng over and over again.
An added benefit of Edric, Spymaster of Trest is that your opponents won't tend to attack you as it is more profitable for them to hit their other opponents and draw cards. This can be a mixed bag, as sometimes you'd rather take the damage than let your opponents refill their hands, but the deck is set up so that you should easily profit the most from Edric, Spymaster of Trest being on the battlefield.
You might like playing Edric if:
Your group doesn't allow/like combo decks.
The idea of killing people with Cloud Sprite tickles your fancy.
You want a deck that makes you think.
You like counterspells.
You want to try something different.
You might want to avoid playing Edric if:
Your group has a problem with extra turns and/or counterspells.
You don't like the combat phase.
Your opponents run lots of little creatures and/or make lots of tokens.
Your group runs a lot of board sweepers.
Edric, Spymaster of Trest requires more thought to play than most commanders. In order to succeed, you must be very judicious in deciding when to tap out and when to cast your spells. If you're not into that kind of Magic, you're probably better off with another commander.
History:
I got the idea to build Edric, Spymaster of Trest from seeing what he did to the game in my friend's Maelstrom Wanderer deck. Whenever he would have Edric out, people would stop attacking him no matter whether it was the right play or not in exchange for a couple of cards. This led to unending frustration on my part watching how stupid Edric made people. I mentioned this in a conversation with my friend, and he called Edric, "The best Propaganda effect there is." Hoping to channel Edric's brain-numbing effects, I decided to build the deck. Another selling point for me was seeing if I could build a deck that could hang with the high-powered combo decks in my playgroup without being one itself. I liked how Edric won through somewhat non-conventional means, and it's been a blast watching high powered combo decks lose to Triton Shorestalker. I also wanted something I could play with the "no combo" crowd (If I had to...).
The deck's gameplan hasn't changed much since I first built it. Right away, I knew I wanted a lot of little fliers and landwalkers to guarantee card draw backed up by extra turn cards to get even more card advantage. Eventually, I would hit a kill condition and end the game. The biggest change came when I realized how much better a turn two Edric is compared to a turn three one. This led to the addition of cards like Llanowar Elves and Mox Diamond to power out a turn two Edric.
The second biggest change to the gameplan, and part of what separates my list from other Edric lists is my lack of a big finisher like Beastmaster Ascension or Craterhoof Behemoth. I've found these cards to be unnecessary and only strong when you're way ahead in the game. My group scoops to the ability to take two or three extra turns with around five attackers I can consistently get through, because they don't want to watch me play solitaire for ten to fifteen minutes ending in their demise. It's still easy enough to kill the table by prowling Notorious Throng once or twice and/or overloading Cyclonic Rift.
The best starting hands allow the following line of play:
Turn 1: Acceleration
Turn 2: Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Turn 3: Attack, draw a card or two, play a creature, keep mana open for a counterspell
Alternatively, the following line of play is strong, but generally worse than the above one as it's a turn slower in getting your draw engine online and protecting it with countermagic:
Turn 1: Creature
Turn 2: Creature, Creature
Turn 3: Edric, Spymaster of Trest, draw three cards.
Generally, you should mulligan any cards that aren't little creatures, ramp, extra turns or ways to find them. Throw back any lands you have over three, sometimes two if you have ramp. Don't be afraid to go to six or five cards as you can quickly regain lost card advantage. If you need to mulligan some cards from your hand, it's usually not a problem to get rid of Regrowth effects, situational creatures like Reclamation Sage, acceleration beyond what is needed to cast a turn two Edric, or countermagic in that order. Do not mulligan away little evasive attackers unless you're desperate for lands or you have more than three in your hand.
Playing Edric:
Usually, you'll want to cast Edric as soon as possible so you can start drawing cards. This deck goes nowhere fast without an Edric on the table, so you need a very good reason not to cast him. One such reason is if an opponent gets off to a crazy good start and you feel like you might need to counter a spell on turn two or three to keep the game from ending. Another reason is if an opponent is in a position to take better advantage of Edric than you are. This is rare, as the deck is designed to draw more cards off Edric than anyone else, but sometimes this happens in my group when my friend plays his Alesha, Who Smiles at Death deck and leads off with a Goblin Lackey. In situations like these, if you can play out more attackers before casting Edric, you should do so. If not, you need to consider waiting to cast Edric (or any creatures, really) until someone else deals with the army of enemy creatures.
Post-Edric Gameplan:
After casting Edric, you usually never want to tap out. Keep up mana for any and all counterspells you have. The only times you're going to tap out when you have a counterspell are:
If you have a counterspell and you're tapping out for any other reason, you're probably doing it wrong. Ideally, you'd leave counterspell mana up even when casting these cards, but against fast decks you sometimes have to take the risk to keep up. Against strong decks, you need to take a slow, controlling approach to win the game. I've lost too many games from tapping out on turn four or so when I had a counterspell only to watch an opponent end the game.
It's worth noting that this deck can't easily win through a resolved board sweeper. This is why you really need to keep counterspell mana up and not play more little dorks instead.
Usually you'll want to wait until your second main phase to play a land unless it's Gaea's Cradle, because you might draw the cradle from attacking. This is only good Magic playing anyway, but it's easy to be more lax in Commander. You probably shouldn't play anything other than acceleration in your first main phase because you might draw better cards from attacking.
How in the heck does this deck win? Swinging with Jace's Phantasm 24+ times?
In a word, no.
Your path to victory is to cast an extra turn card and draw a bunch of cards on the extra turn, hopefully leading to another extra turn card or a way to recur the first one. Keep it up until you hit Notorious Throng. Once you're prowling Notorious Throng, you'll have enough 1/1 fliers to kill the table in short order. Unless your opponents are masochists or ignorant of how your deck works, they'll concede to four-plus attackers plus two ways to take/recur an extra turn as statistically speaking that's game over.
This is the biggest difference between my Edric list and other, similar ones. I don't run cards like Beastmaster Ascension and Craterhoof Behemoth because, frankly, they're win-more. I have not found my ability to win to be diminished in the slightest since I cut those cards. I'm running less attackers than these lists in exchange for more ways to chain extra turn cards.
That's nineteen cards that can help chain extra turns compared to five or six. In my list, it's pretty rare for my opponents to have another turn after I cast my first extra turn card. While running fewer little, evasive creatures means I'll draw fewer cards, in practice the deck usually only needs about three attackers or so by turn three to draw enough cards to win the game. These extra slots grant flexibility and resilience that other Edric lists do not have. If you're losing, Knowledge Exploitation or Sakashima's Student is much more likely to turn the game around than Thought Nibbler and friends.
Playing Tutors:
Tutor targets are usually extra turn cards, especially Notorious Throng (or cards that get extra turn cards back from your graveyard.) It's usually all over but the crying if you can cast it for its prowl cost. Remember, Edric, Spymaster of Trest is a rogue. Don't forget, creature tutors can get Eternal Witness which gets back extra turn cards.
The Combo:
What? Where? I don't see any combo.
There isn't one. If you feel like you need one, you can add Rite of Replication to the deck to create one.
In all fairness, the combo is really bad and you'll probably never need it. Still, for the sake of completion:
Requires 10UUUU at a minimum to maintain and you also have to cast the Eternal Witness for 1GG at some point.
Just letting you know it's there in case you have the option.
Combat damage triggers:
Yes, this primer actually needs this section.
Remember, each draw from Edric is a separate trigger so you can cast spells in between them resolving. This is especially strong with Mystical Tutor, Long-Term Plans and Noxious Revival, etc.
Sakura-Tribe Scout, Skyshroud Ranger, Exploration:
These cards enable the crucial turn two Edric while developing your mana. These are usually the best turn one play if you have several options. During the first few turns of the game, putting an extra land on the battlefield is generally better than tapping for a mana. As long as you're hitting your land drops Sakura-Tribe Scout and Skyshroud Ranger speed you up a turn while still being able to attack. Exploration gives you the land right away, which can lead to powerful turns early on.
Elvish Mystic, Llanowar Elves, Fyndhorn Elves, Arbor Elf, Boreal Druid:
The rest of the creatures that accelerate you into turn two Edric. These aren't quite as good early on, but later when you've run out of lands in hand they can still tap for mana. When attacking with mana creatures, it's important to consider if you'll have enough mana to cast an extra turn you might draw. If you need to immediately find an extra turn card to start the extra turn chain, you'll want to make sure you have five mana available post combat. You may need to hold some mana creatures back. Make sure you have a forest to go along with Arbor Elf in your opening hand when you're deciding what cards to keep. Boreal Druid is clearly the worst here as the deck doesn't have much use for colorless mana, but turn two Edric is just that important.
Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, Gemstone Caverns:
These are the worst mana accelerants in the deck as they cost you an extra card and can't attack to draw cards. Say it with me, "Turn two Edric is just that important." Besides, the deck draws enough extra cards in the long run to make up for the early card disadvantage. Still, these cards can lead to some busted turn ones where you play a couple of attackers and end up drawing 2-3 extra cards on your second turn. Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond are also great when you've drawn a ton of cards as they let you make use of cards that you would otherwise discard. Note that if you're going first, you can't use Gemstone Caverns's ability that lets you start with it on the battlefield. Consider mulliganing it away when going first.
Mana Crypt, Sol Ring:
Most Edric players don't run these cards because of the deck's low mana curve and lack of colorless mana costs. TURN TWO EDRIC IS JUST THAT IMPORTANT. These cards, along with Gaea's Cradle let you have five mana on turn three to start chaining your extra turns as early as possible. They're also pretty great for recasting Edric when he gets killed. These two cards are worse here than in most any other EDH deck, but they're still broken and they still belong.
Carpet of Flowers:
This is either your best mana accelerant or your worst. Note that the Oracle wording allows you to choose either your first or second main phase to get the mana. Generally, you'll do this in the second main phase unless you're casting Edric. It's best to wait so you know what kind of mana you'll need and to be able to play any cards you drew during combat. Obviously, if you don't play against blue on a regular basis, you may want to cut it, but who doesn't sit across from blue decks on the regular?
Merfolk Spy, Grayscaled Gharial:
Like Carpet of Flowers, these are either the best or worst at what they do. You'll probably want to replace these with more fliers if you don't play against blue decks regularly, but who doesn't?
Mausoleum Wanderer:
There's no way to get its power any higher, but it's perfectly fine as is. Flies and potentially counters a spell or makes every instant and sorcery your opponents cast cost one more mana.
Hope of Ghirapur:
This is a fantastic little flier that can guarantee your extra turn resolves in a pinch. It can also shut down an opposing storm or combo deck from winning for a turn if need be.
Sylvan Safekeeper, Eladamri, Lord of Leaves:
These creatures protect Edric from targeted removal. Nothing throws a wrench in your plans like Edric being killed during combat. Sylvan Safekeeper is great because it can easily come down before Edric and is itself difficult to remove. Sacrificing a land is a steep cost, but losing Edric is even worse. Eladamri, Lord of Leaves has the added bonus of making Edric and your mana dorks unblockable against green players. Note that in Eladamri's Oracle text he is an elf, but does not give himself shroud and forestwalk.
Phantasmal Image, Sakashima's Student: Phantasmal Image is at worst a slightly overcosted evasive creature. At best, it's a big nasty creature thanks to your opponents or a copy of Eternal Witness to keep the extra turn chain going. Sakashima's Student is basically the same thing, but you can use ninjutsu to copy Llawan, Cephalid Empress. Note that you can use ninjutsu after damage if you need to deal combat damage with a rogue for prowl.
It's also really funny to copy your Edric when an opponent steals it. When that happens, you win so hard it hurts.
Eternal Witness:
She's the salt of the earth. She usually returns an extra turn card to your hand and then attacks every turn to draw you even more cards. Often cloned, searched out and bounced for great value. Allows you to take infinite extra turns with Rite of Replication and an extra turn card, but this usually isn't necessary.
Mental Misstep:
Protects Edric from common spot removal like Swords to Plowshares and Pyroblast without needing to leave mana open. The look on your opponent's face is priceless when you counter his turn one Sol Ring or Mana Vault. When Mental Misstep is in your opening hand, it's generally best to counter the first powerful one mana spell like the aforementioned mana rocks or a topdeck tutor like Mystical Tutor. If your opponents get too far ahead of you, it won't matter that you can counter their removal for Edric as he won't have time to win you the game.
Swan Song, Spell Pierce, Flusterstorm:
These are the best one mana counterspells this deck can run. Swan Song is not without risk as giving an opponent a 2/2 flier when you're running lots of 1/1 fliers can be a problem. However, being able to stop removal, counterspells or sweepers played against you is important enough to risk it. Note that if you're trying to chain extra turns and your opponents aren't interrupting you, you could use Swan Song to counter one of your own spells to get another attacker.
Delay, Negate, Daze, Arcane Denial, Unified Will, Counterspell, Mana Drain:
These are the best two mana counterspells this deck can run. Mana Drain is not at its best here due to the lack of colorless mana in the deck's casting costs, but it's still a two mana counterspell. The mana it generates is often crucial for casting Edric after he's died or for casting extra turns. Three mana is too much to pay for a counterspell in this deck. Mana is really tight until the late game where you should be chaining extra turns anyway.
Force of Will:
The best free countermagic Edric can run. The loss of a card is easily made up for by Edric's card drawing.
Muddle the Mixture:
The deck's Swiss army knife. It's great for countering the nasty sweepers, removal and counterspells that threaten Edric. When chaining extra turns, it can be transmuted for Regrowth to keep the chain going. Need to answer a problem permanent or permanents? Search for Cyclonic Rift. Want to proactively protect Edric? Muddle the Mixture becomes Eladamri, Lord of Leaves or Spellskite. Jealous of your opponent's awesome creature? Get your own with Phantasmal Image. If only every card in the deck did this much work.
Unsubstantiate:
The deck's other Swiss army knife. It bounces a problematic creature so you can attack or delays a big spell for a turn. Note that it can also be used to bounce your Eternal Witness to get a card out of your graveyard.
Part the Waterveil:
The exile clause is annoying, but it's still an extra turn card. Ideally, you'll want to cast it with Awaken to get another attacker on your extra turn and, if you have enough mana, your current turn. The 6/6 it makes is a nice backup plan for finishing people off if something goes wrong with Notorious Throng.
Temporal Mastery:
This is a card that many people don't run in their Edric lists because it's much more likely to be drawn when you can't cast it for its miracle cost. It also costs more mana than the previously mentioned extra turns and doesn't play nice with Regrowth effects. That said, it's still an extra turn card and there's nothing this deck wants to draw more in the mid and late game. When you do get to miracle this it's absolutely absurd, but that's more of a bonus. A common trap is to tutor for this with Personal Tutor or Mystical Tutor so you can cast it for 1U. Rarely is this correct. Remember that you need to cast lots of extra turns to win and exiling stops the crucial Regrowth effects. Generally, you're going to want Notorious Throng, or if your desperate and short on mana, Knowledge Exploitaton or one of the five mana extra turns.
Notorious Throng:
Hands down the best card in the deck. Edric is a rogue, which means we always have the creature type for prowl. Can't get through with Edric or another rogue? Just cast it to create enough rogues to prowl it on a future turn. Not only does it take an extra turn, it also produces a large number of attackers to draw you more cards. Regrowing Notorious Throng feels so good it should be illegal. Every time you cast this, you're effectively doubling the number of card drawing attackers you have. Casting this 2-3 times can give you almost 40 power of creatures. This is how you actually kill people. I wish I could run twenty of this card.
Knowledge Exploitation:
This is very metagame dependent. If your opponents aren't running extra turn cards, it's going to under perform. It can still help by finding you tutors or Regrowth effects, but it generally won't be worth it if that's what it's doing. If someone runs Time Stretch, start with that. The next best target is Temporal Mastery as it's the best one for them to top deck and they can't get it out of their graveyard later. Knowledge Exploitation is especially good when you're light on mana as it can let you start your extra turn chain from only four mana.
Personal Tutor, Mystical Tutor:
These are basically additional extra turn cards. You're going to want to get Notorious Throng if you can prowl it. The important thing when playing this deck is to get the extra turn chain started as soon as possible. If you don't have seven mana to tutor for and prowl Notorious Throng, don't be afraid to tutor for Temporal Manipulation or Capture of Jingzhou (requires six mana) or Knowledge Exploitation (requires five mana). Note that each creature you deal combat damage with creates a separate Edric trigger that can be responded to. If you're drawing four cards and don't have an extra turn, you can use your first three triggers to try to draw one. If you don't find an extra turn, you can cast Mystical Tutor in response to the fourth draw trigger.
Long-Term Plans: Long-Term Plans functions like the other instant speed tutors in the deck except that it costs three mana and you need to cast it when you have three draw triggers remaining to get the tutored card immediately. It's not the best at what it does, but it's definitely worth running.
Noxious Revival, Regrowth:
These are the most efficient ways to keep an extra turn chain going. It's best to use these on Notorious Throng to maximize your ability to actually kill your opponents, but don't stop an extra turn chain because you don't have Notorious Throng yet. Noxious Revival can also put cards on top of an opponent's deck, but I've only used that functionality once. It's something to consider if you're working with other players to stop the biggest threat at the table and one of them has an answer in their graveyard.
Snapcaster Mage:
Can keep an extra turn chain going in a pinch, but it's best to avoid this if possible since flashback exiles the extra turn. Again, don't break an extra turn chain because you don't want to exile your extra turn. The exception to this is possibly not wanting to exile Notorious Throng if you can't prowl it for a large enough number to kill the entire table, but it hasn't come up for me yet. It's best to use Snapcaster Mage to flashback a Noxious Revival, etc. if possible to keep extra turn cards in your graveyard. Snapcaster Mage also often functions as Mystic Snake when you need a counterspell.
Cyclonic Rift:
Secret extra turn #1. If you overload this, your opponents basically have to skip their turns to rebuild their board positions. Keep that in mind when you're chaining extra turns. Cyclonic Rift also functions as a catch-all for problem permanents.
Treachery:
Sometimes everyone has a blocker and you can't get through with a significant chunk of your army. Treachery can clear the way without costing you mana. If you have Gaea's Cradle, Treachery can even create mana! Not to mention you get an extra attacker going forward. You could just randomly steal the best creature on the board as well.
The Manabase:
There's not much to say here. All lands should be run that make blue and green mana while coming in untapped most of the time. Be careful with your fetchlands. It's often best to use a non-green one first so that when you're mana flooded you can turn a green fetchland draw into extra attacker via Dryad Arbor.
Talent of the Telepath:
These are very metagame dependent. If your opponents aren't running extra turn cards, they're going to under perform. They can still help by finding you tutors or Regrowth effects, but they generally won't be worth it if that's what they're doing. If someone runs Time Stretch, start with that. The next best target is Temporal Mastery as it's the best one for them to top deck and they can't get it out of their graveyard later. Knowledge Exploitation is especially good when you're light on mana as it can let you start your extra turn chain from only four mana.
Tangle Wire:
Secret extra turn #2. Due to the large number of inexpensive permanents and the way triggers stack, this will slow down your opponents much more than yourself. You'll want to stack the Tangle Wire triggers so that you remove a counter before you tap your permanents. Remember, Tangle Wire is a permanent you can tap for its trigger. Often you'll get effectively two extra turns out of Tangle Wire, but there are many board states where it's worthless as well. Be careful when casting it. This card also makes people rage more than most. I will not be responsible for hurt feelings and damaged friendships.
Skullwinder:You have to be careful with Skullwinder as giving your opponents cards back can be problematic, but he has a much better body than Eternal Witness.
Why would one want to avoid playing the deck because "Nobody plays green or blue in your group"? I don't get it...
Because the deck runs a bunch of forestwalkers and islandwalkers that are going to be pretty bad if your opponents don't have the correct basic land types.
Took some time to go through, nice write up! Not much to add but I'm not too keen on Viridian Zealot. I think there's a 1 mana guy you can pay a green sac him to destroy an artifact but his name eludes me. Other than Propaganda and a few others there aren't many enchantments that give me trouble so I would think the cheaper option would be better. Secondly I'd try to find room for Sylvan Safekeeper unless your meta is very spot removal light. It's one of the only ways to deal with Abrupt Decay as well as an efficient way to deal with other spot removal. He's always played out better than Eladamri, Lord of Leaves for me and is usually my go to creature with GSZ if I've already drawn Dryad Arbor.
Took some time to go through, nice write up! Not much to add but I'm not too keen on Viridian Zealot. I think there's a 1 mana guy you can pay a green sac him to destroy an artifact but his name eludes me. Other than Propaganda and a few others there aren't many enchantments that give me trouble so I would think the cheaper option would be better. Secondly I'd try to find room for Sylvan Safekeeper unless your meta is very spot removal light. It's one of the only ways to deal with Abrupt Decay as well as an efficient way to deal with other spot removal. He's always played out better than Eladamri, Lord of Leaves for me and is usually my go to creature with GSZ if I've already drawn Dryad Arbor.
I've run Sylvan Safekeeper in the past, but cut him to try new cards. I keep wanting to re-add him, but I'm always testing something new in his spot. There isn't a ton of spot removal in my group, but it's there. Eladamri, Lord of Leaves has usually been enough protection. Late game, the land sacrificing isn't a big deal, but it can matter early on even if it's preferable to losing Edric.
I considering building this deck. But I still have some questions.
Lets say you manage to chain 7 time walks and you have like 10 critter on the board (i assume that both numbers are higher than they usually are). That would equal to 70 dmg barely enough to knock 2 opponents out. I don't see what to do with the remaining opponent/s.
This is probably the reason I feel like adding waterfront bouncer, erratic portal or words of wind to reccur eternal witness and/or mnemonic wall for infinite turns.
Speaking of words of wind: Getting it down t3 or t4 can insta win the game. Bouncing 2 to 3 permanents at minimum per turn seems more then slow edh decks can handle. With 1-mana critters, exploration and stuff, it shouldnt hit ourselves to hard.
I considering building this deck. But I still have some questions.
Lets say you manage to chain 7 time walks and you have like 10 critter on the board (i assume that both numbers are higher than they usually are). That would equal to 70 dmg barely enough to knock 2 opponents out. I don't see what to do with the remaining opponent/s.
This is probably the reason I feel like adding waterfront bouncer, erratic portal or words of wind to reccur eternal witness and/or mnemonic wall for infinite turns.
Speaking of words of wind: Getting it down t3 or t4 can insta win the game. Bouncing 2 to 3 permanents at minimum per turn seems more then slow edh decks can handle. With 1-mana critters, exploration and stuff, it shouldnt hit ourselves to hard.
I considering building this deck. But I still have some questions.
Lets say you manage to chain 7 time walks and you have like 10 critter on the board (i assume that both numbers are higher than they usually are). That would equal to 70 dmg barely enough to knock 2 opponents out. I don't see what to do with the remaining opponent/s.
This is probably the reason I feel like adding waterfront bouncer, erratic portal or words of wind to reccur eternal witness and/or mnemonic wall for infinite turns.
Speaking of words of wind: Getting it down t3 or t4 can insta win the game. Bouncing 2 to 3 permanents at minimum per turn seems more then slow edh decks can handle. With 1-mana critters, exploration and stuff, it shouldnt hit ourselves to hard.
The deck can easily kill multiple people by prowling Notorious Throng and recurring it with Eternal Witness, Noxious Revival, etc. Prowling Throng twice should easily give you enough creatures to quickly kill any number of players.
Your creature count is a bit too low that what I normally see. How has that been? I usually see creature counts in the mid-30s for Edric decks.
It works fine, because this deck doesn't need to draw as many cards as other Edric decks to win the game. In Donald's thread, I posted five sample games to illustrate how this list works compared to others. I haven't seen any evidence that my list is somehow slower or less effective than other Edric lists with more creatures (although it does play differently, which could make it seem worse if you're not familiar with the lines of play). As a bonus, I get to run fewer crappy 1/1 creatures that suck when you're behind.
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Overview:
Edric, Spymaster of Trest does two things well:
The deck's goal is to cast a turn two Edric, Spymaster of Trest while using its little creatures to draw into countermagic and extra turn cards, the latter of which begets more cards and extra turns until you've achieved critical mass and can start killing players by prowling Notorious Throng over and over again.
An added benefit of Edric, Spymaster of Trest is that your opponents won't tend to attack you as it is more profitable for them to hit their other opponents and draw cards. This can be a mixed bag, as sometimes you'd rather take the damage than let your opponents refill their hands, but the deck is set up so that you should easily profit the most from Edric, Spymaster of Trest being on the battlefield.
You might like playing Edric if:
You might want to avoid playing Edric if:
Edric, Spymaster of Trest requires more thought to play than most commanders. In order to succeed, you must be very judicious in deciding when to tap out and when to cast your spells. If you're not into that kind of Magic, you're probably better off with another commander.
History:
I got the idea to build Edric, Spymaster of Trest from seeing what he did to the game in my friend's Maelstrom Wanderer deck. Whenever he would have Edric out, people would stop attacking him no matter whether it was the right play or not in exchange for a couple of cards. This led to unending frustration on my part watching how stupid Edric made people. I mentioned this in a conversation with my friend, and he called Edric, "The best Propaganda effect there is." Hoping to channel Edric's brain-numbing effects, I decided to build the deck. Another selling point for me was seeing if I could build a deck that could hang with the high-powered combo decks in my playgroup without being one itself. I liked how Edric won through somewhat non-conventional means, and it's been a blast watching high powered combo decks lose to Triton Shorestalker. I also wanted something I could play with the "no combo" crowd (If I had to...).
The deck's gameplan hasn't changed much since I first built it. Right away, I knew I wanted a lot of little fliers and landwalkers to guarantee card draw backed up by extra turn cards to get even more card advantage. Eventually, I would hit a kill condition and end the game. The biggest change came when I realized how much better a turn two Edric is compared to a turn three one. This led to the addition of cards like Llanowar Elves and Mox Diamond to power out a turn two Edric.
The second biggest change to the gameplan, and part of what separates my list from other Edric lists is my lack of a big finisher like Beastmaster Ascension or Craterhoof Behemoth. I've found these cards to be unnecessary and only strong when you're way ahead in the game. My group scoops to the ability to take two or three extra turns with around five attackers I can consistently get through, because they don't want to watch me play solitaire for ten to fifteen minutes ending in their demise. It's still easy enough to kill the table by prowling Notorious Throng once or twice and/or overloading Cyclonic Rift.
3 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Ramp: 13
0 Chrome Mox
0 Mox Diamond
0 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Carpet of Flowers
1 Exploration
1 Skyshroud Ranger
1 Sakura-Tribe Scout
1 Boreal Druid
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Arbor Elf
Evasive Little Critters: 12
0 Memnite
1 Hope of Ghirapur
1 Faerie Miscreant
1 Jace's Phantasm
1 Wingcrafter
1 Hypnotic Siren
1 Grayscaled Gharial
1 Merfolk Spy
1 Triton Shorestalker
1 Gudul Lurker
1 Slither Blade
2 Cloud of Faeries
Counterspells: 14
1 Mental Misstep
1 Mausoleum Wanderer
1 Spell Pierce
1 Flusterstorm
1 Swan Song
2 Daze
2 Delay
2 Negate
2 Unsubstantiate
2 Arcane Denial
2 Unified Will
2 Counterspell
2 Mana Drain
5 Force of Will
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Eladamri, Lord of Leaves
3 Reclamation Sage
3 Eternal Witness
4 Sakashima's Student
Extra Turns: 7
4 Notorious Throng
5 Time Warp
5 Temporal Manipulation
5 Capture of Jingzhou
6 Part the Waterveil
6 Walk the Aeons
7 Temporal Mastery
Tutors: 8
1 Personal Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Crop Rotation
1 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Sylvan Scrying
2 Muddle the Mixture
3 Long-Term Plans
7 Knowledge Exploitation
Graveyard Recursion: 2
1 Noxious Revival
2 Regrowth
Other Good Card:
2 Cyclonic Rift
Lands: 34
1 Tropical Island
1 Breeding Pool
1 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Flooded Grove
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Command Tower
1 City of Brass
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Mana Confluence
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Pendelhaven
3 Forest
10 Island
3 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Creatures - 27
1 Skyshroud Ranger
1 Sakura-Tribe Scout
1 Boreal Druid
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Arbor Elf
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Hope of Ghirapur
1 Memnite
1 Jace's Phantasm
1 Mausoleum Wanderer
1 Faerie Miscreant
1 Hypnotic Siren
1 Wingcrafter
1 Grayscaled Gharial
1 Merfolk Spy
1 Gudul Lurker
1 Triton Shorestalker
1 Slither Blade
1 Cloud of Faeries
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Eladamri, Lord of Leaves
3 Reclamation Sage
3 Eternal Witness
4 Sakashima's Student
Enchantments - 3
1 Carpet of Flowers
1 Exploration
5 Treachery
0 Chrome Mox
0 Mox Diamond
0 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
Sorcery - 13
1 Personal Tutor
1 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Sylvan Scrying
2 Regrowth
4 Notorious Throng
5 Time Warp
5 Temporal Manipulation
5 Capture of Jingzhou
6 Part the Waterveil
6 Walk the Aeons
7 Temporal Mastery
7 Knowledge Exploitation
Instant - 19
1 Mental Misstep
1 Noxious Revival
1 Spell Pierce
1 Flusterstorm
1 Swan Song
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Crop Rotation
2 Daze
2 Delay
2 Unsubstantiate
2 Negate
2 Arcane Denial
2 Unified Will
2 Counterspell
2 Mana Drain
2 Cyclonic Rift
2 Muddle the Mixture
3 Long-Term Plans
5 Force of Will
1 Tropical Island
1 Breeding Pool
1 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Flooded Grove
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Command Tower
1 City of Brass
1 Mana Confluence
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Pendelhaven
1 Dryad Arbor
3 Forest
10 Island
Strategy:
Disdainful Stroke
EDIT: Never mind, I didn't see it on my first view of the list. Seems like you have all the cards in place.
..
Azusa - Derevi - Glissa - Mizzix - Sharuum - Wanderer - Wort
Because the deck runs a bunch of forestwalkers and islandwalkers that are going to be pretty bad if your opponents don't have the correct basic land types.
Viridian Zealot is certainly one of the weaker slots in my deck, but right now I feel he needs to be there over Elvish Scrapper and/or Scavenger Folk to answer Blood Moon, Defense of the Heart, Food Chain and Stranglehold from my group.
I've run Sylvan Safekeeper in the past, but cut him to try new cards. I keep wanting to re-add him, but I'm always testing something new in his spot. There isn't a ton of spot removal in my group, but it's there. Eladamri, Lord of Leaves has usually been enough protection. Late game, the land sacrificing isn't a big deal, but it can matter early on even if it's preferable to losing Edric.
Lets say you manage to chain 7 time walks and you have like 10 critter on the board (i assume that both numbers are higher than they usually are). That would equal to 70 dmg barely enough to knock 2 opponents out. I don't see what to do with the remaining opponent/s.
This is probably the reason I feel like adding waterfront bouncer, erratic portal or words of wind to reccur eternal witness and/or mnemonic wall for infinite turns.
Speaking of words of wind: Getting it down t3 or t4 can insta win the game. Bouncing 2 to 3 permanents at minimum per turn seems more then slow edh decks can handle. With 1-mana critters, exploration and stuff, it shouldnt hit ourselves to hard.
It's not just damage from the little creatures. The idea is you draw so many cards, you'll eventually run into a card like Overrun, Noxious Throng, Psychosis Crawler or Beastmaster's Ascension.
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
The deck can easily kill multiple people by prowling Notorious Throng and recurring it with Eternal Witness, Noxious Revival, etc. Prowling Throng twice should easily give you enough creatures to quickly kill any number of players.
As to your infinite turns suggestion, the deck has an infinite turn combo in the form of Rite of Replication + Eternal Witness.
It works fine, because this deck doesn't need to draw as many cards as other Edric decks to win the game. In Donald's thread, I posted five sample games to illustrate how this list works compared to others. I haven't seen any evidence that my list is somehow slower or less effective than other Edric lists with more creatures (although it does play differently, which could make it seem worse if you're not familiar with the lines of play). As a bonus, I get to run fewer crappy 1/1 creatures that suck when you're behind.