MTG Salvation

Nom Nom Numot: The Hungry Devastator




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Table of Contents

1. History of the Deck
2. Lets talk Numot
• What is Numot about
• What other options are there in WRU (American) colors
• You will enjoy playing Numot if
• You will not enjoy playing Numot if
3. Deck List
4. Deck Strategy
• Early Game Strategy
• Mid Game Strategy
• Late Game Strategy
• Notable Synergies
5. Breakdown of Card Choices
• Walkers in the House
• Blinkers
• Blinkables
• Sunforger Package
• Tax Package
• Control Package
• Card Draw
• Mana Fixing
• Other Stuffs
6. Change Log

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History of the Deck

I got into Magic about the time Innistrad came out. At the time I played standard with UW Delver and RB Vampire decks. My friend jmdt bought a commander precon and wanted me to get into commander with him. At first I was hesitant as there was no FNM for Commander, but I finally gave in after he convinced my Nephew to make Kaalia of the Vast. I wasn't sure what I wanted to make at first. jmdt sent me several ideas and I slowly started narrowing down what I wanted. I knew I wanted blue for counterspells and I knew I wanted white to play some of the big legends I had like Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. I'd looked at several commanders including Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, but I liked the idea of Numot as big dragon also gave me access to a few red cards I had been wanting to run.

Lets talk Numot

What is Numot about?
Numot, the Devastator is the American dragon first debuting in Planar Chaos and making a return visit in the Commander precon decks. He is majestic, he is regal, and by the way he has an insatiable craving for lands. As awesome as Numot is, a large factor in his choosing was his WRU colors. He is hands down the best general in these colors. Numot eats lands, although slowly. This naturally led to making a tax package for the deck to make his land eating ability have more 'bite'. Somewhere along the way, I added Venser, the Sojourner and then the deck filled out as a blink/stax control deck in American colors.

What other options are there in WRU (American) colors?

• Zedruu the Greathearted - Zedruu is a complete build around me general. Zerduu plays a psuedo group hug effect and plays a very unique game with unique cards. He can be somewhat fun to play, but does not allow you to play many strong cards and isn't all that strong compared to Numot's 6/6 flying body.
• Dechs Kaison has a primer for Zedruu located here: Pristaxcontrombmodruu! Because Zedruu is her own Archetype.
• Ruhan of the Fomori - Ruhan is an efficient body. Sure, a 7/7 body for CMC 4 is nothing to sneeze at, but it's otherwise too plain. No flying, no trample, no intimidate, no hexproof. You get the idea... Did I mention his attacks are random? Ruhan is best kept for the Duel Commander scene.

You will enjoy playing Numot if:

• You like the patriotic American colors.
• You like blowing up your opponent's lands.
• You like sitting there while no one can afford to attack you.
• You have fun playing Captain Blinky (Venser, the Sojourner) along side other walkers.
• You like playing your spells over and over again.

You will not enjoy playing Numot if:

• You want to rush out to a fast start and relentlessly smash your opponent's face in.
• You don't like slow-paced decks.
• You have any issues at all about nuking people's lands

Deck List

Detailed Deck Statistics

Lionheart's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards

COMMANDER 6 Numot, the Devastator CREATURES - 19 2 Mistmeadow Witch 2 Walking Atlas 3 Fiend Hunter 4 Archaeomancer 4 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV 4 Sakishima's Student 4 Solemn Simulacrum 4 Venser, Shaper Savant 5 Izzet Chronarch 5 Mnemonic Wall 5 Mulldrifter 5 Zealous Conscripts 6 Deadeye Navigator 6 Frost Titan 7 Diluvian Primordial 7 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite 7 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight 7 Sphinx of Uthuun 8 Avacyn, Angel of Hope INSTANTS - 18 1 Brainstorm 1 Mystical Tutor 1 Path to Exile 1 Swords to Plowshares 1 Tithe 3 Absorb 3 Chaos Warp 3 Counterflux 3 Double Negative 3 Ghostway 3 Oblation 3 Orim's Thunder 3 Reiterate

4 Fact or Fiction 4 Return to Dust 4 Suffocating Blast 4 Wild Ricochet SORCERIES - 5 3XX Entreat the Angels 4 Supreme Verdict 5 Time Warp 6 Jokulhaups 6 Terminus ENCHANTMENTS - 6 3 Ghostly Prison 3 Propaganda 3 Rhystic Study 4 Dissipation Field 5 Assemble the Legion 10 Omniscience ARTIFACTS - 6 1 Sol Ring 3 Chromatic Lantern 3 Sunforger 5 Conjurer's Closet 5 Gilded Lotus 5 Norn's Annex PLANESWALKERS - 8 4 Ajani Vengeant 4 Elspeth, Knight-Errant 4 Jace, Architect of Thought 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 5 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage 5 Tezzeret the Seeker 5 Venser, the Sojourner 7 Karn Liberated LAND - 37 0 Adarkar Wastes 0 Ancient Den 0 Arid Mesa 0 Battlefield Forge 0 Cascade Bluffs 0 Clifftop Retreat 0 Command Tower 0 Darksteel Citadel 0 Glacial Fortress 0 Great Furnace 0 Hallowed Fountain 0 Mistveil Plains 0 Mystic Gate 0 Reliquary Tower 0 Rugged Prairie 0 Scalding Tarn 0 Seachrome Coast 0 Seat of the Synod 0 Shivan Reef 0 Skycloud Expanse 0 Steam Vents 0 Sulfur Falls 0 Tectonic Edge 0 Temple of the False God 0 Terrain Generator 0 Mountain (x4) 0 Plains (x4) 0 Island (x4)

Deck Strategy

Early Game Stratregy
During the early stages of the game this deck wants to sit back, counter spells we don't like, wipe the board if it gets out of hand, and lay out Propaganda effects in an effort to point attacks in another direction. This is the phase we very much want to play the table politics, pointing everyone towards who ever got the hottest start and trying to keep the heat off ourselves. We want to get out enough tax effects to keep the heat off, but not too many to draw excess attention to ourselves. We very much want to take the pillow fort route during the this phase of the game; we have strong mid and late game plays, but we need time to develop our mana base to accommodate some of our more expensive cards. If the heat does pick up, we have access to several Wrath effects and generous spot removal to neutralize the board position in our favor. In order to help with our control and damage dealing in the early portion of the game, we have access to the powerful Sunforger. We can give a cheap beater +4/+0 to either push early damage through, or sit as a more effective blocker. While you can push great damage through with Sunforger, its strength lies in its second ability. Instead of using valuable cards in our hand, we can pay RW at instant speed to search out library for a card from our Sunforger package and use it to the control the field to our benefit. We have forks for copying ramp and tutors, removal for all kinds of permanents, and counters for cards we just don;t want to see the light of day. By using sunforger, we can play politics and play fewer creatures to keep our threat level down.

Mid Game Stratregy
Once we get five to six mana out, we can start moving toward our midgame plan. During the midgame, we have a few lines of play that develop for us. For one, putting Numot on line is usually a good option, especially if you are in dire need of an attacker/blocker. During the middle part of the game, we also are able to set up one of the must fun parts of the deck. Captain Blinkies Recursion Engine of Doom. In the early game we used counter spells and board wipes liberally to keep the game at the pace we want. We can start using Archaeomancer and Izzet Chronarch to return these spells to get additional value from them. Once we play Venser the Sojourner or Deadeye Navigator we can start returning one or multiple spells every turn. We also have a host of other ETB cards to abuse such as Solemn Simulacrum for mana ramp and Venser, Shaper Savant the get rid of problem permanents. During this stage I also like to get a few planeswalkers online. Since I have have a number of wraths and ways to keep heat off myself, two or three planeswalkers out can generate me a bunch of advantage. Tamiyo, the Moon Sage can help lock down the top opponent to help with table politics, and if she is abler to go ultimate, the deck likely wins.

Late Game Stratregy
Here's where the deck really starts to get abusive. This deck has a high number of 7-10 drops that each carries a high value and many continue taxing or controlling the opponent's options. Avacyn Angel of Hope is a very strong option hat makes your guys better and is quite difficult to get rid of. The big play for the deck is landing Omniscience and the dumping the hand. The absolute most bonkers play is a combo of Omniscience, followed by Avacyn Angel of Hope, followed by Jokulhaups.

Notable Synergies
This deck has a potential game winning infinite turn combo with Time Warp, a creature with an ETB ability to return instants and sorceries from the graveyard such as Archaeomancer, and a card that can blink it such as Captain Blinky. This combo is definitely a late game combo. You need the mana to cast Time Warp every turn, plus if you are using Deadeye Navigator you will need two additional mana. That's potentially seven mana total just to take multiple turns. It will help immensely if you have a favorable board state and ten plus mana when you start an infinite turn loop to help speed up the inevitable. You'll win eventually as long as there are no instant speed halts to your plan.

Another virtual win lock is Omniscience followed by Jokulhaups. Omniscience is essentially a win condition anywhere, but if we don't end the game immediately, we give the opponents time to counteract. The best way to ensure you win is to play Jokulhaups. You lose your land, but you don't need it any more and have a clear field to tear up. Most players will all just scoop at the point when you play Jokulhaups after dropping Omniscience. For and extra awesome play you can drop Avacyn, Angel of Hope and watch the ire and despair from the table while you have a pristine board position and they have...none. Omniscience does lead to a few other power plays. If you have huge mana when you play Omniscience, Blue Sun's Zenith or other X draw spells lead to completely silly board states.

Another potential, but somewhat more complex synergy is using Brainstorm(or Jace, the Mind Sculptor) to set up a miracle on Entreat the Angels. With Archaeomancer and a blink engine, you can set up the ability to miracle Entreat the Angels every other turn and potentially every turn. With repetitive miracles of Entreat the Angels the sheer firepower can devastate your opponents' life totals.

Breakdown of Card Choices

Walkers in the House

• Ajani Vengeant - A reusable way to keep troublesome permanents tapped down. He's equally happy stopping an Eldrazi as he is keeping Cabal Coffers from firing. His -2 is useless most of the time but it can kill several popular commanders such as Azusa, Zur and Edric. If he's allowed to ultimate, Numot will have a pile of land to Nom Nom.
• Elspeth, Knight-Errant - her +1 gives you a constant stream of blockers to hold off attacks and help you build up to your ultimate where your field becomes indestructible for the rest of the game. When she is out with another walker, it gives you opponents a very tough time; she makes blockers for the both and if they don't target her they'll have a bad day.
• Jace, Architect of Thought - With Jace AoT, you want to use his -2 ability to dig 3 cards and find a crucial piece you need.
• Jace, the Mind Sculptor - If he was just a reusable brainstorm, he would be worth inclusion. He also lets you mess with you opponents draws, Unsummon, or basically take out a player with his ultimate. If you keep him alive, good things will happen.
• Tamiyo, the Moon Sage - Her +1 is identical to Ajani Vengeant, but that's where the similarities end. Her other two abilities are much more valuable than those of Ajani. Her ultimate will win you the game with this deck, especially if you get Omniscience out and drawing cards is never bad.
• Tezzeret the Seeker - Tezzeret adds effective ramp to the deck with the ability to do -0 fetching artifact lands. Once he has artifacts lands and/or mana rocks out, he can untap them to generate more mana. He can untap walking atlas, to put out two additional lands per turn.
• Venser, the Sojourner - Captain Blinky is one of the all-Star's of this deck. Whenever he hits the field good things start happening. His main use is his +2 ability, but if his ultimate goes off, that emblem is game-winning. The ability to become unblockable isn't a big deal for this deck, but its something to be mindful of.
• Karn Liberated[/c] - Big Karn is a beast. If you need permanents removed, he sends them away, if not you can blow away hands and make himself larger. Always something relevant for Karn to do.

Blinkers

• Mistmeadow Witch - Gives a nice reusable blink engine for creatures that comes down early. Its a bit costly to activate, but it comes down early and gets the job done.
• Deadeye Navigator - Deadeye Navigator is an expensive card to use; however, he is pure awesome. He loses the ability to bounce non creatures from Captain Blinky, but gains the ability to bounce a creature as many times as you want (assuming you have mana). With some of the creatures in this deck, that can prove lethal for your opponent.
• Conjurer's Closet - Closet generally draws much less hate that the other two blink engines since its neither a planeswalker nor reusable. This is nice for us, because it can still fuel a ton of card advantage.

Blinkables

• Fiend Hunter - At first glance he doesn't look so great, but thanks to the working of his ability if he is blinked, his target is permanently exiled. Over the course of a game, this little guy can exile several creatures if he can stick around. Most fun when Eldrazi are intruding in Numot's territory.
• Archaeomancer, Izzet Chronarch, Mnemonic Wall - Nice spell in the yard, you want to use again? Call Archaeomancer to make all your dreams true. Useful for an endless barrage of counter spells or lots of turns.
• Sakishima's Student - He can copy the largest critter on the board, and we can blink him to copy another or abuse an opponent's ETB creature. He has the added bonus of a ninjitsu combat trick that potentially lets us reuse one of our ETB guys and come out cheaper.
• Solemn Simulacrum - The man, the legend, Jens, Sad Robot. He ramps and draws. When Captain Blinkey is involved, he can empty out your basics in a hurry and give a huge mana advantage.
• Venser, Shaper Savant - The only thing better than one Venser is two Venser's. Attached to Deadeye Navigator, he can completely nuke a players board position and act as a reusable to the hand counter spell.
• Mulldrifter
• Zealous Conscripts - Similar to Venser, Shaper Savant, when he's attached to Deadeye Navigator you just start saying 'Mine' to eyerything on the field.
• Frost Titan - This cold guy likes to shut down your opponent's permanents. Great for tapping down huge creatures and problematic lands alike. He's also a big beater and kinda hard to remove
• Diluvian Primordial - This guy can be a mixed bag, and somewhat random, but he still lets us play free instants and sorceries from our opponent's graveyards. Yes FREE!!!
• Sphinx of Uthuun - when he comes into play, we get our choice of the most important of two piles of five total cards. with spell recursion, discarding those is no biggie

Sunforger Package

• Sunforger - Hard to have a Sunforger package without a Sunforger. +4/+0 can provide some nice beats, be we don't have Sunforger in with attacking in mind. When its equipped its basically RW, tutor for and play whatever answer we need.
• Path to Exile/Swords to Plowshares - Both cards permanently remove a problem creature. They each have drawbacks, but in EDH they are minimal
• Tithe - Lets us fetch one or more plains to our hand at instant speed.
• Absorb/Double Negative/Suffocating Blast - All hard counterspells that can be searched up with sunforger
• Chaos Warp/Oblation - We can tuck irritating permanents with these spells. Great for making commanders go away. Oblation can double as a draw two spell if we have something out we don't need.
• Ghostway - It can save our position from a Wrath of God effect and at the same time activates all our creatures with an ETB ability.
• Orim's Thunder/Return to Dust - Removal for artifacts and enchantments.
• Reiterate/Wild Ricochet - Fork effects. These let us copy fun things like green ramp and black tutors. Both have extra effects, we can buyback Reiterate and Wild Ricochet gives us our opponent's copy as well serving as a de facto counterspell.

Tax Package

• Grand Arbiter Augustin IV - Make most of my spells cheaper while making the opponent pay more. Yes, please!
• Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - This can be a board wipe against smaller decks or at worst let me take less damage, plus the buff I get is pretty sweet.
• Gisela, Blade of Goldnight - Elesh Norn's much more attractive cousin (she looks like Scarlett Johansson). She cuts the damage you receive in half and half and gives you double damage when you do get your army set up.
• Stormtide Leviathan - He is an unblockable creature that also serves as a Moat effect. Since this deck is built his a high concentration of fliers it has little effect, while it can completely cripple some opponents.
• Propaganda - The original card for taxing your opponent for attacking you. It's just innocuous enough that it will rarely get destroyed, but it will have a huge effect in pushing attacks in a different direction.
• Ghostly Prison - Exactly like Propaganda, but shifted to white.
• Dissipation Field - Really makes someone think twice about attacking if their creatures get bounced afterwards. It doesn't prevent attacks per se, but it hurts their tempo dramatically when they do.
• Norn's Annex - By itself, its not that great of an attack deterrent, who wouldn't pay a few life to win the game, but combined with Propaganda it really makes attacks against you burn.

Control Package

• Supreme Verdict - Reset button for this deck. Since it can not be countered, you WILL wipe the board when you want to.
• Terminus - In Commander the graveyard is a second hand for some decks (looking at you Chainer, Dementia Master). Terminus is often stronger than a traditional board wipe since it does not feed the graveyard and makes finding some creatures again exceedingly hard. Great when we have a field of walkers.
• Jokulhups - Some times you just want to watch the world burn...if you have Omniscience out...so what.

Card Draw

• Brainstorm - A great draw spell that digs three cards in. A great target for Archaeomancer, especially if you can return a miracle spell and stick it at the top of the library.
• Mystical Tutor - Need a particular instant or sorcery? This gal has the hookup for you.
• Sphinx's Revelation - Draws cards, cards and more cards oh, and by the way, you gain a chunk of life while you are at it..
• Preordain - Similar, but not quite as good as Brainstorm. Still a top flight draw card.
• Rhystic Study - Some people just don't get this card. I love those people because they let me draw one or two cards every turn.

Mana Fixing

• Sol Ring - You wanna go fast? This is your card.
• Chromatic Lantern - Mana Rock that makes colors of land basically irrelevant.
• Gilded Lotus - 3 colored mana. Good for that last push to get Omniscience on line.
• Walking Atlas - taps to let us play an additional land each turn.
• Omniscience - When this comes out, the only variable is how many cards I can draw.

Other Stuffs

• Avacyn, Angel of Hope - When Avacyn comes out this deck usually wins. She is very difficult to get rid of, and protects the board position.
• Assemble the Legion - makers great blockers. If it stays around a while, it can just plain turn lethal.
• Time Warp - Yes, that guy. If we get a blink engine, we can take multiple turns, and its nice to get the loyalty up on those walkers.

Change Log

12/25/2012

In: Island, Mountain, Plains, Skycloud Expanse, Mistmeadow Witch, Frost Titan, Sakishima's Student.

Out: Cloudcrest Lake, Izzet Boilerworks, New Benalia, Rupture Spire, Archon of Justice, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, Niv Mizzet, The Firemind.

11/9/2012

In: Cascade Bluffs, Elspeth, Knight-Errant.

Out: Glimmerpost, Archon of the Triumvirate.

11/3/2012

In: Sphinx's Revelation, Sun Titan.

Out: Blue Sun's Zenith, Konda, Lord of Eiganjo.

10/27/2012

In: Mountain, Island, Conjurer's Closet, Plains, Scalding Tarn, Wrath of God, Armageddon.

Out: Terramorphic Expanse, Everflowing Chalice, Soaring Seacliff, Boros Signet, Stalking Stones, Secluded Steppe, Exclude.

10/23/2012

In: Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Gilded Lotus.

Out: Staff of Nin, Ur-Eye Golem.

Quote from jmdt

I like the direction you are going with the opening post.

I have a few ideas. If you are wanting to go a stax/blink route, why not gear more of your cards toward this. Instead of say Archon of Justice why not run Duplicant that you can blink or instead of Archon of the Triumvirate why not look at Angel of Serenity. Also you only have 2 cards in Venser and deadeye navigator to abuse your etb effects. You many want to look into one or more additional options to blink your cards.

Additionally, since you run Omniscience and White, I'd put the Academy Rector near the top of my list as well.

Quote from Lionheart

I'll look into those suggestions.


So 2 blink engines may not be enough to consistently blink my guys when I want to. What are good options are there for reusable blink engines?

Quote from Valafax

Conjurer's Closet

Quote from Lionheart

I think I'll add Conjurer's Closet and give it a try. Any suggestions on what to swap for it?

I also picked up Wrath of God and Scalding Tarn at the card shop tonight that needs to work their way in.

I swapped the following cards. What does everybody think?

OUT -- Terramorphic Expanse, Everflowing Chalice, Soaring Seacliff, Boros Signet, Stalking Stones, Secluded Steppe, Exclude

IN -- Mountain, Island, Conjurer's Closet, Plains, Scalding Tarn, Wrath of God, Armageddon

Quote from jmdt

I think these are great changes. Wrath of God is a card this deck definitely wanted and Armageddon is a nice compliment to the theme of the land destruction sub-theme deck.

Closet seems like a great inclusion, but have you though any about optimizing the deck with more blinkables? the Baneslayer Angel slot seems like it wants to be a creature woth an ETB effect. Also, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur may warrant an examination due to his high mana cost.

Quote from DMofDarkness

The one question I have with this deck right now is, why are you running red? This isn't intended to be offensive; it's just that you're running a grand total of 7 red cards that don't do too much for your game plan overall. Why not just run Isperia as your commander? Again, not intending this as an insult; I'm genuinely curious.

Quote from Lionheart

I made a couple more changes. Blue Sun's Zenith comes out for Sphinx's Revelation and Konda, Lord of Eiganjo is out for Sun Titan. I also have Lorwyn/Shadowmoor filter lands and Elspeth, Knight-Errant on order. Thanks for all the suggestions!

Quote from Lionheart

So I need suggestions on what to remove for Elspeth, Knight-Errant. I just can't settle down on what to remove. I also got two of the three filter lands in for the deck. Azorius Chancery is out for Mystic Gate and Boros Garrison is out for Rugged Prairie.