Pros
-low costing general (3 mana)
-one of the best combination of colors that has synergy together (counters and creatures)
-can be a political general forcing your opponents to stay away from you in order to draw cards
-draws cards with any creatures attacking, so small creatures tend to be best for this task if they have useful utility or are evasive
-this build is made to pray on the multilayer format, so it uses cards to slow down opponents while cheap creatures come and attack for small amounts to get card advantage
-since people view aggro strategies in this format as weak because of high life total, you use every tool available to you such as chaining timewarp like spells and pumping your creatures with Beastmaster Ascention and low costing counterspells
Cons
-you like to play expensive bombs
-you don't like to control the stack
-you hate aggro
-you hate pitting opponents against each other
-you don't like playing solitaire (constant timewalk like spells)
-you like running a lot of non-basics/mana rocks
-you like keeping a low profile
Deck History
I used to run many more color fixers and non-basics so it was basically a normal Edric build, but that became boring, and I thought, how can I annoy people to end, especially with their optimized mana base. Then it came to me, mana disruption without land destruction. A Tempo based edric that is even more tempo than usual.
Creature: Cloud Pirates-Flying one drop Cloud Sprite-Flying one drop that is also a faerie Flying Men-Flying one drop Scryb Sprites-Flying one drop that is also a faerie Sylvan Safekeeper-not really an attacker, but keeps key creatures safe in a pinch Zephyr Sprite-Flying one drop that is also a faerie Cloud of Faeries-Flying two drop that is also a faerie, and it can utap two lands when it comes into play, which can be relevant, and making it a technicly free spel at no cost Memnite-Completely free 1/1 Dryad Arbor-can be used for mana if needed or droped as a creature or ramped with Green sun Zenith for zero Wirewood Symbiote-returns important elfs back to hand if under pressure and/or untaps creatures for second use with Opposition Elvish Pioneer-a vanilla one drop elf that can ramp you Llanowar Elves-makes mana Fyndhorn Elves-makes mana Treetop Scout-hard to block attacker (early game anyway) Arbor Elf-makes mana in the form of untapping forests, which includes duals Orochi Leafcaller-his job is to color filter my green into blue, especially with Gaea's Cradle Jukai Messenger-Forestwalker one drop Willow Dryad-Forestwalker one drop Marsh Boa-Swampwalker one drop Grayscaled Gharial-Islandwalker one drop Merfolk Spy-Islandwalker one drop with an almost irrelevant abbility, but it can reveal some foil to your plans, so you can hold onto counters or not overexted too much Elvish Spirit Guide-Usually is just a green mana to accelerate, but can be used as an elf beater just in case Cursecatcher-serves as a detterent against instants and sorcerys, a bit like a sacraficial tax Eladamri, Lord of Leaves-nice a job of providing elfs with Forestwalk and shroud for only two green Erayo, Soratami Ascendant-a two drop flyer or when the condionts are met, turns into a hard counter Jace's Phantasm-a one drop flyer that can get bigger IF an opponent has 10 cards in graveyard
Looter il-Kor-a shadow two drop that helps dig through my library if Coastal Piracy and the general are out of comition Wonder-help all my creatures fly while in the graveyard Jhessian Infiltrator-unblockable, two drop and a rouge Invisible Stalker-unblockable, two drop and a rouge, also comes with built in hexproof Cloudseeder-a two mana faerie flyer that can turn extra cards into cloud sprites Uktabi Faerie-a two drop faerie flyer that can sac itself to blow up an artifact Spellstutter Sprite-the reason i have so many faeries, this two drop can flash in to counter anything as long as its cc is <= the number of faeries you have in play. it includes this one, since it counts itself.
Enchantments Rising Waters-Slows down most deck to a crawl unless they have mana rock. my deck is not really affected since most of my mana curve is quite low, and I use mana dorks Back to Basics-I'd say 95% of EDH uses non-basics and this shuts them down permenantly especially if they are 5 color. also the reason i run mostly basics. Opposition-This card can annoy opponents to no end, tapping their land during upkeep, getting rid of troublesome attackers all with creatures I just played. Exploration-Allows faster game, and is better than burgeoning here since i have so few lands also lets me drop the extra lands i pick up when attacking. Beastmaster Ascension-Can turn on very quickly since i attack with many little guys and take many turns. Coastal Piracy-Acts as a second Edric and can generate 2x as much card advatage if both on the field
Instant Remand-counterspell to buy time and cantrips Delay-counterspell to buy time for 3 turns Arcane Denial-counterspell that cantrips on next upkeep Negate-most bombs in edh are non creature based and this deals with them Forbid-although it costs three cc, you can draw enough cards to create a soft lock with it Force of Willcan be, and usually is a free counter Crop Rotation-always used to find Gaea's Cradle Noxious Revival-Gets back extra turn spells, and if you bombed someone elses crade with yours, gets that instead. can be cast for a measly 2 life Reclaim-Gets back extra turn spells, and if you bombed someone elses crade with yours, gets that instead. Mystical Tutor-Usually finds extra turn spells before the trigger of Edric or Coastal Piracy. Snap-used to get rid of a problematic blockerand untap nonbasics if under the effect of Back to Basics with no sword of feast or famine in play Unified Will-a hard counter as long as you have more creatures in play, which is usually the case Voidslime-one of my favorite counters of all time, although it costs 3 cc. it does it all, hard counter, stifle Abjure-cheapest hard counter at only one mana and sacrafise of a blue permanent Stifle-counters unwanted triggered/activated abilities. i prefer to go with stifle instead of Trickbind because stifle is cheaper mana wise
Sorcery Temporal Manipulation-extra turn for 5cc. not much else to say. Notorious Throng-my favorite pell since gives you extra evasive dudes and if prowled becomes a timewalk for 6 cc. the only way to prowl is if a rogue hits a player and i have 4 rogues and the general Walk the Aeons-a timewalk for 6cc with a hefty buyback, but if you have a cradle in play, usually you got nothing to worry about Green Sun's Zenith-loks for most utility creatures like orochi leafcaller or your general if tucked, or can accelerate by looking for dryad arbor for 0 Time Warp-extra turn for 5cc. not much else to say other than it is a targeted spell which makes it somewhat a liability Capture of Jingzhou-extra turn for 5cc. not much else to say.
Land Tropical Island original dual, can be untapped with arbor elf Breeding Pool-shock dual, can be untapped with arbor elf Gaea's Cradle-a land that can make or break this deck. since you can poop out so many creatures, this land will give you high ammounts of green mana, which can be filtered through Orochi leafcaller if you need blue
12 Island-jus a basic
10 Forest-just a basic
a note on the searchlands, since they come into play untapped and the lands they search for also come in to play untapped (exept breeding pool) they wont be affected by Back to Basics
Misty Rainforest-search land that can look for forest, island or dual Polluted Delta-search land that can look for island or dual Scalding Tarn-search land that can look for island or dual Windswept Heath-search land that can look for forest or dual Verdant Catacombs-search land that can look for forest or dual Flooded Strand-search land that can look for island or dual Wooded Foothills-search land that can look for forest or dual Gemstone Mine-has only three uses, so it being nonbasic is not very important but makes any color of mana. Blinkmoth Nexus-although nonbasic and produces colorless, it can turn into an flying creature
Strategy land a bunch of evasive creatures. land edric. attack with creatures to gain lands/counters to back up the rest of your spells that let you take extra turns. watch out for over extending and not being able to counter wipes.
Most people will know that Edric, spymaster of trest rewards the one who attacks with cards and will not be lulled by false promises of cards if they bicker amongst themselves instead of attacking you. your general will probably gotten rid of on sight by good players. Thats where your counters come in and all the disruption that is in this. it is made to slow down opponents and get you more cards. usually those cards will contain some sort of timewalk card which you can use tto beat some more and get more cards getting more timewalk variants etc.
Gaddock Teeg is another thorn in our side since with him in play we cant use our business spells. the solution is usually to try and attacking him while waiting for beastmaster ascension or just counter him untill he becomes too expensive to cast. You can also hope others will help you gang up on him as he usually annoys EVERYONE and they will be happy to get cards for their efforts.
Mass wipes also affect our strategy but we tend to have enough counters to deal with, so if you suspect a mass wipe keep some counter mana open.
Some other generals that can be annoying: Grand Arbiter Augustin the IV since he increases the cost of our inexpensive things, while at the same time decreasing the cost of his spells while having the color most known for mass removal spells.
Zur the Enchanter esper combination is a force to be reckoned with since it has white for mass removal, black more mass and targeted removal and blue for counters. plus Zurs ability can easally stop our game plan if he searches up Solitary Confinement
Both white and black crovaxes are annoying as well since they put a damper on weenies. but it takes 6 mana for both versions to come online and by then you should probably have counters / activated beast ascension or forced some tempo loss via Rising Waters/Winter Orb/Tangle Wire
Cards to look out for: steal effects that can take Edric. they include mind control and its buddys. vedalken shackles and gilded drake. Ixidron also is a hateful card since without edric or coastal piracy, the deck falls appart
want to try out some removal ala Pongify, and Beast Within and also a card that recently caught my eye is Druids' Repository but not too sure what to take out.
the thing is, i have nothing that gets past a mono white player, but i might replace him with Coastal Piracy in case Edric dies, ill still be able to draw cards.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
EDH decks in cockatrice, look me up under hoborobot
the thing is, i have nothing that gets past a mono white player, but i might replace him with Coastal Piracy in case Edric dies, ill still be able to draw cards.
Ah, I see. Maybe Equilibrium could work in that case?
Why play Edric,Spymaster of Trest?
Pros
-low costing general (3 mana)
-one of the best combination of colors that has synergy together (counters and creatures)
-can be a political general forcing your opponents to stay away from you in order to draw cards
-draws cards with any creatures attacking, so small creatures tend to be best for this task if they have useful utility or are evasive
-this build is made to pray on the multilayer format, so it uses cards to slow down opponents while cheap creatures come and attack for small amounts to get card advantage
-since people view aggro strategies in this format as weak because of high life total, you use every tool available to you such as chaining timewarp like spells and pumping your creatures with Beastmaster Ascention and low costing counterspells
Cons
-you like to play expensive bombs
-you don't like to control the stack
-you hate aggro
-you hate pitting opponents against each other
-you don't like playing solitaire (constant timewalk like spells)
-you like running a lot of non-basics/mana rocks
-you like keeping a low profile
Deck History
Deck by card cost
Creature
1 Cloud Pirates
1 Cloud Sprite
1 Flying Men
1 Scryb Sprites
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Zephyr Sprite
2 Cloud of Faeries
0 Memnite
0 Dryad Arbor
1 Wirewood Symbiote
1 Elvish Pioneer
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Treetop Scout
1 Arbor Elf
1 Orochi Leafcaller
1 Jukai Messenger
1 Willow Dryad
1 Marsh Boa
1 Grayscaled Gharial
1 Merfolk Spy
3 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Cursecatcher
2 Eladamri, Lord of Leaves
2 Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
1 Jace's Phantasm
2 Looter il-Kor
4 Wonder
2 Jhessian Infiltrator
2 Invisible Stalker
2 Cloudseeder
2 Uktabi Faerie
2 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Rising Waters
3 Back to Basics
4 Opposition
1 Exploration
3 Beastmaster Ascension
4 Coastal Piracy
Instant
2 Remand
2 Delay
2 Arcane Denial
2 Negate
3 Forbid
5 Force of Will
1 Crop Rotation
0 Noxious Revival
1 Reclaim
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Snap
2 Unified Will
3 Voidslime
1 Abjure
1 Stifle
Sorcery
5 Temporal Manipulation
6 Notorious Throng
6 Walk the Aeons
1 Green Sun's Zenith
5 Time Warp
5 Capture of Jingzhou
2 Winter Orb
0 Mox Diamond
3 Tangle Wire
3 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 AEther Vial
Land
0 Tropical Island
0 Breeding Pool
0 Gaea's Cradle
12 Island
10 Forest
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Polluted Delta
0 Scalding Tarn
0 Windswept Heath
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Flooded Strand
0 Wooded Foothills
0 Gemstone Mine
0 Blinkmoth Nexus
Deck By card function
1 Winter Orb
Land
0 Tropical Island
0 Breeding Pool
0 Gaea's Cradle
12 Island
10 Forest
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Polluted Delta
0 Scalding Tarn
0 Windswept Heath
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Flooded Strand
0 Wooded Foothills
0 Gemstone Mine
0 Blinkmoth Nexus
Card Explanations
Creature:
Cloud Pirates-Flying one drop
Cloud Sprite-Flying one drop that is also a faerie
Flying Men-Flying one drop
Scryb Sprites-Flying one drop that is also a faerie
Sylvan Safekeeper-not really an attacker, but keeps key creatures safe in a pinch
Zephyr Sprite-Flying one drop that is also a faerie
Cloud of Faeries-Flying two drop that is also a faerie, and it can utap two lands when it comes into play, which can be relevant, and making it a technicly free spel at no cost
Memnite-Completely free 1/1
Dryad Arbor-can be used for mana if needed or droped as a creature or ramped with Green sun Zenith for zero
Wirewood Symbiote-returns important elfs back to hand if under pressure and/or untaps creatures for second use with Opposition
Elvish Pioneer-a vanilla one drop elf that can ramp you
Llanowar Elves-makes mana
Fyndhorn Elves-makes mana
Treetop Scout-hard to block attacker (early game anyway)
Arbor Elf-makes mana in the form of untapping forests, which includes duals
Orochi Leafcaller-his job is to color filter my green into blue, especially with Gaea's Cradle
Jukai Messenger-Forestwalker one drop
Willow Dryad-Forestwalker one drop
Marsh Boa-Swampwalker one drop
Grayscaled Gharial-Islandwalker one drop
Merfolk Spy-Islandwalker one drop with an almost irrelevant abbility, but it can reveal some foil to your plans, so you can hold onto counters or not overexted too much
Elvish Spirit Guide-Usually is just a green mana to accelerate, but can be used as an elf beater just in case
Cursecatcher-serves as a detterent against instants and sorcerys, a bit like a sacraficial tax
Eladamri, Lord of Leaves-nice a job of providing elfs with Forestwalk and shroud for only two green
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant-a two drop flyer or when the condionts are met, turns into a hard counter
Jace's Phantasm-a one drop flyer that can get bigger IF an opponent has 10 cards in graveyard
Looter il-Kor-a shadow two drop that helps dig through my library if Coastal Piracy and the general are out of comition
Wonder-help all my creatures fly while in the graveyard
Jhessian Infiltrator-unblockable, two drop and a rouge
Invisible Stalker-unblockable, two drop and a rouge, also comes with built in hexproof
Cloudseeder-a two mana faerie flyer that can turn extra cards into cloud sprites
Uktabi Faerie-a two drop faerie flyer that can sac itself to blow up an artifact
Spellstutter Sprite-the reason i have so many faeries, this two drop can flash in to counter anything as long as its cc is <= the number of faeries you have in play. it includes this one, since it counts itself.
Enchantments
Rising Waters-Slows down most deck to a crawl unless they have mana rock. my deck is not really affected since most of my mana curve is quite low, and I use mana dorks
Back to Basics-I'd say 95% of EDH uses non-basics and this shuts them down permenantly especially if they are 5 color. also the reason i run mostly basics.
Opposition-This card can annoy opponents to no end, tapping their land during upkeep, getting rid of troublesome attackers all with creatures I just played.
Exploration-Allows faster game, and is better than burgeoning here since i have so few lands also lets me drop the extra lands i pick up when attacking.
Beastmaster Ascension-Can turn on very quickly since i attack with many little guys and take many turns.
Coastal Piracy-Acts as a second Edric and can generate 2x as much card advatage if both on the field
Instant
Remand-counterspell to buy time and cantrips
Delay-counterspell to buy time for 3 turns
Arcane Denial-counterspell that cantrips on next upkeep
Negate-most bombs in edh are non creature based and this deals with them
Forbid-although it costs three cc, you can draw enough cards to create a soft lock with it
Force of Willcan be, and usually is a free counter
Crop Rotation-always used to find Gaea's Cradle
Noxious Revival-Gets back extra turn spells, and if you bombed someone elses crade with yours, gets that instead. can be cast for a measly 2 life
Reclaim-Gets back extra turn spells, and if you bombed someone elses crade with yours, gets that instead.
Mystical Tutor-Usually finds extra turn spells before the trigger of Edric or Coastal Piracy.
Snap-used to get rid of a problematic blockerand untap nonbasics if under the effect of Back to Basics with no sword of feast or famine in play
Unified Will-a hard counter as long as you have more creatures in play, which is usually the case
Voidslime-one of my favorite counters of all time, although it costs 3 cc. it does it all, hard counter, stifle
Abjure-cheapest hard counter at only one mana and sacrafise of a blue permanent
Stifle-counters unwanted triggered/activated abilities. i prefer to go with stifle instead of Trickbind because stifle is cheaper mana wise
Sorcery
Temporal Manipulation-extra turn for 5cc. not much else to say.
Notorious Throng-my favorite pell since gives you extra evasive dudes and if prowled becomes a timewalk for 6 cc. the only way to prowl is if a rogue hits a player and i have 4 rogues and the general
Walk the Aeons-a timewalk for 6cc with a hefty buyback, but if you have a cradle in play, usually you got nothing to worry about
Green Sun's Zenith-loks for most utility creatures like orochi leafcaller or your general if tucked, or can accelerate by looking for dryad arbor for 0
Time Warp-extra turn for 5cc. not much else to say other than it is a targeted spell which makes it somewhat a liability
Capture of Jingzhou-extra turn for 5cc. not much else to say.
Artifact
Winter Orb-slows down most people since i use mana dorks and cheap spells
Mox Diamond-throws out extra lands that i drew for any color mana, and is a great accel in this deck
Tangle Wire-a great card to slow down deck since they lose more tempo than you but becareful with this and playing timewalk spells
Sword of Feast and Famine-untaps ALL of my lands if i connect if back to basics/rising waters/winter orb is in play. the discard part can be usefull against control players
AEther Vial-good to flash in creatures for suprises, especially if they cant be countered. also good when i have back to basics/rising waters/winter orb but didnt get my sword of feast and famine out or gaea's cradle or both
Land
Tropical Island original dual, can be untapped with arbor elf
Breeding Pool-shock dual, can be untapped with arbor elf
Gaea's Cradle-a land that can make or break this deck. since you can poop out so many creatures, this land will give you high ammounts of green mana, which can be filtered through Orochi leafcaller if you need blue
12 Island-jus a basic
10 Forest-just a basic
a note on the searchlands, since they come into play untapped and the lands they search for also come in to play untapped (exept breeding pool) they wont be affected by Back to Basics
Misty Rainforest-search land that can look for forest, island or dual
Polluted Delta-search land that can look for island or dual
Scalding Tarn-search land that can look for island or dual
Windswept Heath-search land that can look for forest or dual
Verdant Catacombs-search land that can look for forest or dual
Flooded Strand-search land that can look for island or dual
Wooded Foothills-search land that can look for forest or dual
Gemstone Mine-has only three uses, so it being nonbasic is not very important but makes any color of mana.
Blinkmoth Nexus-although nonbasic and produces colorless, it can turn into an flying creature
Strategy
land a bunch of evasive creatures. land edric. attack with creatures to gain lands/counters to back up the rest of your spells that let you take extra turns. watch out for over extending and not being able to counter wipes.
Things that mess with our deck:
Infest effects such as Massacre wurm, Infest, Hideous laghter Black Sun Zenith, and one of the worst offenders, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, however the are spells and can be countered, but two sweepers that cant are supreme verdict and a cycled decree of pain
Most people will know that Edric, spymaster of trest rewards the one who attacks with cards and will not be lulled by false promises of cards if they bicker amongst themselves instead of attacking you. your general will probably gotten rid of on sight by good players. Thats where your counters come in and all the disruption that is in this. it is made to slow down opponents and get you more cards. usually those cards will contain some sort of timewalk card which you can use tto beat some more and get more cards getting more timewalk variants etc.
Gaddock Teeg is another thorn in our side since with him in play we cant use our business spells. the solution is usually to try and attacking him while waiting for beastmaster ascension or just counter him untill he becomes too expensive to cast. You can also hope others will help you gang up on him as he usually annoys EVERYONE and they will be happy to get cards for their efforts.
Mass wipes also affect our strategy but we tend to have enough counters to deal with, so if you suspect a mass wipe keep some counter mana open.
Some other generals that can be annoying:
Grand Arbiter Augustin the IV since he increases the cost of our inexpensive things, while at the same time decreasing the cost of his spells while having the color most known for mass removal spells.
Zur the Enchanter esper combination is a force to be reckoned with since it has white for mass removal, black more mass and targeted removal and blue for counters. plus Zurs ability can easally stop our game plan if he searches up Solitary Confinement
Both white and black crovaxes are annoying as well since they put a damper on weenies. but it takes 6 mana for both versions to come online and by then you should probably have counters / activated beast ascension or forced some tempo loss via Rising Waters/Winter Orb/Tangle Wire
Cards to look out for: steal effects that can take Edric. they include mind control and its buddys. vedalken shackles and gilded drake. Ixidron also is a hateful card since without edric or coastal piracy, the deck falls appart
Card Swap
-Torpor Orb
-Spellstutter Sprite
-Quirion Ranger
-Lotus Petal
-Lotus Cobra
-Mutavault
+Looter il-Kor
+Jhessian Infiltrator
+Fauna Shaman
+Invisible Stalker
+Jace's Phantasm
+Wonder
edit: recently changed the decklist
want to try out some removal ala Pongify, and Beast Within and also a card that recently caught my eye is Druids' Repository but not too sure what to take out.
KAALIA SMASH!
Intet dreams of times ahead
and more
KAALIA SMASH!
Intet dreams of times ahead
and more
Wizards in relation to modern.
"The bannings will continue until attendance improves."
Not sure if trolling or just very stupid.:fry:
KAALIA SMASH!
Intet dreams of times ahead
and more
Ah, I see. Maybe Equilibrium could work in that case?
edit: took out fauna shaman mutavault and a forest
KAALIA SMASH!
Intet dreams of times ahead
and more